With Election Day right around the corner, political egos are on full display. One might even think that possessing a "big ego" is a prerequisite for success in politics, or in any position of leadership. High achievers - CEO's, top athletes, rock stars, prominent surgeons, or scientists - often seem to be well endowed in ego. But when does a "healthy ego" cross the line into unhealthy territory? Where is t ...

Research led by a Michigan State University psychologist is playing a key role in the effort to change the way mental health clinicians classify personality disorders. The study by Christopher Hopwood and colleagues calls for a more scientific and practical method of categorizing personality disorders – a proposal that ultimately could improve treatment, Hopwood said. ...

Antisocial boys who abuse drugs, break laws, and act recklessly are not just “bad” kids. Many of these boys may have malfunctioning brains, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. The results are published in the open access journal PloS ONE. Check the end of this report for a link to download the full-text article. ...

The Big Five Inventory (BFI), which is based on the classic "big five" dimensions of personality, was released into the public domain. All healthcare professionals may now use the BFI for free, and the author offers a free online scoring program. Oliver P. John, Ph.D. and V. Benet-Martinez developed the BFI in 1998, and in case you forgot, the big five consist of Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Emotional ...

Researchers* report in a yet unpublished study (2009) that patients with anti-social personality disorder benefited from extended quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG)-guided neurofeedback sessions in a clinical case series. QEEG-guided neurofeedback provides individually tailored neurotherapy sessions based on a patient's unique EEG and comparisons to age appropriate, normative databases. This is the ...