According to new research, it's good for you to feel grumpy. Professor Joe Forgas, a psychologist form Australia who has been studying the effect of emotions on behaviour, has found that being grumpy makes us think more clearly.
The study demonstrated that, compared to those insufferable "happy" people, miserable people aren't as gullible and perform better at decision making tasks.
According to professor Forgas gloominess breeds attentiveness, he says that, because of the way the brain "promotes information processing strategies", a grumpy person is more adept at coping with demanding situations than a happy person.
For more info visit: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8339647.stm
Thursday, 12 November 2009
Popular psychology books
There are some incredible popular psychology books out there and some authors who are not only at the cutting-edge of psychology and neurology, but who can really write as well. Writers like Antonio Damasio, Vilayanur S. Ramachandran and Steven Pinker explore the human mind with great flair in their books.
The field of psychology is ever expanding. However, in terms of book sales, it seems that "self-help" still beats it. There are, of course, otherwise informative, works which are unfortunately categorised under the self-help banner because of the subject matter. The publishers are no doubt happy for the cross-over when you can categorise a psychology book under self-help.
With the marketing of titles as important as the quality these days, some publishers no doubt have a hand in naming (and categorising) their books. The excellent Happiness Hypothesis is an example of a book that I had found recently categorised as self-help in my local bookstore.
The field of psychology is ever expanding. However, in terms of book sales, it seems that "self-help" still beats it. There are, of course, otherwise informative, works which are unfortunately categorised under the self-help banner because of the subject matter. The publishers are no doubt happy for the cross-over when you can categorise a psychology book under self-help.
With the marketing of titles as important as the quality these days, some publishers no doubt have a hand in naming (and categorising) their books. The excellent Happiness Hypothesis is an example of a book that I had found recently categorised as self-help in my local bookstore.
Monday, 2 November 2009
Test gauges people's bias
A project called Project Implicit was a research tool that began at Yale in 1995, now 20,000 new tests are taken each week online by people curious about their unconscious biases. The project has 11 million completed tests so far.
Participants assign a class of positive or negative attributes - such as smart or lazy - to a group of people by gender, religious affiliation or ethnicity - as fast as they can. Reaction measurements are taken to give an accurate reading of the natural response.
Brian Nosek, a professor at the University of Virginia and one the creators of the project said:
"It's become the biggest behavioural science experiment ever. It just ballooned beyond our wildest imagination."
Participants assign a class of positive or negative attributes - such as smart or lazy - to a group of people by gender, religious affiliation or ethnicity - as fast as they can. Reaction measurements are taken to give an accurate reading of the natural response.
Brian Nosek, a professor at the University of Virginia and one the creators of the project said:
"It's become the biggest behavioural science experiment ever. It just ballooned beyond our wildest imagination."
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