Delicious LiveJournal Links for 2-26-2009

[andrewducker]

• Rapid Thinking Makes People Happy
  The bit on varied versus repetitive thoughts is fascinating.
  (tags: psychology neuroscience brain happiness depression creativity)
• Time Slider
  Watch an etherpad document being written. The latest version allows you to rewind a document and see it being put together. Very cool!
  (tags: writing blogging tools)
• Students Stand When Called Upon, and When Not
  Turns out that some students concentrate better when allowed to fidget, move about, stand, etc.
  (tags: news education)
• Rare syndrome points to sociability gene
  (tags: genetics psychology science personality)
• Psychologists find gene that helps you look on the bright side of life
  (tags: genetics psychology science personality optimism)

Comments

[heron61.livejournal.com]

I was deeply unimpressed with the article on optimism & genetics. I've seen a fair number of studies (sadly, I have no links at hand) showing that both depression and pessimism are frequently the result of trauma, especially childhood trauma (of various sorts).

[andrewducker]

Of course they are. From the numerous studies I've seen it seems staggeringly likely that it's a result of both genetics and culture. Pretty much everything I've seen indicates that genetics provides all sorts of tendencies and triggers that are then influenced and set off by our surroundings.