Welcome to the Weekly Medius PsychNews. Every week, we select five thought-provoking Psychology articles from hundreds published in journals and other media. Psychology Drives Everything.

The Humility Of Learning: A New Approach To The Process Of Changing Knowledge
As a cognitive psychologist, I think A LOT about learning. In many classes, I’ve talked about how curiosity generally opens us up to learning. Think of the desire to catch bugs or find evidence of black holes. It is almost impossible to sit across from a kid who is searching the night sky for popular constellations and stars and not get into it. Everyone can have fun recognizing the big and little dipper and doing so again and again; it is a magnetic experience! Recently when teaching about problem-solving and decision-making to my cognitive psychology students, I framed the class discussion by considering variables that lead us toward either viable or less productive decisions. Full article.


It’s better to focus on where you are going than how you are feeling:
The notion that emotional pain and suffering reflect a deviation from a default happy baseline has been referred to as the ‘assumption of healthy normality’. But it’s a mistaken assumption. Estimates of the lifetime prevalence of psychiatric disorders indicate that around one in two adults will meet the criteria for a mental-health condition at some point in their lives. Given that psychological pain is so ubiquitous, we should focus less on what might make us happy, and more on achieving a sense of meaning, regardless of how we’re feeling. Psychotherapy should help people manage effective functioning while they are distressed, above and beyond aiming to reduce symptoms such as difficult thoughts, emotions and sensations. Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) takes this approach, using mindfulness, acceptance and other behavioural strategies to promote more flexible and value-driven behaviours. The goals in ACT are not necessarily to change or reduce one’s problematic thoughts or emotions, but to foster meaningful and effective behaviours regardless of mood, motivation or thinking. In other words, the primary goal is to promote what therapists call ‘valued living’.  Full article.

 

 

How to be Assertive When You’re Worried About Being Criticized or Rejected:
It’s hard to be assertive when you’re really worried about the other person’s response. Maybe you’re worried they’ll think you’re being ridiculous and reject you. Maybe you’re worried they’ll be critical, and you’ll feel even more uncomfortable. These are legitimate concerns. Maybe they’ve even been substantiated by past experiences. For instance, after trying to be assertive, you’ve left an interaction feeling “misunderstood, shunned or ignored,” and the issue went unresolved, said Leslie Garcia, LCSW, a psychotherapist and founder of Counseling Space in New York City, which focuses on the mental and emotional wellness of women business leaders and CEOs.  Full article.

Leaders Show Distinct Body Language Depending On Whether They Gain Authority Through Prestige Or Dominance: 
All kinds of animals use their bodies to signal a high social rank — humans included. But a growing body of research suggests that, for us at least, there are two distinct routes to becoming a leader. One entails earning respect and followers by demonstrating your knowledge and expertise, which confers prestige. An alternative strategy is to use aggression and intimidation to scare people into deference — that is, to use dominance instead. These two ways to the top are very different. And, to get on with their leader, an inferior-status individual would have to respond to these two types of leadership differently, too. So, reasoned, Zachary Witkower and Jessica Tracy at the University of British Columbia, and colleagues, rather than a single human high rank, “power” display, perhaps there are two distinct patterns of non-verbal behaviour that communicate to other individuals exactly what kind of leader someone is.  Full article.