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How Accurate Are Personality Tests?
If you’re looking for insight into the true you, there’s a buffet of personality questionnaires available. Some are silly—like the internet quiz that tells everyone who takes it that they are procrastinators at the core. Other questionnaires, developed and sold as tools to help people hire the right candidate or find love, take themselves more seriously. The trouble is, if you ask the experts, most of these might not be worth the money. “You should be skeptical,” says Simine Vazire, a personality researcher at the University of California, Davis.
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You really, really want to go to the gym but still avoid it. New research may explain why.
A Google search of the question “Why is it so hard to go exercise?” returns roughly 324 million hits. When faced with the daunting task of physical activity, the list of excuses is long: Too busy, too tired and in most cases, just not feeling it. But a new study from the University of British Columbia suggests that the real obstacle standing in the way of people getting active isn’t their lack of motivation, time or energy. It’s their brains. Two years ago, Matthieu Boisgontier, then a postdoctoral research fellow at KU Leuven in Belgium, noticed a disturbing trend.
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New Report Reflects NCCIH Research Interest in Emotional Well-being
Today, I’m pleased to tell you about an exciting new direction at NCCIH for advancing our prevention research portfolio. One of the objectives in both NIH’s and NCCIH’s current strategic plans is to “foster health promotion and disease prevention.” At the Center, we pursue this objective by seeking to build knowledge of how complementary approaches could be useful across the life span to encourage better self-care, a healthy lifestyle, and the sense of well-being. Wellness, according to surveys, is a major reason that people turn to complementary approaches.
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Remembering Walter Mischel, with Love and Procrastination
Four years ago, I made a public promise to my former graduate adviser, Walter Mischel: within the year, I would publish the results of our five-year collaboration on self-control. Walter had called me out on my procrastination tendencies, and here I was, in these pages, claiming that I would change and make him proud. Walter died suddenly, on September 12th, at the age of eighty-eight. The research results, to my chagrin, remain planted in my dissertation. Walter wouldn’t have been surprised. Nor would he have been surprised to learn that I had intended to turn in this remembrance of him to my editor some three weeks ago.
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Applying for a Ph.D.? These 10 tips can help you succeed
Few things mark the return of the academic year like shorter days, falling leaves, and inquiries about applying for graduate school. For those nursing ambitions of pursuing a Ph.D., the prospect of navigating the labyrinthine guidelines posted on university websites can be daunting. The fact that many programs receive hundreds of carefully crafted applications for just a handful of positions in their Ph.D. programs can make a stressful process downright terrifying. No single article can cover every element of applying to grad school.
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Vergeht uns der Spaß am Fußball? (Do we miss the fun of football?)
Wer wissen will, warum König Fußball die Welt regiert, muss nur die alten Philosophen fragen, am besten Immanuel Kant. Der hat schon früh erkannt: „Der Himmel hat den Menschen als Gegengewicht gegen die vielen Mühseligkeiten drei Dinge gegeben: die Hoffnung, den Schlaf und das Lachen.“ Der Fußball lässt sie lachen. Der Spaß ist der Sauerstoff der Seele, behaupten kluge Köpfe, jedenfalls entführt der Fußball seine Fans aus der quälenden Realität des Alltags in eine wundervolle Traumwelt. Er ist für viele Lebenshilfe wie die harmonischen Heimatfilme, die nach dem Krieg die Welt für die Deutschen wieder heiler und erträglicher machten. --- Der Spaß ist sein Schlüssel zum Sieg.
