Three Branches

In the Yearbook Study, the genuineness of women students’ smiles in their college yearbook photos predicted, 30 years later, whether they were married and scored highly on life satisfaction, good relationships, and managing stress. One of the limitations of this research is, obviously, that its participants are all female. Yesterday I accidentally came across a little snippet of new research that suggests that male and female smiles don’t mean the same thing.

Positive psychology was created to address an overwhelming bias in the psychological and social sciences towards a deficit based approach to mental health. The question becomes, once this bias is corrected, does positive psychology simply fade away, leaving a more holistic, balanced and integrated psychology behind in its stead? Or will we always need this new domain to keep us from lapsing back to our focus on the dark side?

The need for seemingly endless snow removal has gotten me interested in self-regulation and willpower. It turns out that people who believe that they can’t take it anymore may be right! There’s new research that ties our self-control to our beliefs about it, questioning the model of self-control as a limited resource.

“Feeling Under-Appreciated In Your Current Role?” That advertisement in 2006 inspired me to write about the importance of appreciation in the workplace. I’ve returned to this topic because of stories from friends and clients over the past few weeks. A common theme is their desire to feel appreciated and valued. Can positive psychology concepts help leaders become more skillful at showing appreciation?

Shili Xiong, a famous Chinese scholar, assigned a book to his student, Fuguan Xu. When Xu came back next time, Xiong asked, “What do you think of this book?” After Xu pointed out all its shortcomings, the master admonished him, ““You don’t know how to read books! Every book has good places as well as bad places. You should look at its good places first. Otherwise, what can you learn from reading?””

What does interpersonal touch contribute to human life? Researchers such as Alberto Gallace, Charles Spence, and Robin Dunbar believe that interpersonal touch plays an important role in our emotional well-being, conveys emotion more powerfully than language, helps us calm down from stress arousal, and enhances trust between individuals.

When the women of my book club heard the plight of the families of the Red Door, they enthusiastically embraced the task of sponsoring a family. It was wonderful to know this family was going to have a good Christmas…but what touched my heart was how the women of the book club were transformed. They felt it made a difference in their lives and here’s how…

Even if you are presently satisfied with your life, and most people say they are, you probably would like to be more than just satisfied. One of the challenges of both staying happy and becoming happier, though, is the hedonic treadmill. Michael Cohn, Barbara Fredrickson, and colleagues found that loving kindness meditation can undo hedonic adaptation and that the effects accumulate and persist.

Do people who live in different cities really have different psychological traits and dispositions? Few psychologists have studied variation across cities before now, and those that do focus on negatives such as obesity, psychiatric disorders, and violent crime. So this new positive psychology research into city-level strengths by Nansook Park and Chris Peterson is not only interesting, but also very refreshing. As they point out, it’s high time we looked at what’s right with city life!

The Positive Neuroscience Project has announced the recipients of the 2010 Templeton Positive Neuroscience Awards, $2.9 million given to 15 new research projects at the intersection of neuroscience and positive psychology. Read on to learn about the winning projects that explore a range of topics including how the brain enables humans to flourish, the biological bases of altruism, and the effects of positive interventions on the brain.

One of my fascinations with positive psychology is the existence of its many paradoxes. So as soon as I came across this new research report Money Giveth, Money Taketh Away, my eyes lit up. The researchers explored the widely-held belief that experiencing the best things in life undermines your ability to enjoy life’s little pleasures.

Research shows we are more likely to sustain positive change by changing actions and patterns than by improving external circumstances. But that assumes we do them. Stephen Schueller is the first researcher to develop a structure for recommending positive interventions based on a person’s preferences for prior interventions.

Jenny Fox Eades and I had an interesting discussion about pausing, taking time, and using silence to consider what to say or do next. Jenny is a great supporter of little drops of quiet.

On a busy street in central Hong Kong, a car pulled out of a building as I walked past it. The driver stopped the car and let me pass. He…

While employers would like to think that people leave their problems at home, the reality is that most people find it challenging to turn off stressors from their personal life when they get to work. Rather than ignore the home-life/work-performance connection, we argue that employers who encourage and support healthy home lives in their employees see a better return on their salary investment.

FROM YESTERDAY: The Psychologically Healthy Workplace Conference held in Washington, DC last weekend gave everyone concrete and reliable evidence to make the topic a priority. The conference showed that creating…

As a wellness consultant, one of the questions I get most often is “Wow! I love what you do! This is so important, and so needed in today’s world!  What…