Progress-focused

Depression among young people is a serious problem. Young people with depression do not always have easy access to care. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the risk of depression among young people is thought to have increased. Researchers Jessica Schleider et al. (2021) went in search of easily accessible and fast-acting interventions for this target group.

Are you scarred for life if you have suffered from serious mental problems? Is it 'once an addict, always an addict'? Is a depressed person destined to remain unhappy? You can regularly come across these kinds of gloomy statements.  But in recent years a group of researchers has come up with papers that point to a blind spot. A large proportion of people with serious psychological problems make a full recovery. But this group has remained virtually invisible until now.  Why full-recoverers have been invisible  Mental health researchers and practitioners understandably pay close attention to the symptoms of psychopathology. But, as some researchers have discovered, they underemphasize the good functioning of people who have had psychological complaints. And this has many consequences.  I previously reported on research by Rottenberg et al., (2019) . This study showed that a substantial proportion of people who have suffered from depression fully recover and function w...

Is instilling a growth mindset in students enough to allow them to experience the benefits of growth mindsets? Or is the mindset of the teacher also important? A new study sheds light on this issue.  Growth mindset is related to grades A growth mindset is the belief that intellectual capacities can be developed. A fixed mindset is the belief that intellectual capacities cannot or can hardly be developed.  A fixed mindset encourages students to focus primarily on appearing smart, avoid challenges and give up quickly when faced with adversity. A growth mindset encourages students to focus primarily on learning, seeking challenges and persevering in the face of adversity.  Many studies have previously shown that a growth mindset correlates with academic achievement.  When growth mindset interventions work  Growth mindset interventions work when applied effectively, targeting learners who are vulnerable, and in a context that is supportive ( read m...

If you want to improve situations, objects or behavior, you have to think about how you want to do it. Researchers Adams et al. (2021) examined whether people are equally likely to try to achieve those improvements by adding things (additive transformations) or by removing things (subtractive transformations). For example: how do you improve a text? How do you improve a job? How do you improve a recipe? When trying to achieve improvement, are people more likely to add or remove components (words, tasks, ingredients)?

Although happiness is not the only important thing in life, it can certainly be important and nice to experience happiness. Below I describe some simple things that can contribute to the experience of happiness.

The liking gap is an intriguing and somewhat sad phenomenon. It means we tend to think that others like us less than we like them. The liking gap has been demonstrated in adults but at what age does it start to appear?