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Neuroscience
Traditional Mediation Tools Explained by Neuroscience
March 13, 2018
Mediators have many tools for facilitating an effective mediation. Neuroscience shows how our actions are influenced by stress hormones released when we perceive threats. Understanding the physiological stress response and its triggers helps us see why these traditional tools are effective. 1. Building Trust and Rapport: The stress response is triggered when threats outweigh resources for handling the threats. Building trust and rapport between mediator and party helps reduce stress in two ways....
March 13, 2018
Mediators have many tools for facilitating an effective mediation. Neuroscience shows how our actions are influenced by stress hormones released when we perceive threats. Understanding the physiological stress response and its triggers helps us see why these traditional tools are effective. 1. Building Trust and Rapport: The stress response is triggered when threats outweigh resources for handling the threats. Building trust and rapport between mediator and party helps reduce stress in two ways....
Empathy
March 12, 2018
Conflict is stressful and triggers negative emotions. Mediation can add another layer of anxiety. Clients are usually fearful about confronting each other – afraid of the other’s anger and of humiliation, and worried whether they will be able to control their own emotions. An empathic mediator may in effect function as an attachment figure, a ‘secure base’ enabling parties to both enter and remain in the room. The mediator’s empathy helps clients reduce their level of emotional arousal....
March 12, 2018
Conflict is stressful and triggers negative emotions. Mediation can add another layer of anxiety. Clients are usually fearful about confronting each other – afraid of the other’s anger and of humiliation, and worried whether they will be able to control their own emotions. An empathic mediator may in effect function as an attachment figure, a ‘secure base’ enabling parties to both enter and remain in the room. The mediator’s empathy helps clients reduce their level of emotional arousal....
How Your Smartphone Camera Is Affecting Your Life
March 4, 2018
Because people take a lot of pictures. According to the Times, roughly 1.3 trillion photos were taken in 2017, the vast majority of them with our smartphones. 350 million of these pictures are uploaded to Facebook every day. Since Instagram launched in 2010, over 40 billion photos have been shared on the site. A recent paper in JPSP by the psychologists Kristin Diehl, Gal Zuberman and Alixandra Barasch provides some useful answers. The scientists began by taking over...
March 4, 2018
Because people take a lot of pictures. According to the Times, roughly 1.3 trillion photos were taken in 2017, the vast majority of them with our smartphones. 350 million of these pictures are uploaded to Facebook every day. Since Instagram launched in 2010, over 40 billion photos have been shared on the site. A recent paper in JPSP by the psychologists Kristin Diehl, Gal Zuberman and Alixandra Barasch provides some useful answers. The scientists began by taking over...
Force Overtime? Or Go for the Win?
February 4, 2018
Most other National Football League teams behave this way, too. In research to be published in the forthcoming issue of The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, we examined every instance over a recent 10-year period in which N.F.L. teams faced a choice in the final minutes between kicking an extra point to tie the game or going for a 2-point conversion to win. The teams overwhelmingly chose to avoid the risk of immediate defeat: Of the 47 times teams faced this situation, they opted...
February 4, 2018
Most other National Football League teams behave this way, too. In research to be published in the forthcoming issue of The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, we examined every instance over a recent 10-year period in which N.F.L. teams faced a choice in the final minutes between kicking an extra point to tie the game or going for a 2-point conversion to win. The teams overwhelmingly chose to avoid the risk of immediate defeat: Of the 47 times teams faced this situation, they opted...
How Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google Manipulate Our Emotions
January 20, 2018
The combined market capitalization of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google is now equivalent to the GDP of India. How did these...
January 20, 2018
The combined market capitalization of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google is now equivalent to the GDP of India. How did these...
The Best Exercise To Quickly Improve Memory
January 1, 2018
Each exercise session was only 20-minutes long. Short bursts of high-intensity exercise provide a considerable boost to memory, new research finds. The study showed that healthy young adults increased their memory performance in a relatively short period of time. Each exercise session was only 20-minutes long, during which they did short bouts of intense exercise. Those with the greatest fitness gains saw increases in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).
January 1, 2018
Each exercise session was only 20-minutes long. Short bursts of high-intensity exercise provide a considerable boost to memory, new research finds. The study showed that healthy young adults increased their memory performance in a relatively short period of time. Each exercise session was only 20-minutes long, during which they did short bouts of intense exercise. Those with the greatest fitness gains saw increases in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).
Wine, Beer And Liquor Trigger Different Emotions, Research Finds
December 31, 2017
Some types of alcohol make people feel aggressive and confident, others make them feel relaxed. Different types of alcohol are linked to different emotions, a new survey about alcohol finds. Liquor makes people feel more aggressive, while wine is linked to feeling relaxed. Liquor (spirits) were linked in people’s minds to feeling energetic, confident and sexy. Like wine, beer was also linked to feeling relaxed. Professor Mark Bellis, who led the study, said: “For centuries, the history...
December 31, 2017
Some types of alcohol make people feel aggressive and confident, others make them feel relaxed. Different types of alcohol are linked to different emotions, a new survey about alcohol finds. Liquor makes people feel more aggressive, while wine is linked to feeling relaxed. Liquor (spirits) were linked in people’s minds to feeling energetic, confident and sexy. Like wine, beer was also linked to feeling relaxed. Professor Mark Bellis, who led the study, said: “For centuries, the history...
Neuroplasticity In Action
December 30, 2017
This passage is excerpted from my book, “The New Executive Brain: Frontal Lobes in a Complex World.” Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to change under the influence of experience and activities. Several aspects of neuroplasticity are noteworthy: neurogenesis (development of new nerve cells) and synaptogenesis (development of new contacts between nerve cells) among them. Neuroplasticity used to be thought of as a limited phenomenon, mostly restricted to the early years of life. More recently...
December 30, 2017
This passage is excerpted from my book, “The New Executive Brain: Frontal Lobes in a Complex World.” Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to change under the influence of experience and activities. Several aspects of neuroplasticity are noteworthy: neurogenesis (development of new nerve cells) and synaptogenesis (development of new contacts between nerve cells) among them. Neuroplasticity used to be thought of as a limited phenomenon, mostly restricted to the early years of life. More recently...
What is the Secret to Being More Assertive? Having Self Respect
December 28, 2017
Why are some of us more inclined than others to stick up for ourselves, not aggressively, but assertively. Assertive people let others know when they feel mistreated and they’re confident saying “no” to unwanted demands. Presumably it has to do with how see ourselves, yet past research has established that two key aspects of the self-concept – good feelings about the self (“self-liking” or “self-confidence”) and seeing oneself as competent – are not strongly related to assertive...
December 28, 2017
Why are some of us more inclined than others to stick up for ourselves, not aggressively, but assertively. Assertive people let others know when they feel mistreated and they’re confident saying “no” to unwanted demands. Presumably it has to do with how see ourselves, yet past research has established that two key aspects of the self-concept – good feelings about the self (“self-liking” or “self-confidence”) and seeing oneself as competent – are not strongly related to assertive...
Positive Parenting Gets “Under the Skin”
December 27, 2017
Adolescence is when values and relationships are formed and things happen that leave their sticky fingerprints on the life that follows. Even, it seems, in the everyday functioning of brain systems. New research published in Developmental Science shows that when teenagers have a positive relationship with their parents, then as adults their brains and bodies respond to stress in a way that helps them better engage with the world. However, the study suggests this benefit may be denied to those...
December 27, 2017
Adolescence is when values and relationships are formed and things happen that leave their sticky fingerprints on the life that follows. Even, it seems, in the everyday functioning of brain systems. New research published in Developmental Science shows that when teenagers have a positive relationship with their parents, then as adults their brains and bodies respond to stress in a way that helps them better engage with the world. However, the study suggests this benefit may be denied to those...
