How can you free yourself from an angry or depressed mood?
t your brain busy with working on a hard problem. Studies show that when your brain is loaded up and distracted by a complex problem it can do wonders to alleviate a foul mood. From In Mind: ...recent experimental findings have demonstrated that performing a cognitive task can take the edge of negative emotional responses and help people put things into a more neutral perspective ( Morrow & Nolen-Hoeksema, 1990; Van Dillen & Koole, 2007). Thus, even when people successfully pass the…
1 min read
Is self-deception one of the keys to optimal performance?
..Overall, the results were consistent with the proposition that self-deception enhances motivation and performance during competition." Hat tip: Ray Pawulich: We investigated the relationship between self-deception and success in competition. Self-deception has been associated with stress reduction, a positive self-bias, and increased pain tolerance, all of which could enhance motivation and performance during competitive tasks. We selected athletic competition as a model and predicted that swimmers who successfully qualified for a national championship would engage in more self-deception than swimmers…
1 min read
What are two easy ways to make yourself much happier?
rtin Seligman, author of Authentic Happiness did a study "Positive Psychology Progress: Empirical Validation of Interventions" and he mentioned two proven ways to increase happiness: 1) "...the gratitude visit, caused large positive changes (in happiness) for one month." Gratitude visit - Participants were given one week to write and then deliver a letter of gratitude in person to someone who had been especially kind to them but had never been properly thanked. 2) "...three good things—increased happiness and decreased depressive symptoms for six months."…
1 min read
Does fantasizing give you the motivation to achieve your goals?
pe. Fantasies sap the energy you need to achieve your goals: Positive fantasies allow people to mentally indulge in a desired future. Whereas previous research found that spontaneously generated positive fantasies about the future predict poor achievement, we examined the effect of experimentally induced positive fantasies about the future. The present four experiments identify low energy, measured by physiological and behavioral indicators, as a mechanism by which positive fantasies translate into poor achievement. Induced positive fantasies resulted in less energy…
1 min read
Children Don’t Make Us Happier
can't think of many things that go more against popular opinion but the research says no: This meta-analysis finds that parents report lower marital satisfaction compared with nonparents (d=-.19, r=-.10). There is also a significant negative correlation between marital satisfaction and number of children (d=-.13, r=-.06). The difference in marital satisfaction is most pronounced among mothers of infants (38% of mothers of infants have high marital satisfaction, compared with 62% of childless women). For men, the effect remains similar across ages…
2 minutes
Can I predict how happy you’ll be in the coming years by looking at your Facebook profile?
es the extent to which people are smiling in their Facebook photos predict future life satisfaction? In two longitudinal studies, the authors showed that smile intensity coded from a single Facebook profile photograph from male and female participants’ first semester at college was a robust predictor of self-reported life satisfaction 3.5 years later—as they were about to graduate from college. Controlling for first-semester life satisfaction, the authors also determined that smile intensity was a unique predictor of changes in life…
1 min read
Here’s What Science Has To Say About Whether You Should Work Overtime
e stress and fatigue from longer work hours isn't worth the additional money: Does extra work buy happiness and well-being? Unique survey data are analyzed to consider whether measures of self-reported subjective happiness, psychological health and economic satisfaction bear a net positive or negative relationship with working extra hours. Overtime work hours generally are associated with increased work stress, fatigue and work-family interference. When overtime work is required, this appears to offset the otherwise greater happiness and mental healthiness produced…
1 min read
How much is more time with your friends worth?
ing able to spend more time with friends provides an increase in happiness worth up to an additional $133,000 a year. Meanwhile, actual pay raises have very little affect on happiness (Hat Tip: Penelope Trunk): There is substantial evidence in the psychology and sociology literature that social relationships promote happiness for the individual. Yet the size of their impacts remains largely unknown. This paper explores the use of shadow pricing method to estimate the monetary values of the satisfaction with life…
1 min read
