Psych Stuff – March 2022
As we wave goodbye to Q1, it’s time to compile my quarterly round-up of articles and resources based on psychology.
How are those New Year resolutions looking?
It’s no surprise that we’re more likely to stick to healthy behaviours – jump on the bike, eat well, stay hydrated, etc – if we’re in a good mood. Seems this is more likely if we’ve slept well, reports BPS.
Q: Do you make life messy?
Yes, Carol Dweck’s work on fixed and growth mind-sets, based on many years of research on what works (and what doesn’t) has been around for a while. But it’s at this time of year many parents suffer when they see their kids struggle as they step up to a new year at school (or indeed a new school). So, time for a primer, courtesy of this lovely RSA animate.
Balancing work + family life = stress
Hark – is that a chorus “No s*%t Sherlock”? It’s probably a loud one, as recent research reports that over a third of working parents feel that balancing their work and family responsibilities takes its toll on their mental health and wellbeing. Willis Towers Watson’s health and benefits division surveyed over 1,000 employees and learned that around a third of them thought their employers should do more to help with childcare. The CIPD post also reports on ONS figures showing the number of women in employment has risen dramatically over the last two decades (wonder if they asked parents for their views on mindfulness training…)
Emotional regulation x 3
I enjoyed reading Marianna Pogosyan’s elegant piece for Psychology Today, on emotional regulation (or how we can interfere with our emotional processes to better manage our emotions, rather than them managing us). There’s a host of ways in which we do this, such as avoiding difficult situations, which are discussed in the piece. Where it’s really enlightening is weighing up three different approaches for noticing and responding to our emotions, raising the possibility that we can treat them as welcome guests. Oh, and mindfulness gets a mention too.
15 pigeons vs 12 humans – who wins?
Of course we know that us humans are masters of multi-tasking, right? We have these amazing huge brains, after all. Wrong, according to many psychologists, such as Dr Mark Rowe, whose ‘Multitasking is a myth’ post includes a salutary exercise you can try at home. But could we be inferior multitaskers to… pigeons? Honestly, I haven’t made this one up; see the Science Daily report for more (wonder if pigeons practise mindfulness?)
Dawn is the author of ‘The Feedback Book’, available now at bookstores and on Amazon.
Got a question? Drop Dawn a line on Twitter @ZoomlyKeepUp.
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