Monthly Archives: January 2012

What is Depression?

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woman with depressionEver felt “down in the dumps?” Ever had a “case of the blues?” Ever been completely “down and out?” If you answered yes to any of these questions, then relax. You only proved that you’re normal. Whether it’s the result of a major break-up, the loss of a pet, or those crazy female hormones that will get any boyfriend/husband walking on eggshells, sadness is normal. Ask anyone you meet and chances are they will tell you that at some point in their life, they’ve felt depressed. But “feeling depressed” is not the same thing as “having depression.” While a depressed mood must be present for a diagnosis of depression, it is only one of the many symptoms of this disorder. In other words, “feeling depressed” is necessary but not sufficient for a diagnosis of depression. Continue reading →

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4 Tips for your next interview /meeting/ first impression

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job interviewHave an interview or meeting coming up or simply need to make a good impression? Here are 4 tips on how to kill it:

1. Power stance
Whether you want to appear more powerful or need a confidence boost taking a more powerful stance is the way to go. Research has shown that taking a stance that involves open limbs and expansive gestures not only makes people feel more powerful but also increased their testosterone levels (Carney, Cuddy, & Yap, 2010). Such poses take up more space and when you dominate the space your mind gets the message.

2. Gesture for persuasion
Everyone knows that some people use their hands more than others while speaking. These movements are more than just a result of communication. Hand gestures increase the persuasive power of a message compared to no gesturing (Maricchiolo, Gnisci & Bonaiuto, 2009). Gestures that make what you’re saying more understandable are the most effective, such as pointing behind you when referring to the past. Continue reading →

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Can Asafa Powell catch Usain Bolt at the London Olympics in 2012?

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asafa powell, berlin 100mJamaica is a sprinting powerhouse. But though the little Caribbean island produces a seemingly endless supply of world class sprinters, and even with the recent rise of young sprinting sensation and reigning World Champion Yohan Blake, Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell remain head and shoulders above the rest. Continue reading →

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What is Social Cognition?

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impatient wife with obnoxious husband

No way that’s his mom!

Social cognition is a sub-field within the larger discipline of social psychology and has been defined as “the study of mental processes involved in perceiving, attending to, remembering, thinking about, and making sense of the people in our social world” (Moscowitz, 2005, p.3). While some psychologists are content with analyzing only overt behavior, researchers in the field of social cognition prefer to dig deeper. Social behavior, from their perspective, is not directly determined by environmental factors that are external to the individual. Rather, it results from the internal cognitive processes which influence our interpretation of the social context. No social reality exists beyond that which we actively construct in our minds and it is this cognitive construction of social reality – our social cognition- that ultimately determines our behavior in social situations. Continue reading →

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Impact of Parenting Styles on Children and Adolescents

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family playing soccerAccording to Baumrind’s theory, the way in which children are raised has a major impact on their functioning and well-being. She noted that the manner in which parents meet the joint needs of children for nurturance and limit-setting greatly influences their degree of social competence and behavioural adjustment (Baumrind, 1991, cited in Slicker, 1998). Of the four parenting styles mentioned in Baumrind’s typology, authoritative parenting appears to have the most positive behavioural and emotional outcomes. Children of such parents tend to be more socially competent and responsible, more self-reliant and confident and less susceptible to both internalizing and externalizing problems than children exposed to other parenting styles. (Patock-Peckham & Morgan-Lopez, 2007). Continue reading →

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