Inside Colin's Head

On the other hand, positive emotions broaden the scope of the visual field, leading to increased breadth of attention; this new study shows that positive moods do so by directly modulating the visual system so that we can gain access to to more information. In psychology, the broaden-and build theory holds that positive emotions enhance one's awareness, and that this global perspective encourages novel thoughts and actions. This broadened behavioural repertoire in turn leads to increased creativity and inventiveness.

Summary: a positive and optimistic worldview literally enhances our perception.

This makes sense to me. To me, negative emotions are beneficial to our brains when something is really wrong; these emotions infiltrate all of our thinking and force us to deal with a problem. When we're not dealing with an emergency, those emotions can really limit and skew our perception. Could spending a lot of time in this negative space create a new emotional calibration that then expects negativity as the norm? Could this be an explanation for how people are capable of lying to themselves while not being mindfully aware?

Optimism, and as I've before qualified many times on this blog, specifically realistic optimism, creates a perspective that's based on possibilities. The realistic optimist is overtly aware that negative stimuli are a constant of life and chooses to blaze onward anyway.

As an example, it's easy to see the modern world we live in as terrifyingly fragile. It isn't hard to find stories of oppression, hate, and challenged liberties. There are also amazing things being done around the world every second in the name of art, humanity, and science. Those topics can't compete in headline fashion, but they are actually more ubiquitous in this world. We should be angry reading those hateful stories, but I think we can do more to change the world by participating and applying energy to the positive movements that exist every day.

First, modern feminism is illogical because, as Pinker points out, it is based on the vanilla assumption that, but for lifelong gender socialization and pernicious patriarchy, men and women are on the whole identical.  An insurmountable body of evidence by now conclusively demonstrates that the vanilla assumption is false; men and women are inherently, fundamentally, and irreconcilably different.  Any political movement based on such a spectacularly incorrect assumption about human nature – that men and women are and should be identical – is doomed to failure.

I think the world is still unfair to women, though in my opinion the equality gap is certainly closing (at least in American culture). In many many ways men and women are exactly the same, but we need to recognize and celebrate the ways in which we are truly different. Defense against everyday battles may sometimes force a narrow lens on this topic, but the long term strategy must involve both equality and uniqueness between genders.

I guess you could just go further with this topic and work towards the ideal that while we are all alike, EVERYBODY is fundamentally unique. I don't like being stereotyped as a heterosexual male, or as an atheist, or as a person who likes Van Damme movies, but each of those traits play a role in the formation of my identity.

While arrogant assumptions destroy harmony, I think light-hearted ones can actually benefit relationships. As long as they are respectful, easily overridden, and as long as people being assumed upon don't take themselves so seriously, I think mild assumptions can increase honesty and break down barriers in getting to know each other.

These beliefs seem to be associated with some peculiar information-processing problems. That is, there are some problems with attention and sometimes a hyperfocus, problems with categorization — the ability to organize things. People who hoard tend to live their lives visually and spatially instead of categorically like the rest of us do.

Really interesting stuff (no pun intended). Definitely something I hope my wife looks into because I think she might be a mild case of the 1 in 30 people that they discuss in this interview. :)

I especially liked how one lady described how throwing away an ATM envelope from years ago made her feel like she was losing the memory of that day in her life.

Anything but the telephone: I have one friend who likes to call "just to hear my voice." Very sweet of her but I wish she would invite me to lunch instead. (Yes, of course I invite her; I usually initiate our get-togethers.) Like many introverts, I loathe the telephone. For one thing, we tend to think and respond slowly, and dead air on the telephone doesn't work. I'm awkward on the phone, especially when just-to-chat calls drop on me from out of the blue. And I feel bad that the other person can always sense my yearning to break free. But really, it's not you, it's the phone. Don't take it personally. (I do talk on the phone, sometimes for hours, with far-flung friends. However, I like to either schedule those calls or initiate them so I don't feel ambushed. I often screen my calls and return them when I feel up to it.)

My sentiments exactly.

Epidemiologic evidence also points to the major role of contagion factors in depression. The rate and nature of depression vary dramatically from culture to culture—unlike with schizophrenia, where roughly 1 percent of the population is affected no matter the culture sampled...

There is a near-perfect correlation between a parent's explanatory style and a child's. Every time a child asks, "Why, Mommy?" or "Why, Daddy?" the explanation provided invariably embodies a particular style of thinking and attributions of causality. Each question is a vehicle for the transmission of thinking that interprets events in a way that is congruent with external reality or that reflects more subjective or hyperemotional responses.

"Why didn't Uncle Bob come to the picnic, Mom?" There's a world of difference between "He must be mad at me" and " I don't know, the next time we talk to Uncle Bob let's ask him." There are also the kinds of attributions that reflect a permanently negative perspective: "Mom, I tried to do this and couldn't, would you help me do it?" "No, you'll never be able to do it, it's too hard."

Very interesting to see how although developing depression might be partly genetic, it seems that parenting (and cultivating strong emotional intelligence) has a lot to do in determining if an adult will have depressive tendencies.

Also very interesting to see that depression usually comes on slowly and is first noticed in our 20's. Culturally speaking, in my opinion, it seems that there's a lot in American culture that seems to be a particularly good incubator of depression.

The silver lining in all this is the possibility that awareness and understanding might be able to reverse the increasing rates of depression passed down through generations -- and maybe adults can change their mentality slowly to overcome the severity of their own depression.

Why does living in the moment make people happier—not just at the moment they're tasting molten chocolate pooling on their tongue, but lastingly? Because most negative thoughts concern the past or the future. As Mark Twain said, "I have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened." The hallmark of depression and anxiety is catastrophizing—worrying about something that hasn't happened yet and might not happen at all. Worry, by its very nature, means thinking about the future—and if you hoist yourself into awareness of the present moment, worrying melts away.