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Psychology

Essays and videos offering insights into the self, relationships, cognition and neuroscience

Addiction Ageing and death Childhood and adolescence Cognition and intelligence Consciousness and altered states Family life Gender and identity Language and linguistics Life stages Love and friendship Mental health Mood and emotion Neurodiversity Neuroscience Personality Pleasure and pain Psychiatry and psychotherapy Self-improvement Sex and sexuality Sleep and dreams Social psychology Spirituality Teaching and learning Technology and the self Wellbeing

A child in a pink raincoat jumping in a puddle on a city street on a rainy day with terraced houses in the background.

essay

Philosophy of mind

Suffused with causality

Humans have a superpower that makes us uniquely capable of controlling the world: our ability to understand cause and effect

Mariel Goddu

Young girls dressed in riot police helmets and gear standing outdoors in the rain.

video

Childhood and adolescence

The police camp where tween girls enter a sisterhood of law and order

28 minutes

Children climbing on monkey bars, photographed from below, against a clear blue sky.

video

Education

Scenes from a school year paint a refreshingly nuanced portrait of rural America

25 minutes

A young girl in a helmet and with a skateboard stands in a skatepark. Behind her is a hand-drawn reclining figure.

video

Subcultures

Drop into London’s eclectic skate scene, where newbies and old-timers find community

5 minutes

Bees push coloured tabs to access a sugary reward

video

Cognition and intelligence

What’s this buzz about bees having culture? Inside a groundbreaking experiment

8 minutes

A smiling young girl and a cat, nose to nose, by a window sill, with pinecones beside them

essay

Stories and literature

The best stories smell

When scents are used to intensify a narrative, they heighten young readers’ emotions and enrich their memory banks

Natalia Kucirkova

Three toy cars made from colourful sweets on a wooden table. The car wheels are peppermint discs and chocolate coins.

essay

Cognition and intelligence

Are you an artistic genius?

Maybe not, but if that’s the threshold you use for creativity in your life, you are coming at the problem all wrong

James C Kaufman

A group of young children and a teacher play with colourful building blocks in a classroom, with shelves and other students in the background.

essay

Teaching and learning

Learning styles don’t exist

A teaching approach that is based on students’ preferences sounds laudable. But this misunderstands how learning happens

Carl Hendrick

Children in uniforms sitting and listening attentively, with some wearing yellow and green while others are in blue blazers and ties.

essay

Philosophy of mind

Philosophy’s blindspot

Education has long been ignored by contemporary philosophers. That is a myopic view that must change

David Bakhurst

Woman gazing at her reflection in a hand mirror, wearing pink earrings and lying on a patterned red rug.

video

Teaching and learning

The vulva dialogues – inside a sex-ed class that rebels against genitalia shame

11 minutes

Two children smiling and laughing in a classroom with a bright yellow wall and shelves with binders and books.

video

Sex and sexuality

What does the Dutch model of comprehensive, ‘shame-free’ sex-ed look like?

9 minutes

Two hunters hiking through a grassy, rocky landscape with trees. One carries a rifle, the other a backpack.

video

Teaching and learning

The charity that teaches underprivileged kids to humanely hunt their next meal

10 minutes

Photo of a young girl with braids and glasses in a classroom holding a pencil, wearing a blue sweater over a grey shirt.

essay

Knowledge

Philosophy with children

Kids don’t just say ‘the darndest things’. Playful and probing, they can be closer to the grain of life’s deepest questions

Jana Mohr Lone

Sepia-toned photo of an elderly man with a beard, seated in a wicker chair outdoors, with a ghostly hand on his shoulder.

essay

Thinkers and theories

With charisma to spare

Franz Brentano, philosopher and psychologist, was an iconic teacher eclipsed by his students, Freud and Husserl among them

John A Goldsmith

An elderly woman with glasses holding a phone to her ear, sitting at a table with various items in the background.

video

Teaching and learning

A retired teacher embarks on a mission to find out what became of a beloved student

16 minutes

Two women laughing, one wearing a patchwork jumper and hat, the other melting materials in a bowl over a flame in a workshop.

essay

Education

Education, unchained

Rousseau’s child-centred ideals are now commonplace but his truly radical vision of educational freedom still eludes us

James Brooke-Smith

A hand holding a purple Game Boy with a holographic Pikachu appearing on the screen, standing upright and smiling.

video

Neuroscience

Parents have long suspected Pokémon rewires kids’ brains. Now there’s evidence

7 minutes

Two children running inside an inflating hot air balloon. The interior is bright orange with patches of other colours.

essay

Family life

Kid culture

In most cultures, kids tag along with grownups or mooch with friends but American life is heavy with ‘kid-friendly’ artifice

Sarah Menkedick

A child writing in a workbook on a wooden table, focused on their task while holding a pencil in their right hand.

idea

Teaching and learning

I was homeschooled for eight years: here’s what I recommend

Mordechai Levy-Eichel

A cluttered artist’s studio filled with boxes, paint cans, brushes, books and various art supplies scattered around.

idea

Cognition and intelligence

Talent, you’re born with. Creativity, you can grow yourself

Jyoti Mishra

Painting of abstract faces with open mouths and red marks, overlaid by translucent colourful geometric shapes.

video

Teaching and learning

It’s great to learn music as a child – except when it’s no fun at all

10 minutes

Four young people relaxing on grass; one lies down, the others sit. One reads a book, another looks down.

video

Teaching and learning

The school where children make the rules and learn what they want to learn

28 minutes

Grainy, vintage-looking image of an older woman with grey hair wearing a brown coat, interacting with a large owl perched on her arm.

video

Animals and humans

A gentle stroll through an owl sanctuary might just restore your faith in humanity

28 minutes

A person in a dark room covering their face with their hand in a gesture of stress or frustration.

idea

Mood and emotion

Trigger warnings don’t help people cope with distressing material

Christian Jarrett