The Impressive Power of a Stranger’s Advice Spend more wisely by learning to take other people’s surprisingly accurate advice. Most people are much better at giving advice than taking it. When it comes to spending our money, we like to think we know best what will make us happy. What does the guy next door or a colleague at work know about how we should spend our money? Imagine you are going on a 5 minute speed date with a stranger. Either: a photograph of them with an autobiography.Or: the rating of a previous speed dater (who is a stranger to you). Which one do you think will better predict how much you’ll enjoy the speed date? If you are like most of the participants in an experiment by Gilbert et al. (2010) then you’ll go for number 1. We’re all different, right? In the experiment, though, the ratings of a previous speed dater were the best predictor of how much people enjoyed their speed date. Here’s one that’s even weirder. First of all, let’s give you a couple of options to choose from. Perhaps you’re a bit more wary now?
Cognitive Dissonance Understanding this experiment sheds a brilliant light on the dark world of our inner motivations. The ground-breaking social psychological experiment of Festinger and Carlsmith (1959) provides a central insight into the stories we tell ourselves about why we think and behave the way we do. The experiment is filled with ingenious deception so the best way to understand it is to imagine you are taking part. So sit back, relax and travel back. The time is 1959 and you are an undergraduate student at Stanford University… As part of your course you agree to take part in an experiment on ‘measures of performance’. Little do you know, the experiment will actually become a classic in social psychology. The set-up Once in the lab you are told the experiment is about how your expectations affect the actual experience of a task. Perhaps you wonder why you’re being told all this, but nevertheless it makes it seem a bit more exciting now that you know some of the mechanics behind the experiment.
Why great ideas come when you aren’t trying History is rich with 'eureka' moments: scientists from Archimedes to Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein are said to have had flashes of inspiration while thinking about other things. But the mechanisms behind this psychological phenomenon have remained unclear. A study now suggests that simply taking a break does not bring on inspiration — rather, creativity is fostered by tasks that allow the mind to wander. The discovery was made by a team led by Benjamin Baird and Jonathan Schooler, psychologists at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Jeremy Mayes / GETTY IMAGES Archimedes made his breakthrough discovery of displacement while relaxing in the bath. After the two minutes were over, participants were given a 12-minute break, during which they rested, undertook a demanding memory activity that required their full attention or engaged in an undemanding reaction-time activity known to elicit mind-wandering.
Why Thought Suppression is Counter-Productive How pushing a thought out of consciousness can bring it back with a vengeance. It sometimes feels like our minds are not on the same team as us. I want to go to sleep, but it wants to keep me awake rerunning events from my childhood. This internal battle can be anything from the attempt to suppress an occasional minor irritation (did I turn off the cooker?) The classic response to this mental wrangling — whether relatively trivial or deadly serious — is to try and forget about it, push it to the back of our minds or some other variation on the theme. Thought rebound In the study that kicked off research in this area Professor Daniel Wegner and colleagues investigated the effects of thought suppression (Wegner et al., 1987). Participants who first tried to suppress their thoughts rang the bell almost twice as often as participants in a control group. Suppressing emotions Back with a vengeance Substance cravings. Our disobedient minds [Image credits: kaneda99 & tilaneseven & kaneda99 & kygp]
The Psychology of Flow (in under 300 words) What is it like to be fully alive, right now, engaged with what you are doing? That’s the psychology of flow. When the happiness and creativity expert Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi was studying how painters work, he noticed an odd thing. When their painting was going well they didn’t care about getting tired, hungry or uncomfortable, they just carried on. But when the painting was finished, they rapidly lost interest in it. What was this special state of mind that seemed to absorb the whole of your being? When you’re in a flow state: an hour can pass in the blink of an eye,you feel what you are doing is important,you’re not self-conscious,action and awareness merges,you feel in full control,and the experience is intrinsically rewarding. To create a flow experience, you need: The experience of flow has been studied amongst surgeons, writers, artists, scientists, athletes and people just socialising and playing games. It’s not always easy to achieve but being in a state of flow is a beautiful thing.
How Meditation Improves Attention The science of meditation and attention, including a beginner’s guide to meditation. William James wrote that controlling attention is at “the very root of judgement, character and will”. He also noted that controlling attention is much easier said than done. This is unfortunate because almost every impressive human achievement is, at heart, a feat of attention. Art, science, technology — you name it — someone, somewhere had to concentrate, and concentrate hard. Wouldn’t it be fantastic to be able to concentrate without effort? Psychologists are fascinated by the sometimes fantastical claims made for meditation, particularly in its promise of improving attention. Does meditation improve attention? The problem with attention is that it naturally likes to jump around from one thing to another: attention is antsy, it won’t settle — this is not in itself a bad thing, just the way it is. Quicker results Dr. This research on meditation’s effect on attention is just the tip of the iceberg.
Self-report study A self-report study is a type of survey, questionnaire, or poll in which respondents read the question and select a response by themselves without researcher interference. A self-report is any method which involves asking a participant about their feelings, attitudes, beliefs and so on. Examples of self-reports are questionnaires and interviews; self-reports are often used as a way of gaining participants' responses in observational studies and experiments. Self-report studies have validity problems. Patients may exaggerate symptoms in order to make their situation seem worse, or they may under-report the severity or frequency of symptoms in order to minimize their problems. Patients might also simply be mistaken or misremember the material covered by the survey. Questionnaires and interviews[edit] Questionnaires are a type of self-report method which consist of a set of questions usually in a highly structured written form. Open and closed questions[edit] Rating scales[edit] Validity[edit]
The Surprising Motivational Power of Self-Compassion We all make mistakes, but should you beat yourself up or show a little mercy? We all have a kind of virtual policeman living inside us. Amongst other things he’s the guy that helps us work towards our goals, whether personal or professional. When things go wrong and we stray off the straight and narrow, he reminds us what we were supposed to be doing. But what kind of policeman is he? People sometimes think of the latter, more relaxed internal policeman, as being weak and ineffectual. So, what stance should we adopt towards ourselves? Let’s say someone is trying to deal with a recent period of low self-confidence. Self-esteem boost: think about positive aspects of the self to boost confidence.Positive distraction: think back to nice memories to create a distraction from the problem.Self-compassion: think about the self with kindness and compassion, seeing the period of low self-confidence in context, without evaluating or judging it. Image credit: Loving Earth