Behavioural systems (attachment, care giving, exploration, sex & power): hyperactivated, hypoactivated or just about right?
6th March 2011
Overall - along with 50 to 60% of the population - I qualify as "securely attached". I was fortunate in being brought up by loving parents who left me with an internalised "secure attachment script" that runs something like "If I feel a bit insecure or threatened, there will be …
Psychotherapy & positive psychology: why psychotherapists should pay attention
4th March 2011
Early next month I'm scheduled to run a workshop on "Psychotherapy & positive psychology". Most of the participants will be 3rd year counselling psychology students, with a few practising psychotherapists in the mix as well. I haven't run a workshop on this subject before. It's a fascinating area that I …
Recent research: articles from February journals
3rd March 2011
I read a lot of research. When I find an article of particular interest I download it to my bibliographic database - EndNote - which currently contains over 15,600 abstracts. Every few weeks I scan through all the articles I've found interesting in the previous month (in the general areas …
Embodied cognition: what to do
23rd February 2011
This blog post is downloadable both as a Word doc and as a PDF file. "Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it!" attrib. Goethe/William Murray "To reach the other shore with each step of the crossing is the …
Embodied cognition: muscle & willpower
22nd February 2011
This blog post is downloadable both as a Word doc and as a PDF file. Introduction: Lying very comfortably in my warm bed early this morning, I knew I wanted to get up but it was hard to do. I waited a little, then tightened my right hand into a …
Embodied cognition: posture & feelings
21st February 2011
This blog post is downloadable both as a Word doc and as a PDF file. Sadly (!) more recent research throws doubt on this 'power posture' literature ... see for example Simmons & Simonsohn's paper "Power posing: P-curving the evidence". Intriguingly there is an argument that possible benefits of an …
Mental contrasting: a way to boost our commitment to goals we care about
20th February 2011
This blog post is downloadable both as a Word doc and as a PDF file. What is ‘mental contrasting'? Mental contrasting (MC) is a way of boosting our energy and commitment for goals that are important to us. It helps us turn our hopes and dreams into realities. Interestingly, and …
Recent research: two studies on relationships, two on body to mind effects, and two on mindfulness
17th February 2011
Here are details of half a dozen recent research papers - two on relationships, two on body to mind effects, and two on mindfulness. Fuller details, links and abstracts of all the studies mentioned are given further down this post. First a couple of relationship studies. Gibb & colleagues reported …
Valentine's day: "language style matching predicts relationship initiation and stability"
14th February 2011
Valentine's Day! Well here's a topical research study. Professor Jamie Pennebaker is probably best known for his research on expressive writing - see, for example, the series of four blog posts I wrote about his lecture at last year's British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies' conference. However, as he …
New NICE guidance on the treatment of generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) and panic disorder (with or without agoraphobia)
10th February 2011
In January, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) published their new evidence-based clinical guideline on the care and treatment of adults with generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) or panic disorder (with or without agoraphobia). This guideline updates and replaces their 2004 one (which was itself amended in 2007). …