Browse Our Latest Psychology and Behavioral Science Journals
Psychological journals are peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary journals that publish original work in some areas of psychology. The most common publications include cognitive, health and clinical psychology, applied, developmental, biological, social, experimental, and educational psychology, and psychoanalysis.
Behavioral Sciences
Abstract
Background and aims
A mental health professional's background regarding psychedelics, including their attitudes, is important to the therapeutic effects of these drugs; however, no study has examined this in Asian populations. This study aims to evaluate the knowledge and attitudes of psychiatric professionals in Korea regarding the use of psychedelics in clinical practice.
Methods
An anonymous survey consisting of 15 questions was distributed to 200 participants at three academic psychiatric conferences in Korea. The survey assessed participants' knowledge of the history, mechanisms, and therapeutic potential of psychedelic drugs, as well as their attitudes towards their legalization and usage for psychiatric treatment.
Results
The survey had a 96.5% response rate (193/200), with 44% (85/193) of respondents being psychiatry residents. Disparities in prior knowledge of psychedelics, especially in their mechanisms of action, were found between residents and psychiatrists. Despite this, for all participants, there was a notable interest in the potential therapeutic applications of psychedelics, particularly for conditions that are difficult to treat, such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Additionally, positive attitudes toward psychedelics were lower among women, with most respondents expressing a cautious optimism about the future integration of psychedelics into psychiatric practice, contingent upon further research and regulatory approval.
Conclusions
The study underscores the need for enhanced education and training on psychedelic drugs within the Korean psychiatric community. Increasing awareness and understanding of these substances could help align Korean psychiatric practices with global trends in fields of psychedelics and potentially improve treatment outcomes for patients with severe and refractory psychiatric conditions.
Abstract
Background and aims
Altered states of consciousness (ASC) represent acute and marked deviations from normal waking consciousness. Investigations into ASC are significant to problems in medicine, science, and philosophy, including the structure of conscious experience. Here, we conducted a preliminary investigation into the structure of ASC while addressing the role of psychedelics, which purportedly manifest features of mind.
Methods
We performed quantitative and qualitative analyses of 300 narrative reports across 12 ASC induction methods: meditation, float tank, psilocybin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), 5-methoxy-N,N-DMT (5-MeO-DMT), ketamine, salvia, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), cannabis, datura, and diphenhydramine (DPH). We hypothesized that reports from the psychedelics (serotonin 5-HT2A receptor agonists) would contain similar content with non-pharmacological induction methods, alongside greater positive sentiment and reported authenticity relative to reports from other substances.
Results
In quantitative analysis, most psychedelics, except LSD, as well as salvia and ketamine, shared similar content with non-pharmacological methods. In qualitative analysis, most psychedelics, except LSD, were deemed both positive and authentic, with authenticity predicting positive sentiment across the 12 ASC induction methods (R = 0.68; p = 0.015). We uncovered latent themes charting a trajectory of ASC from baseline to metaphysical experience, incorporating text-to-image generative artificial intelligence to illustrate underlying phenomenological structure.
Conclusions
Our findings suggest that reproducible structural observations may be externally validated across methods to support a “mind-manifesting” characterization for some ASC induction methods, such as salvia, ketamine, or 5-MeO-DMT, but not for others, such as LSD, datura, or DPH, together informing future studies of psychedelics, ASC, and structuralism.
Abstract
Psilocybin, a naturally occurring psychedelic compound found in certain fungi has long been used by Indigenous cultures within ritual and ceremony for healing and spiritual purposes (Spiers et al., 2024). While emerging evidence points to psychedelic agents being novel avenues for the treatment of substance use disorders, the predominantly Western medical models of psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) being developed lack Indigenous wisdom and input, raising concerns about cultural safety, efficacy, ownership, and continuing colonial dynamics. In Aotearoa (New Zealand), the enduring impacts of colonisation on Māori include the suppression of Indigenous wisdom, even as research affirming the knowledge and practice of traditional Māori healing is on the rise.
The Tū Wairua project will explore the integration of rongoā Māori (traditional Māori healing practices) with PAT for addressing problematic methamphetamine use (PMU) in Māori communities. This Māori-led project is driven by Kaupapa Māori methodology, rongoā Māori conceptualisations of health and informed by biomedical psychedelic science. Based at Rangiwaho Marae in Te Tairāwhiti (Gisborne), a community with a high Māori population and a significant burden of PMU, the project aims to develop a decolonised culturally-appropriate approach to PAT to explore the efficacy of psilocybin in treating PMU.
This research represents a shift toward health interventions that respect and extend Indigenous wisdom, addressing the unique needs of Māori communities. It also seeks to develop a skilled Māori workforce to continue these healing practices, and challenge current legislation that restricts the use of Indigenous psychedelic medicines. In creating sustainable pathways for collective healing through a community-driven, culturally-resonant PAT, Tū Wairua charts new directions in Indigenous-led psychedelic science.
Abstract
Background and aims
Online platforms are popular for exchanging information about psychedelics, including consumption advice. The recent resurgence of public interest in psychedelics will likely intensify this. We aim to further the understanding among researchers, policy makers, medical practitioners, harm reduction practitioners, and social workers, of contemporary psychedelic information exchange and its impact on consumption. With a social learning perspective and a focus on online content, we investigate the use of various sources and types of information by people who have used psychedelics therapeutically, non-therapeutically, or not at all.
Methods
We deployed an online survey, obtaining a purposive sample of over 1,200 respondents. Approx. 55% had used psychedelics. We included items on seeking, obtaining, and using information about psychedelics. Data was analyzed using comparative frequency tables, comparing respondents across lifetime use of psychedelics (yes/no) and reason for using (therapeutical/non-therapeutical).
Results
Data showed strong preference for, and use of, online psychedelic information in all groups of respondents. Across groups, considerable differences were observed in patterns of information exchange, including source preferences, sources where information had been obtained, and types of content accessed.
Conclusions
We found evidence of differing online social learning environments where consumption practices are exchanged. Despite an increasing public focus on psychedelic therapy, online content thus also affects other uses of psychedelics. This content is accessed by people who have or have not used psychedelics, and thus affects both present and potential future use. This can be leveraged by public health institutions wishing to gain a voice in the psychedelic resurgence.
Abstract
Background
Public health issues arising from excessive online gaming have garnered significant research interest. Existing studies indicate that, within the framework of the dual-systems theory, the equilibrium between the goal–directed and habitual control systems is disrupted in patients with Internet gaming disorder (IGD). Nevertheless, the understanding of how this imbalance manifests within the brain is limited. This study aims to investigate real-time brain activity in individuals with IGD during the activation of both the goal–directed and habitual systems using electrophysiological techniques.
Methods
Twenty-four individuals with IGD and twenty-three matched recreational game users (RGUs) underwent electroencephalography (EEG) data collection while completing an outcome devaluation task. Differences between the two groups at the Fz, Cz, and Pz electrodes were compared using repeated measures ANOVA.
Results
The behavioral results revealed that the RGU group exhibited higher accuracy than the IGD group during the learning phase (t(45) = −3.08, p < 0.001, η 2 = 0.42). During the slip-of-action test, the IGD group made more action-slip responses for devalued outcomes than the RGU group (F (1,45) = 6.22, p = 0.016, η 2 = 0.12). The EEG experiment results indicated that, upon stimulus presentation during the slip-of-action test, the IGD group had significantly more negative average amplitudes at the Fz and Cz electrodes compared with the RGUs (−7.26 ± 6.28 μV; −5.18 ± 5.49 μV; F (1,40) = 5.54, p = 0.024, η 2 = 0.12; F (1,40) = 4.92, p = 0.032, η 2 = 0.11). Concurrently, the single-group analysis based on RGU revealed that habitual control appears to be associated with greater N2 and P3 amplitudes during the stimulus-locked phase.
Conclusions
The goal–directed system of individuals with IGD is impaired, manifesting in the increased cognitive resources required to activate the goal–directed system when they need to disrupt habitual responses. This suggests that the imbalance due to IGD within the dual systems may originate from an impaired goal–directed system rather than the overactivation of the habitual system.
Abstract
Background and aim
Video gaming (VG) and cannabis use are two behaviors that are particularly prevalent among adolescents and young adults, as they can both be sedentary activities that are used to help decompress. As such, this raises questions about the possible relationship between VG and cannabis use. The aim of the present review is to document the relationship between VG and cannabis use.
Methods
A scoping review identified 25 articles published between 2000 and February 2025, and presenting original findings on the relationship between VG and cannabis use.
Results
Results demonstrate that existing literature is heterogeneous in its methods and measures. Nonetheless, evidence suggests that a relationship does exist, as the majority of studies did find a positive relationship between VG and cannabis use, although several studies also found no significant relationship, and a few even found a negative relationship.
Discussion
Being a new and emerging subject, few studies exist exploring the relationship between VG and cannabis use. Thus, there is much that needs to be explored before drawing clear conclusions on what type of relationship exists between both behaviours. An inability to draw clear conclusions is, in part, due to a lack of consistency in the way both VG and cannabis use have been operationalized, and the use of convenience samples, which have created additional challenges that the field will need to address moving forward.
Abstract
Background and aims
Based on the Interaction of Person-Affect-Cognition-Execution (I-PACE) model, this study aimed to identify dynamic reconfiguration of the basal ganglia network (BGN), limbic network (LN) and frontal-parietal network (FPN) in individuals with internet gaming disorder (IGD) during a real gaming situation. This approach overcomes the indirectness of experimental task situations in previous studies, providing direct evidence for the underlying neural basis of IGD.
Methods
Thirty gamers with IGD and 37 gamers with recreational game use (RGU) were scanned during online gaming and immediate deprivation. Two coefficients (recruitment and integration) were calculated using community structure, an emerging method, to represent individual functional segregation and integration of brain networks over time, respectively.
Results
The IGD group showed greater recruitment of BGN and LN after deprivation of gaming, and greater integration between the inferior frontal gyrus in the FPN and BGN and between the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in the FPN and LN during deprivation. In contrast, the RGU group exhibited lower recruitment of BGN during deprivation than during gaming, stable recruitment of LN and stable integration between nodes in the FPN and BGN.
Conclusions
Gamers with RGU always maintain stable cognitive control and emotional regulation and could drop cravings/anticipation for continuing gaming after being interrupted gaming. However, gamers with IGD have stronger craving/anticipation and emotional responses after being interrupted gaming and insufficient control over cravings/anticipation and emotions. These findings help directly explain why gamers with IGD are addicted to gaming, despite having similar gaming experiences to those of gamers with RGU.
Abstract
The fictional story, Cornutopia, by British-Nigerian author Irenosen Okojie, offers a critical outsider's perspective on the enthusiasm surrounding psychedelic research, notably from outside the small world of psychedelic research. The protagonist, Amel Dyani, a young Black woman, participates in a psychedelic clinical trial but has a negative experience. This article aims to analyse the narrative to see what the sector can learn about minority views on psychedelic research, and what we can do to improve.
Amel's fictional experience touches on a number of issues within psychedelic clinical trials, such as bias and the vulnerability of patients under the influence of psychedelics. The protagonist comes away from the experience in a seemingly worse condition than when she started, which deviates from the often overwhelmingly positive coverage of the potential of psychedelic-assisted therapy.
A theme of mistrust of healthcare professionals permeates the prose. This is significant in light of calls for greater diversity in psychedelic clinical trials, and the hypothesised role that race may have on the set and setting of a psychedelic experience. We must consider whether this means there is potential for there to be differences in clinical outcomes between racial groups for psychedelic-assisted therapy.
On the basis of themes raised in the story recommendations are made to inform future practice, such as improving researchers' awareness of barriers to inclusion for those from ethnic minority backgrounds as well as targeted attention towards the possibility of racial differences in therapy outcomes.
Abstract
Background and aims
Problematic smartphone use (PSU) has become an important public health issue in adolescence, and it is imperative to innovate treatments to improve and prolong the effectiveness of interventions. Considering that positive psychology interventions (PPIs) are highly effective in reducing addictive behaviors in adolescents, this study aims to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention program (PREIP, 8 weeks, 1 h/week) on adolescent PSU within a positive psychology framework.
Methods
Adolescents from China were randomly assigned to the personal resources energized intervention program (PREIP) intervention group (N = 30), the CBT control group (N = 30), and the waitlist (N = 28), which were measured at baseline, post-intervention, and 2-month follow-up.
Results
Participants in the PREIP intervention group had significantly lower levels of PSU, and loneliness, and significantly higher levels of perceived social support and well-being compared to the two control groups (CBT control and waitlist). Furthermore, although participants in the CBT control group were able to significantly reduce PSU symptoms, the improvements in the PREIP group were more sustained over the follow-up period.
Discussion and conclusions
In conclusion, this study supports the positive effects of PREIP on adolescent PSU and explained the underlying mechanisms for improving positive mood, reducing loneliness, and promoting perceived social support.
