Psychology Today is a magazine available at most books stores and news stands, but they also have a great website with a wealth of information on psychological disorders, blogs from professionals in psychology and related fields, access to full length articles from the magazine, and even brief quizzes designed to test your tendencies toward certain psychological traits. Needless to say, you can spend hours learning and interacting on this informative and entertaining site.
From the home page you can immediately access three different quizzes which change on a daily basis. Today I took the Anxiety quiz. Not only did the quiz provide me with a percentage meant to gage my tendency toward feelings of anxiety, it also gave me a brief explanation of the particular type of anxiety that I am prone to. There is an option at the end of each quiz to purchase a detailed evaluation of what your quiz scores reveal. Many people might find this annoying, but I can understand the reasoning behind it seeing as such evaluation is generally a service one would have to pay for. The quizzes are really more of a fun curiosity piece and I certainly found it intriguing to see the types of questions which were asked and what my responses said about me.
Also directly accessible from the home page is a “Diagnosis Directory” which offers further detail about three or four different psychological disorders. This is one of my favorite features, because it allows you to learn a little bit about disorders you might not have know even existed. I clicked on Dysthymia, which I learned is a particular type of depression distinguished by feelings of melancholy occurring on a daily basis for at least two years straight. Like the quizzes the “Diagnosis Dictionary” feature changes daily.
If you’re interested in full length articles you can access several of the articles published in the current issue. One article featured in the new issue entitled “The Art of Now: Six Steps to Living in the Moment” was of great interest to me and definitely helpful. The article discusses methods for learning how to live in the present moment, which are in part based upon the integration of Buddhist philosophy with modern psychological practices. The benefits of meditation are covered as well as the Buddhist idea that in order to live in the now we must not spend our time focusing on future goals, but learn to have faith that our current actions will naturally lead to reward without the added stress of obsessing over the reward itself. The article goes even further to offer specific suggestions for enacting this method of thinking in your daily life. One possibility is to attempt to focus your attention on the people, sights, and sounds around you, instead of focusing on the wheel of thoughts rattling through your head. I know I often feel like I could benefit from being in the moment instead of thinking about tomorrow and I’m sure many others can too.
The blog section is also an interesting and informative area to explore. All of the bloggers are professionals working in psychology or related fields. The posts range from quick commentaries, to more in depth explanations of specified topics. An added draw is the frequent contribution of the rather famous Evolutionary Psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa to his blog entitled “The Scientific Fundamentalist.” He’s a bit out there, but he’s always got something unusual or controversial to say, which consistently proves to be a great draw for readers. There are blogs on any and every topic, even topics you probably haven’t heard of. Like one post I came across which commented on something the author called “Blogospheriology.”
All in all this is an informative site where you can learn something about psychology, learn something about yourself, and have a good time doing it. So if you find psychology intriguing, check out psychologytoday.com.
