Recent content by Derby

At age 85, Isabella Bick still practices psychotherapy part-time from her home in Connecticut, USA. Some of her clients are senior citizens. They come to her with a range of age-related concerns: self-consciousness about appearance, depression about sexual performance, and dismay about physical...

Two travelling monks reached a ford in a river. There they met a beautiful and voluptuous woman who had been swimming in the nude. She asked the monks if they could carry her across the river. The current had become too strong, and she couldn’t return to her clothing. One of the monks simply...

Are the wise naturally reflective, or does wisdom make one reflect? This chicken-or-the-egg problem puzzles wisdom scientists. In 2017, Westrate and Glück conducted research on “hard-earned wisdom.” They looked at the impact that life experiences had on various individuals. They discovered that...

There once was an optimistic man named Jenkins who had retired from his work in the coal mine. He lived next door to a man named Smoote, who had also retired from the mine. Smoote had grown bitter as the years passed. Every morning Jenkins would say, “Good morning, God!” Every morning, Smoote...

Morality can be defined as how people treat one another.The psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg was particularly interested in this area of study. He used hypothetical situations – a storytelling technique – to engage the interest of his readers. Among these stories, most famous was one known simply...

In the eighteenth century, pirates under the command of William Kidd entered the city of Philadelphia. They were drunk and rowdy. They were also extremely amorous, having spent some time at sea without female companionship. You might think that finding a brothel wouldn’t be a problem in a port...

Can religion make you wise? Does it take a spiritual or mystical experience to deliver wisdom? A researcher in California by the name of Dao Le was interested in this question. To find the answer, he studied a large group of Americans. Within this group, he isolated those who claimed to have had...

In the past, discussion of wisdom belonged to either theologians – religious thinkers – or philosophers. By contrast, much of contemporary research on wisdom has been done by psychologists. Notable among these psychologists is Robert Sternberg, who arrived at what he calls the “balance theory of...

Culture is so much a part of our lives that we’re usually not aware of how it affects the way we understand the world. This is evident when we examine what culture actually means. The Merriam Webster dictionary defines culture as the customary beliefs and traits of a racial, social, or religious...

Throughout my life, I’ve politely suffered through countless hours listening to know-it-alls. These people I call “know-it-alls” have memorized a lot of information and seem to love nothing better than sharing it with others, whether they’ve asked to hear it or not. The know-it-all shows up at...