Restoring happiness in people with depression Practicing positive activities may serve as an effective, low-cost treatment for people suffering from depression, according to researchers at the University of California, Riverside and Duke University Medical Center. In "Delivering Happiness: Translating Positive Psychology Intervention Research for Treating Major and Minor Depressive Disorders," a paper that appears in the August 2011 issue of the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, the team of UCR and Duke psychology, neuroscience and psychopharmacology researchers proposed a new approach for treating depression -- Positive Activity Interventions (PAI). PAIs are intentional activities such as performing acts of kindness, practicing optimism, and counting one's blessing gleaned from decades of research into how happy and unhappy people are different. More than 16 million U.S. adults -- about 8 percent of the population -- suffer from either major or chronic depression.
The Eight Pillars of Innovation The greatest innovations are the ones we take for granted, like light bulbs, refrigeration and penicillin. But in a world where the miraculous very quickly becomes common-place, how can a company, especially one as big as Google, maintain a spirit of innovation year after year? Nurturing a culture that allows for innovation is the key. As we’ve grown to over 26,000 employees in more than 60 offices, we’ve worked hard to maintain the unique spirit that characterized Google way back when I joined as employee #16. At that time I was Head of Marketing (a group of one), and over the past decade I’ve been lucky enough to work on a wide range of products. What’s different is that, even as we dream up what’s next, we face the classic innovator’s dilemma: should we invest in brand new products, or should we improve existing ones? Have a mission that matters Work can be more than a job when it stands for something you care about. Think big but start small The best part of working on the web?
Freuds *The Interpretation of Dreams* Chapter 1, Section D Back to Psych Web Home Page Back to The Interpretation of Dreams Table of Contents D. Why Dreams Are Forgotten After Waking That a dream fades away in the morning is proverbial. The forgetting of dreams is treated in the most detailed manner by Strumpell. In the first place, all those factors which induce forgetfulness in the waking state determine also the forgetting of dreams. * Periodically recurrent dreams have been observed repeatedly. According to Strumpell, other factors, deriving from the relation of the dream to the waking state, are even more effective in causing us to forget our dreams. Finally, we should remember that the fact that most people take but little interest in their dreams is conducive to the forgetting of dreams. It is therefore all the more remarkable, as Strumpell himself observes, that, in spite of all these reasons for forgetting the dream, so many dreams are retained in the memory. Jessen (p. 547) expresses himself in very decided terms: The observations of V.
Innovation Starts with Empathy By Dev Patnaik, Founder and Principal, Jump Associates A few years ago, my publisher asked me to write a book about innovation. They’d read some of the articles I’ve written on the subject over the years, and they wanted more. And although I was flattered, I had to tell them no. At Jump Associates, my colleagues and I have had the chance to collaborate with some of the world’s most amazing companies. Every one of us understands empathy on an individual level: the ability to reach outside of ourselves and walk in someone else’s shoes, to get where they’re coming from, to feel what they feel. How many times have you stared at a competitor’s new product and said, “We had that idea two years ago, but we just didn’t act on it.” When your organization develops a shared and intuitive vibe for what’s going on in the world, you’re able to see new opportunities faster than your competitors, long before the rest of us read about them in The Wall Street Journal. This isn’t about market research.
A Day in the Life of a Mental Hospital Patient 6:05 am: You lie awake in your tiny bed, underneath the salmon covers, your neck sore from sleeping on one pillow (you asked for another but you’ll need a doctor’s order to have more than one.) Your sleep medicine has worn off and you are now once again a prisoner to your insomnia. All there is to do now is listen to your roommate snore and mutter to herself in her sleep and the sounds of the nurses talking and phones ringing at the nurses station. You remember a Seroquel-induced nightmare you had previously in the night in which you were trapped in a house that was filling with water, drowning and gasping for air. You make a mental note to mention the dream to your doctor later on. 7:00 am: Morning checks. 7:10 am: Brush your teeth, brush your hair, make your bed, and put on a sweatshirt. 7:15 am: You drag your exhausted body out of bed and grab a cup of the weakest, wateriest coffee you have ever ingested from the nurses station. 7:30 am: Breakfast time. 8:30 am: Community group.
Do We Really Need 'Chief Innovation Officers' in Ad Agencies? Four of them tell us what they do - Less, But Better I was ruminating on David Armano’s new role at Edelman, as EVP, Global Innovation & Integration (details here). Armano describes his new role as ‘doing what keeps your business on the front line’. There’s been a rash of Chief Innovation Officer / Director of Innovation roles within agency groups and holding companies. Indeed, I myself argued strongly for the (at the time) unusual title of Executive Director of Innovation at BBH, back in early 2010. I asked four of the most prominent and respected of this new mutation of communications professional to try and capture what their role is in a tweet-length summary. Edward Boches (Chief Innovation Officer, Mullen) Opening minds. Saneel Radia (Head of Innovation, BBH New York) Help BBH NY do what we aren’t currently doing but want to. Faris Yakob (Chief Innovation Officer, KBS&P) Asking Why? Rishadt Tobbacowla (Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer) Help drive future competitive advantage. What do you think? Like this: Like Loading...
Why Men and Women Can't Be &Just Friends& Is the idea of a pure, platonic relationship between non-related, heterosexual men and women a myth? For the most part, it would seem the answer is "yes" and the reason is deeply rooted in the evolutionary soil of our species. Thanks to the writings of John Gray, many of us now know some of the "Mars/Venus" generalizations such as men typically use language as a tool for solving problems while women use it as a way to promote intimacy. Nevertheless, here's the crux of the matter: Within these boundaries of gender generalizations, the vast majority of post-pubescent, heterosexual men will invariably have a sexual desirability "reflex" upon seeing a female of reproductive age. The reasons for these phenomena are inextricably linked to our species' evolution. What's more, women must assume the physical, emotional and metabolic demands of pregnancy . In general, then, one can say that men are very sexually "reflexive" while women are apt to be more sexually "reflective."
Rethinking creativity & innovation (for LiveWire) 10 Psychological Effects of Nonsexual Touch A simple (nonsexual) touch can increase compliance, helping behaviour, attraction, and signal power. To get around in the world, we mainly rely on our eyes and ears. Touch is a sense that’s often forgotten. But touch is also vital in the way we understand and experience the world. Even the lightest touch on the upper arm can influence the way we think. To prove it, here are 10 psychological effects which show just how powerful nonsexual touch can be. 1. A well-timed touch can encourage other people to return a lost item. In one experiment, users of a phone booth who were touched were more likely to return a lost dime to an experimenter (Kleinke, 1977). The action was no more than a light touch on the arm. People will do more than that though; people will give a bigger tip to a waitress who has touched them (Crusco & Wetzel, 1984). (Stop giggling at the back there!) 2. People are also more likely to provide help when touched. The percentage of people who helped went up from 63% to 90%. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Blog - Les brevets freinent-ils l'innovation? | ParisTech Review Les justifications intellectuelles du système des brevets sont diverses. On mettait jadis en avant la légitime protection des droits des inventeurs, à l’époque moderne celle des investissements en R&D. Un raisonnement macro, enfin, insiste sur le fait qu’en protégeant les droits des créateurs, on offre une puissante incitation à l’innovation. Une histoire ancienne La forme moderne des brevets émerge au tout début de la révolution industrielle. Une loi est votée aux États-Unis en 1790, une autre l’est en France l’année suivante, dans la lignée du système des droits d’auteur mis en œuvre à l’initiative de Beaumarchais. Quoiqu’elles s’inscrivent dans deux contextes juridiques différents, ces lois reposent sur les mêmes principes : permettre la diffusion des techniques tout en protégeant la propriété des inventeurs sur leur création. Par rapport aux monopoles et privilèges octroyés auparavant par l’Ancien Régime, ce système est à la fois plus fermé et plus ouvert. Une épidémie de brevets?
Color Psychology & Infoplease.com by David Johnson Like death and taxes, there is no escaping color. It is ubiquitous. Yet what does it all mean? Colors often have different meanings in various cultures. Black Black is the color of authority and power. White Brides wear white to symbolize innocence and purity. Red The most emotionally intense color, red stimulates a faster heartbeat and breathing. The most romantic color, pink, is more tranquilizing. Blue The color of the sky and the ocean, blue is one of the most popular colors. Green Currently the most popular decorating color, green symbolizes nature. Yellow Cheerful sunny yellow is an attention getter. Purple The color of royalty, purple connotes luxury, wealth, and sophistication. Brown Solid, reliable brown is the color of earth and is abundant in nature. Colors of the Flag In the U.S. flag, white stands for purity and innocence. Food for Thought While blue is one of the most popular colors it is one of the least appetizing.
La fin de Kodak, victime du dilemme de l’innovateur Le dépôt de bilan annoncé de Kodak marque la fin d’un long déclin d’une icône de l’industrie américaine. Victime du développement de la photo numérique, Kodak n’aura pas réussi à se reconvertir à partir de son métier de chimiste. Un exemple classique d’une entreprise leader dans son domaine (la photo argentique) qui meurt, incapable de tirer partie d’une nouvelle technologie. La réalité est plus nuancée. Kodak n’a pas raté la révolution numérique, mais elle a été victime du très classique dilemme de l’innovateur, décrit par le chercheur Clayton Christensen. L’exemple de Kodak montre donc qu’une entreprise meurt non pas d’avoir ignoré une innovation de rupture (c’est rarement le cas) mais d’avoir été empêchée d’agir pour la développer, malgré sa bonne volonté et la conscience du danger, en raison même du succès de son activité dominante. Pour aller plus loin, voir mon billet sur Christensen et l’innovation de rupture ici. J'aime : J'aime chargement…
Procrastination: Ten Things To Know Is your procrastination hindering you? Ten things you should know. There are many ways to avoid success in life, but the most sure-fire just might be procrastination . Procrastinators sabotage themselves. They put obstacles in their own path. They actually choose paths that hurt their performance. Why would people do that? Twenty percent of people identify themselves as chronic procrastinators. It's not trivial, although as a culture we don't take it seriously as a problem. Procrastination is not a problem of time management or of planning. Procrastinators are made not born. Procrastination predicts higher levels of consumption of alcohol among those people who drink. Procrastinators tell lies to themselves. Procrastinators actively look for distractions, particularly ones that don't take a lot of commitment on their part. There's more than one flavor of procrastination. arousal types, or thrill-seekers, who wait to the last minute for the euphoric rush.