Loneliness Can Be Contagious, New Study Suggests
Could loneliness be contagious?
Loneliness is a common issue faced by many people over the holiday or at many other times throughout the year. One recent study published in the December issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suggests that loneliness can spread in social networks much like a contagious cold bug.
“According to the results of the study, loneliness can spread much like the common cold. While a cold or flu bug might be spread through a handshake, loneliness can spread through groups of people via negative social interactions.”
Read the Full Story: Loneliness Can Be Contagious
It’s been a busy week, especially after wrapping up the Thanksgiving holiday. Shortly before the holiday weekend, I covered some great ideas for dealing with holiday stress. There are some excellent tips and resources here for students trying to deal with the last-minute rush that always seems to dominate the end of the semester, but there are also some ideas for anyone who faces stress during the holiday season.
More New Features From About.com Psychology:
Dreaming Is Exercise for the Brain, Study Suggests
If you’ve ever had an extremely vivid or down-right bizarre dream, then you’ve probably spent a bit of time wondering exactly what your dreams might mean. Are your dreams hidden symbols of your unconscious thoughts? Or is your brain just trying to make sense of brain activity in the absence of sensory experiences? There are plenty of theories about why we dream, but one new study from well-known dream research J. Allan Hobson proposes that dreams are simply the brains way of preparing for the upcoming day. Learn more about this new study in this post – Dreams: Exercise for the Brain, New Study Suggests.
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Sign Up for My Free Psychology Newsletter
If you want to get all of the latest news and updates on what’s happening at the About.com Psychology website, then be sure to sign up for my free psychology newsletter. Every week, you’ll get a great selection of news, articles, resources, polls and features delivered straight to your inbox. The newsletter is an excellent resource for psychology students, teachers or people with an interest in the human mind and behavior.
More Ways to Stay Up-to-Date
Weekly Round-Up
- Action Potential: The Psychology Definition of the Week
- How to Find Psychology Scholarships
- Quotes by Famous Psychologists
- Have You Considered a Career In…School Psychology?
Upgraded to Windows 7
My desktop, uncluttered...for now.
I spent yesterday backing up my laptop and getting it ready to upgrade to Windows 7. The upgrade itself was a relatively painless process. I started with a fresh install rather than use the upgrade option, since I kept running into some software compatibility issues. Aside from the annoyance of having to reinstall all of my programs and settings, things are running smoothly.
Some useful tips before installing Windows 7:
- Write down any passwords you might need for different programs. After several minutes of trying to recall the password for our wireless network, I finally managed to find it scribbled on a scrap of paper in a desk drawer.
- Back up your entire drive. I use a one terabyte portable hard drive to periodically back up all of the data on my drive.
- Make a quick list of your most frequently used programs and locate the install disks. Once you have Windows 7 up and running, you can quickly get your favorite software ready to use.
- Don’t forget your Firefox bookmarks. Before getting started, I exported all of my bookmarks to an HTML file and backed it up on a separate drive. Normally, I use Delicious to manage all of my bookmarks, but it is still handy at times to have a collection of favorite sites right within your browser.
- I also made a list of my favorite add-ons. I rely heavily on a number of different add-ons for project management and productivity, so I wanted to make sure that I didn’t forget to reinstall them after the update. Some of my faves include Colorful Tabs, Evernote Web Clipper, Greasemonkey, Lazarus Form Recovery and Zotero.
Weekly Wrap Up
It’s been a busy week! Here’s a quick look back at some of the new features on the About.com Psychology site plus some other news and articles that I found interesting.
Psychology at About.com
- The Psychology Definition of the Week: ABA Design
- Great Advice for Students: Tips for Writing a Psychology Research Paper
- A Closer Look: Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences
- Have You Considered a Career In…Industrial-Organizational Psychology?
More Psychology News
- Phys Ed: What Sort of Exercise Can Make You Smarter? – From The New York Times
- How Video Games are Good For the Brain – An article from the Boston Globe looking at the cognitive benefits of video Games
- How Rewards Can Backfire and Reduce Motivation – From the always fabulous PsyBlog.
6 Ways to Overcome Writer’s Block
Writer’s are not the only ones who encounter mental blocks from time to time. No matter what industry you work in, there are bound to be periods when you just don’t feel inspired to create, perform or complete tasks necessary for your job.
So what do you do when you encounter one of these blocks? Waiting for them to pass is generally not the he best option, especially if you are self-employed and your paycheck depends largely on your creative output.
The following are just a few of the techniques that I use when I just don’t feel like writing. While there is no sure-fire way to break down mental blocks, testing out a few different strategies can be a great way to get back on track and get your creative juices flowing once more.
1. Take a Break
A serious mental block is often a good indicator that it’s time to take a brief break from what you are doing. Turn off the computer and spend a little time doing something completely different. Housework and hobbies are two of my favorite ways to unwind. Spend at least 15 minutes to a couple of hours engaged in an activity not related to your job. Even a short break can help clear your head and provide a renewed sense of focus.
2. Work on an Alternate Project
Sometimes when I’m writing, I find myself simply growing tired of the subject matter. Plugging along and trying to churn out new material at this point just leads to poor writing, so I simply start working on another project. Try to keep multiple projects going at once, so that you always have something else to turn to when you feel uninspired to work on a particular piece of writing.
3. Seek Out Inspiration
As part of my job, I often need to find images to accompany articles and blog posts. Whenever I encounter a period of writer’s block, I often find that looking at images is a great way to reignite the creative spark. Browse through pictures online using tools such as Google Images, DeviantArt and other image repositories to find visual inspiration for your writing.
4. Browse Through Old Bookmarks
I’m a habitual bookmarker. I use Delicious to manage most of my bookmarks, but I frequently save links via my browser as well. Anything that I find remotely interesting or possibly valuable for future use gets tagged. Sorting through these old links is a great way to find ideas for articles and blog posts. Start assembling your own collection of interesting links to serve a sources of future inspiration. Be sure to carefully organize your links into different categories.
5. Use Social Networks
Whenever I’m feeling really stumped for ideas, I start browsing through social networking and bookmarking websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Digg and StumbleUpon. These sites can trigger ideas by highlighting interesting information and articles.
6. Spruce Up Your Writing Space
Fixing up your writing space, whether you work from the dining room table or your own home office, can definitely help brighten up your day. Clear off your workspace and spend a few minutes organizing your supplies, or even think about putting up a new coat of paint in an inspiring color.
A few more sources of ideas for overcoming writer’s block:
- Hack Your Way Out of Writer’s Block – 43 Folders
- Top 10 Tips for Overcoming Writer’s Block – Fiction Writing at About.com
- Generating Story Ideas and Overcoming Writer’s Block – Grammar Girl
- How to End Writer’s Block Forever – Copy Blogger
Image courtesy T. Al Nakib
Professional Development Modules for Teachers from the APA
The American Psychological Association’s Center for Psychology in Schools and Education has some great educational modules that educators might find useful. According to the CPSC website, “The mission of the coalition is to bring together interested psychologists to promote and make publicly accessible applications of the research that psychology has developed to assist the nation in improving the quality of public and private Pre-K – 12 education.”
The two professional development modules currently available are:
- Practical Classroom Management: Class-wide and Individual Strategies
- Interventions for Classroom Disruption: Addressing Emotional and Behavioral Problems in the Classroom
Each module include five video presentations in Windows Media Player format. Each module includes specific situations that may occur in the classroom and outlines strategies that have been demonstrated to be effective in research psychological and educational research.
Testing Out Windows Live Writer
Windows Live Writer is a nifty little tool that lives on your desktop and allows you to write and update almost any type of blog, including Wordpress, Blogger, LiveJournal and TypePad. This includes updates self-hosted Wordpress blogs. After struggling with the install for a few minutes, I finally managed to locate a version with an installer that actually worked on my PC.
The set up is simple. Just enter the URL of your website, your username and password. You may need to adjust the settings on your blog to allow the software to work – just follow the link provided by Writer.
Writer could serve as a great tool for classroom use. Because it lacks the clutter of most blog interfaces, students and educators are able to quickly write posts and upload them to their sites. Teachers could also set up a collaborative blog and allow each student authoring rights, making it possible for students to easily share ideas or assignments with the rest of the class.
So far, things are working smoothly. I haven’t experimented yet with inserting pictures, maps or video so we’ll wait and see.
Give Windows Life Writer a try.
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