Health-Medical-Fitness-Diet-zk: Happiness

duminică, 5 august 2012

Mindfulness: Psychology Of Possibilities Can Enhance Health, Happiness

First-time mothers who pay attention to their emotional and physical changes during their pregnancy may feel better and have healthier newborns than new mothers who don't, according to research to be presented at American Psychological Association's 120th Annual Convention.

"These findings continue more than 40 years of research that has made clear that whether you are mindless or mindful makes a big difference in every aspect of your health and well-being -- from competence to longevity," Ellen Langer, professor of psychology at Harvard University and a pioneer in researching mindfulness, said in an interview. Langer is a past recipient of APA's Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest.

For Langer's recent study, researchers trained women pregnant with their first child in mindfulness with instructions to notice subtle changes in their feelings and physical sensations each day, she said. When compared with two other groups of first-time pregnant mothers who did not have the mindfulness training, these women reported more well-being and positive feelings and less emotional distress. "They had higher self-esteem and life satisfaction during this period of their pregnancy and up to at least a month after birth," Langer said. "And this also had a positive impact on their deliveries and overall health of the newborns."

Teaching mindfulness through attention to variability may be helpful for many disorders, including asthma, depression and learning disabilities, to name a few, according to Langer.

"Noticing even subtle fluctuations in how you feel can counter mindlessness, or the illusion of stability. We tend to hold things still in our minds, despite the fact that all the while they are changing. If we open up our minds, a world of possibility presents itself," she said.

Author of the popular books "Mindfulness," "The Power of Mindful Learning," "On Becoming an Artist: Reinventing Yourself Through Mindful Creativity," and most recently, "Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility," Langer is known for her work on the illusion of control, aging, decision-making and mindfulness theory.

In her lecture, Langer will describe her research to test possibilities rather than find out what is typical. "Psychologists have traditionally studied the 'norm' rather than exceptions that could show that we are capable of far more than we currently realize," she said. Among other research, she will describe her work showing how a change in mindset has resulted in weight loss and improved vision and hearing, and how subtle differences in choice of words can improve health.

Langer first demonstrated the psychology of possibilities in her landmark 1981 "counterclockwise" experiment in which a group of elderly men spent time immersed in a retreat created to reflect daily life in the 1950s and where they were told to speak of the past in the present tense. Men in a comparison group reminisced for the week and were given no instructions regarding verb tense. The experimental group showed greater improvement in vision, strength, joint flexibility, finger length (their arthritis diminished and they could straighten their fingers more) and manual dexterity. On intelligence tests, 63 percent of the experimental group improved their scores, compared to 44 percent of the control group, Langer said.

BBC television recently replicated the study with British celebrities in a program that has been viewed in Great Britain, Australia, India and Hong Kong. It's currently being replicated with local celebrities in Germany and the Netherlands, Langer said.

"It is important for people to realize there can be enhanced possibilities for people of all ages and all walks of life," Langer emphasized. "My research has shown how using a different word, offering a small choice or making a subtle change in the physical environment can improve our health and well-being. Small changes can make large differences, so we should open ourselves to the impossible and embrace a psychology of possibility."

Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release. Click 'references' tab above for source.
Visit our psychology / psychiatry section for the latest news on this subject. Presentation: "The Psychology of Possibility," Ellen J. Langer, PhD, Session 2254, American Psychological Foundation Arthur W. Staats Lecture on Unifying Psychology, Friday, Aug. 3, 2 p.m. to 2:50 p.m., Room W304E, Level III, Orange County Convention Center.
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luni, 12 decembrie 2011

National Pride Brings Happiness - But What You're Proud Of Matters

Main Category: Psychology / Psychiatry
Article Date: 12 Dec 2011 - 1:00 PST

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Research shows that feeling good about your country also makes you feel good about your own life - and many people take that as good news. But Matthew Wright, a political scientist at American University, and Tim Reeskens, a sociologist from Catholic University in Belgium, suspected that the positive findings about nationalism weren't telling the whole story. "It's fine to say pride in your country makes you happy," says Wright. "But what kind of pride are we talking about? That turns out to make a lot of difference." The intriguing - and politically suggestive - differences they found appear in a commentary in Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science.

Reeskens and Wright divided national pride into two species. "Ethnic" nationalism sees ancestry - typically expressed in racial or religious terms - as the key social boundary defining the national "we." "Civic" nationalism is more inclusive, requiring only respect for a country's institutions and laws for belonging. Unlike ethnic nationalism, that view is open to minorities or immigrants, at least in principle.

The authors analyzed the responses to four key questions by 40,677 individuals from 31 countries, drawn from the 2008 wave of the cross-national European Values Study. One question assessed "subjective well being," indicated by general satisfaction with life. Another measured national pride. The other two neatly indicated ethnic and civic national boundaries - asking respondents to rate the importance of respect for laws and institutions, and of ancestry, to being a true ... fill in the blank ... German, Swede, Spaniard. The researchers controlled for such factors as gender, work status, urban or rural residence, and the country's per capita GDP.

Like other researchers, they found that more national pride correlated with greater personal well-being. But the civic nationalists were on the whole happier, and even the proudest ethnic nationalists' well-being barely surpassed that of people with the lowest level of civic pride.

The analysis challenges popular feel-good theories about nationalism. "There's been a renaissance of arguments from political theorists and philosophers that a strong sense of national identity has payoffs in terms of social cohesion, which bolsters support for welfare and other redistributive policies," says Wright. "We've finally gotten around to testing these theories." The conclusion: "You have to look at how people define their pride."

The findings, he adds, give a clue to what popular responses we might expect to "broad macro-economic and social trends" - that is, millions of people crossing borders (usually from poorer to wealthier countries) looking for work or seeking refuge from war or political repression. "It's unclear what the political implications of the happiness measure are - though unhappy citizens could demand many politically dangerous, xenophobic responses. Ethnic nationalists, proud or not, appear relatively less happy to begin with and more likely to lead the charge as their nation diversifies around them."