One happy consequence of last year’s rough economic season was that more people had more time on their hands–and instead of playing Wii all day (though there was, undoubtedly, plenty of that, too), they decided to chip in, help out, do good. Volunteering in America has, in fact, been on a three year run....
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Psychology
Loving Thy Neighbors: American Volunteer Ranks Swell
A Zen Koan for Post-Valentine’s Day: Do you have “healthy doubt” or “unhealthy doubt” about whether your partner is “The One”
First let me say a word about the Zen Koan. Within Zen meditation practice, a Koan is a statement or puzzle which is designed to resist an immediate clear and logical understanding, but may allow one to come to an intuitive understanding or greater spiritual awareness when quietly contemplated. My own experience meditating with Koans for over...
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Shooting in Alabama: Stress does not cause Massacres
Once again, a horrific story about a mass shooting is in the news-Alabama Biologist Amy Bishop allegedly shot and killed three colleagues and wounded three others. Every story in the media I’ve seen so far mentions the fact that she was recently denied tenure. This is an experience likely to lead to feelings of...
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Professor Who Shot Her Colleagues Also Killed Her Brother in 1986
“There is no need to hide one’s inner life in an academic institution. Murderers, great criminals, should ideally be dons,” writes Anita Brookner in her novel The Debut. “Plenty of time to plan the coup and no curious questions or inquisitive glances once it is done.” But Amy Bishop is not one of those...
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Four Ways to Make Your Relationship Sing
Happy relationships shouldn’t be hard work! That’s one of the upbeat findings from my landmark study of marriage, which has been following 373 married couples since 1986. Here’s more good news for lovebirds: If you’re in a happy partnership, married or not, you can keep it that way or make it even better by...
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Fourteen Tips for Getting More Sleep — and Why It Matters.
Since I started my happiness project, I’ve become more and more convinced of the importance of sleep to happiness. That’s why I proposed “Get more sleep” as the very first resolution of the 2010 Happiness Challenge (see the video here). Many researchers argue that not getting enough sleep has broad health consequences, such as...
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Investing in your primary relationship builds value & pays big dividends
What does the fact that the stock market has fallen mean for families, for couple relationships? “Love conquers everything except poverty and toothache”, Mae West said. We know that financial stress drags marriages down. Money and how to manage it is a sure source of conflict in many couple relationships – and this was...
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How To Create a Juvenile Delinquent With Materials Easily Available At Home
Psychologists use words very specifically and in ways that don’t always match our day-to-day usage of them. To a behaviorist, the words reward, punishment, and negative reinforcement are defined by whether or not they increase or decrease the likelihood that the behavior that preceded them are going to happen again. It has nothing to...
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The evolution of judgment affects how we select leaders
Archeological evidence indicates that we human beings have lived in groups for at least 250,000 years of our evolutionary past. Each group had leaders, and our ancestors likely evolved a proclivity to scrutinize the character of those leaders. Good judges of character would have been better able to stay on a leader’s good side...
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Is “befriending” a treatment for depression?
Having a close friend or two to talk to—someone on whom you can depend for emotional support—can be great when little things accumulate or you temporarily feel down in the dumps. But can a friend talk you out of depression or lessen its pernicious effects? A study recently published in the British Journal of...
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