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The Role of Gratitude in Wellbeing
Unlike earlier psychological work which focused on treating mental illness, positive psychology is a relatively new field that studies the making of a good life building upon the humanistic movement (recall Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs). It officially became a domain of psychology in 1998 when Martin Seligman deemed it the American Psychological Association’s annual theme.…
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Can I become more inspired?
“Do one thing every day that scares you.” —Eleanor Roosevelt Happy new year! (It still counts as the new year, right?) How are you doing on your New Year’s resolutions? If you’re like a lot of people, you might be beginning to lose sight of them. Research has found that a little over a third…
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The anti-inflammatory effects of music
Can music help us heal? The first piece of research evidence that turned me on to my field was a finding presented in a Health Psychology course as an undergraduate. Researchers found that after surgery, patients healed faster, and were released from the hospital sooner, if they had a window that looked out on to…
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Happy Hearts
There is a long history and a strong literature linking psychological aspects of peoples’ lives and coronary heart disease. Early research found a connection between coronary heart disease and a personality characteristic called Type A. Type A personality is characterized by time urgency, strong competitive drive, and hostility. Though some of these characteristics are related to…
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Feel better by practicing gratitude
Gratitude is defined as feeling thankful and appreciative of other people or aspects of life such as nature. It comes from the Latin root gratia, meaning grace, graciousness, or gratefulness. Actively being grateful on a daily basis has been shown to have benefits not just for the person you’re thankful for, but for you! Research…
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Positivity and cancer progression: what’s the evidence?
Here are two really interesting recent editorials about the role of positive attitudes in cancer progression. One article harshly criticizes the “positive psychology” movement of lacking in scientific sophistication (Coyne & Tennen, 2010) and the other defends the research that has been done thus far (Aspinwall & Tedeschi, 2010). This is the most heated researchers…