“Conference On Positive Psychology: UC Berkeley Psychologists Bring Science Of Happiness To China” plus 3 more |
- Conference On Positive Psychology: UC Berkeley Psychologists Bring Science Of Happiness To China
- Home green home
- Study demonstrates sexual attraction to those who resemble our parents, ourselves
- Resources abound for minority students
| Conference On Positive Psychology: UC Berkeley Psychologists Bring Science Of Happiness To China Posted: 28 Jul 2010 03:39 AM PDT  Main Category: Psychology / Psychiatry Also Included In: Mental Health; Conferences Article Date: 28 Jul 2010 - 0:00 PDT
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The ranks of China's millionaires continue to grow, but the increased wealth has done little to boost the country's gross domestic happiness, according to psychologists at the University of California, Berkeley. They say the pursuit of prosperity in the nation is fast outpacing mental health and well-being, and are seeking to correct that imbalance by spreading the science of happiness in China. As part of that effort, UC Berkeley psychologists, along with colleagues at Tsinghua University, are hosting in August China's first-ever conference on positive psychology. The event is particularly relevant in the wake of China's Foxconn plant worker suicides and headline-generating knife attacks on preschoolers, conference leaders said. "We want to switch the focus in China from the gross domestic product to happiness, from the culture of competition to the common good," said UC Berkeley psychologist Kaiping Peng, founder and director of the Berkeley-Tsinghua Program for Advanced Study in Psychology. In 2008, Peng and his colleagues rebuilt Tsinghua University's psychology program, nearly 60 years after the department was dismantled as part of China's restructuring of higher education along Soviet lines. Psychology is now the third most popular field of study at that university after international finance and accounting, Peng said. The "First China International Conference on Positive Psychology," to be held on Aug. 7 and 8 on the Tsinghua University campus in the academic heart of Beijing, has attracted 200 academic papers from 38 countries and is expected to draw more than 400 scholars, teachers and business leaders. Those presenting their research will include UC Berkeley psychologist Dacher Keltner, author of "Born to be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life," and Christopher Peterson, a University of Michigan psychologist and a pioneer of positive psychology. Another high-profile speaker will be Robert Wright, chronicler of evolutionary psychology and author of "The Moral Animal," which ranked among The New York Times Book Review's 12 best books of 1994. The positive psychology movement was born in the late 1990s when a handful of American psychologists shifted their research away from mental illness and dysfunction and toward the mysteries of human resilience and optimism. Among other things, the Tsinghua University conference will investigate how positive psychology can improve life in China's households, workplaces and educational institutions. It will also explore ties between mental health and spirituality. "Many people in China feel uncertain about the future," Peng said. "We want to do more than just talk about depression and mental illness. We want to figure out how to improve their emotional outlook and bring the wisdoms of Buddhism and other religions to the scientific study of happiness." While psychology in China has enjoyed a renaissance in recent decades, psychiatry and neuroscience are still taken more seriously than social psychology and research into the neurobiological roots of positive emotions, Peng said.But that mindset may be shifting as a string of high-profile suicides and homicides have raised the question of how people in China are faring in the face of rapid economic growth and social change. The Berkeley-Tsinghua conference has generated so much interest and curiosity, Peng noted, that two other positive psychology conferences have been scheduled in China around the same time. One is being hosted by Beijing Normal University from Aug. 13-15. "People love this idea. They want to copy it," said Peng, who grew up during Mao Zedong's cultural revolution, a time when psychology was considered a Western-biased pseudoscience. The story of how Peng brought psychology back to Tsinghua University is something of a fairytale. His father, a college professor, was sent to the Chinese countryside during the cultural revolution to work on fish ponds, leaving his family behind. But Chairman Mao's anti-intellectual movement didn't deter the young Kaiping Peng from pursuing academia. He took his college entrance exams early at age 16, and entered Beijing University intending to major in physics. University officials instead directed him to study psychology, a subject he knew little about. Peng didn't immerse himself fully in psychology until he entered the University of Michigan in 1989 as a visiting scholar and went on to earn a Ph.D. in the subject. He interviewed for faculty positions at the University of Chicago and Cornell University, but it was UC Berkeley that he fell in love with, and whose faculty he joined in 1998. In 2008, through UC Berkeley's fundraising arm, he was introduced to alumni Cher Wang and Wen Chi Chen, who rank among Taiwan's wealthiest entrepreneurs and philanthropists. The couple wanted to donate seed money for various projects in China. After some discussion with Peng, they agreed to support the Berkeley-Tsinghua Program for the Advanced Study in Psychology as part of a broader collaboration between the two campuses. Peng traveled to Beijing that same year with George Breslauer, UC Berkeley's executive vice chancellor and provost, and Sheldon Zedeck, vice provost for academic affairs and faculty welfare, to propose the idea to Tsinghua University officials. The visit went well, and an agreement was struck. With seed money from Wang and Chen and a matching donation from Tsinghua University, the partnership was born and recruiting began. Today, the 10-member psychology faculty at Tsinghua University is made up of four Chinese professors, three U.S.-trained Chinese psychologists and three American professors, including Seth Roberts, a UC Berkeley professor emeritus of psychology and author of "The Shangri-La Diet," a book that promotes weight loss through flavorless foods. Roberts said he jumped at the opportunity to teach at Tsinghua University because he said he thought "Beijing would be fascinating," and that his light teaching schedule would give him more time to write books. He also said he expected the students to be brilliant and talented, and was not disappointed. "To get into Tsinghua as an undergraduate, you have to score extremely well on a nationwide test," Roberts said. The idea for a positive psychology conference came to Peng and his colleagues this spring when a spate of knife attacks in kindergartens that left 15 young children dead turned the spotlight on mental health in China. The assailants were alleged to suffer from psychological problems or grudges related to workplace or relationship problems. Then in May, 10 workers at Foxconn, a computer component manufacturing plant in southern China, committed suicide, deepening concerns about the gap between China's haves and have-nots. One obstacle to happiness in China, Peng said, is the intense culture of competition: "When you have that many people all fighting to achieve the same narrowly defined goals, it becomes a zero-sum game," he said. "That's why we need to change the paradigm of what success means and come together for the greater good of Chinese society," Peng added. "That's why we need to talk about the science of happiness." Source:
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| Posted: 28 Jul 2010 08:54 AM PDT Wayne Andrews was 23 years old, studying psychology at the University of Colorado and working as a janitor at Fairview High School when he bought some mountain property far up Four Mile Canyon west of Boulder. That was 1977, long before the current phase of interest in renewable energy. Andrews wasn't necessarily trying to save the Earth when he decided to build a house and put three solar panels on its roof. "I've just always enjoyed efficiency," Andrews said. An example of that efficiency lines his kitchen wall. The kitchen's wood paneling came from the flooring of Fairview High School's gymnasium that Andrews saved when Fairview installed its current Tartan surface decades ago. Thirty years after he finished his one-story house set among the pine trees, Andrews is still tinkering, trying to find ways to make his home more energy efficient. Most recently, Andrews installed four solar panels on the side of his deck. The newest array -- Andrews now has 12 large panels altogether -- has allowed him to shut off his on-demand hot water system. And its cut his energy usage by 80-100 kilowatt-hours per month, he said. Most of the solar systems being installed these days are photovoltaic panels. But Andrews prefers his solar-thermal system. "Nobody's doing solar thermal these days," he said. "Thermal is 70-percent efficient, whereas photovoltaic is down between 10 and 20 percent efficient. This is much more efficient." The panels in his solar-thermal system collect energy from the sun and heat water that run through the ribs in the panels. The heated water is drawn through a piping system down into Andrews' basement and into a massive holding tank. The tank looks like a small beer-brewing tank -- it's 8 feet in diameter and 10 feet tall and is wrapped in insulated material. It sits in a room Andrews has insulated with sprayed foam material. Most commonly, solar-thermal systems circulate a chemical solution -- typically glycol -- that then heats domestic water at a heat exchange point. Andrews' designed his system so that the heat-exchange mechanism is eliminated. The water that circulates through the solar-thermal system is the water that ends up in his sink and shower. But the water heated from the sun's rays gets too hot to bathe in. So he designed a cooling apparatus for water headed to the shower. Water that's used in his dishwasher is routed a different way and can get above 160 degrees. Remarkably, Andrews had no background in building, design or engineering when he embarked on his home-building project more than 30 years ago. Using tips he picked up from his days in the maintenance field, and leaning on advice of fellow workers in the Boulder Valley School District facilities department, he said, he built most of the home and all its energy systems himself. Andrews loaded the exterior and interior walls in the home with insulation. Insulating the interior walls allows him to shut off rooms he's not using. Though local codes required him to put electric baseboard heaters in his home back in 1979, he said he's never used them. Andrews' first source of heat came from a wood-burning stove in the corner of his living room. The enterprising homeowner placed an intake fan above the fireplace that sucked warm air into a venting system through the rest of the house. When Andrews first acquired the property, the woods near his build site were so thick with dead pine he couldn't see a road some 30 yards away. "When I bought the property there was a lot of beetle kill," he said. "So for forest-fire mitigation I cut a lot of firewood here on the property." His next project? It may have to do with his housemate, a black cat named Angela. "She follows the sun around. I'm trying to figure out how I can mount panels on her as she moves from room to room as the sun moves," Andrews says with a laugh. Contact Mark Collins at BDCTheater@comcast.net. Five Filters featured article: "Peace Envoy" Blair Gets an Easy Ride in the Independent. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. | ||||||||||||
| Study demonstrates sexual attraction to those who resemble our parents, ourselves Posted: 28 Jul 2010 04:56 AM PDT (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers reporting in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin last week say people are drawn to others who resemble their parents or themselves. This may explain why incest taboos are found in many cultures - to counter a natural tendency. University of Illinois psychologist, Chris Fraley, said there had been a century-long debate on whether incest taboos are psychological or cultural adaptations designed to suppress a biological urge. In the early 20th century Sigmund Freud, a psychoanalyst, proposed it was psychological, while Edward Westermarck, a sociologist, proposed it was cultural. Westermarck thought there was a critical time in childhood during which people would not find attractive people who were raising them or raised with them. Most modern researchers think Westermarck was correct, but a new study led by Fraley suggests there may also be a psychological component in which we align ourselves with our kin, who are genetically close to us. The research involved three experiments. In the first, volunteers were shown pictures of strangers' faces and asked to rate them on sexual attractiveness. They were unaware that they were also being shown photographs just before the strangers' faces, and these were flashed so quickly they could only be processed subliminally. Half the volunteers were flashed a picture of their opposite gender parent, while the remaining subjects were flashed a picture of an unrelated person. The results of this experiment were that those who were exposed to a picture of their parent generally found the stranger's face more sexually attractive than those who were shown the photo of an unrelated person. A second experiment used images of two faces morphed together. The control group was shown images of faces of strangers morphed together, but the other subjects were shown faces that were composites of a stranger's face and (unknowingly) up to 45% their own face. They then rated the sexual attractiveness of the morph. In this experiment the subjects shown images containing their own face found the picture more sexually attractive. In the final experiment the volunteers were again shown composite pictures, and half were told the composites included their own faces, while the rest were not. In fact none of the composites contained the subjects' faces. They were again asked to rate their sexual attractiveness. The results showed the subjects who believed the composites contained their own image rated it as less sexually attractive than those who did not. Fraley said all the experiments support Freud's argument that we are subconsciously attracted to features reminiscent of our own, and cultural aversions to incest were developed to override the "primitive drive." So when we are aware of the relationship we are not sexually attracted, but when the awareness is bypassed we are in fact more sexually attracted to our kin. Another explanation for the results is that our brains can simply process familiar images more easily, and Fraley said further experiments are needed to test this idea. More information: Westermarck, Freud, and the Incest Taboo: Does Familial Resemblance Activate Sexual Attraction? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Published online before print July 20, 2010, doi:10.1177/0146167210377180 Five Filters featured article: "Peace Envoy" Blair Gets an Easy Ride in the Independent. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. | ||||||||||||
| Resources abound for minority students Posted: 28 Jul 2010 01:48 AM PDT President Robert Shelton and many members of the campus community take pride in the diversity of resources available to a diverse student body. The four cultural centers on campus — African American Student Affairs, Asian Pacific American Student Affairs, Chicano/Hispano Student Affairs and Native American Student Affairs — provide a place on a large campus for both incoming and current students to really find their niche. "Having a sense of place is really important," said Amanda Tachine, director of Native American Student Affairs. "(The center) allows for an environment that then plays into this large campus." Tachine said it is hard for her to pick any one resource as better than the others, because the existence of the center itself does so much for students. Danthai Xayaphanh, director of Asian Pacific American Student Affairs, echoed a similar feeling. "We're a great resource that students can find a home at on this campus," he said. "We have study lounges here, we have tutors here." He added that the center in general is a hidden gem. The Chicano/Hispano Student Affairs and African American Student Affairs centers have similar facilities for students as well. In addition to services, the cultural centers are working to bring a number of speakers to campus this fall, according to Chicano/Hispano Director Socorro Carrizosa. "We are currently working on scheduling speakers and activities for Hispanic Heritage Month, along with planning the semester activities that will be led by the CHSA Student Programming Board," Carrizosa said. The African American Student Affairs center also tries to provide a home for students on campus. Home to all of the traditionally African American fraternities and sororities, as well as clubs such as the African Student Association, African Americans in Life Sciences and Black Graduate Student Association, AASA has its doors open for any questions, according to Brent Walker, student assistant to Maria Moore, director of African American Student Affairs. "AASA is open with student staff members (such as myself) to answer any questions a student may have about the center or campus," Walker said. Besides providing specific facilities to the cultures they serve, the centers and their directors work together to promote awareness of all minorities on campus. In partnership with campus communities such as the Women's Resource Center, Transitions and the Associated Students of the University of Arizona, the centers have scheduled a welcome party on Aug. 25 to make students aware of the resources available to them on campus. "We usually do a welcome individually, but this year we are doing a collaboration," said Xayaphanh, who heads the organization of the event. The focus on social justice and awareness will be prominent at the event, according to Xayaphanh. This focus is something Tachine also felt strongly influenced the mission of both Native American Student Affairs and the other cultural centers. For incoming students, these centers provide a community within a community, and their directors had some advice for those new to the UA. "Get involved," Xayaphanh said. "The more you get involved with your college, the more you'll feel a part of it … and always seek help when you need it." Tachine followed that sentiment with an addition she felt is important for students. "Just be who you are and remember the morals and values that you were raised with. It's important," Tachine said. "You'll get different viewpoints and different ideas, but remember who you are." Five Filters featured article: "Peace Envoy" Blair Gets an Easy Ride in the Independent. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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