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How Cyclical Thinking Might Help You Save Money
Pacific Standard: Whether it’s a lack of decent-paying jobs or an advertising-induced confusion between wants and needs or a propensity to spend without simultaneously practicing the refined art of saving, many Americans reside in financially precarious conditions. National household debt, for example, is on the rise, with consumers currently owing $11.3 trillion. Furthermore, nearly half of the country’s occupied homes are one monetary disaster away from poverty. Then there’s the growing problem of student loans.
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The Perils of Performance Appraisals
Performance appraisals are sold as a tool to not only praise good work, but to help employees improve on their shortcomings. But often, the worker simply views the criticism as a proverbial slap across the face, and becomes so bitter or disoriented by the feedback that those improvements never come. What motivates employees to correct deficiencies in their performance? How can a manager deliver criticism without harming morale? In a recent study, a team of psychological scientists theorized that the way people react to negative work evaluations rests largely on their individual goal orientation.
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When Charitable Acts Are ‘Tainted’ by Personal Gain
We tend to perceive a person’s charitable efforts as less moral if the do-gooder reaps a reward from the effort, according to new research. This phenomenon — which researchers call the “tainted-altruism effect” — suggests
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Stop heaping praise on your kids.
The Washington Post: I’ve done it. You’ve probably done it. And we’re hurting kids when we do. According to the journal Psychological Science, heaping praise on a child with low self-esteem only does more damage. Doing the same to a kid who’s already confident makes them thrive. “Inflated praise can backfire with those kids who seem to need it the most — kids with low self-esteem,” said Eddie Brummelman, lead author of the study and a visiting scholar at The Ohio State University, according to the association. So what is inflated praise? In this study, it consists of one word that ups the ante a bit. Instead of “You did a good job,” you say “You did an incredibly good job.” ...
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You Can’t Take It With You, but You Still Want More
The New York Times: All work and no play may just be a result of “mindless accumulation.” So say scholars behind research, published in the journal Psychological Science in June, that shows a deeply rooted instinct to earn more than can possibly be consumed, even when this imbalance makes us unhappy. Given how many people struggle to make ends meet, this may seem a frivolous problem. Nonetheless, the researchers note that productivity rates have risen, which theoretically lets many people be just as comfortable as previous generations while working less. Yet they choose not to. ...
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Editing Your Life’s Stories Can Create Happier Endings
NPR: The 4-foot-tall monster terrified my nephew so much that he ran deep into the toy store. And on the way back out, he simply couldn't face the statue. He jumped into his mother's arms and had to bury his head in her shoulder. For hours after the incident, Lewis was stuck. He kept replaying the image of Frankenstein's face in his mind. "Mom, remember Frankenstein?" he asked over and over again. He and his mom talked about how scary the statue was, how Lewis had to jump into her arms. It was "like a record loop," my sister said. But then, suddenly, Lewis' story completely changed.
