Category Archives: Psychology

Do psychopaths really make better leaders?

Psychopathic personality traits are often seen as desirable in the corporate environment, but research suggests they can do more harm than good.

Credit: Twentieth Century Fox

Take a look around your office. Would you classify any of your colleagues as psychopathic?

While it may be a term more often associated with film industry depictions of knife-wielding killers like Hannibal Lecter and Dexter Morgan, there is evidence that suggests psychopaths are surprisingly common in the business environment.

Studies have indicated that, depending where you look, up to one in five of those filling company boardrooms and senior management positions are hiding psychopathic tendencies, using certain personality traits to charm and manipulate their way through the workplace. Read more »

The problem with being a long-term expat

People on long-term foreign assignments often find it hard to adjust once they return home. Many leave their company within a few years, and some leave the country entirely.

By Kate Mayberry

(Credit: Getty Images)

After 15 years, and a life on the road that took her to Japan, Singapore and Australia, Helen Maffini felt it was time to return home to Canada. But, it took just a fraction of that time for her to realise she had made a mistake.

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Three Ways to Raise Your Confidence

Several factors can determine someone’s confidence, including genes, environment, and the choices that they make in life. Choices are what we have control over. In the video, you learn that you can boost confidence by:

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The strange psychology of stress and burnout

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You shouldn’t underestimate the positive power of having a degree of stress in your life. Identifying the tipping point, where stress turns to burnout, is the key.

By Alina Dizik

As a neonatal nurse, Jennifer Welker learned to thrive under stress.

Rather than allowing the pain of handling a sick infant to affect her, Welker deftly handled some of the most challenging moments in her career, and quickly moved on from difficult situations.

She credits her efficiency to the advantages of working under stress. Harnessing the innate pressure that came with her role, she says, improved her productivity and performance. Still, it was a fine line between harnessing the pressure and ignoring it altogether.

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The complicated ways that money messes with your morals

A string of studies appeared to show that rich people are more tight-fisted and less trustworthy – but what’s the truth in the claims? Claudia Hammond investigates.

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At some time or another you’ve probably found yourself in a bar where the richest person present seems to be the slowest to reach for their wallet when it’s time to buy a round. You might wonder whether they were always this mean, and maybe that helped them become rich? Or is there something about having money that’s made them mean?    Read more »