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Here’s an Easy Way to Become More Patient
TIME: Would you rather take $30 today, or wait for $50 three weeks from now? While the average person would grab the money and run, a new study finds that people with one particular emotional trait—those who are gracious—have more patience and self-control. “The human mind has a tendency to value the present more than the future,” says study author David DeSteno, a professor of psychology at Northeastern University. “That’s related to all kinds of bad outcomes, from credit card debt to addiction.” According to DeSteno, a person’s emotional states have long been blamed for that person’s impatience, and the path to becoming more patient was thought to be through logic and willpower.
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To get students to focus, some professors are asking them to close their eyes
The Washington Post: On a rainy February afternoon, the ionic charge is palpable in Michelle Francl’s physical chemistry class at Bryn Mawr College near Philadelphia. As Francl scribbles a mathematical equation for wave function that’s projected on an overhead screen, students twirl ponytails, peck at keyboards and peek at their smartphones. They are quiet, yet there’s an undercurrent of anxiety. Francl is nudging students toward understanding the Bohr correspondence principle, a cornerstone concept in quantum mechanics that’s as easily discernible as Mona Lisa’s smile.
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If you grew up poor, your college degree may be worth less
PBS: The results of a recent Gallup poll clearly show how much Americans believe in the value of a college education: Nearly all — 96 percent — say it is somewhat or very important for adults in this country to have a degree or professional certificate beyond high school. Most — 93 percent — say that it will be just as important or more important in the future to have a degree or professional certificate beyond high school in order to get a good job. Fewer than one in five — 19 percent — are confident that having only a high school diploma can lead to a good job. Data from the U.S.
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New Research From Clinical Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Clinical Psychological Science: Engaging With the Wrong People: The Basis of Selective Attention to Negative Faces in Social Anxiety Ben Grafton and Colin MacLeod Studies examining attentional bias toward negative social information -- a vulnerability factor for social anxiety -- have yielded inconsistent results. This is perhaps because attentional bias can be produced by enhanced engagement with negative stimuli or problems disengaging from threatening stimuli. Previous studies have failed to adequately distinguish between the two.
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Curiosity Leads Us to Seek Out Unpleasant, Even Painful, Outcomes
Curiosity is a powerful motivator, leading us to make important discoveries and explore the unknown. But new research shows that our curiosity is sometimes so powerful that it leads us to choose potentially painful and unpleasant outcomes that have no apparent benefits, even when we have the ability to avoid these outcomes altogether. The findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
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Some Jobs May Help Prevent Cognitive Decline
Even years after retirement, a mentally stimulating career may be keeping people’s minds active and memories sharp. As people age, cognitive skills like memory and information processing speed tend to decline. But a large body of research suggests that this decline isn’t necessarily inevitable.
