-
The Happiness Racket: When the Pressure to Be Happy Makes You Miserable
U.S. News & World Report: Ever have that feeling, like last time you checked your Facebook, that everyone else is happy except you? And that there must be something wrong with you for not being happy? The pressure to be happy sometimes feels as American as your citizenship. From the chirpy “how are you?” to the beloved Pharrell Williams "Happy" song to the pervasive mindfulness movement, happiness is a cultural trend – and a Constitutional right. But does the pressure to conform to happiness actually do more harm than good? “It's like the coach of a losing team giving a pep talk,” says Corey Kimer, a 20-year-old student at St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland.
-
What the Marshmallow Test Really Teaches About Self-Control
The Atlantic: The image is iconic: A little kid sits at a table, his face contorted in concentration, staring down a marshmallow. Over the last 50 years, the “Marshmallow Test” has become synonymous with temptation, willpower, and grit. Walter Mischel’s work permeates popular culture. There are “Don’t Eat the Marshmallow!” t-shirts and Sesame Street episodes where Cookie Monster learns delayed gratification so he can join the Cookie Connoisseurs Club.
-
New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science: State and Trait Effects on Individual Differences in Children's Mathematical Development Drew H. Bailey, Tyler W. Watts, Andrew K. Littlefield, and David C. Geary Research indicating a relationship between children's early math achievement and their later math achievement seems to be at odds with findings showing that the effects of early math interventions diminish over time.
-
Too Little Sleep May Cause False Memory
ABC News: A study in "Psychological Science" links sleep deprivation to false memories. Watch here: ABC News
-
Who Would Donate a Kidney to a Stranger? An ‘Anti-Psychopath’
New York Magazine: In recent decades, psychopathy is something that’s captured the attention of both academics and the mainstream. Psychopaths play big roles in movies and even occasionally on public radio, and there’s evidence that a few of them may be in your company’s boardroom right this minute. But emerging research is changing how experts understand the condition. “There was a time when people thought of psychopaths as this sort of unique group of individuals — as in, there were normal people, and there were psychopaths,” said Georgetown University psychologist Abigail Marsh. “But now we’re finding that psychopathic traits work the same as other mental-illness symptoms.
-
Are You a “Pre-crastinator”?
Scientific American: Each of us, at times, can be a procrastinator, putting off something that is hard to do or that we don’t want to do. But three researchers at Pennsylvania State University think we humans may also be precrastinators—hurrying to get something done so we can cross it off our mental to-do list, even if the rush ends up being wasteful. The researchers also claim to have coined the term “precrastination.” Psychology professor David Rosenbaum and his two collaborators reached their conclusion after asking 257 students to complete a bucket challenge. Not the one in which you dump ice water on your head. Instead, they brought each student to a narrow alley in town.
