• The article Why Mind Wandering Can be so Miserable, According to Happiness Experts looks at the boost to happiness that may occur when you DON”T let your mind wander  (http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ science-nature/why-mind-wandering-can-be-so-miserable-according-happiness-experts-180962265/)
• Sad Face: A fascinating look at controversy around the facial-feedback hypothesis which makes it clear that psychology is, above all, a human endeavour. (http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/ cover_story/2016/08/can_smiling_make_you_happier_maybe_maybe_not_we_have_no_idea.html)
• How To Stop Being Furious: This article looks at what makes people angry and how we can try to control that anger. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/wellbeing/mood-and-mind/how-to-stop-being-furious/)
• Spend Money, Be Happy: Some research into what does (and what doesn’t) make people happy:
  (http://www.vancouversun.com/Spend+money+happy/11613024/story.html?__lsa=25e2-6dfc)
• Case Study: John/Joan – The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl
  Discussion of a famous Canadian case study that shed light on the role of nature/nurture in gender:
  (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00t97xf)
• A New Way to Look at Emotions – and How to Master Yours: An interesting look at research into how context effects emotion. (http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20171012-how-emotions-can-trick-your-mind-and-body)

 

Science of Sex Appeal: What Women Find Attractive – A not too serious look at what men and women find attractive

Video 11.1: Science of Sex Appeal: What Women Find Attractive (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoKA-a5vEEc), uploaded by Discovery UK.

• Marshmallow Test Reproduced by Dr. David Walsh@ wcco: A re-creation of the marshmallow study.

Video 11.2: Marshmallow Test Reproduced  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amsqeYOk–w) uploaded by TodaSyo.

• Children of Today are Better at Delaying Gratification than Previous Generations: On the same topic, this article describes some research which seems to show that children today are better at delaying gratification:
  (https://digest.bps.org.uk/2017/09/20/children-of-today-are-better-at-delaying-gratification-than-previous-generations/)

• The Surprising Science of Happiness: Dan Gilbert, one of the leading researchers in the field of happiness, describes some of his work in this Ted Talk.

 

Video 11.3: The Surprising Science of Happiness (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q1dgn_C0AU) uploaded by Dan Gilbert.

• Social Networks May Learn To Depression: This short video describes some research showing that frequent users of social media may be more depressed than others.  Can you think why that might be?
  (http://www.psyweb.com/videos/depression/social-networks-may-lead-to-depression-video)

1. Read the “research focus” study in chapter 11.3 and see if you can answer the following questions. You may need to review the material on experimental design in Chapter 3.
   a) What was the Independent Variable (remember it must have at least two conditions)?
   b) What was the Dependent Variable in the first study?
   c) What was the Dependent Variable in the second study?
   d) Which theory of emotion do the results of the two studies support? Explain your answer.
2. How Happy Are You? This VERY quick quiz claims to assess your level of happiness. Try it out on yourself and some friends to see if it seems to be accurate. Can you think of a way of assessing its construct validity? (http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/apr/03/how-happy-are-you-quiz)
3. Flow –  the Secret to Happiness: Watch this video on “flow- the secret of happiness” and think about things you could do to increase your own happiness. (https://www.ted.com/talks/mihaly_csikszentmihalyi_on_flow)

   Video 11-4: Flow, the Secret to Happiness uploaded by Mihaly Csikszentimihalyi in February 2004.

4. The Deactivation Effect: What 15 Minutes Device-Free Solitude Does to Your Emotions: Read this article on the impact of 15 minutes of down-time on people’s emotions. Try the 15-minute break yourself and see whether/how it affects your emotions.
   (https://main-researchdigest-bps.content.pugpig.com/2017/11/07/the-deactivation-effect-what-15-minutes-device-free-solitude-does-to-your-emotions/pugpig_index.html)Did you enjoy the experience?
5. Reading the Mind in the Eyes: Try the “recognizing emotions” activity on this site to see how good you are at identifying subtle emotions from faces (https://www.testmybrain.org/)