Decision-Making

Nearly all of us have had the sudden awareness that while we have been driving along, sometimes for many miles, we have not been paying attention. How did I get here? It does not just happen on the interstate in the form of highway hypnosis but also when driving through our neighborhoods or on our …

If you have not read it, I highly recommend Jonathan Haidt’s The Happiness Hypothesis. One of Haidt’s metaphors, more thoroughly explained in the book, is the very accessible image of the rider (conscious reasoning self) and the elephant (automatic and unconscious self). Thinking v. Feeling The rider can see farther into the distance, plan and …

When, at 39, I was trying to decide whether to pursue training in positive psychology , I made for myself all the “practical” objections. I was already a successful lawyer, had a wife, kids, mortgage and typical routine. My wife, however, knew that deep down it was something I really wanted to do. Our conversation …

Last summer, the journal Insulin published What people with diabetes want their caregivers to know: Development of the TCOYD patient concensus statement” based on the results of a workshop I ran at the 2004 Raleigh Taking Control of Your Diabetes conference. I’m going to look at three items from the patient consensus statement and show …

The design for the opera house was the result of a world-wide competition in 1955-56. Jørn Utzon, a Danish architect submitted the winning design, but it did not meet the criteria of the competition and had drawings described as “simple to the point of being diagrammatic.” One widely reported story about the selection process relates …

Morality is an essential part of human nature. Morality is also a central element of all classical conceptions of “the good life.” You can’t think intelligently about how you ought to live without thinking also about virtue, obligations to others, and why people so badly want to make a positive mark on the world before …

I had the pleasure of hearing Mike Morrison, VP and Dean of University of Toyota, speak at last month’s Global Well-Being Forum (formerly the International Positive Psychology Summit) at Gallup’s headquarters in Washington, DC. The room was jammed packed with both business and academic people interested in Mike’s talk “Personal Leadership: A Psychological & Philosophical …

Our time gives us the extraordinary challenge we call sustainability: to collectively change the way we live to be in balance with the planet. It is very easy to talk about sustainability in a way that drains the energy for change out of people. So how do we talk about sustainability in ways that lead …

Last weekend my UEL MAPP class was fortunate enough to have presentations from several external speakers, amongst them Alex Linley, founder of the UK’s Centre of Applied Positive Psychology, Peter Flade from the Gallup Organization, and Debbie Whitaker, Head of Sustainability at the global bank, Standard Chartered. Strengths Focus  Our focus for the two days …

Special Note to Positive Psychology News Daily Friends This month I am posting a column that I wrote a number of years ago known as The Law of the Garbage Truck™.  My column is now widely traveling the internet in mass emails and blogs.  I want you to have it too.  You can find my …

A new report has found that being super-thin is bad for models’ health. But what effect do size zeros have on the rest of us?

This is not a book review; it is a book note for Educating People to Be Emotionally Intelligent.

Recently, Dr. Mangels and colleagues teamed up with Carol Dweck to study the differences in the brains of people with growth mindsets and fixed mindsets. This is exciting work because it is hard empirical science studying the underlying brain functions dealing with learning and internal self-concepts.

Jon Haidt in The Happiness Hypothesis suggests the metaphor of a rider on an elephant for how we live life.  The rider is our conscious thoughts (and emotions).  The elephant is our unconscious emotions (and thoughts).  Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman refers to these as System 1 and System 2, but I find rider and …