We live in a time where the choices that are provided to us are almost infinite. The choices of where to live, what to study, where to work, what occupation to persue and what product to choose can sometimes be overwhelming and it can make deciding which option to choose very hard. There are different strategies we can undergo that help us make a decision. But because of the endless amount of options provided to us, there are some of us (maximisers) who like to make the most of that and need to invesitigate all possibilities, whereas others (satisficers) are content with the first option they stumble upon that satisfies them. But what effect can this decision making process have on our general life satisfaction? Are maximisers happier because they find the best possible option, or are satisficers happier because they spend less time agonising over the decision? Barry Schwartz and colleagues provide the answer to these questions.... Read More

UK Psychologists, who featured on an Australian morning TV show (Sunrise) has outlined 5 simple steps we can take to improve our happiness and hence stay sane as we get older. After reading through them you will realise just easy it could be to stay happy day to day.... Read More

People with more conscientious personalities, who have greater ambition and discipline, live longer. That’s according to Margaret Kern and Howard Friedman who combined data on this topic from over 20 previous studies, involving more than 8,900 participants in the United States, Canada, Germany, Norway, Japan and Sweden - many of whom had illnesses like heart disease or cancer.... Read More

Crying is something we do when we are sad, but i have often wondered whether there is any benefit to shedding some tears over something that has made us upset. Obviously when we are infants, we gain food, love, and attention when we cry but why do we continue to cry over situations, people and emotions throughout our entire life eventhough we receive no direct benefit? There has to be a purpose to the act of crying, otherwise we wouldn’t continue to do it throughout our lives. Recent research conducted at the University of South Florida provides an answer to this question. The findings suggest that crying is a benefit to us, but it depends upon the what, where and when a particular crying episode occurs.... Read More

Holidays. We all love them, right? We spend our lives dreaming about a vacation and they are often seen as a luxury; something that we could do without in our lives (particularly during these hard financial times where our budgets become really tight, a holiday is the first thing to be sacrificed). After spending four days on an island just off the mainland of my hometown, Brisbane, i began wondering whether holidays have an affect on our psychological well being. I began thinking about the people who don’t get away from the buzz of everyday life and how their stress levels would compare to a person who detaches themselves from work and spends that crucial time with their friends and family to unwind and refresh their minds.... Read More

Since the stockmarket began crashing and people starting stressing about the world financial crisis; it has made me think about the position of money in our lives and how it has become such a driving force for us all. But are we really striving for something that will end up making us happier? Or do we just keep on wanting more and more, waiting for it to make us more satisfied with our lives, only to find that it just never comes despite there being a considerable amount of money in our banks? So does money really make us happy or are we all just being fooled by this motivation to want more and more.... Read More

At one stage, psychologists had come to the conclusion that there is nothing we can to do improve our happiness. According to this misleading research, our level of happiness is an immovable and stable trait that remains unchanged no matter how good or bad your experiences are. But recent research tells us a different story. According to Daniel Mochon and colleagues, our happiness can be bolstered by a cumulation of small positive events. If these small, positive events occur regularly, they have been shown to improve our long term happiness. ... Read More

I’d like to share with you an activity that was given to me last semester as part of a class activity. We were given three weeks to ‘break a social norm’. But what does this mean? Social norms are what society is governed by. Formally, they are the rules that a group uses for appropriate and inappropriate values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. They are ’so called’ social laws that we abide by to avoid being socially punished by our peers. We adhere to social norms to avoid being different or doing something that others will think unfavourably of. So surely, it would be easy to break one within a three week period, right? WRONG!... Read More

Our physical health is always something that we are reminded of. We are always told that we need to keep our bodies physically active so that we have longer and healthier lives as we get older. But something that is never stressed is the importance of our mental/brain health.... Read More

I’d just like to share an article i found on Psychology Today, because it is highly relevant to a post I wrote about The Costs of Living in the Future. I truly believe that people will become much happier if they stop worrying about what has to be done tomorrow, or what they have on next week; and care more about what they have in the here and now. But how do you push all those thoughts and worries out of your mind? ... Read More