The December 13th New York Times Magazines features this piece by Jeff Stryker
Say cheese and stay married? Yes, according to Matthew Hertenstein, a psychology professor at DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind. He and three colleagues recruited more than 600 people for a review of their college yearbook photos. The researchers rated the yearbook smiles by coding muscle movements around the mouth and the eyes.
The researchers found a surprising correlation: the less people smiled, the more likely they were to later divorce. The effect was statistically significant, though not huge. But when ...
Several years ago, I began to pursue a Master’s degree online. Up until this point, all of my formal education had come as a result of being in a classroom, reading books, taking tests, and writing papers. Now, I would have no contact with other people. I would learn from reading books and articles in PDF format. Lectures were posted in the electronic classroom and responses were required to be a minimum of three sentences long with at least one citation. It was a difficult transition to this new form of learning but one day, I discovered something that made it a lot more enjoyable and ...
By happier.com expert Todd Kashdan, Ph.D.
I lied. Studying the ins and outs of hotel maids provide absolutely no insight into cancer.
Besides lying to you, I have no idea what the politically correct term is for women who clean hotel rooms. Maid? chambermaid? housekeeper? female room attendant? If I offend anyone, my apologies for failing to master the appropriate terminology. But everything else is true and rather inoffensive. In this brief post, you will learn a single secret to physical fitness and mental health that might translate into longer, better living.
Hotel maids are notorious ...
At happier.com, we were pleased to hear about the new workbook and study guide: Positively Speaking. We asked coach and consultant Paul Z. Jackson, the guide’s author, to explain to us the solutions-focused approach that characterizes his work.
What is solutions-focused coaching?
One of the managers I have been coaching complained that her meetings often began (and indeed continued) on a negative note. In an atmosphere of moaning and blame, she was finding it nearly impossible to shift the conversations from such ‘problem-talk’ into discussion of what was wanted and what could be ...
People who feel isolated may spread mistrust of social connections
Originally posted on ScienceNews, by Lisa Grossman
Staying socially connected may be just as important for public health as washing your hands and covering your cough. A new study suggests that feelings of loneliness can spread through social networks like the common cold.
“People on the edge of the network spread their loneliness to others and then cut their ties,” says Nicholas Christakis of Harvard Medical School in Boston, a coauthor of the new study in the December Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. “It’s ...
The happiness of American women was called into question recently by a study titled "The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness." Societal advances, the authors suggest, have not
February 5, 2010By Sherri Fisher - We like to think that we are in charge of our choices. Even the positive psychology happiness pizza (apologies to Sonja Lyubomirsky) shows us that 40% of the variance in happiness among people is the result of personal choice. But what if making a choice or decision is based on things that we don’t notice? A new article from Song and Schwarz at the University of Michigan looks at the consequences.
Choice and Processing
Sometimes we are faced with a task that will require one or more choices. Song and Schwarz have shown that what we choose depends on what we ...
February 3, 2010By Amanda Horne - Are there positive ways to combat employee negativity? Are you interested in improving personal and organizational performance and at the same time personal and organizational well-being?
Summer Over the long Christmas / New Year / summer break which many Australians enjoy, I took the opportunity to organize my filing. I discovered articles lurking in the “to read” list. Happy to use PPND as an excuse to kick off the year with some research and reading, I chose to read an article about the role of positive organizational behavior and transformational ...
February 1, 2010By Wayne Jencke - MeditatorInfluential people like Sonja Lyubomirsky, Tal Ben-Shahar, and Barbara Fredrickson advocate meditation as a positive intervention. This enthusiasm is probably driven by research suggesting that meditation can have a profound impact on health and well-being. For example meditation has been linked to higher levels of positive emotions, the ability to reframe negative events, the perception of having enough, lowered blood pressure, improved sleep, improved working memory, sustained attention, and improved relationships. Interestingly there is new ...
January 29, 2010By Louis Alloro - I want to travel to Pandora, the fictional planet depicted in Avatar. I saw James Cameron’s newest film that has rocked box offices since its release in December on I-MAX 3-D and have since been urging friends to run, not walk, to see this movie. The message inherent in the panoramic view is profoundly positive and especially relevant to our world today.
The film is set in the year 2154 on Pandora, a faraway moon place where the indigenous Na’vi people roam. The film’s title refers to the genetically engineered Na’vi bodies used by the ...
January 28, 2010By Sean Doyle - Positive Motivation book How do we choose our goals? How do we decide how to spend our time and energy and where to direct our attention? These are the topics covered in another workbook in Robert Biswas-Diener’s positive psychology workbook series, Positive Motivation: A Six Week Course by Dr. Kennon Sheldon.
Sometimes these goals and choices are natural and fulfilling. Other times they are not. We can’t always seem to stick to that diet or finish that novel we’d started. There are still other times that we find the stamina and courage to buckle ...
I recently watched the 2005 Stanford University Commencement Address by Steve Jobs. Perhaps you have already seen it - the website reports 1.4 million hits! - but it was new to me, and it contained some excellent points about the good life that I would like to mention here.
I know little about Steve Jobs, so I will focus on the message and not the messenger. That said, this particular message was also about the messenger. Specifically, his 15-minute talk consisted of three personal stories, and it is one of the best speeches I have ever heard, especially of the commencement address genre. ...
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.- Martin Luther King, Jr. (August 28, 1963)
Today - January 18, 2010 - those of us in United States and elsewhere celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. In my own small way, I would like to celebrate by offering some comments on one of the best-known lines from his "I Have a Dream Speech."
Yes, we should judge people not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. Work by positive psychologists over the ...
This blog entry is about Scrabble, where one's "rack" is the seven tiles in front of you that you want to play in a way to produce a high score and/or to prevent your opponent from doing the same and/or to set yourself up for future high-scoring plays.
This blog entry is also about Scrabble as a metaphor for the good life, just in case you are not a dedicated Scrabble player like I am. But if you do play Scrabble, my advice here is useful. :)
Scrabble is deliciously middle-brow, which is why I like the game. When psychologists have studied complex problem-solving, they have often opted to ...
In a previous blog entry, I discussed recent criticisms of positive thinking and especially positive psychology. Is the United States being undermined by the tendency to look on the bright side? I concluded no, but maybe that was rash. It has just come to my attention that "optimism" has infiltrated the New York City subway system. Along with giant alligators and rats the size of terriers, yet another potential horror lurks beneath the unsuspecting streets of New York. Optimism!
And this is not an urban legend. You can read about it on the Internet, so it must be true. In what is obviously a ...
I don't just write blog entries for Psychology Today - I also read them, at least those that are flagged as "essential" or "most read" posts. My strong suspicion is that the title of an entry draws readers more than the content, which is why I try to title my own entries in provocative ways, sometimes even stooping to using profanity or near-profanity in them. I have drawn the line - so far - at writing about Tiger Woods. Accordingly, when I came up with the idea for this particular entry, I hesitated about writing it because I didn't know how to title it. The obvious title would be ...
“There is certainly no greater happiness, than to be able to look back on a life usefully and virtuously employed, to trace our own progress in existence, by such tokens as excite neither shame nor sorrow.” -- Samuel Johnson
* A reader sent me the link to this fabulous item on etsy -- a great, stylish way to track resolutions. I love it!
* Want to launch a group for people doing happiness projects together? I'm in a group like that myself, and I love it! If so, read more here and sign up here for a starter kit to help get you going.
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I’m working on my Happiness Project, and you could have one, too! Everyone’s project will look different, but it’s the rare person who can’t benefit. Join in -- no need to catch up, just jump in right now. Each Friday’s post will help you think about your own happiness project.
One of my favorite resolutions – but also kept with great difficulty – is to Schedule time for play. I often get teased about this resolution, because people think it sounds incongruous, and even silly, to schedule time for play. Play should be spontaneous, right? Aren’t we naturally alert for opportunities to have ...
I had such a great time in Toronto – I’d never been to Toronto, or even Canada, before this trip. I met a lot of interesting people during the day, and last night the famous Heather Reisman of Indigo Books and I had a conversation at one of the wonderful Indigo bookstores.
Interesting note about Toronto: I saw a street sign that said, “Pedestrians obey your signals.” You don’t see this in New York City! We dart out the minute we see a break in traffic.
* Interested in starting your own happiness project? If you’d like to take a look at my personal Resolutions Chart, for inspiration, ...
From time to time, I post short interviews with interesting people about their insights on happiness. During my study of happiness, I’ve noticed that I often learn more from one person’s highly idiosyncratic experiences than I do from sources that detail universal principles or cite up-to-date studies. I’m much more likely to be convinced to try a piece of advice urged by a specific person who tells me that it worked for him or her, than by any other kind of argument.
The relationships among love, marriage, and expectations are some of the most complex and important issues within the ...
Every Wednesday is Tip Day.
This Wednesday: 19 tips for cheering yourself up -- from two hundred years ago.
I've posted this list before, but I love it, so am supplying it again. I read it in a biography of the English writer Sydney Smith, in Hesketh Pearson’s The Smith of Smiths. In 1820, Smith wrote a letter to an unhappy friend, Lady Morpeth, in which he offered her tips for cheering up.
I have my own variety of tips lists for cheering up, and I was interested to hear what someone from two centuries ago would recommend. Most of Smith's suggestions are as sound now as they were almost ...
Seeing someone perform a virtuous deed (especially if they are helping another person), makes us feel good, often eliciting a warm, fuzzy feeling in our chest. This positive, uplifting emotion, known as “elevation,” might make us feel great, and also gets us to go out and perform good acts ourselves. Read the article.
Psychological Science, February
Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania and the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia have found that exposure to male perspiration has marked psychological and physiological effects on women: It can brighten women’s moods, reducing tension and increasing relaxation, and also has a direct effect on the release of luteinizing hormone, which affects the length and timing of the menstrual cycle.
Read the full article
People who are energetic, happy and relaxed are less likely to catch colds, while those who are depressed, nervous or angry are more likely to complain about cold symptoms, whether or not they get bitten by the cold bug, according to a recent study.
Psychosomatic Medicine, July 2003
When someone is described as “chilly,” we understand it means “unfriendly” and not that they should put on a sweater. But using low temperature to capture social remoteness is more than just a convention of language. According to a number of studies, there may be a psychological reason for connecting temperature and social relationships.
In a 2008 study, when volunteers were asked to think about a time they felt socially rejected, they described the temperature in the room as being significantly colder than did volunteers who recalled an experience in which they felt socially included, even ...
Now, it appears how infants respond to stress is linked to if they have a particular form of a certain gene, according to a new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Just as significantly, researchers say they have also found that good parenting – as early as within the first year of a child’s life – can counter the effect the gene has in babies who initially do not respond well to stressful situations.
Read the full article
