Proposal for a BABCP special interest group on compassion
30th June 2011
The British Association for Behavioural & Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP) encourages the formation of Special Interest Groups (SIG's) in areas that members want to particularly focus on. There has been discussion recently about a possible SIG on Compassion. If you're a member of the BABCP and you would like to be …
Self-control, conscientiousness, grit, emotion regulation, willpower - how do you measure it?
27th June 2011
(the "brief self-control scale" is downloadable as either a Word doc or a PDF file; the "grit scales", assessing ability to commit to longer term projects, are downloadable as PDF files; assessment of the broader quality of "conscientiousness" as part of the big five personality assessment is downloadable as a …
Self-control, conscientiousness, grit, emotion regulation, willpower - possible adverse effects
22nd June 2011
(this blog post is downloadable as either a Word doc or a PDF handout). Over the last few days I've written two blog posts on the very many benefits of good self-control - see "Self-control, conscientiousness, grit, emotion regulation, willpower - whatever word you use, it's sure important to have …
Self-control, conscientiousness, grit, emotion regulation, willpower - more on the many benefits
18th June 2011
(today's & the first self-control blog post have been combined and are downloadable as either a Word doc or a PDF handout). In the recent blog post "Self-control, conscientiousness, grit, emotion regulation, willpower - whatever word you use, it's sure important to have it" I wrote about the recently published …
Self-control, conscientiousness, grit, emotion regulation, willpower - whatever word you use, it's sure important to have it
14th June 2011
(today's & the next self-control blog post have been combined and are downloadable as either a Word doc or a PDF handout). Professor Terrie Moffitt and colleagues' recent paper "A gradient of childhood self-control predicts health, wealth, and public safety" is another hammer blow highlighting the crucial importance of self-control …
Family psychoeducation: is this a major step forward in relapse prevention for depression?
12th June 2011
There was a pretty startling paper published in last month's British Journal of Psychiatry: Shimazu, K., S. Shimodera, et al. (2011). "Family psychoeducation for major depression: randomised controlled trial." British Journal of Psychiatry 198(5): 385-390. Background The value of family psychoeducation for schizophrenia has been well established, and indications for …
Who can you trust ... and do they have to be boring?
10th June 2011
May's edition of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology contains three articles on trust that got me thinking a bit. It's been said that the qualities that attract you to a potential partner (or friend) may well end up being the very issues that become most problematic in the …
How much should I weigh if I don't want to die early?
8th June 2011
How does my weight affect my risk of dying? One of the best recent research papers to address this question is the 2010 New England Journal of Medicine article "Body-mass index and mortality among 1.46 million white adults". The paper's abstract reads: Background: A high body-mass index (BMI, the weight …
Conflict: not too much, not too little - insights from 'game theory'
6th June 2011
(this blog post is downloadable as a Word doc or as a PDF file) I've written a series of posts on conflict in the last several days - most recently "Conflict: not too much, not too little - when to get real & problem solve in close relationships". I was …
Conflict: not too much, not too little - when to get real & problem solve in close relationships
5th June 2011
Yesterday, in the blog "Conflict: not too much, not too little - the importance of assertiveness in close relationships", I looked at a series of four research papers from James McNulty's lab at the University of Tennessee on the importance of appropriate assertiveness rather than excessive forgiveness when a couple …