Progress-focused

There is no denying that humanity faces a number of existential problems such as economic inequality, environmental degradation and political instability. Therefore, it is necessary for society as a whole to work for the common good. Unfortunately, a sense of despondency prevails as so many people seem to feel powerless in the face of these problems. Yet our contribution to a better world, even if we sometimes think they have little to do with these important challenges, can have an impact. In this article, we explore the power of small actions and how everyone's choices can influence the course of the future.

How mindset interventions can improve adolescent mental health. A new paper by David Yeager and Carol Dweck raises the idea that adolescents have different perceptions of their personal qualities, and that changing these perceptions can lead to better coping with challenging situations and improved mental health. The paper presents both theory and data that support this idea.

The word values ​​refers to what we value in life and what we think is good and bad. Values ​​are important because they strongly influence our judgments, choices and behaviors. Self-determination theory research shows that when we engage in activities that are consistent with our values, we feel and function better. But what kind of values ​​can we have? In this article I describe characteristics of values ​​and explain Shalom Schwartz's Theory of Fundamental Human Values. Then I describe which values ​​wise people especially have and which they especially don't have. If you want to get wiser, maybe you can take some inspiration from this.

Wisdom is a complex concept. Wisdom contains multiple components and facets. It brings together many of the best things in people at the same time. The complexity of wisdom makes it difficult to describe and study. Different thinkers and scientists have looked at this complex concept from different angles. With the advent of the still young science of wisdom, there is gradually more clarity about what wisdom consists of, how it can be measured, how it relates to other concepts, what its importance is and how it can be developed.

We live in a time of profound changes and countless uncertainties. Recently, as a society, we have been shaken up by the dramatic opportunities and threats that artificial intelligence (AI) entails. These developments are going so fast that the prospects are that AI will be able to take over the work of many people in the foreseeable future. What possibilities and opportunities will there be for us in the future? This is an essential question because opportunity is crucial to the pursuit of goals, and without opportunity, progress is unlikely.

This article is about the quality of motivation according to self-determination theory (SDT). I focus on the best quality of motivation: autonomous motivation and explain that it comes in two forms: intrinsic and internalized motivation. Then I explain that there are two wrong ways of thinking about intrinsic motivation. Finally, I come to the conclusion that the balance between intrinsic and internalized motivation can be seen as an important key to success in education and work.

Rebecca Collie conducted a survey of 426 Australian teachers. Through this research, she sought to find out which factors are involved in teachers' well-being and turnover intentions ( Collie, 2023 ).

An interesting, fairly new discipline is emerging within the social sciences: Cognitive Immunology (CI). This discipline of science studies the immune system of the mind that protects against infectious and dangerous ideas, just as the immune system of the body protects against microbes. Cognitive immunologists strive to better understand disorders, causes of mental immunity, and interventions to improve mental immunity. Below I give a brief description of this discipline.

Being able to say 'no' effectively is important. Countless explicit and implicit requests are coming our way every day. By explicit requests I mean direct questions that we are asked, such as: "Could you do ...  for me?'' or "Is it okay if I ...'' By implicit requests I mean something more abstract, namely all the stimuli and triggers that ask for our attention. These can be all kinds of things such as e-mails that come in, interesting, exciting or disturbing news reports on websites or on the radio or TV, expressions on social media websites such as Twitter and Facebook, incoming text messages or Whats app messages, and even people passing by or sounds you hear.