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If you’ve ever felt doomed to repeat your mistakes, researchers at MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory may have explained why: Brain cells may only learn from experience when we do something right and not when we fail. Click here to read the article.
Neuron, June 30
Too much confidence among teenage students can be harmful. In a study that reinforces the danger of indiscriminately bolstering a child’s self esteem — whether the child earns that distinction or not — the results show a clear connection between overconfident students and low reading comprehension, and suggest recommendations for parents and teachers. Click here to read the article.
Fifty-four older adults ranging in age from 70 to 86 years old reported daily levels of positive and negative affect, life satisfaction and daily activities for seven consecutive days.
Researchers found that higher quality of flow was positively associated with high arousal positive affect (i.e., feeling peppy, enthusiastic, happy), negatively associated with low arousal negative affect (i.e., feeling sad and disappointed), and positively associated with life satisfaction.
However, more frequent flow experiences throughout the week predicted lower average levels of positive affect and life satisfaction.
Journal of happiness studies, October 2008
In a population-based study happiness was measured by two items, being: “I have many moments of happiness” and “I often laugh happily”.
Results showed that happiness was inversely associated with mortality but that this relationship was no longer statistically significant after adjustment for physical activity and prevalent morbidity.
Journal of happiness studies, December 2008
Reducing anxiety in adults by relaxation-breathing techniques has been shown in clinical trials to produce good asthma outcomes. New research suggests it might be helpful for children.
Children in the experimental research were given 30 min of training in a relaxation-breathing technique and a CD for home practice. Data on anxiety levels, self-perceived health status, asthma signs/symptoms, peak expiratory flow rate, and medication use were collected at baseline and at the end of the 12-week intervention.
The researchers concluded that “a combination of self-management and relaxation-breathing training can reduce anxiety, thus improving asthmatic children’s health.”
A fad swept through corporate training and development during the last decade following top-selling books such as “Now, Discover Your Strengths” by Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton and a parade of subsequent titles on “strengths-based development.” The strengths movement maintains that fixing weaknesses is a mistake because the only way for executives to achieve top performance is by building on strengths.
But a new book discusses the rest of the story: the hidden dangers easily overlooked by the seductive advice to focus on your strengths and ignore weaknesses. Click here to read the article.
When we are feeling blue we are told to count our blessings, but according to a study recently published in Psychological Science, counting our money might be a more useful activity. Click here to read the article.
Researchers have found that people prompted to write about how a positive event may not have happened experience a greater uptick in mood than those prompted to describe the positive event.
For example in one study, individuals in committed relationships wrote for 15 to 20 minutes about how they might never have met and connected with their partners. Others wrote instead about the reverse – that is, how they did meet, start dating, and end up with their partners. Several control conditions, which involved writing about one’s typical day or about one’s friendships, were included as well. The biggest increase in satisfaction with the relationship occurred not in the group that pondered the sunny beginnings of their union but in the “mental subtraction”.
Click here to read the full article.
An interim report has just been completed on the Penn Resilience Program (PRP) in the UK. Click here for a copy of the report. The executive summary of the report states that “The initial quantitative work found a significant positive impact on pupils’ depression and anxiety symptom scores for those schools where the treatment and control groups were well matched.”
However when you have a closer look at the research there are some interesting observations.
1. after the intervention the depression levels of girls decreased - boys didn’t.
2. the program was more effective for poorer performing students.
3. it made higher performing students more anxious
The report also notes that “It is interesting that facilitators rate as one of the most important features of the programme the small class sizes it is taught in, as this is a relatively expensive and logistically difficult aspect of the programme”.
One has to wonder whether its the PRP that is effective or perhaps its the smaller class size.
Find out if you are logical, creative or suspicious. http://59seconds.wordpress.com/2009/07/11/new-59-seconds-video/