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This section of the GoodWiki is for a general (vs. strictly academic) audience. Articles in this section relate to the mission and themes of the Greater Good Science Center, and are organized and cross-listed by subject.
Look here for links to Greater Good magazine articles, blog entries, "Half Full" parenting videos, radio and press interviews, and other relevant websites. We hope you will contribute to this growing index of materials related to the work of the Greater Good Science Center.
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[edit] Altruism
- The Moral Instinct If morality is a mere trick of the brain, some may fear, our very grounds for being moral could be eroded. Yet as we shall see, the science of the moral sense can instead be seen as a way to strengthen those grounds, by clarifying what morality is and how it should steer our actions.
- In Search of the Moral Voice by Jason Marsh. What makes some people display altruism and compassion in the midst of war?
[edit] Caregiving
- Circles of Care by Matthew Wheeland. Before Alzheimer's becomes a national crisis, new programs are trying to ease the pain and stress of caring for a loved one with the disease.
- Caring for the Caregivers by Sarita Tukaram. A look at innovative efforts to help teachers deal with the stress of their job.
[edit] Charity & Philanthropy
[edit] Compassion & Empathy
- Q&A: Bystanders to Genocide An interview with Philip Gourevitch about why nations intervene—and why they don't.
- We Are All Bystanders But we don't have to be. Dacher Keltner and Jason Marsh explain why we sometimes shackle our moral instincts, and how we can set them free.
- Courage Under Fire In the Bosnian civil war, Svetlana Broz found people who risked their lives to help victims—and inspired others to follow their example.
- Playground Heroes Who can stop bullying? Not just parents and teachers, argue Ken Rigby and Bruce Johnson.
- Why Do We Walk On By? To understand our indifference toward the homeless, Marc Ian Barasch put himself in their shoes for a week.
- The Banality of Heroism Zeno Franco and Philip Zimbardo show how ordinary people can become everyday heroes.
- Finding Meaning in Medicine by Karin Evans. How some doctors are cultivating compassion and empathy.
- The Evolution of Empathy Primatologist Frans B. M. de Waal traces the evolutionary roots of our empathic instincts.
- The Chauffeur's Dilemma Arlie Hochschild argues that empathy is being squeezed from the American way of life.
- A Feeling for Fiction Psychologist and novelist Keith Oatley explains how fictional works nurture empathy and enhance our social and emotional lives.
- The Compassionate Instinct Think humans are born selfish? Think again. Dacher Keltner reveals the compassionate side to human nature.
- Connecting Through Compassion Charles Garfield shares what he's learned about the extraordinary deeds of ordinary people.
[edit] Forgiveness
- Truth + Reconciliation Archbishop Desmond Tutu explains how forgiveness allowed South Africans to imagine a new beginning for their country.
- The New Science of Forgiveness Leading forgiveness researcher Everett L. Worthington, Jr. discusses the health and social benefits of forgiveness.
- The Choice to Forgive Fred Luskin shares his research-tested method for helping people give up their grudges.
- Making Peace through Apology Apology expert Aaron Lazare explains why some apologies encourage forgiveness and reconciliationÑand others only make things worse.
[edit] Getting Along Across Differences
[edit] Gratitude
- Pay It Forward Gratitude may seem like a simple emotion, but Robert Emmons argues that it inspires kindness, connection, and transformative life changes. And he's done the research to prove it.
- Stumbling toward Gratitude New research suggests gratitude is a key to health and happiness, but Catherine Price wanted to find out for herself.
- Love, Honor, and Thank Researchers Jess Alberts and Angela Trethewey have found that a successful relationship doesn't just depend on how partners divide their household chores, but on how they each express gratitude for the work the other one puts in.
- A Lesson in Thanks Psychologist Jeffrey Froh infused middle-school classes with a small dose of gratitude and found that it made students feel more connected to their friends, family, and their school.
- Highlights from the Research Project on Gratitude and Thankfulness Synopsis. Gratitude is the “forgotten factor” in happiness research. We are engaged in a long-term research project designed to create and disseminate a large body of novel scientific data on the nature of gratitude, its causes, and its potential consequences for human health and well-being. Scientists are latecomers to the concept of gratitude. Religions and philosophies have long embraced gratitude as an indispensable manifestation of virtue, and an integral component of health, wholeness, and well-being. Through conducting highly focused, cutting-edge studies on the nature of gratitude, its causes, and its consequences, we hope to shed important scientific light on this important concept. This document is intended to provide a brief, introductory overview of the major findings to date of the research project. For further information, please contact either of the project investigators.
[edit] Happy Families
- Dr. Moira Gunn speaks Dr. Carol Dweck, the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford University, a recognized world leader in the study of personality, and author of Mindset -- The New Psychology of Success."
- Unconventional Wisdom The Council on Contemporary Families was formed to increase communication among family researchers and practitioners from many different fields, and to help the press and public get access to accurate information and best-practice findings about how today's families work. The theme of this year's conference is a decade-long evaluation of what we have learned and what we have yet to find out about how to help America's diverse families better cope with contemporary changes and challenges.
- Cultivating Happiness Will positive psychology and gratitude intervention teach our kids how to be happy?
- Peaceful Parenting Sura Hart and Victoria Kindle Hodson explain how to turn parent-child conflict into cooperation.
- The Family Revolution The last century has seen a transformation of marriage and family life. But to address new challenges, argues Stephanie Coontz, we can't delude ourselves into thinking there ever was a Golden Age for couples and families.
- Feeling Like Partners Family researchers Philip A. Cowan, Carolyn Pape Cowan, and Neera Mehta explain how couples can learn to practice empathy in their relationship.
- Mother Nurture by Lyssa Mudd. Darlene Francis's research challenges assumptions about how our genes and our environment interact. Her findings offer some surprises--and some hope.
- To Know You is to Love You To be a compassionate spouse, you need more than love, according to marriage researchers Benjamin R. Karney and Lisa A. Neff.
[edit] Humor
ScienceDaily Laughter is the best medicine. We’ve heard the expression time and again. For decades, researchers have explored how humor helps patients relieve stress and heal. Melissa B. Wanzer, EdD, professor of communication studies at Canisius College in Buffalo, NY, has taken it one step further, with her research on how humor helps medical professionals cope with their difficult jobs. She also looked at how humor affects the elderly and how it can increase communication in the workplace and in the classroom.
[edit] Love
[edit] Navigating Materialism & Consumerism
[edit] Neuroscience of Prosocial Emotions
- Right and Wrong in the Real World The science of everyday ethics - Over the past few years, evolutionary biologists, neuroscientists, and cognitive psychologists have been exploring these very questions. And they are making some startling discoveries.
- Wired to be Inspired Psychologist Jonathan Haidt explains why we feel a thrill when we see someone act with courage or compassion.
- Peace Among Primates by Robert M. Sapolsky. Anyone who says peace is not part of human nature knows too little about primates, including ourselves.
- A Neural Basis for Social Cooperation by James K. Rilling et al. Summary: Cooperation based on reciprocal altruism has evolved in only a small number of species, yet it constitutes the core behavioral principle of human social life. The iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma Game has been used to model this form of cooperation. We used fMRI to scan women as they played an iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma Game with another woman to investigate the neurobiological basis of cooperative social behavior. Cooperation was associated with consistent activation in brain areas that have been linked with reward processing: nucleus accumbens, the caudate nucleus, ventromedial frontal/orbitofrontal cortex, and rostral anterior cingulate cortex.We propose that activation of this neural network positively reinforces reciprocal altruism, thereby motivating subjects to resist the temptation to selfishly accept but not reciprocate favors.
[edit] Positive Relationships
[edit] Psychological Well-Being
[edit] Social & Emotional Learning
- Mindful Kids, Peaceful Schools by Jill Suttie. With eyes closed and deep breaths, students are learning a new method to reduce anxiety, conflict, and attention disorders. But don't call it meditation.
- Handle with Care Nel Noddings explains how to help kids deal with everyday ethical problems.
- The Bully Problem by Amy Wilson. New research shows that kids suffer severely from the violence and insults doled out by their peers. But what can schools do about it?
- Schools without beauty Jonathan Kozol explain how decrepit schools raise the "misery index" for inner-city children.
- Inspiring Good Work Researchers Wendy Fischman and Howard Gardner have found that a lack of good mentors means young professionals aren't learning ethics or excellence on the job.
- Taking Lessons from a Baby by Sandy Naiman. To teach compassion and parenting skills to children, one Canadian program relies on some small instructors.
- Justice for All by Kathleen Kenna. How one program has helped jail inmates empathize with their victims and turn their lives around.
- A different view Alfie Kohn explains why we should help kids see the world from another perspective.
- Gaming the School System by Matthew Wheeland. Thanks to one program, students have found that resolving their differences can be all fun and games.
- A Curriculum of Care Students achieve more once they've learned to care for themselves and others, says Marilyn Watson.
- The Power of Performance by Elizabeth O'Brien. City at Peace's teenage cast members write and star in their own original musical.
[edit] Social Connection
[edit] Social & Emotional Intelligence
- The Power Paradox True power requires modesty and empathy, not force and coercion, argues Dacher Keltner. But what people want from leaders—social intelligence—is what is damaged by the experience of power.
- Are You a Jerk at Work? Robert I. Sutton explains how to handle bullies in the office—and prevent your own “inner jerk” from getting out.
- What is Social Intelligence? The ingredients of social intelligence can be organized into two broad categories: social awareness, what we sense about others -- and social facility, what we then do with that awareness.
[edit] Social Justice
[edit] Subjective Well-Being
- Happiness 101 Positive psychology brings the same attention to positive emotions (happiness, pleasure, well-being) that clinical psychology has always paid to the negative ones (depression, anger, resentment). Psychoanalysis once promised to turn acute human misery into ordinary suffering; positive psychology promises to take mild human pleasure and turn it into a profound state of well-being. “Under certain circumstances, people — they’re not desperate or in misery — they start to wonder what’s the best thing life can offer,” says Martin Seligman, one of the field’s founders, who heads the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Thus positive psychology is not only about maximizing personal happiness but also about embracing civic engagement and spiritual connectedness, hope and charity. “Aristotle taught us virtue isn’t virtue unless you choose it,” Seligman says.
- He’s Happier, She’s Less So Last year, a team of researchers added a novel twist to something known as a time-use survey. Instead of simply asking people what they had done over the course of their day, as pollsters have been doing since the 1960s, the researchers also asked how people felt during each activity. Were they happy? Interested? Tired? Stressed?
- Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert. But underneath the goofball brilliance, Gilbert has a serious argument to make about why human beings are forever wrongly predicting what will make them happy. Because of logic-processing errors our brains tend to make, we don't want the things that would make us happy — and the things that we want (more money, say, or a bigger house or a fancier car) won't make us happy.NYT Review NPR interview TED video
