Palaeontologists characterize mass extinctions as times when the Earth loses more than three-quarters of its species in a geologically short interval, as has happened only five times in the past 540 million years or so. Biologists now suggest that a sixth mass extinction may be under way, given the known species losses over the past few centuries and millennia. Here we review how differences between fossil and modern data and the addition of recently available palaeontological information influence our understanding of the current extinction crisis. Our results confirm that current extinction rates are higher than would be expected from the fossil record, highlighting the need for effective conservation measures.
This multimethod series of studies merges the literatures on gratitude and risk regulation to test a new process model of gratitude and relationship maintenance. We develop a measure of appreciation in relationships and use cross-sectional, daily experience, observational, and longitudinal methods to test our model. Across studies, we show that people who feel more appreciated by their romantic partners report being more appreciative of their partners. In turn, people who are more appreciative of their partners report being more responsive to their partners' needs (Study 1), and are more committed and more likely to remain in their relationships over time (Study 2). Appreciative partners are also rated by outside observers as relatively more responsive and committed during dyadic interactions in the laboratory, and these behavioral displays are one way in which appreciation is transmitted from one partner to the other (Study 3). These findings provide evidence that gratitude is important for the successful maintenance of intimate bonds.
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Say good day to the magical island of Bali! Join Anamika, one of the Yoga Kids, as she travels with her family to Bali, Indonesia. Surf like a surfer, dance like a Balinese dancer, and sit like a monkey. The book includes a list of Kids Yoga Poses, Map of Bali, Basic Indonesian Phrases, and a Parent-Teacher Guide with tips on creating a successful yoga experience. This yoga book for toddlers and preschoolers (ages 2 to 5) is more than a storybook, but it’s also a unique experience for children.
This study investigated how sacrificing for approach versus avoidance goals shapes the giver's and the recipient's emotions and relationship quality. A sample of 80 dating couples participated in a three-part study in which they discussed sacrifice in the laboratory (Part 1), reported on their daily sacrifices for 14 days (Part 2), and completed a follow-up survey 3 months later (Part 3). When partners discussed a sacrifice they had made for approach goals, they experienced greater relationship quality, whereas when they discussed a sacrifice they had made for avoidance goals, they experienced poorer relationship quality. These effects were replicated with outside observer reports. On days when partners sacrificed for approach goals, both partners experienced increased relationship quality, but on days when people sacrificed for avoidance goals, the giver experienced decreased relationship quality. These effects were mediated by positive and negative emotions, respectively. Approach sacrifice goals predicted increases in relationship quality and avoidance sacrifice goals predicted decreases in relationship quality, as reported by both partners 3 months later. Sacrifice per se does not help or harm relationships, but the goals that people pursue when they give up their own interests can critically shape the quality of intimate bonds.
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<p><strong>Creator's Description</strong>: Urbanization in Tibet is contentious but poorly understood. We reexamine data on urban growth in Lha sa in light of ongoing conversations about the urban scale in China. Historically, a city/countryside dichotomy was not a key mode of organizing Tibetan conceptual and material landscapes. Thus urbanization is not just a technical matter of increased density of buildings and people, but also the imposition of a new grid of legibility and ordering of space. With the valorization of urban status as a measure of development, rural townships have been promoted to the administrative rank of urban towns, their populations and land areas boosting Lha sa's urban totals by 30 percent in 2000. Meanwhile, Han in-migrants have concentrated in the city center, dominating urban occupations. Though Lha sa remains small compared with other provincial-level capitals, the extreme concentration of urban population in this one Tibetan city corroborates other evidence of uneven development. Emerging patterns of socio-spatial life in Lha sa suggest a process of deterritorialization and reterritorialization toward a westward-expanding Han China.</p>
Health anxiety is characterized by the misinterpretation of body sensations as signs of an illness, leading to health-related worry and increased healthcare utilization. Research has demonstrated the effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions in the treatment of severe health anxiety, yet mechanisms of this association remain unexplored. Therefore, the present investigation sought to examine the indirect effect of mindfulness on health anxiety through intolerance of uncertainty (IU) or fear of the unknown. Undergraduate psychology students completed a series of online self-report measures for course credit. Bias-corrected bootstrapping (k = 10,000 samples) was used to generate a 95 % confidence interval to test the significance of the indirect effect. There was a significant indirect effect of greater levels of mindfulness on lower levels of health anxiety through decreases in intolerance of uncertainty. Higher levels of mindfulness may lead internal experiences to be perceived as less threatening, thereby increasing one’s ability to tolerate uncertainty and decreasing the need to worry and engage in safety behaviors that maintain health anxiety.
Autism Spectrum Disorders are characterized by difficulties in communicating and cooperating with other people. Impairment in Theory of Mind (ToM), the ability to infer what another person is thinking, may contribute to these social deficits. The present study assesses the relationship between autistic traits and decision-making in a socioeconomic game environment that measures ToM and cooperation. We quantified participant strategy during game play with computer agents that simulated aspects of ToM or fixed strategy agents with static behaviors or heuristics. Individuals with higher Autism Quotient (AQ) scores cooperated less than subjects with low AQ scores with the ToM agents. In contrast, subjects with higher AQ scores cooperated more with fixed strategy agents. Additionally, subjects with higher AQ scores spent more time than low AQ subjects signaling cooperative intent in games with fixed strategy agents while spending less time signaling cooperation with adaptive agents, indicating a preference toward systemizing behaviors in the face of uncertainty. We conclude that individuals with high levels of autistic traits are less likely to utilize ToM as a cognitive strategy, even when it is beneficial, to achieve a desired outcome.
Autism Spectrum Disorders are characterized by difficulties in communicating and cooperating with other people. Impairment in Theory of Mind (ToM), the ability to infer what another person is thinking, may contribute to these social deficits. The present study assesses the relationship between autistic traits and decision-making in a socioeconomic game environment that measures ToM and cooperation. We quantified participant strategy during game play with computer agents that simulated aspects of ToM or fixed strategy agents with static behaviors or heuristics. Individuals with higher Autism Quotient (AQ) scores cooperated less than subjects with low AQ scores with the ToM agents. In contrast, subjects with higher AQ scores cooperated more with fixed strategy agents. Additionally, subjects with higher AQ scores spent more time than low AQ subjects signaling cooperative intent in games with fixed strategy agents while spending less time signaling cooperation with adaptive agents, indicating a preference toward systemizing behaviors in the face of uncertainty. We conclude that individuals with high levels of autistic traits are less likely to utilize ToM as a cognitive strategy, even when it is beneficial, to achieve a desired outcome.
Teachers, here is a short, fun, and accessible yoga practice for your youngsters. Appropriate for ages 4-10. Have fun!
The Lhasa Project aims at documenting the contemporary neighborhoods of Lhasa, including their histories, using mapping, visual documentation, textual research and oral histories. The initiative consists of many distinct projects with separate administration. Some of the major projects include the Sera project, the Lingkor project, the Meru Monastery project, and others.
Join Luke's beach adventure. Hop like a kangaroo, perch like a sea gull, and rest like a sea star as you act out this journey on an East Coast Australian beach. What else might you see?Learn something new, explore movement, and have fun together!
Kids Yoga Stories introduce you to engaging characters who will get your child laughing, moving, and creating. Reading is good for the mind AND body! The story links several yoga poses in a specific sequence to create a coherent and meaningful story.
This book for ages 4 to 8 is more than a storybook, but it's also a unique experience for children.
One of the main obstacles to thinking clearly about the morality of anger is that we have two competing intuitions: we think that the effects of anger are often bad, destroying both our relationships and our peace of mind, and that the expression of anger in response to injustice can be good or even required. The tension caused by these competing intuitions has long been noted in Western philosophical works on anger and has led to two distinct approaches to the problem of moral anger, the moderation approach and the elimination approach. Here it is argued that neither approach can fully make sense of the moral contours of anger. A third view on anger is defended, the Tantric view, according to which moral excellence involves a sophisticated facility with complex emotional states. In the presentation of the Tantric view, two tenth-century Buddhist texts are referred to, both by the Indian Buddhist philosopher Dharmaraksita.
Adolescents involved in the juvenile justice system are prone to more traumatic events than other adolescents, leaving them in danger of developmental difficulties. Trauma exposure is predictive of poor outcomes including mental and physical health issues as well as criminal activity. Current treatment approaches either have a nominal effect on recidivism rates or increase the likelihood of future criminal offenses. This article explores adolescent brain development, the unique difficulties that juvenile justice youth face, and mindfulness meditation as an adjunctive treatment to system-based treatment. Mindfulness meditation may be a way to redress damage to the brain and facilitate healthy brain development, thus impacting prosocial behavior. Practice implications include integrating mindfulness meditation as an important part of rehabilitative efforts with juvenile justice youth.
This pilot study investigated the effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), a treatment combining mindfulness meditation and interventions taken from cognitive therapy, in patients suffering from chronic-recurrent depression. Currently symptomatic patients with at least three previous episodes of depression and a history of suicidal ideation were randomly allocated to receive either MBCT delivered in addition to treatment-as-usual (TAU; N = 14 completers) or TAU alone (N = 14 completers). Depressive symptoms and diagnostic status were assessed before and after treatment phase. Self-reported symptoms of depression decreased from severe to mild levels in the MBCT group while there was no significant change in the TAU group. Similarly, numbers of patients meeting full criteria for depression decreased significantly more in the MBCT group than in the TAU group. Results are consistent with previous uncontrolled studies. Although based on a small sample and, therefore, limited in their generalizability, they provide further preliminary evidence that MBCT can be used to successfully reduce current symptoms in patients suffering from a protracted course of the disorder.
We examined coping self-efficacy as one potential mediator of the relationship between four specific mindfulness skills (observing, describing, acting with awareness, and accepting without judgment) and emotion regulation difficulties. Participants were 180 undergraduate students (M age = 21.13; 71 % female; 82 % Caucasian) who completed self-report measures for course credit. Pearson correlations, independent samples t test, and ANOVAs were used to examine bivariate relationships between study variables. Simple mediation was examined in a path analysis framework by testing the indirect effect of mindfulness skills on emotion regulation difficulties through coping self-efficacy. Results indicated that a greater use of describing, acting with awareness, and accepting without judgment were associated with greater coping self-efficacy, and coping self-efficacy partially mediated the relationship between each of those skills and emotion regulation difficulties (indirect effects: b weight = −0.26 to −0.29, p < 0.01). The mindfulness skill of observing was not related to coping self-efficacy or emotion regulation difficulties. Findings suggest that coping self-efficacy partially explains the relationships between mindfulness and emotion regulation difficulties. Clinicians administering mindfulness-based interventions should be aware of the role of coping self-efficacy in the relationship between mindfulness and emotion regulation.
In 2 daily experience studies and a laboratory study, the authors test predictions from approach-avoidance motivational theory to understand how dating couples can maintain feelings of relationship satisfaction in their daily lives and over the course of time. Approach goals were associated with increased relationship satisfaction on a daily basis and over time, particularly when both partners were high in approach goals. Avoidance goals were associated with decreases in relationship satisfaction over time, and people were particularly dissatisfied when they were involved with a partner with high avoidance goals. People high in approach goals and their partners were rated as relatively more satisfied and responsive to a partner's needs by outside observers in the lab, whereas people with high avoidance goals and their partners were rated as less satisfied and responsive. Positive emotions mediated the link between approach goals and daily satisfaction in both studies, and responsiveness to the partner's needs was an additional behavioral mechanism in Study 2. Implications of these findings for approach-avoidance motivational theory and for the maintenance of satisfying relationships over time are discussed.
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The present case study investigates the experience of stress among graduate students, particularly stress related to teaching, their coping strategies, and their experience with contemplative practices integrated into a teacher education course. While there is a significant body of research on contemplative practices in K-12 teacher development, few studies have looked at the integration of contemplative practices in graduate student experiences in higher education. Data for this case study include interviews with 19 graduate students enrolled in foreign language M.A./Ph.D. programs. Results suggest that students’ perceived stress stems from the difficulties of adapting to and balancing new responsibilities and concerns about teaching. To cope with stress, graduate students most commonly rely on emotional support from peers and time management strategies. Students report that participating in contemplative practices together as a class cultivated community, providing them with support, collegiality, interconnectedness, and collaboration as teachers and scholars. The integration of contemplative practices promoted an awareness of the importance of self-care, compassion for self and others, and social and emotional awareness.
The purpose of this study was to examine pathways in a model which proposed associations among parent mindfulness, parent depressive symptoms, two types of parenting, and child problem behavior. Participants' data were from the baseline assessment of a NIMH-sponsored family-group cognitive-behavioral intervention program for the prevention of child and adolescent depression (Compas et al., 2009). Participants consisted of 145 mothers and 17 fathers (mean age = 41.89 yrs, SD = 7.73) with a history of depression and 211 children (106 males) (mean age = 11.49 yrs, SD = 2.00). Analyses showed that (a) positive parenting appears to play a significant role in helping explain how parent depressive symptoms relate to child externalizing problems and (b) mindfulness is related to child internalizing and externalizing problems; however, the intervening constructs examined did not appear to help explain the mindfulness-child problem behavior associations. Suggestions for future research on parent mindfulness and child problem outcome are described.
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The purpose of this study was to examine pathways in a model which proposed associations among parent mindfulness, parent depressive symptoms, two types of parenting, and child problem behavior. Participants' data were from the baseline assessment of a NIMH-sponsored family-group cognitive-behavioral intervention program for the prevention of child and adolescent depression (Compas et al., 2009). Participants consisted of 145 mothers and 17 fathers (mean age = 41.89 yrs, SD = 7.73) with a history of depression and 211 children (106 males) (mean age = 11.49 yrs, SD = 2.00). Analyses showed that (a) positive parenting appears to play a significant role in helping explain how parent depressive symptoms relate to child externalizing problems and (b) mindfulness is related to child internalizing and externalizing problems; however, the intervening constructs examined did not appear to help explain the mindfulness-child problem behavior associations. Suggestions for future research on parent mindfulness and child problem outcome are described.
Several authors have argued that because mindfulness training involves repeated practice of the self-regulation of attention, it should lead to measurable improvements in attentional skills and related memory processes. Although a few studies have shown relationships between mindfulness training and performance-based tests of attention and memory, findings are mixed. In the present study, a sample of 33 adults with a long-term mindfulness meditation practice (average duration of 6 years) was compared with a demographically matched sample of nonmeditators on several widely used tests of attention and memory functioning, including sustained attention, attention switching, inhibition of elaborative processing, working memory, and short- and long-term memory. Group differences were nonsignificant for all of the attentional tasks. The only significant group differences were in short-term memory (both free and cued recall) and long-term memory (free recall only). Results suggest that the nature of the attentional and memory processing that is cultivated by mindfulness training requires clarification.
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Employing data from a mailed survey of a sample of ecologically and spiritually aware respondents (N = 829), the study tests the hypothesized relationship between ecologically sustainable behavior (ESB) and subjective well-being (SWB). The proposed link between ESB and SWB is the spiritual practice of mindfulness meditation (MM). In multiple regression equations ESB and MM independently explain statistically significant amounts of variance in SWB, indicating, for at least the study's sample, that there can be a relationship between personal and planetary well-being. The inter-relationships among SWB, ESB and MM suggest that for specific segments of the general population (e.g., the spiritually inclined) there may not necessarily be an insurmountable conflict between an environmentally responsible lifestyle and personal quality of life. The research reported here also points to the potential for meditative/mindful experiences to play a prominent role in the explanation of variance in SWB, a direction in QoL studies recently highlighted by several researchers (Layard 2005, pp. 189–192; Nettle 2005, pp. 153–160; Haidt 2006).
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Employing data from a mailed survey of a sample of ecologically and spiritually aware respondents (N = 829), the study tests the hypothesized relationship between ecologically sustainable behavior (ESB) and subjective well-being (SWB). The proposed link between ESB and SWB is the spiritual practice of mindfulness meditation (MM). In multiple regression equations ESB and MM independently explain statistically significant amounts of variance in SWB, indicating, for at least the study's sample, that there can be a relationship between personal and planetary well-being. The inter-relationships among SWB, ESB and MM suggest that for specific segments of the general population (e.g., the spiritually inclined) there may not necessarily be an insurmountable conflict between an environmentally responsible lifestyle and personal quality of life. The research reported here also points to the potential for meditative/mindful experiences to play a prominent role in the explanation of variance in SWB, a direction in QoL studies recently highlighted by several researchers (Layard 2005, pp. 189–192; Nettle 2005, pp. 153–160; Haidt 2006).
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