Positive thinking

Paige Davis, York St John University   Psychologists first became interested in imaginary friends in the early 19th century because they feared they could be a sign of emotional unstability or psychological problems in children. But as scientists have learned more about these invisible playmates over the last two decades, it has become increasingly clear that they are actually quite the opposite – a sign of positive developmental progress. Imaginary friends among children is surprisingly common. Most people either know someone who had an imaginary playmate as a child, or had one themselves. Some studies have found that as many 65% of children play with invisible companions. Children typically start inventing imaginary friends between the ages of three and five. And they have been reported in children around the world from English speaking cultures, to Kenya, Japan and Nepal. And not just typically developing children have them, those with Down Syndrome and childre...

1. "Never stop smiling not even when you're sad, someone might fall in love with your smile." 2. "What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it." 3. "A true friend is the one who holds your hands and touches your heart." 4. "For those who may be hurting over lost love: Don't cry because it is over... smile because it happened." 5. "Don't struggle so much, the best things happen when not expected." 6. "Even when the winds of misfortune blow, amazing things can still happen." 7. "The secret of a good old age is simply an honorable pact with solitude." 8. "Shame has poor memory." 9. "The heart's memory eliminates the bad and magnifies the good, and that thanks to this artifice we manage to endure the burden of the past." 10. "There is always something to love." ...

Iza Kavedžija, University of Exeter Happiness is the subject of countless quotations, slogans, self-help books and personal choices. It is also being taken seriously by national governments and organisations like the United Nations, as something societies should aim for. This political recognition makes a welcome change from long held obsessions with income and economic growth when it comes to choosing policies or measuring their success – but it is not without its faults. To begin with, how do you measure and compare national happiness levels? This is particularly challenging given that people have a tendency to inaccurately evaluate their emotional states or present themselves to others in a positive light. Different cultural understandings of happiness also make comparisons difficult. But understanding what makes life worthwhile in certain contexts – which may be different from happiness – can offer an alternative perspective on well-being. For example, even though ...

Chris Rolph, Nottingham Trent University   A handful of grammar schools are to receive a £50m boost to expand their pupil numbers . To qualify for the funding, schools had to submit plans on how they would try and increase the number of poorer pupils. In total, 16 grammar schools are to be given a share of the £50m selective school expansion fund to create 4,000 additional places for pupils from the poorest backgrounds, according to The Times . But the move has come under fire after it was revealed that just 2% of their pupils admitted to the grammar schools awarded the funding classify as disadvantaged. Headteachers at cash-strapped comprehensive schools also spoke out in protest – given that in real terms, per-pupil spending is in significant decline . This has led to many headteachers increasingly asking parents for cash donations , with some schools forced to cut staff. The announcement has reignited a heated debate over the merits of selection at 11+ in the E...

Valerie van Mulukom, Coventry University Almost everyone has something they fear – maybe it’s spiders, enclosed spaces, or heights. When we encounter these “threats,” our hearts might begin to race, or our hands may become sweaty. This is called a threat fear response, and it exists to help us avoid potential pain. Most of us only feel scared when a threat is present. But when the threat fear response happens even when a threat isn’t present, it can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), phobias, or anxiety. These disorders may often be treated using exposure therapy, but a new study found that something as simple as using your imagination can help people overcome fear. Overcoming fear Many fear-related disorders are treated using exposure therapy . This helps people “unlearn” a threat fear response by breaking the association between the “trigger” (an image or sound that causes the threat fear response) and harmful consequences of the threat, by presenting patient...

Amelia S. Worsley, Amherst College   Is loneliness our modern malaise? Former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy says the most common pathology he saw during his years of service “was not heart disease or diabetes; it was loneliness.” Chronic loneliness, some say , is like “smoking 15 cigarettes a day.” It “ kills more people than obesity .” Because loneliness is now considered a public health issue – and even an epidemic – people are exploring its causes and trying to find solutions. While writing a book on the history of how poets wrote about loneliness in the Romantic Period , I discovered that loneliness is a relatively new concept and once had an easy cure. However, as the concept’s meaning has transformed, finding solutions has become harder. Returning to the origins of the word – and understanding how its meaning has changed through time – gives us a new way to think about modern loneliness, and the ways in which we might address it. The dangers of ve...

Jessica Pykett, University of Birmingham   Move over GDP: happiness is angling to become the metric of the future. Nation states have begun to compete in global happiness rankings and plan policy according to statistics of well-being. Most recently, New Zealand announced that its 2019 budget will report on how national spending impacts on well-being. City authorities are developing “smart” approaches to measuring happiness, mobilising an ever-increasing array of mobile apps and behavioural data that aim to sense, map and explain our daily happiness. For example, the Smart Dubai Office launched their Smart Happiness Index earlier in 2018, which promises to assess the performance of their city managers based on happiness gain per funds spent. This emphasis comes off the back of the academic field of happiness studies, which has emerged as a credible science – with its own research centres and academic journals – since the turn of the 21st century. A simple Google Scho...

Marianna Bolognesi, University of Oxford   Words work as a glue, allowing us to group together different experiences under one label. This is especially true for concepts that we cannot see or touch. But we still don’t really understand how language works in shaping the meaning of these more abstract concepts, or how it allows us to group experiences together under one “umbrella” term, which denotes something we cannot point to, or see, or touch. Concrete concepts such as “banana” and abstract ones such as “freedom” differ in many ways. To get a grasp of this difference, Google the words “banana” and “freedom” and compare the images that are returned by the browser. For “banana” you get pictures that are quite similar to one another. For “freedom”, on the other hand, you get very different types of images that apparently have little in common. Screenshots of Google Image searches using ‘banana’ and ‘freedom’ as keywords. Google , Author provided Th...

Andrew Smith, University of Bradford and Jo McBride, Durham University   The UK is experiencing record levels of employment , with over 32m people in work. But many workers and their families continue to struggle to survive financially – it’s estimated 5.5m workers are paid below the Real Living Wage , which is set at a level at which people can afford to “live”, based on the minimum income standard . But what’s missing from these statistics are those people who have to work in more than one low paid job to make ends meet. This is the focus of our research – which has never been conducted in the UK before. The Forgotten Workers We interviewed 50 low paid workers in multiple forms of employment in the regions of Yorkshire and North-East England. We expected to speak to workers with two or three jobs, but were surprised and alarmed to find a number with four, five, six and even seven different jobs. All of the workers we spoke to had multiple jobs as they were st...