One of the first things a guest will see upon entering my home is a simple decoration that encapsulates my desire for our family life. It contains a few photos of my wife, our boys, and myself, as well as six words declaring our family values: Kindness, Respect, Honesty, Humility, Generosity, and Gratitude.

Each of these values is relational, and places the needs, dignity, and worth of the other person above oneself. As we enter this season of thanksgiving, I believe it’s worth spending a few moments considering gratitude, and what the significance of this value might be.

When was the last time you directly expressed gratitude? Were you actually feeling grateful at the time? How did you feel after you shared your appreciation? How did the other person respond? Did they receive it well? Did they play the “aw shucks, it was nothing” card? Did they just text you back with the conversation-killing “thumbs up” emoji? 

In recent years, researchers in the field of positive psychology have attempted to understand how gratitude might impact other feeling states (temporary) or personality traits (enduring) in the person who expresses gratitude, and the recipient of the gratitude. Gratitude, it turns out, has a direct relationship to joy.

Watkins et al. (2018) found that more grateful people (trait) tend to experience more joy. They also found that people who are more generally joyful (trait) tend to express more gratitude (state) and report higher subjective well-being over time. Other researchers (You et al., 2018) found that grateful people may notice more of the positive in their environments, including available social supports, as well as experience fewer emotional difficulties.

So what does that mean for us? For everyday folks? For non-research participants? It means that we should be cultivating gratitude in ourselves. Our thoughts, our actions, our intentions, our responses to pleasurable and painful experiences, and all other elements of our lives, should be products of the gratitude in our hearts. From a Christian perspective, we should be continually grateful because the very breath we breathe is a gift from God, as well as the free will to choose whether to express gratitude with that breath. Even the painful breaths.

You may be reading this and thinking, “Why on earth would I be grateful for painful experiences!?” If you’re interested in a detailed explanation for why Christians might be grateful for painful experiences, I’ll refer you to C.S. Lewis’ book, The Problem of Pain. For the purposes of this brief post, however, I’ll just focus on the research stating that it’s healthy to be grateful, and that we miss out on a great deal of good in our lives when we choose otherwise.

To return to the good that results from feeling and expressing gratitude, is there any benefit to others when we show gratitude? I mentioned above that gratitude is, by definition, relational. Does this necessarily mean that there is a direct benefit to the recipients of our gratitude? According to Lee et al. (2018), the day after receiving gratitude, recipients tended to experience greater happiness, see themselves as having more prosocial impact, and to be more engaged at work.

 I guess a good way to conclude would be to briefly explore why we sometimes might not express gratitude even when we feel grateful. In a creative study asking participants to write a letter expressing gratitude, Kumar and Epley (2018) found that participants tended to underestimate the amount of surprise recipients would feel, overestimate the awkwardness felt upon receiving gratitude, and underestimate the resulting joy felt by recipients.

The bottom line: if you find yourself holding back a compliment, a text of thanks, or anything else that lets a person know you value them and their contributions to your life and experience, consider the good you can do in both your life and theirs. Tell them you are grateful!

As we head into this season of thanksgiving, let’s not treat gratitude like a New Year’s resolution. Gratitude is not something that should be focused on once a year and then forgotten. Rather, it is something that should be lived and practiced daily, throughout our lives, in every moment. For your sake, and for the sake of others, let your gratitude show!

 

References

 Kumar, A., & Epley, N. (2018). Undervaluing gratitude: Expressers misunderstand the consequences of showing appreciation. Psychological Science, 29(9), 1423–1435. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797618772506

Lee, H. W., Bradburn, J., Johnson, R. E., Lin, S.-H. (Joanna), & Chang, C.-H. (Daisy). (2018). The benefits of receiving gratitude for helpers: A daily investigation of proactive and reactive helping at work. Journal of Applied Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000346

Watkins, P. L., Emmons, R. A., Greaves, M. R., & Bell, J. (2018). Joy is a distinct positive emotion: Assessment of joy and relationship to gratitude and well-being. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 13(5), 522-539.

You, S., Lee, J., Lee, Y., & Kim, E. (2018). Gratitude and life satisfaction in early adolescence: The mediating role of social support and emotional difficulties. Personality and Individual Differences, 130, 122–128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2018.04.005

 

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Robert Pate, Psy.D.

Director of Clinical Training, Doctor of Psychology Program

College of Behavioral and Social Sciences

 

The CSHB Blog is an excellent forum for you to share about:

• Your research
• A research article you read recently
• An experience you had at a recent conference or CSHB event
• Your research ideas or research-related experiences
• Your thoughts related to science and Christianity

If you are interested in contributing to the CSHB blog, please submit a blog post as a Word document to cshb@calbaptist.edu. Successful blog posts will:

• Have between 600 and 1000 words (Longer posts will be considered as a series)
• Be written clearly and accurately, for a general (non-technical) audience
• Have a casual-professional tone (e.g., conversational, but without slang)
• Be related to research or the activities of the CSHB
• Include images, a headshot, and a 1-2 sentence bio (including year/major)

Writing blog posts is different from writing an APA style research paper. And, just like that APA-style research paper, it is a skill that can be practiced, improved, and mastered. Here are some tricks used by the most engaging bloggers:

• Develop an interesting title. Would you rather read a post about “Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and Anxiety” or “How to beat your anxiety”?
• Start with a strong hook. Ask your reader a thought-provoking question or share a story, a compelling statistic, or an engaging quote.
• Make your writing count. Each word should have a purpose and your sentences should communicate meaningfully! It’s a blog….when it gets boring, people stop reading. Make it worthwhile and easy for your reader to continue reading.
• Write to your audience. Engage your readers where they are with what they (likely) know as a starting point. The CSHB blog targets primarily undergraduate and graduate students in the behavioral sciences.
• End well. How should the reader be different after having read your blog? Not every blog is life changing; but a great blog will know what the conclusion should be doing in the reader. Maybe it makes them laugh, commiserate, ponder, or change an idea or behavior. Different goals call for different conclusions.

Once you have submitted your blog post, it will undergo peer review. There are three possible outcomes to peer review:

• Publish as is
• Revise and resubmit (pay attention to reviewer comments)
• Rejection (usually because the topic isn’t appropriate for the blog)

 

Especially for students, we will work with you as best we can to help you develop a publishable blog. So, what do you have to lose? Get typing!

 

(Questions? Email cshb@calbaptist.edu)

It’s 2am on a Thursday night. It feels shockingly close and amazingly far from the beginning of this semester. The reality of summer has (officially) escaped your soul, replaced with the magical allure and promise of all things pumpkin spice. It’s possible that right now the reality of deadlines, exams, and the fact that being up at 2am is no longer a good idea (we’re looking at you, 8am classes) is weighing on your mind like the combined weight of your textbooks. So, needless to say, you’re busy. Tired. Stressed.

But I hope you’re also optimistic. Excited. Energized.

Each semester offers as much opportunity as it does stress. If you are reading this, you are probably someone who likes opportunity. And that’s great because in this post, I want to invite you to a new opportunity. I want you to write the next CSHB blog article. I feel so strongly about that, I want to give you five reasons why I think you should. Let’s get going.

Reason #1: You have questions, you want answers. One thing that I love about teaching psychology is that is relevant. To everything. Who sits in a class about people and says, “yeah, this just doesn’t matter to me.” Really. Who does that? Instead, I usually have students who ask really great, creative questions that are deeply relevant to their own lives. Class may not always be well suited to dive into these questions and—frankly—professors might not have all the answers (#professorconfessions). But there is another solution: you find the answer yourself. This is what got me interested in psychology. I had too many questions for my professors to answer, so I decided to spend my life studying to answer them better. But it’s not just about me answering them; it’s also about sharing my answers to try to improve others’ lives.

So, how can you share answers to your questions to improve others’ lives? Forgive me for my bold claim here, but I think the CSHB blog is one such way. Let’s say you want to know how to have relationships that are more meaningful. Find a few research articles, read them, and summarize them in a blog for your peers. The process of finding, reading, and summarizing the articles will enhance your own understanding of how to have better relationships, and it also affords the readers of the blog a chance to learn from your own learning. How cool is that?

 Reason #2: You want to develop your CV. A curriculum vita (CV) is an academic resume and, chances are, if you are planning to apply to graduate school or are in graduate school, you will need one. There is no one “right” way to create a CV, but one thing you will want to be sure to do is to fully and accurately document all of your academic activities. If you publish a blog for the CSHB it can be added to your CV as a peer-reviewed, non-academic publication or as service to the profession. Especially for those of you pre-career, even the little things matter.

 Reason #3: You are looking to get involved. Related to #2, publishing in the CSHB blog is not just about adding lines to your CV because it represents something more than just lines on a document. It also represents your investment in your program and discipline. Not all students take the time to do work in their discipline outside of the requirements of the class. Those who do tend to be different kinds of students. More involved. More invested. More connected. If you are interested in the behavioral sciences because you desire to be a part of a community of behavioral scientists, this is a great first step. (Also, given that your submission will be reviewed, you can ask your favorite professor to pre-review your submission and provide feedback as another way to start to create relationships outside of the classroom.)

 Reason #4: You have ideas worth sharing. Did you know that some of the most important scientific breakthroughs in the history of science have come from young scholars? Including graduate and undergraduate students? People just like you?

An interesting thing happens in all professions: you come into the profession knowing nothing (or very little), but over time you acclimate (or, get socialized) to “the way things are done.” Over time, we learn how to do things just like the most respected member of the profession. In science, this means that we learn a specific way of thinking about problems and we apply a standard method of inquiry to try to solve the problem. Cognitive psychologists call this a “mental set”, or a way of thinking about problems. The benefits of a mental set is that they increase your efficiency; you don’t need to think about the how, you just apply the methods you always have before. The drawbacks of mental sets is that it is really hard to think outside that framework. And some of the most intractable problems in science are intractable because we don’t have a good framework for thinking about them currently. To solve these problems, should we do more of the same, or be willing to challenge our current conventions and mental sets to make space for new ideas? I would suggest that you might have some of these new ideas partly because you are still developing the mental set of your discipline. Perhaps the blog won’t be where you publish your groundbreaking thesis for employee engagement, the best treatment for depression, or the construction of memory. But it might just be the place where you develop enough confidence in the worthiness of your ideas that you allow yourself to think big. Science isn’t just for the names you read in your textbooks….it’s for you.

 Reason #5: You like a good challenge. If the introduction of this blog post was correct, it’s now about 2:15am on that fateful Thursday, sometime in the middle of the semester. You’re wondering if there is enough coffee at Wanda’s to get you through to the weekend. You’re also wondering where you would find enough time to write a blog post. I mean, don’t you have enough on your plate?

Yes, you do have enough. But I also know that if you’ve made it this far in the blog post, your interest is piqued. So, I invite you into this challenge. Think of a topic. (If you are worried about time, maybe you can write on the research of time management!) Peruse the criteria for submission. Submit a blog post to be considered for publication by the CSHB. I dare you.

 

 

Are you thinking about submitting a blog post? Have an idea that you’d like someone else to write about? Looking for a collaborator? Leave your comments below.

 

 

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Dr. Erin Smith is the Director of Research at CBU’s Center for the Study of Human Behavior and an Associate Professor of Psychology.

Every Halloween I take a trip down memory lane, but probably not in the way you might expect. Sure, I remember my favorite costumes as a child (it was Jasmine, from Aladdin), the time my husband and I tied our legs together for an entire evening in our commitment to the costume of “three-legged race champions”, and my more recent adventures of Halloween as a mother of young children. Another thing I remember? The first time I read about the Candy Witch. That is what I want to tell you about today.

You say you’ve never heard of the Candy Witch? That’s a problem that I’m about to fix. Keep reading.

Starting with my Master’s thesis, continuing through my dissertation and into today, one of the fundamental questions that I’m particularly interested in researching is why we believe the things we do. This question, about how children develop an understanding of what is real or pretend, is of ongoing interest in the world of developmental psychology. For example, most children will believe that germs are real, without having ever seen one. Why? And what makes beliefs about germs any different from beliefs about Santa Claus? The tooth fairy? Or even God?

Some of the answers to this question about belief comes down to cultural supports. Children don’t think of concepts of germs, Santa, or God on their own. (Actually, there is some really interesting research suggesting that children may be predisposed to belief in a being like God, even without the cultural supports I’m about to describe…but that’s a topic for a future blog.) Rather, children come to believe these concepts because of the constant cultural discourse around these concepts. Take my own home, as an example. The one picture I have hanging up in our bathroom instructs my children to “wash your hands and say your prayers because germs and Jesus are everywhere.” These are the kinds of cultural supports—echoed in our daily conversations and activities—that may prompt children’s belief in these otherwise unobservable entities.

However, a problem that developmental psychologists face is that we can’t experimentally control children’s exposure to discourse around germs, Santa, or God. We can merely look for correlations between exposure and belief. This is a problem some creative researchers set out to address.

Enter: The Candy Witch.

Woolley, Boerger, and Markman published a paper in 2004 in which preschool-aged children were introduced to the Candy Witch at their daycare, about a week before Halloween. Their research question centered on how exposure and cultural supports for a novel fantastical being would predict children’s subsequent belief in the actual existence of that being. In other words, what would be required to get children to believe that something they couldn’t see firsthand, but that other people talked about as real, was indeed real?

To start, the researchers measured what children knew about Halloween and what they typically did. Then, importantly, they were introduced to the Candy Witch. Children were told that the Candy Witch was a nice witch who would visit houses the night after Halloween and take the trick-or-treat candy they had collected, leaving behind a new toy. After this story, some of these children’s parents also read a story about the Candy Witch to them at home. (Think about it, when children hear about germs, it’s from lots of people, not just someone at school.) The idea was that the more exposure, the more likely children would be to believe that the Candy Witch was real. Finally, some of these children then had their candy actually taken after trick-or-treating, with a toy left instead. (Sneaky parents!)

So, what happened? Did children believe in the Candy Witch? (Pause, make your predictions.)

The answer? It depends. Some kids—but not all—did believe that the Candy Witch existed when asked after Halloween. The kids who were the most likely to believe in the Candy Witch were older (e.g., 5 years old, rather than 4 years old). The older kids who had received a visit from the Candy Witch were the most likely to believe. Interestingly, a visit by the Candy Witch didn’t seem to convince the younger children to believe any more than the younger children who were not visited. It’s possible that the older children were better able to piece together the clues about the existence of the Candy Witch (e.g., the stories, the disappearing candy, the new toy) than the younger children were.

Another important factor in belief was the overall number of other fantastical beings the children believed existed. Children who believed that the Candy Witch was real were also more likely to believe that Santa and the Easter Bunny were real. It’s possible that these other cultural figures served as a starting point for belief in this novel character.

This is one of my favorite studies in developmental psychology. There are so many details I haven’t described here. For example, the researchers accounted for things like preference for toys versus candy and general fantasy orientation of the children. They measured children’s beliefs about the qualities of these fantastical beings, including the Candy Witch (e.g., could she eat dinner? Get her feelings hurt?). They asked parents questions about their encouragement of belief in the Candy Witch. And (most impressively), they followed up with these families a year later to measure how much the children remembered and whether they still believed in the Candy Witch (without ongoing cultural support for that belief). So many interesting bits!

On this eve of Halloween, I would invite you to create a new Halloween memory. Join me in the gleeful remembering of really awesome research. You can read the full article here.

When you were a kid, would you have wanted to be visited by the Candy Witch? Leave your comments below!

 

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Dr. Erin I. Smith

Associate Professor of Psychology

Director of Research, Center for the Study of Human Behavior

God’s word, and work in us, reveals that we are created as relational and communal beings; we are created to be in relationships.  We experience relationships within our family of origin, our friend and peer groups, in school and work settings, and in the communities in which we live and serve.  These relationships, while important in themselves, are also critical ways in which we learn how to be in relationship with God; created in His image and likeness (Genesis 1:27).

This past spring, Professor Costello and I (both faculty in the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences here at CBU) had the opportunity to pursue a project which would work toward building relationships between CBU students and residents in the neighboring Riverside community of Casa Blanca.  Through funding provided by the Council of Independent Colleges, The Legacy Project was born.  The Legacy Project will allow for 20 undergraduate students, majoring in psychology, anthropology, sociology, behavioral science, and film, to conduct field work, by participating in a yearlong internship gathering the oral histories of senior residents living in Casa Blanca.  The oral histories will focus on the cultural history, resiliency, faith, and spirituality of the residents; and the residents’ histories will not only be preserved, but also shared.  In this process, opportunities to develop rich and flourishing relationships across generations and cultures will be numerous.

Students who participate in The Legacy Project will gather the senior residents’ oral histories through a research process called qualitative interviewing.  These interviews will be recorded on video, and crafted into short films featuring each senior participant.  The films will then be shown at an event, hosted at CBU, this spring (2019), and attended by both students and community members.

My own experience conducting fieldwork began as an undergraduate student, participating in an ethnographic study in communities called favelas in Rio de Janiero, Brazil.  These early experiences, interviewing community members, social workers, activists, and political leaders, were critical experiences, not just for the project that I was participating in, but also for developing my interests that lead to my future pursuit of a career in higher education.

Perhaps you have an interest in how your academic pursuits and community interests might align.  If so, I’d encourage you to find out more about The Legacy Project or other research labs and opportunities through the Center for the Study of Human Behavior.

Whether participating in The Legacy Project or another research or field work opportunity, I hope that you have a chance to build relationships with those that you might not have otherwise come into contact with.  The concept of imago dei reminds us that in His image, we can find shared human experiences and ways of being in groups and in places where we might have least expected it.  Or in the words of astronaut Donald Williams “For those who have seen the earth from space, and for the hundreds and perhaps thousands more who will, the experience most certainly changes your perspective.  The things that we share in our word are far more valuable than those which divide us.” (Kelley, 1988). In this era of multifaceted globalization, we are experiencing incredible interconnectedness, never experienced in this way during any other time in history.  Yet, the incredible paradox here may be the great lack of connection that we experience in the midst of being connected to everyone, and everything, everywhere.  Scholar Daniel Groody (2007) describes this as an era of integration and dis-integration.

In an era characterized be global connectedness, yet great dis-integration, we must seek ways to intentionally connect to our neighbors; resisting being connected to everything, yet feeling totally disconnected, even isolated or alone.  Consider how you will, in your personal, professional, and academic pursuits, lean in to your relational self and build bridges today.

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Groody, D. G. (2008). Globalization, spirituality, and justice: Navigating a path to peace. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books.

Kelley, K. W., & Association of Space Explorers. (1988). The home planet. Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley.

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Dr. Jacqueline N. Gustafson

Dean

College of Behavioral and Social Sciences

The weekend of August 8-12, thousands of psychologists converged on the Moscone Center in San Francisco. We crowded the airports, hotels and the downtown restaurants. Poster tubes hung on the shoulders of what seemed like every other person passed by. (Fortunately, I’d used Spoonflower.com to print my FABRIC poster, so I was feeling pretty breezy walking around without that worry!) But, it did feel kind of strange knowing that every other person I walked by was likely a psychologist of some sort (health psychologist, neuropsychologist, developmental psychologist, clinical psychologist…you get the idea).

The excitement on the first day of the convention was palpable. Researchers readied to present their posters, presenters clipped on mics and the new APA presidential hopefuls passed out badges and literature around every corner.

Did you say Bryan Stevenson?

For me, the highlight of the convention was sitting in sessions and listening to well-known psychologists speak about their research and passions. Bryan Stevenson (attorney and author of Just Mercy….you’ve got to read it), provided the keynote address. (Can I say that I was doing a bit of “fan-girling” when I heard!)

AND Aaron Beck?

I’ve put together some quotes from the sessions I attended with some of these amazing people. To see them in person and hear directly from them was a great honor–especially since I teach about their work every semester. Here are some highlights:

Aaron Beck (Cognitive Therapy/Cognitive Behavioral Therapy developer). First of all, did you know that he goes by “Tem” (from his middle name Temkin)? At 97 years old he continues to research and write. He’s currently researching cognitive interventions for individuals with Schizophrenia. He was asked how many more years he’ll plan to do a video conference for the APA convention. He said, “I plan to do it for the next three years. After that, I’ll re-evaluate.” He’ll be 100 at that time!

Jon Kabat-Zinn – (Mindfulness Based-Stress Reduction developer). When asked about his approach, he said, “Mindfulness is not a therapy, it is a way of being.” He also stated, “Healing is not fixing but coming to terms with things as they are.”

Brad Bushman (previous member of President Obama’s committee on gun violence and researcher on violence and aggression). When speaking of media violence (tv, video games, etc) and its impact on kids and teens he said, “How can kids do something 7.5 hours per day and not be influenced by it?” He stated that he’s found, “When parents provide limits to media exposure, it decreases aggressive behavior.” He notes that he gets hate mail from teens about these assertions all the time! For example, “Video games don’t make me want to be violent but you do!”

Patricia Deegan (a major influencer of the mental health recovery movement and developer of the Schizophrenia “Hearing Voices” simulation). For people with Schizophrenia (and other sufferers of mental health issues), she encourages figuring out what your “personal medicine” is – things that we do that “put a smile on our face” and can potentially help decrease symptoms. For example, your personal medicine could be playing an instrument, petting a dog or gardening.

James Garbarino (researcher in child and adolescent development, particularly juvenile delinquency and childhood aggression). According to his research, the average number of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) for teen killers is 7+ out of 10. For the average American youth, the average is 1-2.

Next year the APA Convention will be in Chicago, IL. Want to go?

 

 

Dr. Veola Vazquez is a licensed psychologist and a professor of psychology at California Baptist University. To find out more about her ongoing research, check out her Culture and Character Lab.

“The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge, for the ears of the wise seek it out,” (Proverbs 18:15).

Welcome to the inaugural post for the Center for the Study of Human Behavior (CSHB) blog! I am thrilled to have you join us in this digital space, where we can come together as a community of individuals interested in acquiring and extending our knowledge with the use of the empirical and theoretical tools of research. It is my hope as the Director of Research for the CSHB that the resources offered by the CSHB can support, extend and enhance your research whether you are just beginning or are a seasoned veteran to the research process.

As a research psychologist, I am deeply committed to the methods of science; I believe they offer valuable tools essential to distinguishing reality from perception. As a Christian, I am deeply committed to the truth of Scripture and the value of the Christian tradition in engaging the teachings of Jesus Christ in the 21^st century. For me, research is not just about knowledge, and the teachings of Jesus Christ are not just about belief; for me, both of these things come together as critical elements in my epistemological toolkit. Science, Scripture and the Christian tradition are three tools that I leverage as I seek to live a life worthy of my calling, to pursue truth and to better understand and engage with our Creator.

Here in this blog you will see snapshots of some of the research conducted through the CSHB. You will also hear stories of researchers bringing their identities as scientists and Christians together in the research process. You will read about innovative research happening across the globe and have an opportunity to engage in conversations about the implications. You may even find that you want to author a blog post to share about your own research, research you have read about, or your personal journey as a researcher. (Look for a future blog post for details on how to become a CSHB blog contributor!)

The CSHB website hosts this blog, and I encourage you to explore and engage with the content on the website. There is a lot of information complied there for you to enhance your skills, wherever you are in your research journey. (And, to be sure, it is a journey!) If you have suggestions for how to improve the website or suggestions for materials, resources or workshops that you would like to see in the future, please don’t hesitate to contact us.We are here to support your work. Let us know how we are doing that well or how we can do that better!

In fact, to encourage that exploration, I want to give you some CSHB-sponsored swag. Leave a comment below and tell us what you think of our new website. Want more entries while also ensuring that you are staying up-to-date on our research happenings? Subscribe to our newsletter here for occasional updates on CSHB happenings. (Don’t worry, we won’t spam your inbox.) All comments and newsletter subscriptions before September 25 will be entered into our raffle; winners will be drawn September 27, 2018! (Raffles only for current CBU students.)

 

Happy Researching,

Erin I. Smith, Ph.D.

Director of Research, Center for the Study of Human Behavior

cshb@calbaptist.edu