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Days late, dollars short
The Economist: There is a distinctive psychology of scarcity, argues Mr Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir, a psychologist at Princeton University. People’s minds work differently when they feel they lack something. And it does not greatly matter what that something is. Anyone who feels strapped for money, friends, time or calories is likely to succumb to a similar “scarcity mindset”. This mindset brings two benefits. It concentrates the mind on pressing needs. It also gives people a keener sense of the value of a dollar, minute, calorie or smile. The lonely, it turns out, are better at deciphering expressions of emotion. Likewise, the poor have a better grasp of costs.
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Everyday Sadists Take Pleasure In Others’ Pain
People who score high on a measure of sadism seem to derive pleasure from behaviors that hurt others, and are even willing to expend extra effort to make someone else suffer, a study shows.
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Nourishment for impoverished thinking
Poverty is emotionally crushing, and stigma only adds to that burden. The poor are often disparaged as lazy and incompetent—unable or unwilling to improve their own lot. Why don’t they go to school, eat more sensibly, and spend their money more wisely? In short, why don’t they make better decisions for themselves? It’s true that the poor do make poor choices, but not because of any personal failings. Poverty breeds lousy decision making. Think about it: Good decisions require attention and reasoning and mental discipline. How do you muster those powers when you are preoccupied with, well, being poor?
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La separazione aumenta il rischio di depressione, ma solo per alcune persone (divorce increases the risk of depression, but only for some)
La Stampa: La separazione o il divorzio in una coppia sono eventi particolarmente stressanti, che possono portare a problemi mentali – specie in chi è più sensibile. Tra i diversi problemi di salute mentale cui si può incorrere c’è la depressione che, secondo un nuovo studio, è più probabile si manifesti in chi è predisposto perché in passato ha già sperimentato episodi depressivi. Lo studio è stato pubblicato su Clinical Psychological Science, una rivista della Association for Psychological Science, ed è stato condotto dai ricercatori dell’Università dell’Arizona.
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Can Emotional Intelligence Be Taught?
The New York Times: One day last spring, James Wade sat cross-legged on the carpet and called his kindergarten class to order. Lanky and soft-spoken, Wade has a gentle charisma well suited to his role as a teacher of small children: steady, rather than exuberant. When a child performs a requested task, like closing the door after recess, he will often acknowledge the moment by murmuring, “Thank you, sweet pea,” in a mild Texas drawl.
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Multitasking After 60: Video Game Boosts Focus, Mental Agility
NPR: A brain that trains can stay in the fast lane. That's the message of a showing that playing a brain training video game for a month can rejuvenate the multitasking abilities of people in their 60s, 70s and 80s. "After training, they improved their multitasking beyond the level of 20-year-olds," says Adam Gazzaley, one of the study's authors and a brain scientist at the University of California, San Francisco. And the improvement extended beyond multitasking, Gazzaley says: Participants also got better at remembering information and paying attention. Moreover, the training actually changed participants' brains. Brain wave patterns associated with focus got stronger, Gazzaley says.
