Animals have long been used in psychological research as models for human behavior. However, the scientific community deems animals to have a degraded or even lack consciousness compared to humans. In this paper, I provide a logical analysis of consciousness in animal models.

"I think, therefore I am" - Rene Descartes. Once stated by one of the most influential philosophers in the history, Descartes, the only certain undoubted property is the doubting soul itself. Descartes concludes that the human soul is an immaterial entity, detached from the physical world. Thereby the wise philosopher stumbled upon a problem that remains unsolved - the problem of mind and body, the interactive relationship between the mind and the body or more specifically, the brain.

The experience of cancer may feel as mental as it is physical. Is it only a feeling or is our mind able to influence the chance of developing a chronic and prevalent disease like cancer? This may seem like an absurd idea, involving mental superpowers, however, research might suggest differently. This raises the question of the influence of mentality in the initiation and progression (development) of cancer.

The present study investigated the psychometric structure of social loneliness using an item response model while discussing the theoretical advantages of Latent Variables Models (LVM) over Classical Test Theory (CTT).

Network models are on the rise in the psychological modeling of clinical data. In this paper, I critically review the validity of such networks in modeling causal relationships between symptoms on the individual level.

The hpothetical study investigates the long-term effect of mindfulness-based stress reduction therapy (MBSR) on veterans' post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), compared to an active control condition (ACC). The participants (n = 102) were randomly assigned to a MBSR condition or an ACC (present-center group therapy). PTSD symptoms were measured before, directly after, and 6 months after the intervention using the Post-traumatic checklist (PCL). Expectedly, between baseline and post measurements both conditions' PCL scores significantly decreased. This decrease was significantly larger for the MBSR condition. Furthermore, at 6 months post intervention, both conditions maintained significantly lower PCL scores compared to baseline. However, between post and follow up measurements, both conditions' PCL scores increased resulting in an insignificant difference in PCL scores at follow up measurement. It was concluded that MBSR is effective in the treatment of veterans' PTSD in the long-term. Difficulties in attributing this effect to mindfulness and its exact working mechanism are discussed.