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What An Insect Can Teach Us About Adapting To Stress
What if we told you that you could learn a lot about handling adversity from the life of a bug? In their explorations of humans and how we interact with the world around us, the team that makes NPR's Invisibilia stumbled on a surprising fact about the insect world — one that could inspire a new way of looking at ourselves. The epic destruction wrought by swarms of locusts is downright biblical. Exodus tells of a plague that left nothing green in all of Egypt, and we've seen these harbingers of destruction at work in modern day Australia, Argentina and Israel, just to name a few.
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How Much Leisure Time Do the Happiest People Have?
Up and down the economic ladder, many Americans who work—and especially those raising kids—are pressed for time, wishing they had more of it to devote to leisure activities (or even just sleeping). At the same time, research has indicated that people who are busy tend to be happier than those who are idle, whether their busyness is purposeful or not. A research paper released late last year investigated this trade-off, attempting to pinpoint how much leisure time is best. Its authors examined the relationship between the amount of “discretionary time” people had—basically, how much time people spend awake and doing what they want—and how pleased they were with their lives.
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The ‘flow state’: Where creative work thrives
Growing up in World War Two-ravaged Europe, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi saw the adults around him struggling to rebuild their lives – and often losing the will to try. He became preoccupied by a question that doesn’t trouble most kids: what makes life worth living? Csikszentmihalyi moved from Hungary to the US to study psychology and the question that had obsessed him since childhood. He wondered how wealth fit into the happiness equation, but the data suggested money wasn’t the answer; beyond a certain, basic threshold, increases in income hardly affected well-being.
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New Research From Psychological Science
A sample of research exploring creativity during mind wandering, object representation in infants’ working memory, and factors that influence cultural adaptation.
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Why the Secrets You Keep Are Hurting You
It hurts to keep secrets. Secrecy is associated with lower well-being, worse health, and less satisfying relationships. Research has linked secrecy to increased anxiety, depression, symptoms of poor health, and even the more rapid progression of disease. There is a seemingly obvious explanation for these harms: Hiding secrets is hard work. You have to watch what you say. If asked about something related to the secret, you must be careful not to slip up. This could require evasion or even deception. Constant vigilance and concealment can be exhausting. New research, however, suggests that the harm of secrets doesn’t really come from the hiding after all.
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To Encourage Girls in Science, Talk Action, Not Identity
Girls persevere longer and are more engaged in science tasks when they are asked to "do science," rather than "be scientists," finds a new study in the journal Psychological Science. It's the latest of a slew of experiments identifying small differences in a teacher's language that may improve motivation in science—particularly for students who feel threatened by stereotypes suggesting they are less likely to perform well in the subject.
