Positive thinking

Lowri Dowthwaite, University of Central Lancashire   Over the past two decades, the positive psychology movement has brightened up psychological research with its science of happiness, human potential and flourishing. It argues that psychologists should not only investigate mental illness but also what makes life worth living. The founding father of positive psychology, Martin Seligman , describes happiness as experiencing frequent positive emotions, such as joy, excitement and contentment, combined with deeper feelings of meaning and purpose. It implies a positive mindset in the present and an optimistic outlook for the future. Importantly, happiness experts have argued that happiness is not a stable, unchangeable trait but something flexible that we can work on and ultimately strive towards. I have been running happiness workshops for the last four years based on the evidence from the above field of psychology. The workshops are fun and I have earned a reputation a...

Alessandro Di Nuovo, Sheffield Hallam University   The film Robot and Frank imagined a near-future where robots could do almost everything humans could. The elderly title character was given a “robot butler” to help him continue living on his own. The robot was capable of everything from cooking and cleaning to socialising (and, it turned out, burglary). This kind of science fiction may turn out to be remarkably prescient. As growing numbers of elderly people require care, researchers believe that robots could be one way to address the overwhelming demand. But while robots might be able to provide care and, in some cases, social interaction, many wonder if they really are the right solution to this uniquely human issue. One recent survey found that while 68% of people agree robots are beneficial because they can help people, only 26% surveyed said they’d be comfortable with a robot providing help and companionship for them if they were in hospital or care. Commenta...

Sara Haslam, The Open University ; Edmund King, The Open University , and Siobhan Campbell, The Open University   Bibliotherapy – the idea that reading can have a beneficial effect on mental health – has undergone a resurgence . There is mounting clinical evidence that reading can, for example, help people overcome loneliness and social exclusion. One scheme in Coventry allows health professionals to prescribe books to their patients from a list drawn up by mental health experts. Even as public library services across Britain are cut back, the healing potential of books is increasingly recognised . The idea of the healing book has a long history. Key concepts were forged in the crucible of World War I, as nurses, doctors and volunteer librarians grappled with treating soldiers’ minds as well as bodies. The word “bibliotherapy” itself was coined in 1914, by American author and minister Samuel McChord Crothers . Helen Mary Gaskell (1853-1940), a pioneer of “literar...

Tamsin Newlove-Delgado, University of Exeter One in four young women aged 17-19 have a mental disorder, according to the latest figures from the NHS, and one in five have anxiety or depression, or both. For all children and young people aged five to 19, the new data shows that one in eight has a mental disorder. The figures come from a survey led by NHS Digital. The team, of which we were a part, surveyed more than 9,000 children and young people across England and their parents. Where parents agreed, teachers were asked to complete questionnaires about the child. Clinical “raters” used this information to decide whether children were classified as having a mental disorder, using internationally agreed criteria. This system means that the information is more complete, accurate and rounded than many mental health surveys. Working in the dark We have waited a long time for these figures. The last national survey took place in 2004 and was published in 2005 . Since then,...

Nando Sigona, University of Birmingham   “Daddy, have we jumped the queue?” She looked at me with her big inquisitive eyes, a little confused and worried. Matilda is four and in reception class. She’s learning a lot of fascinating things at the moment, about planets, robots, rockets and space exploration. She’s also learning about how we share with others and behave in class. One of the things drummed into her very early on at school was that you don’t jump the queue. You must wait for your turn when it comes to speaking in circle time or being served food. “Daddy, have we done something wrong?” she added. After a moment of puzzlement, I joined the dots. The speech Theresa May gave to business group the CBI, in which she said that a new post-Brexit immigration system would stop EU migrants from “jumping the queue” ahead of migrants from non-EU countries, had somehow reached her, probably not the prime minister’s target audience. The impact of the CBI speech on he...

Lowri Dowthwaite, University of Central Lancashire   Who’s happier, men or women? Research shows it’s a complicated question and that asking whether males or females are happier isn’t really that helpful, because essentially, happiness is different for women and men . Women’s happiness has been declining for the past 30 years, according to recent statistics . And research shows that women are twice as likely to experience depression compared with men. Gender differences in depression are well established and studies have found that biological, psychological and social factors contribute to the disparity . But research also shows that women are more likely to experience intense positive emotions – such as joy and happiness – compared to men. So it seems that women’s more intense positive emotions balance out their higher risk of depression . Research also shows women are more likely to try and get help and access treatment – allowing them to also recover sooner . Ear...

In our modern days there are so many means of communication, and yet it seems that there are considerable difficulties in aligning ideas among nations,  people in general or in the families. Despite possessing so many tools for communication (smartphones, tablets, social media, e-mails) we still live far away from each other. The significant gap in our civilisations is that we are no longer able to listen to each other sincerely. If we fail to communicate, our energy genuinely is blocked internally, and this will make us sick. Our disease causes pains, and these pains are poured into the people who surround us.  If we want to be connected with others, we don't need to send them more posts on social media or similar, but we need to listen to them more. Listening with depth creates understanding. Understanding involves more connection among humans. To listen deeply we must learn to calm our inner noises, our thoughts. Sometimes a spiritual friend may be of great help in our ...

Ioannis Dimitrios Zoulias, University of Reading   Someone in the world suffers a spinal cord injury every one to two minutes , often leading to irreversible and life-changing loss of movement and feeling. But two research groups recently achieved something that had never been done before. By implanting electrical devices directly on the spinal cord, they reversed some of the effects of the spinal cord injury and allowed people to independently walk again. So does this mark the end of the road in considering spinal cord injury as an incurable condition? Or is there still a long way to go before wheelchairs become a thing of the past? Researchers have been trying to use electrical stimulation to reverse the effects of spinal cord injuries for more than two decades . Artificially increasing electrical activity in the spinal cord helps to activate the nerves that transmit information between the limbs and the brain. While some nerves are permanently damaged by spinal co...

Chantal Gautier, University of Westminster   From the playground to parliament , bullying exists everywhere. In fact, a recent report into bullying in the UK’s parliament revealed just how serious this problem is, urging behavioural change among MPs. But why is bullying so widespread and difficult to tackle? Part of the problem is that bullies sometimes don’t even realise that they are bullies. For example, bullying managers may easily justify upsetting certain employees by telling themselves that they are only pushing them to be their best. Or they may be nice to the people they bully at times, and only remember those instances. They may even think that people who break down as a result of their behaviour are not strong enough to work in the profession in question. But how do you know you are actually bullying someone rather than just dealing with an overly sensitive person? Academics still disagree about how bullying should be conceptualised and defined. The first...

Louis Zamperini's life is an incredibly inspirational story. Equipped with a few cans of drinking water, some fishing lines and very little food, Zamparini and two other soldiers remain in the Pacific Ocean for 47 days. They have to face sharks, hot weather conditions and Japanese fighters. For most people, an experience like that would undoubtedly be the most challenging of their lives. For Zamperini, it was only the beginning of a steep path that led him to overcome his most remote fears. Louis Zamperini had some tough starts as a boy. Then the passion for the sports kept him out of troubles for a while. In 1934 in the United States he established the National High School record for the mile with a time of 4:21,3 conferring him a scholarship with the University of Southern California, beginning the training for the Olympics of 1936. At the Berlin Olympics, Zamperini arrived eighth in the 5k but managed to make the last lap in 56 seconds establishing a record that had no precede...

Ruth Itzhaki, University of Manchester   More than 30m people worldwide suffer from Alzheimer’s disease – the most common form of dementia. Unfortunately, there is no cure, only drugs to ease the symptoms. However, my latest review , suggests a way to treat the disease. I found the strongest evidence yet that the herpes virus is a cause of Alzheimer’s, suggesting that effective and safe antiviral drugs might be able to treat the disease. We might even be able to vaccinate our children against it. The virus implicated in Alzheimer’s disease, herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV1), is better known for causing cold sores. It infects most people in infancy and then remains dormant in the peripheral nervous system (the part of the nervous system that isn’t the brain and the spinal cord). Occasionally, if a person is stressed, the virus becomes activated and, in some people, it causes cold sores. We discovered in 1991 that in many elderly people HSV1 is also present in the br...

Since we are born, we learn from our parents and at school that we have to remember a lot of words, concepts and notions. We are so induced to think that this mental knowledge is fundamentally very useful for our lives. In reality, when we try to have a genuine conversation with another person, we struggle to listen to them. Our mind is so jam-packed with thoughts that we no longer have the time and space to consider others' opinions. Our brains are overloaded with cognitive processes. At work, we have to think for at least 8-9 hours a day to accomplish our tasks. We enter into what very often becomes a commonplace where we believe that to be successful in life we can not do otherwise. Our internal silence is the only way to help us with deep listening. Deep listening allows us to process better answers. This is one of the keys to honest communication. It is impossible to make a proper speech without having observed it before within us. The right statement when done correctly hel...