How Am I Smart?

The topic in General Psychology this week is intelligence. While most people think of intelligence as “book smarts,” we’ve been discussing more up-to-date theories such as that of Howard Gardner.  He has proposed that there are actually multiple types of intelligences which traditional intelligence tests don’t measure. While the theory is a bit controversial (big surprise!), many components of it have merit.

Can we say that a person with a high degree of logical-mathematical intelligence who can’t keep a job is smarter than a person with a high level of interpersonal intelligence who has an average IQ? Is a person with a high degree of bodily-kinesthetic intelligence (like a dancer or athlete) “dumber” than someone with linguistic intelligence who can write short stories?

Here’s a list of Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences from your text (Lefton and Brannon, Vango Books, 403) with a brief description of each. After reading and thinking about these types, share whether you think Gardner’s theory has validity. You might also consider answer Gardner’s question: “How am I smart?” There’s a big difference between that and, “How smart am I?”

• Linguistic: Sensitivity to the sounds, rhythms, and meanings of words; sensitivity to the different functions of language.
• Logical-mathematical: Sensitivity to and capacity to discern logical or numerical patters; ability to handle long chains of reasons.
• Musical: Ability to produce and appreciate rhythm, pitch, and timber. Appreciation of the forms of musical expressiveness.
• Spatial: Capacity to perceive the visual-spatial world accurately and to perform transformation on initial perceptions.
• Bodily-kinesthetic: Ability to control bodily movements and to handle objects skillfully.
• Interpersonal: Capacity to discern and respond appropriately to the moods, temperaments, motivations, and desire of other people.
• Intrapersonal: Ability to access one’s own feelings and to discriminate among them and draw on them to guide behavior; acknowledge one’s own strengths, weaknesses, desires, and intelligence.
• Naturalistic: Ability to make fine discriminations among the flora and fauna of the natural word or the patterns and deigns of human artifacts.
• Spiritual: Ability to master abstract concepts about being and also the ability to attain a certain state of being.
• Existential: Capacity to understand one’s place in the universe and the nature of being in both physical and psychological terms.

Recipe for Happiness

To continue with Barry Schwartz’s views of happiness and the paradox of choice, he suggests that people are happier when they make their decisions irreversible and when they truly appreciate the lives they have. Rather than thinking that  the grass is greener on the other side and that just maybe you’d be much happier if you worked at XYZ Widgets instead of M & M Industries, maybe you should just stay where you are. Remember, the grass will still need watering, fertilizing and mowing wherever you are. And besides, don’t you have friends at M & M? And aren’t the hours flexible and the work challenging? Just look on the bright side and be thankful you have a job.

There are many other applications of this concept, and I’m sure you can find some in your own life. For instance, do you think knowing that divorce is an option that wasn’t available “back in the day” increases a person’s dissatisfaction with a current marriage partner? If you knew that there was no way out, would you be more likely to make the best of it and try to find some redeeming qualities in the spouse? If you knew that chicken noodle soup was the only choice for dinner, would you be better off just accepting it and being grateful for something to eat instead of squawking about  how you wish you had pizza ?

Do you agree with Dr. Schwartz’s recipe for happiness? Do you think making decisions that are irreversible will make you happier than continuing to look for something bigger, brighter, and more exciting? What about the gratitude part? Does stopping to think about the many good things you have going on in your life make you happier than grumbling about what you don’t have?

Decisions, Decisions

Continuing the happiness topic begun in the last post, I came across some interesting insights by Barry Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice. Schwartz feels that in rich nations such as the United States, too much choice can adversely affect our happiness. Just think about it. It used to be that the people drank Pepsi or Coca-Cola, but now entire sections of the grocery store are devoted to soft drinks. So many decisions! When I was a child, we basically ate corn flakes, cheerios, or rice krispies, but now I feel like I need an advanced degree to help me figure out the best cereal in terms of fat, fiber, and sugar.

Schwartz tells of a study in which college students were asked to rate chocolate candy. One group had six choices to taste and rate while the second group had thirty. Surprisingly, the first group rated their tasty sweet treats higher than the second group. Could it be that having too many choices decreases our satisfaction and our happiness? In his words, “After millions of years of survival based on simple distinctions, it may simply be that we are biologically unprepared for the number of choices we face in the modern world.”

What’s your opinion? Do you think one secret to happiness may lie in limiting our choices instead of increasing them?  In my estimation cheerios are just as tasty and healthy as many of the more recently developed brands, and I’d probably be just as happy sticking to them instead of always looking for something better.

What about you? Are you happier with such a glittering array of choices, or do you think you’d be more contented with fewer options?

Can Happiness Last?

A couple of my favorite psychological principles involve happiness. That shouldn’t surprise you. After all, one of psychology’s founding fathers, William James, stated that how to gain, keep and recover happiness is for most men (and women too) the secret motive for all they do. But how can we keep it? Is it possible?

I saw a short clip on utube last night that illustrates one of the principles of happiness, the adaptation level principle.  Simply stated, it’s our human tendency to form judgments relative to a level defined by our prior experience.  For example, I once thought I’d be deliriously happy if only I could finish college.  I did, and I was…for a while anyway. I thought I’d be even happier with another degree and more money. Same thing happened. When I was younger, we saved our money for the down payment on a house that I (we) just knew would make us happier yet. Ah, it was nice for a while, but before long we were reaching for yet another goal and complaining about cutting the grass and other home maintenance duties. When I was a kid, we had a black and white t.v. with three channels and a lot of “snow.” Now we have a 42” flat screen with a jillion channels, and yet we’re often overheard saying, “There’s nothing on tonight.” HUH???? 

The gist of the theory is that sooner or later people return to their prior levels of happiness or misery regardless of circumstances. They adapt to the change, good or bad, and revert to their earlier way of thinking and feeling. My children often tell me what they’re going to do when they win the lottery. Optimistic, they say “when” and not “if.” But guess what. If they should be so fortunate, research tells us that people who win big bucks in the lottery return to their earlier level of happiness. 

Can you see the application of the adaptation level principle in your life? Share an example with us.

The Why and How of Behavior

I think everyone reading this blog would agree that human behavior is both complex and fascinating. The “why” of behavior is, in fact, one of the four goals of psychology.  Is there some specific behavior that’s baffling to you? Does your significant other “drive you nuts?” Do your children act in an unruly and disobedient way? Do you find yourself pouting or sulking for no obvious reason? These are just a few of the questions that psychologists seek to answer.

Psychologists are so interested in behavior that they have designated this decade as the Decade of Behavior, and the APA has launched an “initiative to focus attention on how the behavioral and social sciences can help address many of society’s daunting challenges.” (Psychology,  Lefton and Brannon, 2008,  27).  In this endeavor, they hope to educate people to think more critically, become more effective employees, gain sensitivity to cultural diversity, and become healthier and better educated.

Think about this Decade of Behavior and some of the questions you’d like to see researched and share them with us. To get you started, below are a few I’ve been thinking about as they relate to students that I know. Please add your own, and let’s get a discussion going.

How can you get along with an impossible boss?
How can you get on a health plan (stop smoking, exercise more, lose weight, etc.) and stick to it?
What attracts people to each other?
What are some ways of handling stress?
What’s the best way to resolve conflict?
Is there a tried and proven way to toilet train an infant?
What are some ways to get people to overcome their fear of change?

Come to Your Senses

Listening to a CD based on the book 50 Psychology Classics by Tom Butler-Bowdon has reminded me of some of the insightful thinking of men and women in the field.  Today I’m thinking of Fritz Perls, a Gestalt psychologist whose work I became familiar with in the 1970s. One concept in particular is based on his idea that humans think too much. Involved in abstractions and worries, we end up feeling all kinds of angst, anxiety, and depression. So what should we do? Perls’ advice is to “lose your mind and come to your senses.”

By “losing your mind” you’ll become more aware of sights, sounds, and all sorts of other sensations. You’ll begin to “feel” more, to really live and experience life, rather than being bogged down with all sorts of ponderous thoughts. As an example, Perls often asked patients to describe exactly what they saw, felt, heard, tasted. Someone might report, “I’m sitting in a chair, and I can hear an airplane overhead and a siren outside somewhere. The air is cool, and I can hear the steady hum of the air conditioner. I see the green couch and colorful pillows with their Indian design. I’m tasting some tangy orange juice and can feel the pulp on my tongue.” Perls would then ask the patient what sorts of things they were stressing over as they experienced these sensations. Almost always, they would report that they weren’t thinking of anything painful or hurtful.

What do you think about the idea of losing your mind and coming to your senses? Do you believe that a person can actually think too much and thus hurt himself emotionally and psychologically? Do you think people would be better off psychologically if they truly experienced life more in the here and now and tried to savor the moment instead of fretting about needs, concerns, and relationships?

Brainy Quote of the Day

On the first day of fall classes, the “brainy quote” of the day was ”Tough times never last, but tough people do.” (Robert Schuller)

As a way to kick off the semester, share what that means to you.  One of the things I thought about is that for so-called normal people who are depressed, they can almost always count on an especially nice day after the depression lifts. It’s hard to remember this when you’re in the depths of misery, but eventually the sun comes out and things look brighter, more optimistic.

After you share your experiences, comments, and insights, I’ll add some additional observations.

Britton’s Burning Question

As the semester comes to an end, recurring topics have been surfacing in Human Growth and Development, one of which is that choices people make when they’re young affect their later years. Examples discussed in class include exercise (or lack of it), smoking, drinking, proper diet, stress management, and so forth.

To supplement and reinforce text information, I added some tidbits from a new book entitled 127 Things You Need to Know. Information included the importance of exercise (at least 30 minutes five times a week), the harmful effects of smoking, and the perils of a diet high in fat. Smoking is the number one cause of preventable premature death, and yet people continue to light up. Obesity has almost reached epidemic proportions in the United States, and yet old and young alike continue to drink sugar-loaded soft drinks and eat double cheeseburgers. AIDS is the #2 killer (after accidents) of young adults, but somehow young people aren’t heeding the message.

 Britton spoke up and asked a question that probably most of her classmates were thinking (paraphrase): “So how do we change? We know what’s good for us and what isn’t, but how can we get more motivated?”

I once read an article entitled “Change or Die” in which the author spoke of how scaring people into safe health practices didn’t seem to be that effective. He proposed that the message be changed to “Change and Live.” Saying, “If you stop smoking, you’ll add seven years to your life” could be more effective than, “If you don’t stop smoking, you’ll going to decrease your longevity and increase the odds of dying a slow painful death.”

What do you think? Would that work? Answer Britton’s question and tell us how to get young people to take heed to what the experts are saying

Deadly Relationship Habits

While cleaning out some files earlier today, I came across some notes from a Glasser conference that I attended about three years ago. As well as I recall, this particular session was about relationship disorders and people with control issues. You might know a few of them, the folks who think they know what’s right for themselves AND for everyone else. According to my notes, “as soon as you say what’s right for other people, you begin to sow the seeds of destruction.”

 Below are Dr. Glasser’s Seven Deadly Habits of External Control with a few of the notes I scribbled at the time. In his words, “You can stop using them or not. It’s your choice.” Just for the heck of it, read them and see if any sound familiar:

1. Criticizing. Glasser feels there’s no such thing as constructive criticism because essentially what you’re saying is, “I think what you’re doing is not as effective as it could be.”
2. Blaming. Maybe you know whose fault it is, but so what?
3. Complaining. If you’re hooked up with a complainer the years will get longer and longer.
4. Nagging
5. Threatening. “If you don’t do what’s best (in my opinion), then I’ll give you a hard time or maybe even kill you.”
6. Punishing
7. Bribing. This is a way of rewarding people in order to control them.

An advocate of choice theory, Dr. Glasser feels that we need to teach people how to be better and happier human beings and that following the above habits is totally ineffective. I remember getting somewhat amused when he said that after one of his sessions, a woman came up and said something like, “I’m guilty of all of the seven deadly habits, but I can’t help it. And I just can’t change either.” What did the esteemed doctor say? “Then don’t. It’s your choice.”

It’s a simple concept. Find out what works best for you and do it, but don’t try to tell others what to do. It doesn’t work…at least not in the long run. And not in healthy relationships.

SC’s Obesity Rate

In Human Growth and Development, obesity is a topic that surfaces in every unit from babyhood to adulthood. It seems that America has a “growing” problem in weight control, one that affects many dimensions of a person, including his physical, emotional, and social well-being. That said, I read this morning that South Carolina ranks #5 in the nation in obesity. Why can’t we be # 5 in education and # 45 in obesity????

Seriously, why do you think SC is the fifth-fattest state in the country? In fact, a new study by two public health organizations determined that eight of the 10 most obese states are in the South.  By the way, our neighbors to the north and west, North Carolina and Georgia, aren’t even on the list.  What’s going on? Is it our buttered biscuits and fried chicken? Does it have to do with poverty and the food available to the state’s impoverished population?

Whatever the reasons, we have a problem in SC, and I’m curious about your thoughts as to its cause(s). I’m also wondering if you have some ideas about combating it. With 30 percent of our residents classified as obese, we must do something.