Reviews & Analysis

Self-control is traditionally viewed as an individual-level struggle, reflecting prevailing notions of individual autonomy and personal responsibility. In this Perspective, Hofmann calls for a multilevel approach to self-control that considers not only how individuals may proactively shape their environments, but also how structural factors often shape individuals’ environments beyond their control.

Metacognition is the evaluation, control, or representation of one’s own cognition. In this Review, Mazancieux et al. discuss whether metacognition is general or specific across domains, focusing on memory and perception.

Mobile sensing methods can overcome methodological challenges to naturalistic observation and facilitate research about the link between everyday behaviours and psychological constructs. In this Review, Harari and Gosling describe illustrative findings from mobile sensing studies in psychology and propose a research agenda to guide future work.

Large language models (LLMs), which can generate and score text in human-like ways, have the potential to advance psychological measurement, experimentation and practice. In this Perspective, Demszky and colleagues describe how LLMs work, concerns about using them for psychological purposes, and how these concerns might be addressed.

Collective narcissism — a belief that one’s group is exceptional and deserves special treatment — arises when group identity is motivated by frustrated psychological needs. In this Review, Cislak and Cichocka describe the implications of collective narcissism in the national context and how such national narcissism explains contemporary social and political phenomena.

Adaptive behaviour requires the ability to maintain focus on a task and to flexibly switch tasks, depending on the context. In this Perspective, Egner integrates the task focus and task switching literatures and suggests that cognitive stability and flexibility are supported by independent mechanisms.

Responses to potentially traumatic events go beyond the typical binary classification based on the presence or absence of psychopathology. In this Review, Bonanno et al. describe multiple outcome trajectories following adversity and consider how the different components of regulatory flexibility can promote resilience.

The ability to think spatially is associated with STEM success. In this Review, Taylor and colleagues discuss how visualizations engage spatial thinking and the role of visualizations across STEM fields.

Embodied theories propose that concept knowledge involves simulations of sensory information. In this Review, Muraki et al. discuss how studying individuals with an inability to form mental images can provide insight into the relationship between mental imagery and these mental simulations.

Social touch plays a vital part in human development and psychological well-being, but relevant research is often siloed across disciplines. In this Review, Suvilehto and colleagues integrate across areas and approaches to draw conclusions regarding the purpose, participants and use of social touch.

The behavioural immune system consists of psychological mechanisms that evolved to prevent pathogens from entering the body (such as avoiding stimuli that elicit disgust). In this Review, van Leeuwen et al. consider how pathogen avoidance gives rise to prejudice and evaluate the empirical support for principles hypothesized to underlie this phenomenon.

Mental disorder classification provides a definitional framework that underlies applied clinical and research efforts to understand, assess, predict, prevent and ameliorate the burden of psychopathology. In this Review, Eaton et al. describe transdiagnostic dimensional, network and clinical staging approaches to classification and consider their strengths, their limitations, and their scientific and clinical utility.

Traditional syntheses are limited by methodological issues and the rapid rate of research production. In this Perspective, Sakaluk et al. propose a model for more useful syntheses that integrate data on impact, consistency, research credibility and sampling inclusivity and present these data in a modular and accessible way.

The cognition needed to support cooperation in its multifaceted forms varies in different scenarios. In this Review, Melis and Raihani argue that whether individuals must recognize interaction partners and whether cooperative interactions need investment repayment can differentiate the cognitive demand posed.

Drawing is a versatile tool that people use to convey visual information across contexts. In this Review, Fan and colleagues discuss the cognitive mechanisms of drawing and key considerations for the use of drawings as a research tool.

Psychosis research has traditionally focused on vulnerability and the detrimental outcomes of risk exposure. In this Review, Thakkar et al. consider an alternative resilience-based approach focused on resources and strengths that might help protect against negative illness course among people at risk.

The Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP) is an empirically based, hierarchical model of the structure of psychopathology. In this Review, Rodriguez-Seijas et al. consider the applicability of the HiTOP model to diverse, underrepresented and epistemically excluded populations.

The somatosensory system processes tactile sensations to represent the human body. In this Review, Tamè and Longo discuss updates to the classical principles of somatosensation that reflect emerging patterns and complexities in how touch is represented.

People hold subjective beliefs that, independent of the actual distribution of resources, one party’s gains are inevitably accrued at other parties’ expense. In this Review, Davidai and Tepper synthesize research on when and why such zero-sum beliefs emerge and their consequences for individuals, groups and society.

Sexual objectification refers to a cultural prioritization of sexual appearance and appeal over other attributes. In this Review, Ward et al. synthesize empirical evidence about the sources and consequences of seeing women as sexual objects, and of women’s objectification of themselves (self-objectification).