indecisive decisions – maybe

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choices, decisions, indecisions, judgements, life changing, logic vs intuition, psychology, unconcious bias

From deciding what to wear and have for breakfast until when to go to bed at night, all day long we are bombarded with decisions that we need to make.  Should I stick with healthy porridge or go for yummy chocolate spread on toast and should I pick my sensible flats or the funky boots that aren’t weather proof. So while I felt crippled with the indecision which tea to drink – should I go fruity or detox or maybe licorice is what I wanted, or maybe mint – I couldn’t help but wonder about the decisions we make and why we make them.

It seems that our intuition and our logic are locked in a constant battle between what we should be doing  and what we want to be doing. So while one part of our brains is trying to analyses and sort through potential consequences the other part is jumping up and down shouting ‘we want it now’.

So while it may seem that we should be giving into logic most of the time we make our decisions based on what our intuition says. The reason for this is the simple fact that our intuitive mind is much faster, easier to accessed and often just overrides our sluggish logical mind.

But even when we think we are being logical and analytical our thinking is actually riddled with unconscious bias. Unconscious biases are all those judgements we are unaware of making when confronted with situations and people. These judgements are generally based on individual backgrounds, educations, cultural environment and experiences but are triggered by the brain without us realizing it.

So where does that leave us – do we just give in to our ‘gut feeling’ or do we hope our unconscious bias isn’t sabotaging us?

Maybe the trick lies in the balance. If the choice of breakfast in the morning won’t change the rest of your life, maybe just stick with what you think is best but if the decision you are about to make may have long lasting effects maybe think about it. And sometimes, maybe, indecision forces you to look at why you want to decided one way and force you to take a closer look at your own unconscious bias.

which to pick – maybe not important but a choice I have to make

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forgetting and remembering

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doorway effect, doorways, forgetting, memory, photo, photography, psychology, remembering, tea

This morning I found myself standing in my tiny kitchen and not quite knowing why. Somehow since walking through the door from my little home office into the kitchen I had completely forgotten what had made me leave my desk in the first place.

As I retraced my steps I notice my empty cup and remembered I wanted to put the kettle on and I couldn’t help but think about how odd it was I had forgotten about it in the first place. But then I remembered an article I had read about how walking through doors makes you forget and had to smile, after all I had walked through four doors on my way to the shop, seven if you count the return.

Most of us have experienced standing in a room and trying to figure out why we went in there in the first place, we struggle to remember and mostly we can’t, , but nearly always we ask ourselves: “how could I have forgotten?”

The simple answer would be, we just weren’t really paying attention to what we were doing but the more ‘scientisty’ one is a phenomenon know as the “doorway effect“. Studies have shown that we remember things better if the setting we are in stays the same, this means that as soon as we stand up from our desk and leave the room we just can’t remember that we wanted to make a cup of tea because we changed our environment. The reason behind this is that our brain seems to optimizes certain kinds of memories to keep they “ready”, but then purges these memories when it believes they have expired, to make room for new ones. These kinds of memories are called “event models” and when you walk through a door you are changing venues, making your brain think that what ever happened in the old room is now no longer immediately important and it gets rid of the information. It’s a bit like that stack of papers you keep on your desk, you can’t have everything there as you’d never find the computer otherwise so every now and then you have to file away some stuff to make room for the more urgent paperwork at hand.

Of course it doesn’t have to be  a door that signals your brain it can purge the event models, walking up stairs, answering the phone, even finishing the task at hand can make you forget what you were doing or wanted to do next.

So the next time your standing in the kitchen staring into the fridge, don’t worry you don’t have early onset Alzheimer, you just purged your memory on the way there and maybe if you look  beside the kettle you’ll see a cup of tea waiting for that drop of milk.

the door to my ‘little home office’

sunny Saturday morning

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endorphins, halo-effect, health, psychology, Saturday, summer, sunshine, vitamin d

It’s meant to be raining, according to the weather forecast, but the sun doesn’t seem to have gotten that memo. For now it is shining and keeping those rain clouds at bay.

Studies have shown that we become nicer when the sun is shining, we tend to be quicker to answer researchers, give directions more readily and we even reach further into our pockets and give larger tips. Even the stock-markets trade more and is three times more likely to go up when the sun shines. Yes, even traders and investors feel more positive on sunny days, but unlike us they don’t just buy an ice-cream cone but put their money into bonds.

This happiness and optimism that awakens in us when the sun comes out to play is called the “halo-effect”. Now the halo effect defines how we see things due to our knowledge of an other thing. So, if someone is good at say card games we assume they are good at dice games too, or if someone is bad at football we assume they are bad at basketball as well. And when the sun shines making endorphins bounce around in our brains we just assume everything is good, because we feel good.

Sadly the downside to summer frolicking is that the suicide rate goes up. The reason behind this is that someone who is feeling low sees lots of happy, jolly people and it makes them feel worse about themselves so they become more prone to seeking a permanent solution.

But with all that said I just think most of us love the luxury of letting the warmth of the sun caress our skins and enjoy wearing light summery clothes. Of course we have to be mindful to not burn but letting the sun tickle us helps produce Vitamin D and as our skin is highly efficient at doing just that only 15-30 minutes of sunshine creates the same amount as drinking 200 glasses of milk would.

I am not a fan of milk myself I think I may just treat myself to an ice-cream, let my skin take care of the vitamin D production and let my endorphins run wild – what a perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon!

 sunshine inside a flower

short story static

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masters, psychology, short story, static, static thought, writing

On Friday I’ll be handing in my end of year short story final – 6.000 words (minimum) and at least two different stories. Since my short story attempts tend to be more minimalist than expansive, I’ll need to hand in three pieces of fiction.

While all of that isn’t really so much of an issue, and I do have two good, solid pieces (one I am particularly proud of), the third is creating a bit of a headache. Somehow I have entered a static phase, my thoughts are static and my writing is just not moving forward. And with time running out that is  not the most pleasant of feelings.

In psychology Static Thought is the term used to describe a child’s belief that the world is unchanging, that the world will always stay the same as it is in the present, and that the world has always been like that. And this is exactly how I currently feel about my story …

Somehow I can’t see where the story is going, and I am struggling to figure out where it came from. But my hope is that in a few short hours my story will have matured enough to allow for logical reasoning and complex thought structure and I can move forward. If so, the static will lift and the world will change and I will type like never before  – after all I do have a deadline looming.

hoping that the Muse will inspire me

 

timely wondering

Tags

being late, clocks, late, psychology, thoughts, time, wondering

This week I seem to have lost track of time and the days of the week have all blurred in to one. So somehow I just can’t help but wonder about time, structure and schedules.

Why is it that I often think I can get things done much quicker than I can? Why is it that I nearly always forget to calculate traveling time, making me permanently 10-15 minutes late, and always rushing? Why is it that I often struggle to just sit down and start- delaying myself with my procrastination? And why is it that when I think it’s time to go to bed I still find myself up and about an hour later?

Of course any psychologist could argue that maybe I enjoy the attention I get by arriving late, or maybe I am constantly seeking forgiveness, which I get when I  apologize for my tardiness. Or maybe I am a narcissist who just never considers other people and their needs.

However since every ‘pattern’ is based on what you get out of it, it really doesn’t explain why I (and others like me) inconvenience myself – the reward seems to be negated by the stress it causes. So what is it that makes me struggle with time?

As someone who chose a profession that deals with deadlines all the time it seems odd that this is an area of shortcomings. Even odder that I actually don’t struggle with deadlines – I tend to get my work done on time.

So, as I contemplated this contradictory conundrum I realised that maybe my issue with time has more to do with how I view it. I don’t wear a watch, and view time more through morning, noon and night, no exact hours more a sense of moments. And when I am working I get caught up with what I am doing – looking at word count or page layout or how many corrections I have left  – and this makes it easy to just plow on and get it done on time!

While this helps me in my job it also means that in my private time I forget about time too, I don’t check the clock and delay myself without meaning to. Of course this could also have something to do with a lack of self-discipline, enjoying myself in the moment to much to stop or feeling compelled to finish what I’m doing.

Or maybe I simply just don’t want to be early – I mean if being late is wasting someone else’s time, isn’t being early wasting mine?  Another thought that needs some timely wondering, but I don’t have time for that today!

Wednesday wonderings

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Dubllin, psychological studies, psychology, Sriram Chellappan, temptation, thoughts, wednesday, wonderings

Today Dublins sky is a pale slate grey and really doesn’t entice me to leave the home. Warm socks and cups of tea are what this day calls for, but filling out forms and a few meetings are what is scheduled.

However I can’t help but wonder, as I gaze out into the greyness of the day, how easy it would be to give in to temptation and just curl up with a good book and ignore the world outside.

Our material world is driven by temptation: advertisement plays on it, the shops stock to enhance it, the ping of emails, Facebook and instant messages trigger it and the allure of delicious food even makes us salivate. And the pleasure we derive from giving in to all the temptation around us somehow allows us to justify it.

A recent study by associate professor Sriram Chellappan shows that giving in to temptation may be all down to alleviating pain. His study looked at the internet usage of students and he quickly discovered that those students suffering from depression checked their emails a lot more than those who didn’t.

The reason behind this could be the fact that people who are experiencing negative thoughts and feel anxious are looking for ways to make them feel batter, lessen their emotional pain, and turning towards the the web seems to boost their mood.

And since trying to make ourselves feel good is what we all do, not just those with depression, our brains are primed to seek out ways to lessen pain and increase joy. And since how we experience physical pain and emotional pain are very closely linked our brain even adds pain to things we experienced as pleasurable to push us to seek out what our bodies want. So when our body, or mind, wants something, not only does our brain open up our pleasure responses it also adds our stress response into the mix.

“Chocolate cravers” stated in a 2005 study that when they imagine themselves eating the yummy goodness, they didn’t only feel good about it, but they also experienced feelings of agitation and a sense of loss of control – temptation for them wasn’t only pleasurable, it had quite a lot of stress attached to it.

And then of course there is the “fear of missing out” – if the person next to you has something, you may want it too. Just think of siblings having desert and making sure that they both have the exact same amount, even the same thing – give one a larger slice or more smarties, or even give one ice cream and the other cake, there is sure to be a war.

It seems that temptation is just something we all have to deal with – one way or another. And giving in doesn’t really seem to be the solution, since the relief is just short lived, but always resisting won’t make us happy either, since our minds are programmed to want. So maybe it is all about picking which temptation to give in to. Maybe we should really just try to figure out which one has the most positive and long-lasting effect – both physically and emotionally.

So keeping that in mind I think it is time to ignore that beckoning book and head out into the grey world and find another temptation to give in to.

I just heard that – the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon

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Baarder-Meinhof, Baarder-Meinhof Phenomenon, coincidence, Phenomenon, psychology, selective attention, thoughts

Ever been in the situation where you just learned something, received an odd bit of information or heard a new word and then, for no apparent reason, that piece of information or word keeps popping up, you keep hearing it again and again. You can’t help but think “that’s weird, I jut heard that”.

These events is know as the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon, and most of us experience them a few times in our lives, some more than others.

Like synchronicity, which is when you experience meaningful coincidences – like when you are thinking of someone and then they call you on the phone –  many feel these occurrences must be destiny or fate, as if they were suppose to happen.

And even when science tries to explain these things away by declaring that the world is complex and filled with frequent coincidences we just don’t want to hear it. But maybe we should pay a little bit more attention.

Our brains are programmed to seek out patterns this helps us learn and remember things. However this also causes our brains to make certain events seem more important than they really are. So when you consider the amount of information we are bombarded with every day, it isn’t really surprising that duplicates occur. And when these intersections happens our brain picks up on them and selects them as the beginning of a sequence, ignoring all the other information swirling around, which is called selective attention.

This means that coincidence is nothing more than a result or perception, our brain is stimulated by them as they are patterns and we then tend to to give them more attention, give them more value.

So when we then hear or see the same information the next day, if feels like more than coincidence, the brain sees it as a continuation of a pattern and we inflate the importance of the information. And this is what Baarder-Meinhof Phenomenon is … coincidences that intersect, creating a sequence in our brain due to selective attention, followed up by another coincidence turning the events into a pattern, which we then perceive as something like fate or destiny.

How the name came about however is a little unclear, but it seems that the person who discovered it named it after the event that triggered it for them – the historic German urban guerrilla group.

A bit of a mouthful but I bet you’ll be hearing more about it now, after reading this article!

The world is unpredictable. Things happen suddenly, unexpectedly. We want to feel we are in control of our own existence. In some ways we are, in some ways we’re not. We are ruled by the forces of chance and coincidence

Author Paul Auster

‘pee’ enhancing decision making

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decision making, Jean-Paul Satre, needing to pee, psychology, quote, quotes, visceral states

Ever had to make a decision about something and before you could make up your mind that tiny pressure from you bladder forced you to abandon your task and seek out the bathroom. Studies show however we should hold it in until we’ve made that decision.

If feels counter-intuitive but the urgency to pee actually enhances our decision making ability as researchers Mirjam Tuk and colleagues found out.

We all know that it isn’t wise to go food shopping with a grumbling tummy as we end up buying more, and often the food we buy turns out to be junk food: high in sugar and fats. And everyone knows that in the throws of passion all reason goes out the window, often leading to very poor decision-making.

The reason for this is that our minds react to certain visceral states (visceral states are characterized by intuition or instinct rather than intellect) and needing to ‘pee’ is one of them. But opposed to hunger or lust, the urge to relief ones bladder leads to a sense of urgency that encourages better decision making.

 

In tests Mirjam Tuk and her colleagues found out that the group who drank a lot of water, scored higher on the Stroop task (this is the exercise where you say the colour not the word the colour is written in ie: RED = blue not red)

 

The people with the full bladder were also better at making long term decisions. The test groups where asked to answer questions and could either receive a smaller monetary reward straight away, or wait three months and get the double amount. Those needing to pee were more willing to wait for the higher reward, which financially is the smarter decision.

 

And when given a word search puzzle, the group doing the “pee-dance” found it easier to find words, particularly those related to urination, like bladder, toilet etc.

 

So while we have all known that our visceral states influence what we do it now is clear if you need to make a decision, drink lots of water, clench those legs together and let your bladder decide for you.

 

It is only in our decisions that we are important.

Jean-Paul Sartre

desk duty

Tags

Albert Einstein, big five, ocean traits, psychology, quotes, Sam Gosling, Snoop - What your stuff says about you, tidy desk, work

Before I head back into college tomorrow and lecture my socks of (a hard task as I am still barefoot in my shoes) I need to pay a little attention to my desk today.

With several projects in the pipeline (yes I got some of those jobs I applied for recently), 14 hours of teaching and preparing for, some bills that need my attention and then of course my manuscript that I need to finish in the next thee weeks, or so, my desk has become a little cluttered and unorganised.

So, today I will spend a few hours preparing lessons for next week, filling in the last  hateful forms of administration, organising my schedule for next week and generally just tiding up the debris of a busy week.

As I shuffle, file, tear up, sort through I can’t help but think about an article I read about what a desk says about you. It was based on a book by Sam Gosling PhD called Snoop – What your stuff says about you and took a closer look at how people perceive us when they see our desks.

A nest of post-it’s may indicate that you can’t remember things, a collection of toys and novelty items show that you aren’t taking your work seriously, general messiness that you aren’t organised.

Gosling basically links up our possessions and how we display them to the OCEAN Traits, the big five (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism).

I’m not sure if our desks are a  true reflection of who we are but  I do know I work better when I have a little more space, it’s as if a tidy desk allows my mind to run wild with no distractions from clutter around it. However the clutter I collect while in the middle of things does seems to be an important aspect of how I work.

But for now, to give myself a fresh start for a new semester, I will keep organising today, give myself a little bit of room to settle in to a new rhythm and try and be one step ahead of my deadlines.

If a cluttered desk is a sign of a  cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?

Albert Einstein

If you want to take the test and see how you rank on the OCEAN traits follow this link

finding time for flowers

Tags

flowers, gardening, home improvement, mood, photos, planting flowers, psychology, psychology study, qoutes, quote, window-boxes, winter pansies, Yogi Maharishi Mahesh

This week has been extremely busy, and today is no exception. But with my summery window-boxes wilting and looking more than sad, I really want to find the time to replant them autumn.

Luckily I did find a few moments to rush in and out of my local garden center, a few winter pansies and a bag or two of spring bulbs quickly captured and paid for at the till.

Now all I need is half an hour to get my hands dirty and create a pretty sight for me to come home to and for my neighbours to hopefully enjoy.

After all, even if the sun is still out and about in Dublin this week, those dull days of autumn aren’t too far off and a few cheerfully nodding heads of pansies do help to brighten them up.

A study done in 2005 about how flowers impact on peoples moods shows that just looking at flowers can ease anxious and agitated feelings and create a sense of happiness and joy.  The study even showed that a pretty display of a few beautiful blooms increased the contact with friends and family, lessening the sense of loneliness.

So hopefully my soon prettified window-boxes will not just cheer me up when I return home or look out the window and bring beauty to the urban space I occupy, but maybe, just maybe, they’ll bring a smile to some lonely strangers face.

Happiness radiates like a fragrance from a flower and draws all good things towards you

Yogi Maharishi Mahesh