Will Baum, LCSW

Jon Kabat-Zinn talks mindfulness at Google (2007):

In never rains in California, but…

In a comprehensive new study of mental health status and the use of mental health services by Californians, the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research found that nearly one in five adults in the state — about 4.9 million people — said they needed help for a mental or emotional health problem…

PsyBlog posts the latest on how to win friends and influence people.

The art and science of persuasion is often discussed as though changing people’s minds is about using the right arguments, the right tone of voice or the right negotiation tactic. But effective influence and persuasion isn’t just about patter, body language or other techniques, it’s also about understanding people’s motivations…

NYT: A New Risk Factor: Your Social Life

Social relationships are just as important to health as other common risk factors like smoking, lack of exercise or obesity, new research shows…The researchers concluded that having few friends or weak social ties to the community is just as harmful to health as being an alcoholic or smoking nearly a pack of cigarettes a day. Weak social ties are more harmful than not exercising and twice as risky as being obese, the researchers found.

PsychCentral:  Early Life Experiences Boost Adult Mental Health.

A new study suggests infants who receive strong affection from their mothers are well equipped to cope with life stressors as adults.  Although the sample is small, the research is meaningful. Most prior studies have relied on recall; few have tracked participants from childhood to adult life, say the authors.

New at YANSS, the Anchoring Effect:

The Misconception: You rationally analyze all factors before making a choice or determining value.

The Truth: Your first perception lingers in your mind, affecting later perceptions and decisions.

From the YANSS vaults, a look at the Just World Fallacy:

The Misconception: People who are losing at the game of life must have done something to deserve it.

The Truth: The benefactors of good fortune often did nothing to deserve it, and bad people often get away with their actions without consequences.

PsychCentral:  Harmful Stereotypes Hinder Learning and Performance.

Through a series of experiments involving Chinese characters and color judgment tasks, the researchers were able to show that actual learning had not occurred in the group of women who had been reminded of the negative stereotypes involving women’s math and visual processing ability.

NYT:  Following a Script to Escape a Nightmare.

In recent years, nightmares have increasingly been viewed as a distinct disorder, and researchers have produced a growing body of empirical evidence that this kind of cognitive therapy can help reduce their frequency and intensity, or even eliminate them.

The treatments are controversial. Some therapists, particularly Jungian analysts, take issue with changing nightmares’ content, arguing that dreams send crucial messages to the waking mind.

What to expect when you were expecting a dozen-plus years ago:  Adolescence and Anger.

Parents can get angry in their frustrating fight for influence, adolescents can get angry in their frustrating fight for freedom. However,the battle is finally lost and won as the new generation defeats the old.