Does second guessing improve our decisions or make us miserable?
th. Via escience news: The paper, based on two studies of Florida State undergraduate volunteers, finds that the maximizers' focus on finding the best option ultimately undermines their commitment to their final choices. As a result, the authors argue, "maximizers miss out on the psychological benefits of commitment," leaving them less satisfied than their more contented counterparts, the satisficers. Past research into the differences between maximizers and satisficers looked at how the two groups made choices differently and, more importantly,…
2 minutes
Is there a common feeling that might lead to heart attack, stroke and diabetes?
s. Loneliness. Objective: This study evaluated the association between loneliness and the metabolic syndrome, which refers to a clustering of factors that have been shown to increase risk for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, stroke, and mortality. A secondary purpose was to evaluate whether age moderated the association between loneliness and the metabolic syndrome. Design: Participants were 52 to 79 years old, and they were drawn from a population-based survey of people 50 years of age and older living in England (N…
2 minutes
Is it the big things or little things in life that most determine our happiness?
's the little things. Via PsyBlog: We know this because research finds that our happiness is predicted better by the details of our everyday lives than it is by our overall life circumstances... In other words happiness comes from the small pleasures in life. By the same token it's the little hassles that are most apt to get us down. Exactly the same is true in the workplace where little hassles are a hefty predictor of job satisfaction. And he…
2 minutes
Is there a way to increase your attention span?
ditation. And it can show results in as little as five days. The ability to focus one’s attention underlies success in many everyday tasks, but voluntary attention cannot be sustained for extended periods of time. In the laboratory, sustained-attention failure is manifest as a decline in perceptual sensitivity with increasing time on task, known as the vigilance decrement. We investigated improvements in sustained attention with training (~5 hr/day for 3 months), which consisted of meditation practice that involved sustained selective…
1 min read
Here’s Where “Fake It Until You Make It” Works
en it comes to confidence and social situations, "fake it until you make it" can help. Appearing depressed can create a downward spiral. Avoiding eye contact can increase isolation: Via Medical News Today: ...avoiding eye contact may actually increase depression amongst already unhappy individuals, as it can lead to isolation. "Sad people avoiding eye contact will disrupt normal social fluency and may lead to them shunning certain social situations," said Dr Hills. "Although this may reduce anxiety caused by the…
2 minutes
How can you increase your sense of meaning in life?
more nostalgic: The present research tested the proposition that nostalgia serves an existential function by bolstering a sense of meaning in life. Study 1 found that nostalgia was positively associated with a sense of meaning in life. Study 2 experimentally demonstrated that nostalgia increases a sense of meaning in life. In both studies, the link between nostalgia and increased meaning in life was mediated by feelings of social connectedness. Study 3 evidenced that threatened meaning increases nostalgia. Study 4…
1 min read
TGIF! Is Friday really that great? Is Monday really that awful?
..on average, people's mood remained about the same throughout the week." Via PsyBlog: They found that, on average, people's mood remained about the same throughout the week. Mondays weren't as depressing as people thought and Fridays and Saturdays weren't as exciting as people predicted. The results demonstrate the memory bias: when thinking back we tend to recall the worst incidence of an event we've experienced before. Mondays are stereotypically depressing, so we tend to recall the worst Mondays. Fridays and…
1 min read
Can a boring job give you a heart attack?
notony on the job is associated with greater risk of myocardial infarction: The project was designed to test the assumption that certain psychosocial characteristics of occupational groups are associated with elevated myocardial infarction risk. All cases of myocardial infarction below the age of 65 in men living in the region of greater Stockholm during the years 1974-1976 were identified (deaths as well as survivals) in the official registries of hospitalizations and deaths. For each case two controls without infarction (in…
1 min read
