The Saturday Evening Post featured an article about happiness, specifically about research on happiness in older adults. Though it would seem that people with fewer years left in which to fulfill hopes and dreams would suffer from more depression than those in the prime of their lives, this isn’t the case at all, according to the article. Happiness seems to be greater for those 60 and older, possibly because they are better able to manage stress and cope with obstacles in their lives:

Over time people become more realistic about their expectations, more accepting about what they have or haven’t achieved, and more resilient when things don’t pan out…Older Americans worry less and are less sad and depressed than people in other age groups, and that trend rises into their 60s despite less robust physical health.

This article reminded me of a study I read about in the book On Second Thought: Outsmarting Your Mind’s Hard-Wired Habits by Wray Herbert. Herbert relates research, conducted by psychologist Derek Isaacowitz, on the connection between gaze, mood, and motivation. Isaacowitz wanted to see how long people gazed at—or “fixated on”—images of happy, sad, angry, and fearful faces. (Gaze time was measured in milliseconds using machines.) He found that older people fixated less on the faces with unpleasant expressions. From this observation, it was speculated that “as people age, they tend to focus on goals that are attainable and to disengage from unrealistic goals, which can lead to failure and unhappiness” (p. 246). This inference substantiates the happiness/aging connection discussed in The Saturday Evening Post article.

Apparently older people avoid dwelling as much on negative, nonproductive thoughts and ideas. Perhaps this is their way of coping with the realization that their days on earth are not as plentiful in number as in the past. As it is explained in On Second Thought, “They [older people] may increasingly feel like they’re living on borrowed time, and so they pursue emotionally meaningful, uplifting experiences” (p. 246). No matter the explanation, there is consolation in knowing that growing older brings a psychological edge when it comes to peace of mind.

If you’re fascinated by the topic of memory, hop over to PsyBlog (one of my favorite psychology blogs), which has an article exploring 6 commonly held ideas about memory that are not supported by research:

Six Memory Myths
“Can flashbulb memories be distorted? Some of the most widespread beliefs about memory are plain wrong.”

The typical thought is that announcing a goal makes you accountable to others, thus making it more likely that you will succeed at reaching your goal or keeping your resolution. If you plan to exercise five days a week, wouldn’t it make sense to share your intention with others? Wouldn’t an announcement to friends and family about what you to intend to accomplish provide extra motivation? Well, not necessarily.

Research from 2009 by psychologist Peter Gollwitzer and colleagues has shown that the opposite may be true: Announcing your goals to others may lessen your desire to achieve them. It’s as if announcing the goal feels the same as actually achieving the goal (“a premature sense of completeness”), making it less likely that you’ll follow through on the intended behavior. So, keeping your goals and resolutions to yourself might be a better strategy for success.

This article gives a summary of Gollwitzer’s research: Talking the Talk

Want to know more? The video below features a brief talk from the Ted Conference that discusses research (some of it predating Gollwitzer’s experiments) on this theory of goal achievement:

Here’s a great quote to remember about the nature of happiness:

Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better to take things as they come along with patience and equanimity. -Carl Jung

I’m not sure what to make of this strange study. While I believe that sociable, outgoing people may have differences in their brain structures when compared to more solitary individuals, is sociability in real life equivalent to sociability on Facebook? Do people with broader social networks offline also have a large number of Facebook friends?

In the field of criminal investigation, detectives and law enforcement seek to accurately detect deception during interrogations of criminal suspects. Research in the field of psychology is aiding them by uncovering investigative tactics that may make it easier to tell if someone is telling the truth or merely spinning a yarn.

An article in Scientific American Mind (“The Burden of Lying”, Sept./Oct. 2011) discusses current research  that may help criminal investigators better spot a liar. Conducted by a social psychologist at the University of Portsmouth in England and published in the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science, this new research highlights interrogation techniques that increase cognitive load. As the article points out, “lying is more cognitively demanding than telling the truth ….” Because the act of deception requires remembering one’s previously told lies, monitoring one’s body language, etc., it is a mentally taxing process that leads to cognitive overload. In the case of fabricating a story line, this increases the likelihood of contradictions and inconsistencies in an untruthful person’s narrative.

Here are the three deception-detecting techniques discussed in the article:

Have suspects tell their story in reverse.

Relating a story backwards can be difficult when telling the truth, but lying makes this even more cognitively demanding, possibly leading to inconsistencies in a suspect’s story.

Insist that suspects maintain eye contact while talking and answering questions.

When telling a story, people often stare off at a point in the distance for concentration and focus. Lying requires plenty of concentration, more so than telling the truth. Having suspects maintain eye contact may increase cognitive demands and make it difficult to tell a convincing lie.

Ask suspects to draw a picture.

In a research environment, when untruthful participants were asked to draw a picture of a place (like their office at a fictional occupation or the restaurant for a luncheon they didn’t attend), the drawings of the deceptive participants were less detailed than the drawings of those telling the truth. Also, the liars’ drawings were inconsistent with verbal descriptions of the places they were asked to depict.

Do you think you can spot a liar?

What is good for the gut is also good for the brain!

A recent study reports that probiotics (yes, the bacteria found in yogurt and considered beneficial to the intestines) may help decrease depression and anxiety. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was conducted in mice fed with Lactobacillus rhamnosus JB-1, a probiotic bacterium. The mice fed the bacteria had “changes in the expression of receptors for the neurotransmitter GABA” and “showed significantly fewer stress, anxiety and depression-related behaviours” compared with the mice fed just broth. (GABA, or gamma aminobutyric acid, halts anxiety. Drugs like alcohol and anti-anxiety medications affect GABA.)

So, if you like yogurt, this is an excellent reason to continue eating it.

Read more about the study, as reported at ScienceDaily, here.

One can’t live mindfully without being enmeshed in psychological processes that are around us.
- Philip Zimbardo, psychologist

One of the reasons I find psychology so fascinating is that it’s so relevant to everyday life and plays a role in almost every aspect of our daily experiences, from our interactions with others to the way we think about ourselves to how we perceive the world around us.

The book examines various traits, life experiences, and habits of the Terman participants and how these affected whether they lived to a ripe old age. The book is an interesting read that dispels many of the myths about longevity. It’s no surprise that personality played a large role in how long the Terman participants lived. But just what traits were important and why? Here are some of the findings:

Socializing and Sociability
Though helping others and having a broad social network is very helpful for living a long life, individual sociability (that is, whether one is a social butterfly) is not necessarily beneficial or harmful in its effect on longevity. Sociable individuals may have a larger social network than their less sociable counterparts, but they may be more likely to engage in unhealthful behaviors like smoking and drinking. Overall, in the Terman participants, whether one was a social butterfly or not didn’t really have much effect on longevity.

Conscientiousness
Conscientiousness was a very strong predictor of longevity in Terman participants: “The young adults who were thrifty, persistent, detail oriented, and responsible lived the longest.”

Cheerfulness
Being a cheerful person doesn’t necessarily lead to a longer life. Many of the happy-go-lucky Terman participants died sooner than the more serious ones. Why? Like the sociable Terman participants, the cheerful ones were more likely to engage in risky, less healthful behaviors. Furthermore, individuals with cheerful personalities may fall into the trap of illusory optimism, ignoring or downplaying risks to their health and well being.

Neuroticism
Being a worrywart isn’t necessarily bad. Being slightly neurotic may prompt people to take better care of themselves. In the Terman studies, this was particularly true for the neurotic men, who were more likely to take precautions regarding their health. In particular, Terman men who were both conscientious and neurotic fared the best in terms of living long.

Catastrophic Thinking
Though some worrying may be helpful, too much negative thinking is harmful. The catastrophizers in the study, those who saw doom and gloom in everything, died sooner. A thinking pattern of assuming the worst about life is detrimental to living long.

Femininity
Terman participants, both male and female, with more feminine traits (as defined by interest in feminine occupations and hobbies) lived longer. One reason is perhaps that masculine activities and lifestyle habits (like smoking, once uncommon in women) are harmful to one’s health.

Along these lines is an excellent article by Susan Cain, author of the blog Quiet. Cain outlines some of the confusion regarding introversion and shyness. Are they the same? (No!) Can a person exhibit signs of shyness but also be an extrovert? (Yes!)

Are You Shy, Introverted, Both, or Neither (and Why Does it Matter)?

Have you ever been misunderstood as an introvert?