Archives for May, 2016
Live Your Life by Your Values
Self-empowerment and self-efficacy are developed by living your life according to your personal values and goals.
A goal is something you desire to achieve. This can involve acquiring a material thing—a new car, for example—or it can involve achieving a certain quality of life, such as being free enough of...
A goal is something you desire to achieve. This can involve acquiring a material thing—a new car, for example—or it can involve achieving a certain quality of life, such as being free enough of...
Self-Efficacy, Wellbeing, and Mastery—My Personal Experience
Self-efficacy is the belief that you can succeed in the life challenges presented to you. The greater your self-efficacy, the greater your chances of succeeding in everything you attempt to accomplish. What you believe about yourself makes a difference.
You can cultivate and strengthen your...
You can cultivate and strengthen your...
In Your Own Hands: A Course in Self-Empowerment
Since January of 2015, I have been teaching a class in the Continuing Education Department at the College of Marin in Kentfield, California. Since January of 2016, I have been co-teaching the class with a colleague. The class makes it easier to learn the...
Doing Volunteer Work Improves Health
In the famous Tecumseh study of almost three thousand people by psychology researcher James House (et al. 1988) at the University of Michigan, an interesting tidbit of information emerged. While this study focused on a different topic—the health benefits of social support—one of the...
Social Support Reduces the Odds of Developing Cancer Pt. II
In a very famous epidemiology study, one of the most referenced of its kind because of its impressive sample size, UC Berkeley researchers Dr. Lisa Berkman and Dr. Leonard Syme studied seven thousand residents of Alameda County, California. All of them were observed for...
Social Support Reduces the Odds of Developing Cancer
In a very famous epidemiology study, one of the most referenced of its kind because of its impressive sample size, UC Berkeley researchers Dr. Lisa Berkman and Dr. Leonard Syme studied seven thousand residents of Alameda County, California. All of them were observed for...
Openheartedness and Love Confer Health
Studies by James McKay found that people who are open and friendly to strangers had half the rate of major illnesses of those who kept a cold and distant attitude toward strangers. These “affiliator types” (people who value relationships) had stronger defenses against viruses and cancer cells and their CD-4/CD8 ratios...
Meaningful Relationships Reduce Odds of Developing Cancer
In one of the longest-running prospective studies, 1300 medical students at Johns Hopkins were followed for forty years. While at Hopkins they were given psychological tests exploring the ability of the students to have meaningful relationships. Thirty years later, the researchers discovered...
Social Support, Development of Cancer, and Cancer Survival
Epidemiology researchers in one study exploring the effects of social support on cancer survival, interviewed 244 breast cancer patients. The patients were asked how many people they confided in during the three months post surgery. Then they were followed for several years. The seven-year survival rate for the patients who had not...
