The Social Contagion of Happiness

16. January 2010 by John Schinnerer.

By John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Happiness is catching. Happiness spreads through friends, spouses, siblings and neighbors. There is a ripple effect whereby happiness extends widely through social networks, even between people who may not know one another. One’s happiness depends on the degree of happiness of those surrounding her.

Happiness at Harvard?

A study performed at Harvard University, by Nicholas Christakis, is the first of its kind to demonstrate the existence of clusters of happy and sad individuals. Happiness depends upon the happiness of those around them. What’s more, individuals who surround themselves with happy people are more likely to be happy in the future. One’s future happiness can actually be predicted by the number of happy people surrounding them and the degree to which the social network as a whole experiences constructive emotions, such as happiness.  These findings come from an analysis of the Framingham Heart Study social network, a longitudinal study that has followed nearly 5,000 people for over 20 years.

Happiness Spreads Through Social Networks

Study findings suggest that happiness results from the spread of happiness throughout social networks and not merely from individuals choosing to surround themselves with like-minded individuals. For example, if your next door neighbor becomes happier due to a job promotion, your likelihood of becoming happier increases by 34%. And this happiness effect can linger for up to one year.

Happiness Ripples Out to Friends of Your Friends

This relationship between individual’s happiness holds true for the first three degrees of separation. For example, when John becomes happier, it buoys the happiness of John’s friends as well as the friends of John’s friends. So there is a ripple effect of happiness within social circles where happiness is contagious and spreads similar to the waves of a wireless network. And we are consciously aware of little, if any, of it.

In the past five to ten years, more and more studies have looked at happiness and what determines it (e.g., genetics, money, elections, marital status and emotional management). However, no study has looked at human happiness as it relates to the happiness of others. While the study is the first of its kind and needs to be replicated to ensure the accuracy of these findings, the findings are remarkable and exhilarating.

Positive Emotional Contagion

Emotional contagion, the process by which one person picks up the feelings of another, has been scientifically documented since 1994. Emotions may be ‘caught’ from others for a length of time ranging from seconds to weeks.  This is particularly true of destructive emotions - anger, fear and sadness. In fact, the hard part is not ‘catching’ the emotions but in protecting oneself from them, keeping them at bay. Until this study, emotional contagion had not been documented for any of the positive, constructive emotions such as joy, contentment, peacefulness or happiness. 

The difficulty is that most people primarily feel destructive emotions. Most people experience more destructive emotions than constructive emotions. 

Cutoff Point for a Happy, Thriving Life

On the other hand, roughly 10% of adults in the United States feel three times as much positive emotion as negative. This 3:1 ratio is the measuring stick for a thriving happy life as set by Barbara Fredrickson at UNC Chapel Hill. It appears that this top 10% is raising the level of happiness of many others. Imagine if it were possible to raise this thriving, happy portion of the population to 15% or 20%.

Benefits of Increasing Societal Happiness

Assuming the percentage of the populace experiencing happiness could be improved, here are just a few of the possible societal benefits:

The economy would improve (e.g., higher ratios of positive, open-ended inquiries are present in executive teams in highly successful firms)

Creativity would increase (e.g., happiness is necessary for greater innovation and open-mindedness)

Productivity would soar (e.g., a happy employee is a productive employee; optimistic salespeople outsell pessimistic ones by approximately 38%; happy employees engage more effectively with customers)

The burden on the health care system would be eased (e.g., happiness improves immune system functioning; teaching the skills of happiness and optimism reduces depression and anxiety).

People would live longer (e.g., happy, optimistic people live 7 – 10 years longer than those who are pessimistic and unhappy)

The educational system would show significant academic gains (e.g., students taught to be more happy and optimistic showed significant gains on achievement testing and received better grades)

Happiness is Learnable

The exciting part is that happiness can be taught. It can be learned. People can learn to feel positive emotions more frequently and more intensely. Emotional management is a learnable skill. Just as one practices a sport and improves over time so it is with emotions.   As individuals learn to string together more and more happy moments, the ripple effect spills over and one person’s happiness positively influences others.  It even influences the happiness of other people they don’t know.

The goal is emotional management. The goal is happiness. The goal is to learn to mitigate destructive emotions and encourage positive emotions. Happiness is social phenomena. The more individuals experience positive emotions, the more society as a whole is happier, healthier, and more productive and that is no small feat.

About the Author

Dr. John Schinnerer is in private practice helping individuals learn happiness by mitigating destructive emotions and fostering constructive emotions. His practice is located in the Danville San Ramon Medical Center at 913 San Ramon Valley Blvd., #280, Danville, California 94526. He graduated summa cum laude from U.C. Berkeley with a Ph.D. in psychology. Dr. Schinnerer has been an executive and psychologist for over 10 years. Dr. John Schinnerer is President and Founder of Guide To Self, a company that coaches clients to their potential using the latest in positive psychology, mindfulness and attentional control. Dr. John Schinnerer hosted over 200 episodes of Guide To Self Radio, a prime time radio show, in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Dr. Schinnerer is President of Infinet Assessment, a psychological testing company to help firms select the best applicants. Dr. Schinnerer’s areas of expertise range from positive psychology, to emotional awareness, to moral development, to sports psychology. Dr. Schinnerer wrote the award-winning, “Guide To Self: The Beginner’s Guide To Managing Emotion and Thought,” which is available at Amazon.com, BarnesAndNoble.com and AuthorHouse.com.  

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The Best Ways to Legally and Effectively Use Pre-Employment Testing

12. January 2010 by John Schinnerer.

Pre-hire testing is an effective risk management tool that has been proven to significantly reduce turnover and improve productivity. A recent survey by the American Management Association reported that 69 percent of firms used job skills testing, 43 percent used basic skills testing (math, reading, writing), and 33 percent used some form of psychological testing in 2000. Despite the widespread use of pre-employment testing, anxiety continues to surround the use of these tests due to legal issues, which are largely complicated and difficult to understand. This article reviews the three most pressing legal issues involved in pre-employment testing – adverse impact, the right to privacy and negligent hiring. 

I. Title VII and Adverse Impact: Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it is “unlawful for an employer to refuse to hire any individual, or otherwise discriminate against any individual with respect to his … employment, because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.”  With regards to pre-employment testing, Section 703(h) of the Act provides that “notwithstanding any other provision of this subchapter, it shall not be an unlawful practice for an employer … to give and to act upon the results of any professionally developed ability test provided that such test … is not designed, intended or used to discriminate because of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.” Obviously, Title VII does not prohibit employers from the use of intelligence, skills or integrity tests in the workplace. However, the statute is brought into play when: (1) an employer uses tests to intentionally discriminate against protected groups or (2) the tests have an adverse impact on minorities and are not job-related for the position. 

There has not been a single case that found an employer’s use of personality testing in the workplace resulted in the adverse impact of protected groups. However, there could be such a finding if the tests were used to purposefully exclude minorities.

Recommendation: The safest practice is to administer the same pre-employment test to all applicants for a particular position, making reasonable accommodations for those who need it (e.g., translation for non-English speakers, larger computer terminal for visually impaired, etc.). This is the first step towards a fair and equitable selection process. The concept of adverse impact was set in motion by the 1991 Civil Rights Act by the U.S. Supreme Court in Griggs v. Duke Power Company. In order to prove the existence of adverse impact, it must be shown that a specific employment practice has a significant adverse impact upon a protected group. 

Most courts have relied on the 80 percent rule as indicated by the EEOC’s Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures. According to this rule, adverse impact is established if the selection rate for any minority group is less than 80 percent of the rate for the group with the highest selection rate.  

Recommendation: An adverse impact study should be performed every time a test is brought in to a new site for personnel selection purposes. If adverse impact is detected, steps can be taken to eliminate it, thereby protecting both the applicants and the company. It is important to note that there have been few adverse impact cases involving personality or integrity tests because such tests usually do not have an adverse impact on any minorities. No one has ever successfully proved a prima facie case against the use of integrity tests. On top of this, there are very few challenges, no more than 100, for the millions of tests that have been administered.  

II. Right to Privacy:

An issue of growing legal concern for employers using personality testing is privacy. The concept of a right to employment privacy evolved from the broader concept of the right to privacy. Some states such as California, have applied such privacy standards to private employers. The lower courts have recognized the constitutional right to privacy protects public employees. Thus, test questions administered to public employees must not be unreasonably intrusive (e.g., questions about sexual preferences, religious or political views) and must be job-related. 

Recommendation: With regard to issues of privacy, the recommended route is to use a third party testing company. This allows applicants to take the assessment through an unbiased third party who keeps their actual responses confidential. Using this approach, companies have access to the overall test results, but do not have access to candidates’ responses on individual test items. This eliminates the majority of privacy issues. 

III. Negligent Hiring

While there are reasons for being cautious when using pre-employment testing, there are also legal trends that argue strongly for the most extensive use of such tests. With negligent hiring now recognized in most states, employers have been forced to account for crimes committed by employees, usually thefts, battery or assaults that victimize customers and/or employees. In these cases, liability depends on the employer negligently placing someone with negative tendencies into a position where it was foreseeable that the hired individual posed a threat to others.

Recommendation 1: Prior to making an offer, pre-employment testing should be used to ensure the applicant fits the culture and expectations of your company.

Recommendation 2: In addition, background screening (e.g., criminal history, driving history, social security number, etc.) is an excellent idea to protect yourself and your coworkers from a dangerous hire, as past history is an excellent indicator of future behavior.

It is critically important to link the job demands to the test questions and the results. The best

 means to do so is to have every pre-employment assessment empirically linked to job performance using performance rating scales for existing employees and test results for those same employees. With those two sets of data, statistical analyses may be run to prove the relationship between the assessment results and job performance, thereby assuring your firm a legally defensible and highly effective assessment.

About the Author - Dr. John Schinnerer founded Infinet Assessment, a psychological testing company, in 1997. Dr. Schinnerer is an educational psychologist, author and executive coach whose Ph.D. is from U.C. Berkeley. His areas of expertise range from emotional management in the workplace to psychometrics to the traits, knowledge, skills and abilities that have the greatest impact on job performance. Dr. Schinnerer wrote the award-winning, “Guide To Self: The Beginner’s Guide To Managing Emotion and Thought,” which is available at Amazon.com, BarnesAndNoble.com and AuthorHouse.com. He is a noted writer and speaker on topics such as the legal issues involved in pre-employment testing, creating an ethical workplace, and improving productivity in the workforce. He may be reached via email at John@InfinetAssessment.com or via phone at 925-944-3440. His company’s websites may be found at InfinetAssessment.com or GuideToSelf.com.

Posted in Corporate Culture, Emotion & productivity, Employee engagement, Executive coach, Employment Testing, Optimal Human Functioning, National speakers, Organizational psychology, Emotional IQ, Dr. John Schinnerer, Customer Engagement, Infinet Assessment, Emotional management, Business & psych | Print | No Comments »

A Fantastic Way to Start 2010!

8. January 2010 by John Schinnerer.

Check out this 40 minute Quicktime presentation on positive psychology from a humorous perspective. It will provide you with a much needed boost - laughter, motivation, insight and challenge.

John Schinnerer, Ph.D. speaking on positive psychology, resiliency and emotional management.

http://www.jobconnections.org/speaker4.shtml

Keep up the courage. Stay the course. Look for little steps of improvement. Make your resolutions habitual. You can do it!

Happy New Year!

John Schinnerer, PhD

Posted in Emotion & productivity, Employee engagement, Danville CA, National speakers, Awareness, Overcoming failure, San Ramon CA, Positive emotions and job search, Brain plasticity, Optimal Human Functioning, Visual Attention, Executive coach, Psychological Humor - Jokes, Hope, Mindfulness, Guide To Self Beginners Guide To Managing Emotion, Emotional mind, Anxiety, Guide to Self, Managing stress, Dr. John Schinnerer, Emotional management, Managing Anxiety, The human brain, Resiliency, Consciousness, Managing Sadness, Anger Management, Positive Psychology | Print | No Comments »

Positive Psychology – The Science of Optimal Human Functioning with Dr. John Schinnerer - One hour teleclass 12/8/09

9. December 2009 by John Schinnerer.

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Partial script for 1-hour teleclass on 12/8/09

Welcome to what I hope will be a wonderful talk on positive psychology. I will be your host tonight. My name is John Schinnerer. I hold a Ph.D. in educational psychology from U.C. Berkeley. In 2007, I wrote a positive psychology book called ‘Guide To Self: The Beginner’s Guide to Managing Emotion & Thought’ which was awarded Best Self-Help Book of the year. In 2006, I hosted a daily primetime radio show here in the SF Bay Area. Currently, I do keynote speaking, teach and see private clients.  I also collaborate with the University of New Zealand on the International Wellbeing Study which you can participate in at www.wellbeingstudy.com. 

Just a bit of housekeeping…If you have questions during the talk, please email me at john@guidetoself.com and I will do my best at the end to answer them. Your end of the phone has been muted as there are over 500 people on this call.

     I like to start off my talks with a joke to put you in a positive frame of mind. So here it goes…

A psychologist is holding a group therapy session in which there are four young mothers, each of whom has a small child with her. The psychologist gazes at the four women and blurts out “You’re all obsessed. And your obsessions show up in the names of your kids.”

He points to the first mother and calmly states “You are obsessed with spending money & shopping…you named your daughter Penny.”

The shrink points to the second mother and dryly adds “And you are stuck on the issue of eating. You went so far as to name your daughter Candy!”

As the remaining two mothers shift uncomfortably in their seats, the psychologist continues, pointing to the 3^rd mother, “While you have a drinking problem which shows itself in your daughter’s name – Brandy.”

     ……

At that point, the fourth mother, who can’t contain herself any longer, stands up, grabs her son by the hand and says …

“Come on Dick, we’re getting out of here!”

 

     I told this joke on the radio to thousands of listeners and got a landslide of positive feedback ….initially. One lady, who was driving when she heard it, said she had to pull over to the side of the freeway because she was laughing so hard. However, the show was rerun and then we started to get a few complaints. So the station owner called me in to tell me we couldn’t run the show anymore. I asked why not. He said because the joke was dirty. I knowingly asked what was dirty about it. He said it was the reference to sex. I told him that there was no mention in the joke as to whether or not the sex was taking place in a marriage. You see, the dirtiness of this joke is truly in the mind of the listener. If one assumes the sex is taking place within a marriage, there really is nothing dirty about the joke (unless you think sex in general is aversive).  The reason I tell this story is to point out that there are many different way of seeing the world, different ways of viewing the actions of others and even various ways of relating to your own mind, your thoughts, and your feelings.  And I’ll discuss a few of these points today.

Now that you are prepped to learn something new, let’s talk about positive psychology because it holds great promise. Just to be clear, positive psych is not a self-help movement. It is not as simple as positive thinking. It has no relation to books such as The Secret. It is not a passing trend.

Positive psychology is the scientific study of optimal functioning, the applied approach to human flourishing. The lessons of positive psychology are beneficial for everyone – teenagers, executives, managers and the elderly. Even the Army is currently training thousands of sergeants in positive psychology to boost the resiliency of troops and to decrease the possibility of post-traumatic stress disorder. While our Army troops have always been physically fit, we are now seeing a momentous shift in thinking which will enable them to become psychologically fit as well.

So this class and positive psychology in general definitely has something to offer you and it is as valuable in your personal life as in your professional life. At the heart of positive psychology are a number of research based findings into how and when people function at their very best.

Most of us spend a great deal of our time worrying over what might go wrong, or beating ourselves up over what we think did go wrong, or feeling disappointed over the inherent unfairness of life. Recent research shows that we are hard-wired to pay closer attention to this that go wrong than things that go right. And from an evolutionary standpoint, this makes sense. Being overly vigilant for threats and problems helped keep us alive from predators back when sabre-toothed tigers roamed the earth.

However, this hard wiring focused on the negative does not serve us well in modern day life.  Events such as childrens’ skinned knees, missed deadlines, speaking in public or bumper-to-bumper traffic may feel frustrating, scary or stressful but they are not matters of life and death.

So take a quick moment to ask yourself,

‘How much is my focus on what might go wrong helping me?’

‘How much are my negative emotions, such as fear and anger, assisting me in reaching my goals?’

To these questions, positive psychology provides a somewhat unusual answer:

spend more time focusing on what is going right with your life,

focus more on what may go well in the future,

and see how much that approach helps you reach your goals.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I am not suggesting that you only have a positive perspective. I am not suggesting that you be foolishly optimistic. There is a great deal of merit to accurately foreseeing and planning for potential problems. It’s a matter of balance. How much of your mental time is spent focusing on problems as compared to looking at the positives. Positive psychology has found that there are tremendous benefits to learning to focus more on what is right with us and what may go well in the future.

One of the basic assumptions of Positive psychology is that all people are ‘Born to be Good’ to quote the title of Dacher Keltner’s book and that we can become better, happier and more productive.  Let me repeat that, we can learn to be happier. Your happiness is not written in stone. You can learn techniques to increase your satisfaction with life.

What makes the crucial difference between positive psychology and traditional self-help books is the mountain of research upon which positive psychology is built. At this point, there are over 50,000 studies having to do with happiness, realistic optimism, human strengths, life satisfaction and more. Empirical researchers across the world are looking for testable theories and explanations supported by hard data. It is, in simplest terms, a powerful movement from faith to facts. So everything I write about, everything about which I speak, is based on scientific studies and replicable data.

The biggest shift towards a positive psychology took place in the late 1990s when Martin Seligman, as president of the American Psychological Association, began asking the question “what is right with people?” For over 100 years, medicine and psychology had both focused on what was wrong with people and how problems could be fixed. Seligman used his influence to create a new branch of science termed positive psychology focusing on what is right with us, how we can lead more thriving, fulfilling, and meaningful lives.

Seligman and Mike Csikszentmihalyi brought together some of the top young researchers in psychology to study topics such as hope, happiness, gratitude, wisdom, creativity and optimal human functioning. From there it spread to include researchers in humanistic psychology, philosophy, executive coaches, sports psychology, developmental psychologists and many more areas. It continues to spread to business, education and counseling.

The best part is that positive psychology works and works well. Positive psychology exercises have been shown in numerous studies to promote strengths, improve optimal functioning, to increase realistic optimism and to increase the frequency of positive emotions.

Some of you may be skeptical. I completely understand this. I was skeptical at first too.  I was brought up to focus on the negative.  Most of us were. And most clients that I see focus first and foremost on problems, such as how to help under-performing workers, or how to shore up the weaknesses of people they manage.

One of the greatest contributions of Positive psychology is the finding that by focusing energy and attention on strengths and by tapping into positive emotions, all of us will enjoy more success than if we focus on weaknesses and problems.

In terms of using positive psychology in the workplace, the Gallup Organization has shown that disengaged workers cost firms billions of dollars per year in accidents, sabotage, turnover costs, lost customers and healthcare. Engaged or happy workers have a higher probability of making more money, innovating, being on time to work, being healthier physically, receive higher ratings from supervisors and customers, and help out coworkers more frequently. Happiness doesn’t just feel good, it is good for the bottom line and good for employees.

To give you an example, last year, I did some consulting with the executive board of a large insurance company. They were having trouble with several vice presidents who were holding grudges over an incident that happened over many years ago. Two of the vice presidents were actively sabotaging one another’s projects resulting in increased costs to the company. As part of my time there, I gave a two hour talk to the executive board on positive psychology, and I specifically focused on what the research has to say about forgiveness  based on research from Stanford University – what it is, what it is NOT, how to do it and why you want to do it. To me, forgiveness is the best single way to wash out all that stale anger you’ve been hiding for years. At the end of my talk, I suggested to the 11 executives that they try forgiving each other for past transgressions. After a long pause, I watched as all of the executives stood up, and began forgiving every other person in the room.  They hugged; they apologized to each other; and they forgave one another. It was powerful. And it changed the way in which they interacted from that day forward. The vice presidents were more supportive of one another, more cooperative, and they stopped their internal sabotage.

 Positive psychology is filtering into education as well. I do a monthly speaking series at a continuation high school where the students are sent if they are behind on credits, if they have behavior problems, emotional difficulties, or are coming out of juvenile hall. So it’s a pretty hard crowd.  One of the more difficult cases was an African-American female student who challenged me during a presentation “You aren’t black. You aren’t female. And you don’t live in a group home. Why should I listen to anything you say?!” It was a valid question. My response? “You’re absolutely right. I’m a totally bald, white, 42 year old man who lives with his wife and four children. And on a physical level you are correct. We share little in common. Here is what I can tell you…that on an emotional level, everything you have ever felt in your life – fear, anger, despair, happiness, pride, love – everything you have felt, I have felt also. So, on an emotional level we are nearly identical. I have been studying emotions for the past 12 years and I’ve found some tools that really work to help manage negative emotions and cultivate more positive emotions. So it’s your choice – you can listen and try some of the tools for yourself, see if they work, or you can ignore me. Either way, it’s up to you.” From that moment on, she was a fan - engaged, interested and willing to learn. She went on to work at a hospital this summer and now is looking at attending community college when she graduates at the end of this school year.

The Power of Positive Emotions

One of the areas I have researched over the past dozen years with great curiosity and passion is emotions. I have found that there is tremendous power in our emotions. Emotions are the social glue that binds our relationships.  The effective use of emotions, or leveraging emotions to your benefit, is what draws people to leaders. Emotional leverage is what separates truly great leaders from average executives. Emotions may initially be a bit frightening. Many people spend a great deal of energy trying to suppress or contain emotion. Yet, emotions have been with the human race for millions of years. Each emotion serves a purpose. Anger, for instance, helps move past obstacles or challenges. It helps us stand up to social injustices. Sadness keeps us close to home after suffering a loss. Fear keeps us safe from perceived danger.

Take a moment to think back to the last time you experienced an intense emotion. It may have been surprise, fear, rage, disappointment, sorrow, joy, awe or pride. It may have been pride due to your child’s outstanding grades, or joy watching your team win a close game, or frustration at yourself for making a mistake at work, or the feeling of contentment while working in your yard. What we’re finding is that emotions transcend our physical bodies. They are contagious. You can catch feelings from others around you. Studies have shown that happiness is contagious just like anger. Emotions are also closely and powerfully linked to what and how you remember the past. Look through an old photo album and you will clearly see the sway emotions have over your memories. What’s more, emotions play a large role in learning, communication, and even in our morality.

So it is critical to understand and learn to leverage emotions. In particular, you must understand the purpose and strength of positive emotions, because you can put them to great use in your daily life. Expertly leveraging emotions will help you be more successful.  As Robert Biswas-Diener puts it, ‘positive emotion is one of the greatest resources you and your clients, colleagues or students are currently overlooking.’

Emotions may be best thought of as a guidance system for your life. When you experience guilt, for example, it’s a sign that your actions are not in keeping with your values. And the unpleasant feeling motivates you to bring your actions back in line with your values. When things are going smoothly, your guidance system lets you know with an all clear signal – positive emotions such as peacefulness or contentment.  Of course, this guidance system is not perfect. We occasionally misinterpret our emotions, and sometimes our emotions are just plain wrong like when we feel highly fearful before speaking in public. However, our emotions give us important and valuable feedback the majority of the time. And there is power in learning how to be aware of emotions, in learning how to correctly read emotions, and greater success lies in the ability to cultivate more positive emotions.

 

 

So what can positive emotions do for you?

One of the biggest breakthroughs for positive psychology comes from Barbara Fredrickson at UNC Chapel Hill who came up with an evolutionary explanation for the existence of positive emotions. Barbara’s hypothesis is that the primary function of positive emotion is to broaden and build.  That is, they broaden our thought processes and they build lasting internal resources. Positive emotions, such as awe, peacefulness and love, allow your mind to blossom, creating more options, more possibilities, in terms of thoughts and actions.  Positive emotions help us be more creative, imaginative, and innovative. If you need to brainstorm for a new marketing slogan, you’ll do a better job if you are happy when you do it.

In addition, positive emotions have long-term beneficial effects because they build internal resources which may be used to help assist others in need or to manage future threats. In other words, positive emotions fill up your gas tank.  This means that positive emotions fill your emotional reservoir with positive emotional energy to increase your sense of well-being and physical health and which you can share with others when they need support and love.

What’s more, positive emotions have been shown to undo the lingering physiological effects of negative emotions. Positive emotions act as the hidden RESET button to the bodily changes caused by negative emotions, changes such as elevated blood pressure and increased cortisol levels in the blood stream.

      In the workplace, positive emotions are related to higher salaries, less sick days, better relationships with coworkers, better supervisor ratings, better customer ratings, and reduced employee turnover.

      In terms of physical health, positive folks are less likely to get ill, live longer, experience less pain, have fewer hospital visits, and when in a good mood, have faster cardiovascular recovery times. On the other hand, those with depression are more likely to engage in smoking, drug abuse, suicidal attempts, and have more emergency room visits.

In psychology, it is generally understood that bad is stronger than good, or the negative is stronger than the positive.  Bad events have a greater power over us, our emotions, thoughts and behaviors, than do good ones. You are more motivated to avoid bad self-definitions than to pursue good ones. You are quicker to form bad judgments of other people than good ones. It takes approximately 5 compliments to undo the negative effects from one insult. Your brain processes negative information more thoroughly than it does positive information. So it’s great news that the harmful effects of negative feelings can be undone by positive emotions.

While we could come up with a list of hundreds of emotion words, there are ten positive emotions that have been verified in studies. From the most frequently occurring to the least frequent, they are… love, joy, gratitude, serenity, interest, hope, pride, amusement, inspiration and awe. And we know from research that positive emotions are fleeting and fragile. They are easily done away with and they are generally less powerful than negative emotions. So you have to increase your awareness of and be on the lookout for positive emotions throughout your day.

A Few Positive psychology Exercises:

Okay, let’s turn to some of the interventions that have been proven to boost your happiness.

The Blessings Exercise

One study done by Martin Seligman at the University of Pennsylvania sought to help 50 severely depressed people. These were folks that stayed in bed most of the day, crawled out occasionally to check their email, and then returned to bed. They were asked to do one thing every day for two weeks.

            Write down three things that went well today and why they went well.

This daily gratitude journal is a powerful yet simple way to redirect the mind to the positive instead of dwelling on the negative. After two weeks of doing this exercise, the majority saw a significant improvement in their depressive symptoms.  People frequently report feeling happier and more positive after this assignment.

Mental Scrapbook of Positive Memories

Another exercise that has been shown to increase positive emotions is reliving positive memories. This exercise is as simple as focusing your attention on a positive event in your past. It might be a big athletic event, a wedding, the birth of a child, finishing school or a promotion. This activity may be combined with actual physical reminders of the past, such as photos, ticket stubs, trophies, college degrees, and printed testimonials.  You can also create your own positive scrapbook using most cell phones these days. Simply create a folder in which you keep photos of positive events. Start your own collection today. The main idea here is to savor the experience, to pay close attention to sensory details, to squeeze every last ounce of positive emotion out of the experience.

The extent to which you experience positive emotions is largely based on your thinking. Overthinking kills positive emotions. Worry, doubt, and stress drown out positive emotions. Emotions are highly individualized. They vary from person to person and what evokes one emotion in one person may not do the same in another. What makes one person recoil in disgust may make another person laugh. Emotions depend on how you interpret events. You have to take a moment (in the moment) and look for the good in the situation. Once you find the good, you must intentionally magnify it, and let it grow.  You have the power to turn positive emotions off and on.

Look at the room you’re in right now.

Ask yourself:

What’s going right for me right now?

How am I fortunate/blessed to be here?

How does being here benefit me?

What meaning can I take away from this situation?

When you take time to think this way, it builds gratitude in you.

By the way, it is normal if positivity feels unusual or weird at first.

Capitalizing on Love

One of the foremost researchers in the area of love and marriage is Shelly Gable, an assistant professor of psychology at UCLA. Most researchers looking at marriage work on conflict management, how to create more harmony between partners, and how individuals in a couple cope with traumatic events.  Gable is one of a handful of researcher who looks at what makes a thriving marriage. Her work provides some valuable insights if you are interested in transforming your good relationship (e.g., friendship, marriage, parent or child) into a great one.

Gable looks to see how you respond when your spouse tells you that he’s just been promoted, or your child tells you that she won Class President, or when your mother tells you she won a tennis tournament, or when your friend tells you she just won a huge lawsuit. Gable puts your responses into four different categories which break down as follows:

1.      An enthusiastic reaction such as “Wow! That’s tremendous. That’s the best thing I’ve heard all week. I’m sure there are more great things to come for you. You’ve definitely earned it. Congratulations!” This reaction is called the active-constructive response by Gable.

2.      A more subdued reaction where you share your happiness but say little. For example, “That’s nice dear.” This is the passive-constructive response.

3.      Or perhaps you point out some of the potential pitfalls or negatives within the good event. For instance, “Wow, I sure hope you can handle all that extra responsibility. Does this mean you will have to work extra hours?” Gable refers to this as the active-destructive response.

4.      Or, you might respond with disinterest and not respond to the good news at all. Most folks do this by merely changing the subject, “Yes, but what do you think about the weather outside?” This is known as the passive-destructive response.

The first type of response, the active-constructive one, is called “capitalizing” by Gable and here’s the fascinating part…capitalizing amplifies the pleasure of the good event and creates an upward spiral of good feelings.

Gable has shown that capitalizing is one of the keys to strong, supportive, thriving relationships. 

So how do you respond to good news from other people?

Are you a “capitalizer” who creates upward spirals of positive emotions?

Or do you turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the good news of others?

The consequences of learning how to be more of a “capitalizer” are impressive and robust. Couples who describe themselves as having a spouse who is active and constructive in response to their good news are more committed to the relationship, more in love, and happier in their marriage.  Think about that the next time your mate comes in the door with exciting news.

Closing Remarks

            I’ve found a large number of people are passionate and excited about positive psychology. It offers an energizing approach to your personal and professional life. Hopefully, by sharing some information about positive psychology, you’ve become excited about the possibilities also.

Again my name is John Schinnerer. I’m happy to speak to those interested in future keynote presentations or seeing clients privately. My book is entitled ‘Guide To Self: The Beginner’s Guide to Managing Emotion & Thought’ and may be purchased at Amazon.com, or Target.com. My email address is John@GuideToSelf.com.  My website is www.GuideToSelf.com. Please feel free to go and sign up for my newsletter by clicking on Email Sign Up on the left of the screen.

Now to your questions…

 

Hope you enjoyed it!

Have a wonderful evening,

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Guide To Self, Inc.

913 San Ramon Valley Blvd.

Danville, CA 94526

 http://www.guidetoself.com

---

 

Posted in Gratitude, Energy psychology, Curiosity, Science of love, National speakers, Overcoming failure, Awareness, Hope, Organizational psychology, The human brain, Relationships, Resiliency, Altruism, Emotion & learning, Danville CA, Memory and recall, Executive coach, Meaning-making, Therapist, Optimal Human Functioning, Brain plasticity, Positive emotions and job search, San Ramon CA, Emotion & productivity, Positive expectations, International Wellbeing Study, Corporate Culture, Employee engagement, Men's emotions, Subconscious mind, Emotional IQ, Guide to Self, Anxiety, Social anxiety disorder, School psychology, Customer Engagement, Life coach, Creativity, Forgiveness, Positive Psychology, Business & psych, Realistic optimism, Dr. John Schinnerer, Happiness, Ethics, Managing Anxiety, Emotional management, Anger Management, Managing Sadness, Consciousness, Emotional mind, Rational mind, Guide To Self Beginners Guide To Managing Emotion, Morals and values, Depression, Nature vs. nurture, Parenting, Sports Psychology | Print | No Comments »

Positive Psychology - The Science of Optimal Human Functioning

17. November 2009 by John Schinnerer.

Free teleclass
Positive Psychology – The Science of Optimal Human Functioning
11/18/09 (Wednesday)
6 pm PST/9 pm EST
with John Schinnerer, Ph.D.,
Author, positive psychology coach, speaker, amusing guy
Simply call 212-461-5903 and enter Pin 3474#

 

Positive psychology is the scientific study of optimal functioning, the applied approach to human flourishing. The lessons of positive psych are appropriate for everyone – teenagers, executives, managers and the elderly. Even the Army is currently training thousands of sergeants in positive psychology to boost the resiliency of troops and to decrease the possibility of post-traumatic stress disorder. While our Army troops have always been physically fit, we are now seeing a momentous shift in thinking to enable them to become psychologically fit as well.

So this class and PP in general definitely has something to offer you and it is as valuable in your personal life as in your professional life. At the heart of positive psychology are a number of research based findings into how and when people function at their very best.

 

 

Posted in Awareness, Psychology humor, Gratitude, Hope, Mindfulness, Organizational psychology, Resiliency, Altruism, Curiosity, National speakers, Employee engagement, Executive coach, Meaning-making, International Wellbeing Study, Emotion & productivity, Emotion & learning, Danville CA, Positive expectations, The human brain, Men's emotions, Creativity, Life coach, Guide to Self, Dr. John Schinnerer, Managing stress, Positive Psychology, Business & psych, Realistic optimism, Emotional IQ, Customer Engagement, Emotional management, Managing Anxiety, Managing Sadness, Emotional mind, Morals and values, Happiness, Positive mood music, Sports Psychology | Print | No Comments »

Positive Psychology and Optimal Human Functioning - A Complementary Telecourse 11/18/09 at 6 pm PST

29. October 2009 by John Schinnerer.

 Guide To Self with Dr. John Schinnerer
Optimal Human Functioning Via Positive Psychology
925-575-0258
John@GuideToSelf.com

Dear Friends:

I have been invited to conduct a training class at a speaking platform like no other and wanted to invite you to listen. The class is complimentary and you can listen to as many classes as you wish from the comfort of your home and convenience of your telephone or computer.

The class I am offering a complementary training course, Positive Psychology: The Science of Optimal Human Functioning, on November 18th, 2009 at 6 pm PST.
To find out more, please go to: http://www.globalteleclass.com
 

At this platform you will be trained, motivated and inspired by some of the most respected speakers in the Health, Personal Development and Sales & Marketing Industries.

For the month of November, scheduled speakers include:

Health Department: Steven Frank, Jennifer Hough, Dr. Elizabeth Lombardo, Elaine Petrone, Eric Rolf, Nancy Desjardins, Dr. John Schinnerer, and Jimmy Moore

Sales & Marketing Department: Beatty Carmichael, Angela Treat Lyon, Heather Picken, Jerry Ellefson, Rik Schnabel, Ed Dacey, and Mary Beth Lozano

Personal Development Department: Joan Marie Whelan, Dr. Rick Brinkman, Satyen Raja, Leslie Householder, Dr. Gloria Burgess, Ken Foster & Amazon John Easterling, Debbie Friedman, Stephanie Frank, Nanette Geiger, Katana Abbott, Philip Tirone, Deborah Skye King, Michelle Rigg, Wes Hopper, and Steve Keough.

Remember, these classes are being offered at no cost to you and you can listen from the comfort of your home and convenience of your telephone or computer.

Please take advantage of this offer and register today!

http://www.globalteleclass.com

To your success,

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.
Positive Psychology Coach
Guide To Self, Inc.
913 San Ramon Valley Blvd. #280
Danville, CA 94526
(925) 575-0258

 

Dr. John Schinnerer is in private practice coaching individuals to their optimal human functioning using the science of positive psychology. He is President of Guide To Self (http://www.guidetoself.com), a company that focuses on executive coaching, emotional management skills and mindful living.  He holds a doctorate from U.C. Berkeley in psychology. Dr. Schinnerer hosted Guide To Self Radio, a prime time radio show on positive psychology and emotional management. Dr. Schinnerer started in the private sector as President of Infinet Assessment (http://www.infinetassessment.com), a psychological testing company to help firms select the best applicants. Dr. Schinnerer is the award-winning author of Guide To Self: The Beginner’s Guide To Managing Emotion and Thought and numerous articles. His book may be found at Amazon.com, Target.com and BarnesAndNoble.com.

Posted in Raising optimistic children, National speakers, Emotion & learning, Science of love, Curiosity, Mindfulness, Hope, Gratitude, Danville CA, Emotion & productivity, Executive coach, Unsconscious mind, Therapist, San Ramon CA, Employee engagement, International Wellbeing Study, Corporate Culture, Resiliency, The human brain, Creativity, Life coach, Emotional IQ, Dr. John Schinnerer, Realistic optimism, Positive Psychology, Forgiveness, Innovative brand research, Staying calm, Emotional mind, Emotional management, Men's emotions, Guide To Self Beginners Guide To Managing Emotion, Positive mood music, Customer Engagement, Happiness, Sports Psychology | Print | No Comments »

Emotions in Advertisement Must Match Emotions in Consumer to Sell Vacations Most Efficiently

20. October 2009 by John Schinnerer.

ScienceDaily (Oct. 19, 2009) — Most of us won’t respond to the call of adventure while soaking in a relaxing bath. According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, we’re more likely to book a weekend at a spa. 

“Imagine you are sitting in a bathtub, listening to calm music with gentle candlelight. Add lavender aroma. Then as you flip through a magazine, you come across an advertisement from an amusement park, promising you an exciting place full of adventurous offerings. How appealing would you find the prospect of visiting this amusement park?” write authors Hakkyun Kim (University of Concordia, Canada), Kiwan Park (Seoul National University, Korea), and Norbert Schwarz (University of Michigan). 

The authors found that people evaluate vacation products with adventurous appeals more favorably when they feel excited rather than peaceful, and vice versa. They found that processing advertising claims depends much on the consistency between the message and the consumer’s mood. 

The authors explain that people who see an advertisement that promises an exciting vacation ask themselves, “Would this vacation really make me feel that way?” They are more likely to think a vacation will really be exciting when they currently feel excited rather than peaceful. In other words, incidental emotions influence the perceived likelihood that the product will deliver on its emotional promises: When the current emotions match the promises of the product, people infer that it may really make them feel that way; but when the current emotions mismatch the promises, the discrepancy between their current feelings and the promises suggests that the product may fail to deliver what it promises. 

The researchers’ results suggest that marketers can facilitate the impression that products will deliver on their promises by displaying them in contexts in which consumers’ pre-existing feelings are likely to match the product’s claims. “Exciting sports events are a better arena for advertising exciting vacations than for advertising serene vacations, not only because an exciting vacation may match the audience’s general preferences, but also because an exciting vacation will match the audience’s current feelings,” the authors conclude.

For full article, please click here.

I suppose this makes accurate emotional measurement all the more important. Check out the work I’ve been doing with Resonance Strategies. Great work for marketing, branding, and change initiatives for those who aren’t too fearful. In the consulting work I’ve done, I’ve foudn that dealing with emotions in a business climate sends most business people running for the hills. It’s not rational, it’s emotional! Despite their fears, emotion is still a larger part of the human mind that reason (roughly 90-10%) and dominates most decision-making.

The next step will be matching internal branding campaigns to employee emotions to ensure greater employee productivity. Do I hear individualized internal branding calling? What about individualized external branding and advertising to match ads to consumer emotions and moods?

Savor the day!

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Posted in National speakers, Organizational psychology, Emotional mind, Danville CA, Emotion & productivity, Executive coach, Subliminal messages, Employee engagement, Rational mind, Customer Engagement, Guide to Self, Dr. John Schinnerer, Measuring emotions, Innovative brand research, Unique marketing research, Brand Equity, Chief Marketing Officer, Positive Psychology | Print | No Comments »

The Human Mind is a Meaning-Making Machine

19. October 2009 by John Schinnerer.

This Is Your Brain on Kafka

 

By: Tom Jacobs  |  September 16, 2009  |  08:55 PM (PDT)  |

Absurdist literature, it appears, stimulates our brains.

Does absurdist literature make you smarter? Giraffe carpet cleaner, it does!

The befuddled tramps in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot are a poetic personification of paralysis. But new research suggests the act of watching them actually does get us somewhere.

Absurdist literature, it appears, stimulates our brains.

That’s the conclusion of a study recently published in the journal Psychological Science. Psychologists Travis Proulx of the University of California, Santa Barbara and Steven Heine of the University of British Columbia report our ability to find patterns is stimulated when we are faced with the task of making sense of an absurd tale. What’s more, this heightened capability carries over to unrelated tasks.

In the first of two experiments, 40 participants (all Canadian college undergraduates) read one of two versions of a Franz Kafka story, The Country Doctor. In the first version, which was only slightly modified from the original, “the narrative gradually breaks down and ends abruptly after a series of non sequiturs,” the researchers write. “We also included a series of bizarre illustrations that were unrelated to the story.”

The second version contained extensive revisions to the original. The non sequiturs were removed, and a “conventional narrative” was added, along with relevant illustrations.

All participants were then shown a series of 45 strings of letters, which they were instructed to copy. They were informed that the strings, which consisted of six to nine letters, contained a strict but not easily decipherable pattern.

They were then introduced to a new set of letter strings, some of which followed the pattern and some of which did not. They were asked to mark which strings followed the pattern.

Those who had read the absurd story selected a higher number of strings as being consistent with the pattern. More importantly, they “demonstrated greater accuracy in identifying the genuinely pattern-congruent letter strings,” the researchers report. This suggests “the cognitive mechanisms responsible for implicitly learning statistical regularities” are enhanced when we struggle to find meaning in a fragmented narrative.

[snip]

To Prolux and Heine, these finds suggest we have an innate tendency to impose order upon our experiences and create what they call “meaning frameworks.” Any threat to this process will “activate a meaning-maintenance motivation that may call upon any other available associations to restore a sense of meaning,” they write.

So it appears Viktor Frankl was right: Man is perpetually in search of meaning, and if a Kafkaesque work of literature seems strange on the surface, our brains amp up to dig deeper and discover its underlying design.

For full article, please click here.

Smile, you’re alive!

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

A Curious Guy

Guide To Self, Inc.

Danville CA 94526

Posted in Corporate Culture, Emotion & learning, Curiosity, Employee engagement, San Ramon CA, Meaning-making, Unsconscious mind, Executive coach, Awareness, Consciousness, Guide to Self, Creativity, Dr. John Schinnerer, Unique marketing research, Chief Marketing Officer, Rational mind, Customer Engagement, Business & psych | Print | No Comments »

The Four Best Predictors of Positive Emotions and Why You Should Care

19. October 2009 by John Schinnerer.

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Guide To Self, Inc.

Positive emotions, such as awe, curiosity, love, contentment and pride, act as a hidden reset button for the physiological effects of destructive emotions (e.g., chronic stress, long-term anger, or enduring sadness). Positive emotion undoes the harmful physical effects of negative emotions.

Positive emotions…

·         lower blood pressure

·         increase immune system functioning

·         improve clarity of thought and creativity and

·         decrease cortisol levels (i.e., the stress hormone).

Research has recently uncovered the four best predictors of future positive emotions. They are…

• The feeling that you can count on others
• The perception that you have autonomy and are in control of your own life
• Whether you learned something new yesterday
• Whether you did what you do best yesterday

(E. Diener, University of Illinois, author of Happiness)

If you have loved ones and friends you can count on, if you feel autonomous, if you learn something new daily, and if you use your strengths on a daily basis, you will create more moments of happiness in your life. As you learn to string together fleeting moments of happiness, you will create a contented mood.

According to Barbara Fredrickson (UNC Chapel Hill), author of Positivity, as we learn to unpack happiness, we discover that it is positive emotions that lay at the heart of a number of things such as resiliency, happiness, life satisfaction and subjective well-being.

In other words, when you increase the frequency with which you experience positive emotions, you improve your psychological resources (e.g., resiliency) and subsequently, you become more satisfied with life and physically healthier.

 

About the Author

Dr. John Schinnerer is in private practice helping individuals learn happiness by mitigating destructive emotions and fostering constructive emotions. His practice is located in the Danville San Ramon Medical Center at 913 San Ramon Valley Blvd., #280, Danville, California 94526. He graduated summa cum laude from U.C. Berkeley with a Ph.D. in psychology. Dr. Schinnerer has been an executive and psychologist for over 10 years. Dr. John Schinnerer is President and Founder of Guide To Self, a company that coaches clients to their potential using the latest in positive psychology, mindfulness and attentional control. Dr. John Schinnerer hosted over 200 episodes of Guide To Self Radio, a prime time radio show, in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Dr. Schinnerer is President of Infinet Assessment, a psychological testing company to help firms select the best applicants. Dr. Schinnerer’s areas of expertise range from positive psychology, to emotional awareness, to moral development, to sports psychology. Dr. Schinnerer wrote the award-winning, “Guide To Self: The Beginner’s Guide To Managing Emotion and Thought,” which is available at Amazon.com, BarnesAndNoble.com and AuthorHouse.com.  

Posted in Hope, Gratitude, Curiosity, Assertiveness, Mindfulness, Negotiation and emotion, Altruism, Science of love, National speakers, Employee engagement, Positive emotions and job search, Executive coach, Corporate Culture, Positive expectations, Emotion & learning, Danville CA, Resiliency, Organizational psychology, Guide to Self, Emotional IQ, Anxiety, Life coach, Creativity, Managing stress, Dr. John Schinnerer, Nervousness, Tips to help anxiety, Anger Management, Managing Sadness, Men's emotions, Managing Anxiety, Emotional mind, Customer Engagement, Happiness, Positive Psychology | Print | No Comments »

Bullying Bosses Driven By Feelings of Inadequacy and Being Overwhelmed - UC Berkeley Study

15. October 2009 by John Schinnerer.

From ScienceDaily (Oct. 15, 2009) — ‘Bosses who are in over their heads are more likely to bully subordinates. That’s because feelings of inadequacy trigger them to lash out at those around them, according to new research from the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Southern California.

 

In a new twist on the adage “power corrupts,” researchers at UC Berkeley and USC have found a direct link among supervisors and upper management between self-perceived incompetence and aggression. The findings, gleaned from four separate studies, are published in the November issue of the journal Psychological Science.

 

With more than one-third of American workers reporting that their bosses have sabotaged, yelled at or belittled them, the new study challenges previous assumptions that abusive bosses are solely driven by ambition and the need to hold onto their power.

 

“By showing when and why power leads to aggression, these findings are highly relevant as abusive supervision is such a pervasive problem in society,” said Nathanael Fast, assistant professor of management and organization at USC and lead author of the study.

 

During role-playing sessions, study participants who felt their egos were under threat would go so far as to needlessly sabotage an underling’s chances of winning money. In another test, participants who felt inadequate would request that a subordinate who gave a wrong answer to a test be notified by a loud obnoxious horn, even though they had the option of choosing silence or a quiet sound.

[snip]

 

“Incompetence alone doesn’t lead to aggression,” said Serena Chen, associate professor of psychology at UC Berkeley and co-author of the study. “It’s the combination of having a high-power role and fearing that one is not up to the task that causes power holders to lash out. And our data suggest it’s ultimately about self-worth.”

[snip]

 

That said, flattery may not be the best way to soothe a savage boss, the study points out: “It is both interesting and ironic to note that such flattery, although perhaps affirming to the ego, may contribute to the incompetent power holder’s ultimate demise — by causing the power holder to lose touch with reality,” the study concludes.

---

Journal reference:

1.      Nathanael J. Fast, Serena Chen. When the Boss Feels Inadequate: Power, Incompetence, and Aggression. Psychological Science, 2009; DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02452.x

 

University of California - Berkeley (2009, October 15). Bosses Who Feel Inadequate Are More Likely To Bully. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 15, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2009/10/091014102209.htm

 

Bottom of Form

 

For full article, click here.

Cheers!

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

 

Posted in Danville CA, Men's emotions, Emotion & productivity, Corporate Culture, Executive coach, Employee engagement, Anger Management, Victims of bullying, Business & psych, Abusive Coaches, Measuring emotions, Dr. John Schinnerer, Emotional IQ, Guide to Self, Bullies | Print | No Comments »

Simple Tool to Measure Degree of Engagement in Life in Older Adults - How Do You Get Out of Bed in AM?

14. October 2009 by John Schinnerer.

‘ScienceDaily (Oct. 12, 2009) — Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have identified a tool — the “Getting-Out-of-Bed (GoB) measure” — to assess motivation and life outlook in older adults. The study, which appears in the October issue of the Journal of Psychosocial Oncology, shows that the tool has the potential to be an easy-to-use measure to bolster motivation and thus improve health behaviors and outcomes in the growing population of older adults. 

The demographics of aging in the United States continues to change dramatically. In 2006, 37 million Americans, 12 percent of the population were 65 years or older. By 2030, those 65 years and older are projected to number 71.5 million representing nearly 20 percent of the US population. Furthermore, between 1992 and 2004 average inflation-adjusted health care costs for older Americans increased from $8,644 to $13,052 and are expected to continue to rise considerably. According to the researchers, such numbers underscore the importance of understanding common diseases and health behaviors of older adults, because many conditions can be prevented and/or modified with behavioral interventions.

 

“Motivation and life outlook play an important part in an older adult’s ability to recover from illness or disabling events and to maintain and/or adopt health-promoting behaviors,” said lead author Kerri Clough-Gorr, DSc, MPH, from the Section of Geriatrics at BUSM.’

For full article, click here.

 

So how well do you get out of bed?

 

Do you spring out of bed, put both feet firmly on the ground and express gratitude for your health and well-being?

 

Or do you hit the snooze button ten times and grumble about having to get out from your warm covers?

 

This seems to be a powerful indicator of your motivation, engagement in life, and overall outlook on life. And the best part is, you can change how you get out of bed! As you learn to get out of bed with a more optimistic outlook, and more energy, odds are you will be more positively and passionately engaged in life. This simple change alone can reap tremendous benefits in every area of your life.

 

Wake up smiling!

 

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Positive Psychology Coach, Author, National Speaker

Danville, CA

 

Posted in Danville CA, National speakers, Gratitude, Positive expectations, Emotion & productivity, Sleep research, Body posture & the mind, Employee engagement, Energy psychology, Hope, Life coach, Dr. John Schinnerer, Realistic optimism, Guide to Self, Happiness, Resiliency, The human brain, Emotional mind, Positive Psychology | Print | No Comments »

Positive Emotions, Optimism Key to Landing That New Job in Current Environment says University of Missouri Study

14. October 2009 by John Schinnerer.

‘ScienceDaily (Oct. 13, 2009) — With America’s unemployment rate higher than it has been in decades, many people find themselves looking for jobs. The process can be tiring and, in such a competitive climate, receiving that final job offer is challenging. In a new study, researchers at the University of Missouri focus on what job seekers need to get ahead of the competition. The Mizzou scientists found that certain planning activities and positive emotions have a large impact on success in finding a job. 

“We found it most interesting that metacognitive activities — thinking about a plan, acting on a plan and reflecting upon that a plan — were important early in the job search while having positive emotions were important later in the job search,” said Daniel Turban, professor and chair of the Department of Management in the MU Robert J. Trulaske, Sr. College of Business.  The study found that metacognitive activities, including goal setting and plan development, affect resume submission and success in first interviews, while the ability to maintain positive emotions plays a larger role during second interviews and receiving a final job offer. The researchers also examined how the personality traits of extraversion and conscientiousness affect metacognitive activities and positive emotions. Extraversion, how energetic and outgoing a person is, influenced both metacognitive activities and positive emotions. Conscientiousness, a person’s self discipline and dependability, affected metacognitive activities and directly influenced the number of final job offers received. “Perhaps, conscientious job seekers conducted better quality job searches by scrutinizing their fit with prospective employers more carefully or more effectively following up with employers,” Turban said.

The researchers administered three surveys to 327 job seekers. The first survey measured personality and demographic information, while the second survey measured positive emotions, metacognitive activities and employment outcomes. A third survey, measuring tapped employment outcomes, was sent to those still job hunting four to five months after the second survey.’

For full article, click here.

Keep on smiling!

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Positive Psychology Coach

Helping folks mitigate negative emotions and

cultivate positive emotions

Posted in Danville CA, National speakers, Curiosity, Awareness, Positive expectations, Emotion & productivity, Positive emotions and job search, San Ramon CA, Employee engagement, Corporate Culture, Hope, Resiliency, Life coach, Creativity, Dr. John Schinnerer, Realistic optimism, Emotional IQ, Staying calm, Organizational psychology, Consciousness, Happiness, Positive Psychology | Print | No Comments »

Body Posture Affects Your Belief In Your Own Thoughts, Ohio State Study Finds

6. October 2009 by John Schinnerer.

ScienceDaily (Oct. 5, 2009) — Sitting up straight in your chair isn’t just good for your posture – it also gives you more confidence in your own thoughts, according to a new study.

Researchers found that people who were told to sit up straight were more likely to believe thoughts they wrote down while in that posture concerning whether they were qualified for a job.

On the other hand, those who were slumped over their desks were less likely to accept these written-down feelings about their own qualifications.

The results show how our body posture can affect not only what others think about us, but also how we think about ourselves, said Richard Petty, co-author of the study and professor of psychology at Ohio State University.

“Most of us were taught that sitting up straight gives a good impression to other people,” Petty said. “But it turns out that our posture can also affect how we think about ourselves. If you sit up straight, you end up convincing yourself by the posture you’re in.”

Petty conducted the study with Pablo Briñol, a former postdoctoral fellow at Ohio State now at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in Spain, and Benjamin Wagner, a current graduate student at Ohio State. The research appears in the October 2009 issue of the European Journal of Social Psychology.

For full article, click here.

All the best!

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Positive Psychology Coach

Danville, CA 94526

Guide To Self, Inc.

Posted in Danville CA, National speakers, Positive expectations, Employee engagement, Body posture & the mind, Awareness, Mindfulness, Happiness, Guide to Self, Consciousness, Subconscious mind, The human brain, Dr. John Schinnerer | Print | No Comments »

Mindfulness - Life is a Series of Moments

25. September 2009 by John Schinnerer.

How engaged are you in each moment of your life?

The video below provides a tremendous reminder that life is a series of brief moments strung together. As we become more mindful and nonjudgmental, each moment becomes a treasure unto itself. The less we judge moments as good OR bad, the more likely we are to be able to appreciate them for what they are - life.

What’s more, one of the three paths to happiness is to string together series of moments infused with positive emotion (e.g., awe, surprise, curiosity, love, contentment, relaxation, pride, delight, joy, excitement).

Directed by William Hoffman (www.anyoneeverything.com)

Have a fantastic, mindful weekend!

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Guide To Self, Inc.

Positive Psychology Coach

Posted in Emotion & productivity, Employee engagement, Mindfulness, Consciousness, Dr. John Schinnerer, Happiness, Positive Psychology | Print | No Comments »

How to Build a Corporate Culture Around Employee Engagement

25. September 2009 by John Schinnerer.

Dr. John Schinnerer

Guide To Self, Inc.

www.GuideToSelf.com

 

Are business people purely logical? Do employees go through their work day devoid of emotion? Does the stock market rise and fall according to rational principles?

 

The answer to all these questions is ‘No,’ however many people like to go through their days as if they were true.

 

Last month, I spoke at a corporate leadership summit. Afterwards, I was selling copies of my book when two businessmen in suits came up. Both men thumbed through a copy of Guide To Self: The Beginner’s Guide To Emotion and Thought. One man purchased a copy and said ‘This looks fantastic.’ The other man teased him saying ‘Oh yes, emotions, you need that kind of help.’ And the derogatory tone of voice in which it was said caused me to think about emotions and how they relate to business. Being ‘emotional’ in a corporate setting is akin to being insane, neither of which is helpful in climbing the corporate ladder.

 

At the same time, I’ve had numerous discussions with companies looking to market goods or services aimed at improving emotional connections between businesses, customers and employees. This gets at the heart of employee and customer engagement. Engagement is an emotional construct. Nearly every definition of engagement has at its core an emotional component such as enthusiasm, commitment, or trust.

 

What Is Engagement?

 

The Corporate Board defines employee engagement as ‘a heightened emotional connection that an employee feels for his or her organization, and that influences him or her to exert greater discretionary effort to his or her work.’ Curt Coffman and Gabriel Gonzalez-Molina, co-authors of Follow This Path, lay out twelve parts to employee engagement. Of these twelve, seven are emotionally-based:

 

1.      high energy and enthusiasm

2.      an emotional commitment to what the employee does

3.      create positive things to act on (based on constructive emotions)

4.      broaden what he or she does and builds on it (the key theory in positive psychology is broaden-and-build by Barbara Fredrickson)

5.      has a commitment to the company and people that work there (commitment is based largely on an emotional connection)

6.      intentionally builds supportive relationships (positive emotions are the ‘glue’ which hold relationships together)

7.      naturally innovates and works toward efficiency (innovation is more likely to occur when in a positive emotional state)

 

Most individuals in the corporate world like to maintain the illusion that they are 100% calm, rational and in control. They make the mistake of thinking they are the ‘thinker,’ the part of the mind that is rational, controlled and conscious. In fact, a mere 10% of the human mind is rational. The other 90% of the mind is emotional, unconscious and automatic.  

 

How Can Engagement Be Measured?

 

What’s more, recent studies show that there is a way to measure whether or not an individual is flourishing and performing to the best of his or her ability. The cutoff point is a 3:1 ratio of positive emotions to negative emotions. For high-performing executive teams, the cutoff point is 5:1 where there are five times as many positive, supportive comments and open-ended questions as negative comments and ‘I’ statements where people defend their own positions. One way to measure engagement is to look at the ratio of positive to negative emotions that the firm elicits in employees. The higher the ratio of positive to negative emotions, the more engaged the employee.

 

Zappos – Exponential Employee Engagement

 

Increasingly, high-performing companies are demonstrating an understanding of the power of positive, constructive emotions to engage both customers and employees mindfully and profitably.  This is most easily seen in those firms that create a competitive advantage via corporate culture, such as Zappos.com, an online retail company which was recently purchased by Amazon for approximately $900 million.

 

Zappos has shown an uncanny ability to tap into the mind and hearts of its employees using some unusual and counterintuitive practices. One of Zappo’s corporate values is ‘create fun and a little weirdness.’ This allows employees autonomy and freedom to think for themselves and express themselves, both of which endear the firm to the employees. Zappos offers newly hired employees $2,000 to walk away from the job, ensuring that those who refuse the offer to stay are more committed and engaged. Trust is placed in employees at all levels of the corporate hierarchy. This allows phone reps to connect and engage with customers however they deem necessary. This leads to increased customer and employee engagement as both parties tend to enjoy their interactions far more than the typical script-based call center reps and their victims/customers. The favorite book of CEO Tony Hsieh is The Happiness Hypothesis by Jon Haidt, a pillar of positive psychology. Hsieh intentionally cultivates happiness in the workforce as a business goal in and of itself. Courses in positive psychology and happiness are offered to employees in addition to the myriad of business courses.  As a result, the culture increases employee well-being, engagement and eventually, productivity and profitability. A positive, upward spiral results from a culture that has mindfully developed based on values such as open-mindedness, happiness, confidence and humility.

 

The importance of emotions in culture cannot be overstated. Emotions provide the glue that binds relationships together.  In order to build a high-performing culture, one must be aware of the emotional landscape of employees, regardless of whether they want to cop to being emotional or not.

 

About the author:

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Dr. John Schinnerer is President and Founder of Guide To Self, a company that focuses on coaching individuals and groups to optimal human functioning using positive psychology. Dr. Schinnerer consults with Resonance Technologies, a firm with a patented methodology to quantify emotional responses to workplace issues. Dr. Schinnerer hosted Guide To Self Radio, a daily prime time radio show, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Dr. Schinnerer is also President of Infinet Assessment, a psychological testing company to help firms select the best applicants. Dr. Schinnerer has worked with companies such as UPS, Sutter Health, Erie Insurance Group and Schreiber Foods. He graduated summa cum laude from U.C. Berkeley with a Ph.D. in psychology. His areas of expertise range from positive psychology, to emotional awareness, to moral development to employee selection. Dr. Schinnerer is the award-winning author of “Guide To Self: The Beginner’s Guide To Managing Emotion and Thought.” He has written articles on corporate ethics and EQ in the workplace for Workspan magazine, HR.com, and Business Ethics. He has given numerous presentations, radio shows and seminars to tens of thousands of people for organizations such as SHRM, NCHRA, KNEW and KDIA.

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