3. September 2010 by John Schinnerer.

From Physorg.com…

A psychologist and stress expert at the University at Buffalo says research on traumatic experiences pinpoints specific sources of stress that the trapped Chilean miners and their rescuers will need to manage in the weeks and months ahead, and offers ways of dealing with them.

Michael J. Poulin, PhD, is an assistant professor psychology at UB whose research and publications focus on human response to stress and adversity.

“There are few direct parallels to their experience,” he says, “but we know, first of all, that the miners have been greatly deprived of control over their environment, which laboratory and field research indicates is highly stressful.

“Media reports suggest they are coping with this in some effective ways — by taking control of what they can: organizing their living space, choosing leaders, relying on their religious faith and fashioning games and toys out of the materials available to them,” he says.

Their colleagues and loved ones at the surface can assist in this process in several ways, Poulin says, “The most important of which is by insisting that the miners be kept as fully aware of the rescue progress as possible, and consulted for input whenever appropriate.”

Another source of stress, he says, is their very crowded condition.

“One thing that can mitigate stress from that source,” Poulin says, “is for the miners to establish minimal personal space (e.g., individual sleeping areas), and undertake expeditions into side tunnels, provided these are safe.

“As they receive supplies from the surface,” he says, “I expect that a common strategy will be for miners to take a page from the subway- or elevator-rider’s playbook and carve privacy out of the crowded underground room in which they’re trapped by using such techniques as immersing themselves in reading material or listening to music on headphones.”

Environmental issues aside, the biggest source of stress and anxiety for the miners, according to Poulin, is very likely to be the fact that they are cut off from their social world, although certainly less so than cave-in victims who had no contact with rescuers.

“In response to this,” he says, “they are almost certainly developing strong bonds with one another. That is a good thing, but another goal for their colleagues on the surface should be to facilitate their frequent communication with loved ones.

“Moreover,” Poulin says, “as important as it is for the miners to feel connected to and supported by others, research in my lab and elsewhere suggests that their own ability to provide support to those they care for may be just as crucial for their well-being.

“With this in mind,” he says, “it may be important for the miners to realize that, while they are in the mine, each of them has a responsibility to care not only for themselves but also for their fellow miners.”

As a final note, Poulin says it is worth observing that those who experience any kind of stressful or traumatic event are often remarkably resilient.

“From media reports,” he says, “these miners seem to embody this truism. They have spontaneously adopted multiple strategies to manage the stress of their situation. We can hope that when they are rescued, they emerge psychologically little worse for the wear, despite having been through something most of us can barely imagine.”

Provided by University at Buffalo (news : web)

For full article, click here.

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3. September 2010 by John Schinnerer.

From ScienceDaily (Sep. 1, 2010)

‘Mindfulness’, the process of learning to become more aware of our ongoing experiences, increases well-being in adolescent boys, a new study reports.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge analyzed 155 boys from two independent UK schools, Tonbridge and Hampton, before and after a four-week crash course in mindfulness. After the trial period, the 14 and 15 year-old boys were found to have increased well-being, defined as the combination of feeling good (including positive emotions such as happiness, contentment, interest and affection) and functioning well.

Professor Felicia Huppert of the Well-being Institute at the University of Cambridge said: “More and more we are realising the importance of supporting the overall mental health of children. Our study demonstrates that this type of training improves well-being in adolescents and that the more they practice, the greater the benefits. Importantly, many of the students genuinely enjoyed the exercises and said they intended to continue them — a good sign that many children would be receptive to this type of intervention.

“Another significant aspect of this study is that adolescents who suffered from higher levels of anxiety were the ones who benefitted most from the training.”

For the experiment, students in six classes were trained in mindful awareness — mindfulness. Mindfulness is a ‘way of paying attention. It means consciously bringing awareness to our experience, in the present moment, without making judgements about it’. Students in the five control classes attended their normal religious studies lessons.

The training consisted of four 40 minute classes, one per week, which presented the principles and practice of mindfulness. The classes covered the concepts of awareness and acceptance, and taught the schoolboys such things as how to practice bodily awareness by noticing where they were in contact with their chairs or the floor, paying attention to their breathing, and noticing all the sensations involved in walking.

The students were also asked to practice outside the classroom and were encouraged to listen to a CD or mp3 file for eight minutes a day. These exercises are intended to improve concentration and reduce stress.

All participants completed a short series of online questionnaires before and after the mindfulness project. The questionnaires measured the effect of the training on changes in mindful awareness, resilience (the ability to modify responses to changing situations) and psychological well-being.

The researchers found that although it was a short programme, the students who participated in the mindfulness training had increased levels of well-being which were proportional to the amount of time the students spent practicing their new skills.

Professor Huppert continued: “We believe that the effects of mindfulness training can enhance well-being in a number of ways. If you practice being in the present, you can increase positive feelings by savouring pleasurable on-going experiences. Additionally, calming the mind and observing experiences with curiosity and acceptance not only reduces stress but helps with attention control and emotion regulation — skills which are valuable both inside and outside the classroom.”

The success of this initial study has recently led to the creation of an exciting 8 week mindfulness curriculum for schools in both the state and private sectors. This new curriculum, which includes games and video clips, should have even greater benefits.

For further information, see http://mindfulnessinschools.org.

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by University of Cambridge, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
1.    Felicia Huppert, Daniel Johnson. A controlled trial of mindfulness training in schools: The importance of practice for an impact on well-being. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 2010; 5 (4): 264 DOI: 10.1080/17439761003794148

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26. August 2010 by John Schinnerer.

Your emotions have a tremendous influence on your health. More specifically, the frequency with which you feel positive emotions, such as joy, laughter and relaxation, are critical for your ongoing physical health.

A recent study from the University of Kansas has added more weight to this relatively new line of thought linking positive emotion and physical health. The latest intellectual jaunt provides keen evidence of the deep-seated need for positive emotions throughout the world.

Sarah Pressman, assistant prof of psychology at Kansas stated, “We’ve known for a while now that emotions play a critical role in physical health, but until recently, most of this research was conducted only in industrialized countries. So we couldn’t know whether feelings like happiness or sadness matter to the health of people who have more pressing concerns — like getting enough to eat or finding shelter. But now we do.” The findings indicate the tremendous importance of positive emotions in the physical health of all individuals, particularly those in impoverished parts of the world.

Gathering an enormous sample that consisted of more than 150,000 adults from over 140 countries, the study represents more than 95% of the world’s population.  Individuals studied described their recent emotions including happiness, worry, anger, anxiety and sadness.  They also reported their physical status, including health problems such as physical pain, exhaustion and illness. In addition, they described the extent to which their basic needs were currently met (e.g., clothing, shelter, food).

Results found that the frequency of positive emotions experienced are ‘unmistakably linked to better health,’ even when basic needs were accounted for. Notably, the opposite was found to be true as well: Destructive emotions, such as anger, fear and sadness, were reliable predictors of reduced physical health.

Amazingly, the relationship between emotion and physical health was stronger than that between health and basic human needs, like food and shelter. Even for those individuals aching with hunger or suffering from a harsh environment due to lack of shelter, the presence of positive emotions increased health. In fact, the relationship was most powerful in the poorest countries involved in the study.

This essential human need for positive emotions and the importance of positive emotions for physical health is quickly getting established as medical certainty.

To laughter, life and love,

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Founder Guide To Self, Inc.

Award-winning author and blogger

For free copy of John’s award-winning book, ‘Guide to Self: The Beginner’s Guide to Managing Emotion’ visit http://www.GuideToSelf.com and register with your name and email.

 MLA University of Kansas (2009, March 5). Human Emotions Hold Sway Over Physical Health Worldwide.

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21. August 2010 by John Schinnerer.

From ScienceDaily (Aug. 18, 2010) — A Midwest utility company learned firsthand that it pays to keep healthy employees fit, reaping a net savings of $4.8 million in employee health and lost work time costs over nine years.
A University of Michigan study of workplace wellness programs is one of the only longitudinal studies of its kind, said co-author Louis Yen, associate research scientist in the School of Kinesiology’s Health Management Research Center.

Over the nine years, the utility company spent $7.3 million for the program and showed $12.1 million in savings associated with participation. Medical and pharmacy costs, time off and worker’s compensation factored into the savings, said Alyssa Schultz, research area specialist intermediate.

The findings are good news for companies looking to implement wellness programs, said Dee Edington, director of the U-M Health Management Research Center and principal investigator.

“One of the advantages of the study is it shows that a sustainable program will give you savings,” said Edington, also a professor in the School of Kinesiology and a research scientist in the U-M School of Public Health. “Previous studies looked at programs that are short and intense and cover the same people.”

The U-M study differed in three important ways. First, it shows that wellness programs work long-term, even though the employees who participated aged during the study. Second, the study took into account all bottom line costs for implementing the wellness plan. For instance, indirect costs such as recruitment and costs for changing menus. Most studies include just the direct costs to the company for paying for employees who participate. But even using the very conservative U-M figures showed a cost savings, Yen said.

A third difference is that it looked at lost work time as well as pharmacy and medical costs, Schultz said. The employees who participated in all years saw those costs had increased by$96; those who participated in some of the years rose $230; and costs for those who never participated jumped by $355. The program cost $100 per year per employee whether the employee participated or not. Therefore, a participation-related savings of $257 and $125 was calculated for the employees who participated in all years and those who participated in just some years.

Slowly, companies are realizing that while insurance plans must care for sick employees, those plans must also include wellness plans to keep healthy workers healthy, Edington said.

“It’s still a large company activity, but the growth (in wellness plans) is in the medium-sized companies,” Edington said.

So what should a company do when looking for a benefit plan for employees?

“You want a benefit plan that will take care of your sick people but also keep your healthy people healthy and working,” Edington said.
Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Michigan.

 MLA University of Michigan (2010, August 18). Workplace wellness plan saves money over the long-term, new study shows. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 20, 2010, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2010/08/100818151824.htm

Posted in Employee engagement, Corporate Culture, Emotion & productivity, Optimal Human Functioning, San Francisco Bay Area, Happiness and Income, De-escalating anger, Well-being, Assertiveness, Mindfulness, Anxiety, Organizational change initiatives, Managing stress, Customer Engagement, Anger Management, Resiliency, Organizational psychology, Business & psych | Print | No Comments »

20. August 2010 by John Schinnerer.

How do you feel about your employer? A new study in Perspectives on Psychological Science indicates that how happy a company’s employees are is strongly related to how well the company performs in a number of important areas - increased employee retention, improved customer loyalty, and greater profitability.

Such findings may signal a coming downturn for companies such as JetBlue whose former flight attendant recently told a customer over the loudspeaker to take a hike and then jumped out the emergency exit. Assuming more of Jetblue’s workforce is equally unhappy, the company’s profitability is likely to decrease in the short term.

Given the amount of time you spend at work, it seems reasonable that work influences how happy we are. More and more studies are documenting the connection between your attitudes towards work, your mood outside of the workplace and physical outcomes like coronary heart disease.
Come to find out, that may be merely the tip of the iceberg. Gallup scientist James K. Harter reported recently that how you perceive your work conditions also seems to have a significant effect on company profitability.

In Harter’s latest findings, Gallup examined data from over 2,000 business units (e.g., retail stores and sales offices) within 10 firms. Harter and colleagues pored over employee satisfaction surveys, customer loyalty numbers, employee retention rates, and financial performance of the organizations. Harter performed data anayses to determine the strength of relationships between employee job satisfaction and the outcome measures of the firms.

Findings showed that how employees perceive work conditions predict critical organizational outcomes. In other words, when employees hold their company in a positive light, the company was far more likely to have higher employee retention, increased customer loyalty, and improved profitability.

Unexpectedly, the findings indicate that employee perceptions influence these outcomes more than the outcomes affect employee perceptions. It may be that profitability begins with positive employee perceptions of their employer, their job and their overall contribution. Thus, happy employees seem to be key to increased profitability.

Harter suggests that ‘helping employees see the ultimate outcomes the organization is working to achieve and how they play a role in achieving those outcomes’ may be the greatest benefit managers can provide to those they supervise.

By John Schinnerer, Ph.D.
Founder Guide To Self
Award-winning author (Guide to Self: The Beginner’s Guide to Happiness)
Award-winning blogger (Top 3 in positive psychology by PostRank, Top 100 by The Daily Reviewer)
Free 216 page eBook on latest ways to increase happiness from the inside out at http://www.Guidetoself.com

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Journal References:

1.     Manon Mireille LeBlanc, Julian Barling. Workplace Aggression. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2004; 13 (1): 9 DOI: 10.1111/j.0963-7214.2004.01301003.x

2.     H. R. Bowles, M. Gelfand. Status and the Evaluation of Workplace Deviance. Psychological Science, 2009; 21 (1): 49 DOI: 10.1177/0956797609356509

3.     Paul E. Spector. Employee Control and Occupational Stress. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2002; 11 (4): 133 DOI: 10.1111/1467-8721.00185

4.     J. K. Harter, F. L. Schmidt, J. W. Asplund, E. A. Killham, S. Agrawal. Causal Impact of Employee Work Perceptions on the Bottom Line of Organizations. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2010; 5 (4): 378 DOI: 10.1177/1745691610374589

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