Psychology is the fifth most popular major in undergraduate collegiate studies. The undergraduate level gives students a broad understanding of the field, but for most psychology related work a graduate degree is required. Graduate degrees help the student focus on one particular area of the field. It is important for students to understand their options as they decide on which area of psychology to study further. This list of the top 30 Psychology Blogs of 2012 offers a variety of perspectives. These blogs are valuable resources for anybody already in a psychology related field or anybody still deciding on the area of psychology on which they desire to focus.
General Psychology
1. Psychology Today: The blog of the popular magazine Psychology Today. Readers will find articles on current research and discoveries concerning the broad field of psychology, making Psychology Today a great resource for those looking to stay up to date on the field in general.
Highlight: How Everyone Became Depressed
2. BPS Readers Digest: The British Psychological Society blogs on brain science and behavior. Many of the posts focus on interesting patterns in human conduct. The blog focuses on providing readers with commentary and critiques on the latest research.
Highlight: Why Are Older People Less Prone to Mind Wandering?
3. The Situationist: An ongoing project run by the Harvard Law School, The Situationist aims to promote the research and understanding of social psychology for use in law, policy making, and legal theory.
Highlight: Gender, Weight, Stereotypes, and Prejudice
4. Mind Hacks: Mind Hacks is the blog of Tom Stafford and Matt Web, who wrote a book by the same name. Their posts emphasize neuroscience and psychology tricks that will help you figure out what is going on inside of your brain.
Highlight: The Perfect Woman
5. PsyBlog : Created and written by Phd student Jeremy Dean, the posts source from current studies published in reputable psychology journals. The primary focus of the blog’s content is on scientific research dealing directly with the inner workings of the human mind.
Highlight: Reconstructing the Past: How Recalling Memories Alters Them
6. Generally Thinking: This eye-catching psychology blog is extremely reader friendly and is presented in a question and answer format. The blog utilizes easy to relate to examples from the author’s own experiences to make his points about various psychological topics.
Highlight: How To Improve Social Anxiety By Training Your Attention
7. World of Psychology: The collaborative general psychology blog of psychcentral.com. Read up on a wide range of topics surrounding psychology with posts from a varied pool of psychology professionals.
8. What is Psychology?: A fun and simple approach to the world of psychology. Get answers to the most basic of psychology questions or a simplified explanation to more complicated subject matter.
Highlight: Business Psychology – The Psychology of Customer Loyalty
Academic Blogs
9. Deric Bownds’ Mindblog: Follow psychologist Deric Bownds as he uses his blog to report new ideas and research on mind, brain, and behavior. Deric Covers a dearth of topics from psychology and philosophy, to the impact of neuroscience and neurobiology on the discipline.
Highlight: How Ambient Light Might Influence Our Mood
10. Bad Psychology Blog: The author of Bad Psychology is a student, and the blog covers numerous facets of the psychology industry, dealing with research, practice, and policy issues.
Highlight: The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human
11. Advances in the History of Psychology: An interesting spin on the normal psychology blog, AHP takes a current look at the history of psychology with news, notes, and additional resources.
Highlight: Historicity in Psychology
12. The Splintered Mind: Eric Schwitzgebel delves into the philosophy of psychology with academic essays and collaborations with other philosophers. The focus of the blog is broad and it draws heavily from the author’s everyday experiences, spinning seemingly mundane happenstances and conversations into a philosophical conversation on human psychology.
Highlight: Empirical Evidence That the World Was Not Created Five Minutes Ago
13. NeoAcademic: Written by Richard N. Landers, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA, USA, NeoAcademic specializes in the field of industrial/organizational psychology. The primary focus of the blog is on academic innovation in the field of psychology education.
14. Oscillatory Thoughts: Oscillatory Thoughts is the blog of Neuroscientist Bradley Voytek. This Post-doctoral Fellow shares his insights and theories in the field of neuroscience.
Highlight: Face processing in the brain: “That was a trip”
15. Teaching High School Psychology: This blog is a collaborative blog featuring the writings of three dedicated psychology teachers aimed at helping others that teach high school psychology.
Highlight: Stats–Not Awful or Boring!
Featured Programs
16. We’re Only Human: Is the blog of a long time psychology journalist devoted to covering advances in psychology with a look at how studies impact our understanding of human nature.
Highlight: Contemplation: A Healthy State of Mind
17. Kendra Cherry: A resident psychology blogger at about.com, Kendra Cherry posts regularly with ideas on how to apply psychological principles into your everyday life.
Highlight: Advice from Psychology Majors
18. Research Blogging: Psychology: Research Blogging is a collaborative blog focused on commenting on current research in a variety of fields including psychology. This particular link is to the psychology portion of the site.
Case/Topic Specific Blogs
19. Society for Christian Psychology: A religious take on the topic of psychology, this blog is sourced from multiple Christian psychologists from all over the United States. The blog covers topics such as Christian approaches to psychological disorders, and the impact of core Christian ideas such as redemption on the philosophy of psychology.
20. Child Psychology Research: A resource oriented blog on children’s psychology for parents, educators, and child development professionals. The blog features articles on relevant topics such as minimizing the negative impact of divorce on children, and deciding whether or not a child is in need of therapy.
Highlight: How to Tone Down Parent Conflict During Separation and Divorce to Help Your Kids Adjust
21. Peak Performance Sports: In this creative application of behavioral psychology, learn how mental training can boost athletic ability. The blog features podcasts in addition to articles.
22. Idiolect: A blog from one of the co-authors of the popular psychology blog mindhacks.com. The blog often features thought provoking quotes by famous historical figures.
Highlight: An accommodation with the authority of common sense
23. Brain Blog: Dr. Anthony Risser, a consulting neuropsychologist, brings his readers the most up to date news from the field of neuropsychology, including current journal entries and reviews of recent academic lectures.
Highlight: Parkinson’s Disease: New Biomarker Effort
24. In the News: Forensic psychologist Dr. Karen Franklin is an adjunct professor at Alliant University in Northern California. Her blog focuses on material pertaining to forensic psychology, criminology, and psychology law.
Highlight: A Tale of Two Prison Systems: Whither the Future?
25. Influence People: Using methods developed by over 60 years of behavioral science research, Brian Ahearn teaches readers how to better influence those around them in work and other settings.
Highlight: Good Advice or Not – Expect the Worst and You’ll Never be Disappointed?
26. Julietta Skoog, School Psychologist: Julietta is an elementary school psychologist and also works on the preschool assessment team for Seattle Public Schools. She not only works with children, but also devotes much of her time to helping adults become better parents.
27. Child and Family Psychology: Dr. Renee Clauselle shares her expertise on working as a children’s psychologist. She runs a private practice out of Long Island, New York.
Highlight: Setting Boundaries with In-Laws
28. Neuronarrative: One of the blogs on Psychology Today, Neuronarrative posts mainly on thought processes and brain functions. Content isn’t overly technical, and most articles are accessible and aimed to help the general reader understand the impact of neuroscience on society.
Highlight: 10 Truths I’ve Learned from People Who Didn’t Go To College
29. Tech Psych: A blog resource to guide psychologists, therapists, and more on the effective use of modern technology and techniques for a wide range of professional applications.
Highlight: National Association of School Psychologists: Stigmatizing Mental Health or Developmental Disorders is Harmful
30. Pavlov’s Couch: Follow a London psychology undergraduate as he tries to navigate his college experience and give fresh eyes to a variety of psychology based topics.
Highlight: Through Different Eyes
