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A New You: Behavior Change May Drive Personality Change
Do you want to be more productive at work? Do you want to stop worrying so much, or to be more compassionate toward others? If so, you’re not the only one — judging, that is, by the number of self-help books and seminars that tout personality-change regimens. But what does it really take to alter your personality? In a 2014 article published in the European Journal of Personality, researchers Marie Hennecke (University of Zurich), Wiebke Bleidorn (University of California, Davis), Jaap Denissen (Humboldt-University Berlin), and Dustin Wood (Wake Forest University) presented a framework describing three preconditions for self-directed personality change.
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How can you be happier in everyday life?
TODAY: Is happiness sustainable in day-to-day life? One psychologist says yes, and staged a social experiment to put her theory to the test. NBC reports. Watch the whole story: TODAY
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How traumatized Air Transat passengers are helping brain research
CTV News: Brain scans of passengers who believed they were about to die when their plane ran out of fuel over the Atlantic in 2001 are helping researchers better understand traumatic memories. Air Transat Flight 236, bound for Lisbon from Toronto on Aug. 24, 2001, crash-landed in the Azores after gliding powerless over the ocean for 30 minutes. Some of the 306 passengers and crew on board developed post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, as a result of the terrifying scare.
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Addicted to Your Phone? There’s Help for That
The New York Times: LIKE pretty much everyone these days, Susan Butler stares at her smartphone too much. Unlike most everyone, she took action, buying a $195 ring from a company called Ringly, which promises to “let you put your phone away and your mind at ease.” Ringly does this by connecting its rings to a smartphone filter so that users can silence Gmail or Facebook notifications while preserving crucial alerts, like text messages from a babysitter, which cause the ring to light up or vibrate. ...
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What Are the Best and Worst Ways to Prepare for an Exam?
Scientific American: Daniel Willingham, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia and author of Raising Kids Who Read: What Parents and Teachers Can Do, responds: So glad you asked! Scientists have a lot of practical information on this topic, but most students do not know about it. Research investigating how students learn was first conducted at highly competitive institutions such as the University of California, Los Angeles. Even students at these top schools used terrible strategies. For example, students commonly highlight what they read, but research shows that it does not help memory.
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2015–2016 American Philosophical Society Grant & Fellowship Programs Announced
The American Philosophical Society has announced its grant and fellowship programs for the 2015–2016 year as outlined below. In collaboration with the British Academy, the APS offers an exchange postdoctoral fellowship for a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 2 months’ research in the archives and libraries of London during 2016. This award includes travel expenses between the United States and the United Kingdom and a monthly subsistence paid by the APS. Candidates should specify that they are asking for the British Academy Fellowship and apply by October 1; applicants not selected for the British Academy Fellowship will be considered for a Franklin Research Grant.
