Building willpower: the eight pillars
10th July 2011
(this post is downloadable as both a Word doc & as a PDF file.) In the earlier post "Self-control, conscientiousness, grit, emotion regulation, willpower - whatever word you use, it's sure important to have it" I described the extraordinary benefits achievable through increased self-control & willpower. I noted occasional downsides …
Building willpower: it's like strengthening and nourishing a muscle.
9th July 2011
(this post is downloadable as both a Word doc & as a PDF file.) "If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you ..." "If" by Rudyard Kipling In yesterday's post on "Self-control ... the importance of training", I talked about …
Self-control, conscientiousness, grit, emotion regulation, willpower - the importance of training
8th July 2011
Over the last few days I've written a series of four blog posts on self-control - the first was "Self-control, conscientiousness, grit, emotion regulation, willpower - whatever word you use, it's sure important to have it" and the most recent "Self-control, conscientiousness, grit ... how do you measure it?". These …
Recent research: articles from June journals
7th July 2011
I read a lot of research. When I find an article of particular interest I download it to my bibliographic database - EndNote - which currently contains over 16,000 abstracts. Every few weeks I scan through all the articles I've found interesting in the previous month (in the general areas …
Proposal for a BABCP special interest group on compassion
30th June 2011
The British Association for Behavioural & Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP) encourages the formation of Special Interest Groups (SIG's) in areas that members want to particularly focus on. There has been discussion recently about a possible SIG on Compassion. If you're a member of the BABCP and you would like to be …
Self-control, conscientiousness, grit, emotion regulation, willpower - how do you measure it?
27th June 2011
(the "brief self-control scale" is downloadable as either a Word doc or a PDF file; the "grit scales", assessing ability to commit to longer term projects, are downloadable as PDF files; assessment of the broader quality of "conscientiousness" as part of the big five personality assessment is downloadable as a …
Self-control, conscientiousness, grit, emotion regulation, willpower - possible adverse effects
22nd June 2011
(this blog post is downloadable as either a Word doc or a PDF handout). Over the last few days I've written two blog posts on the very many benefits of good self-control - see "Self-control, conscientiousness, grit, emotion regulation, willpower - whatever word you use, it's sure important to have …
Self-control, conscientiousness, grit, emotion regulation, willpower - more on the many benefits
18th June 2011
(today's & the first self-control blog post have been combined and are downloadable as either a Word doc or a PDF handout). In the recent blog post "Self-control, conscientiousness, grit, emotion regulation, willpower - whatever word you use, it's sure important to have it" I wrote about the recently published …
Self-control, conscientiousness, grit, emotion regulation, willpower - whatever word you use, it's sure important to have it
14th June 2011
(today's & the next self-control blog post have been combined and are downloadable as either a Word doc or a PDF handout). Professor Terrie Moffitt and colleagues' recent paper "A gradient of childhood self-control predicts health, wealth, and public safety" is another hammer blow highlighting the crucial importance of self-control …
Family psychoeducation: is this a major step forward in relapse prevention for depression?
12th June 2011
There was a pretty startling paper published in last month's British Journal of Psychiatry: Shimazu, K., S. Shimodera, et al. (2011). "Family psychoeducation for major depression: randomised controlled trial." British Journal of Psychiatry 198(5): 385-390. Background The value of family psychoeducation for schizophrenia has been well established, and indications for …