Prosper: A new framework for positive education

Positive psychology is the study of the conditions and processes that contribute to optimal flourishing in people, groups and organisations. This paper outlines the PROSPER framework, an organising tool for the implementation of Positive Education, a relatively new direction which represents the application of Positive Psychology research to educational contexts. The word ‘PROSPER’ communicates the purpose of the framework and is also an acronym that highlights the seven key elements that have been identified as contributing to wellbeing: Positivity, Relationships, Outcomes, Strengths, Purpose, Engagement, and Resilience. Confirmatory data on the usefulness of the PROSPER framework, obtained through surveys conducted with researchers from the Institute of Positive Psychology and Education (ACU) and fifty-four educators from four different schools, is presented and discussed. A rationale for the inclusion of the seven components is provided and the PROSPER framework is then further supported by reference to the evidence-informed school and classroom practices that contribute to student wellbeing and achievement and help to build schools as enabling institutions.

Validez de contenido de un cuestionario para evaluar las etapas del cambio de comportamiento en estilos de vida en escolares, Colombia: Estudio FUPRECOL

Estudio de validación en escolares pertenecientes a instituciones educativas oficiales de la ciudad de Bogotá, Colombia. Se diseñó y aplicó el CCC-FUPRECOL que indagó por las etapas de cambio para la actividad física/ejercicio, consumo de frutas, verduras, drogas, tabaco e ingesta de bebidas alcohólicas, de manera auto-diligenciada por formulario estructurado.

Navigating emotion research during a paradigm shift in psychology

Human emotional responses are highly individual. A comprehensive analysis of emotion research in cognitive psychology and physiology, including laboratory-based experiments, showed that understanding human emotions requires a dynamic systems approach incorporating insights from scientific disciplines beyond psychology. Importantly, subjective and automatic evaluations of emotive information are context-sensitive and changeable, confirming the dynamic nature of emotion and role of individual differences. Furthermore, a comparison of different statistical approaches established that statistical estimation, rather than averages, best captures our highly individual emotional responses. Emotion research needs a cross-disciplinary approach.

A “business researcher” view on opportunities for psychology in entrepreneurship research

In this short essay I offer some “business researcher” advice on how to leverage a strong background in psychology when attempting to contribute to the maturing field of “entrepreneurship research”. Psychologists can benefit from within-discipline research, e.g. on emergence, small groups, fit, and expertise as well as method strengths in, e.g. experimentation, operationalisation of constructs, and multi-level modelling. However, achieving full leverage of these strengths requires a clear conceptualisation of “entrepreneurship” as well as insights into the challenges posed by the nature of this class of phenomena.

Ethnography as a linking method between psychology and sociology: research design

World Conference on Psychology and Sociology 2012

Verbal proficiency as fitness indicator: Experimental and comparative research on the evolutionary psychology of language and verbal displays

Summary: Recent research on the evolution of language and verbal displays (e.g., Miller, 1999, 2000a, 2000b, 2002) indicated that language is not only the result of natural selection but serves as a sexually-selected fitness indicator that is an adaptation showing an individual’s suitability as a reproductive mate. Thus, language could be placed within the framework of concepts such as the handicap principle (Zahavi, 1975). There are several reasons for this position: Many linguistic traits are highly heritable (Stromswold, 2001, 2005), while naturally-selected traits are only marginally heritable (Miller, 2000a); men are more prone to verbal displays than women, who in turn judge the displays (Dunbar, 1996; Locke & Bogin, 2006; Lange, in press; Miller, 2000a; Rosenberg & Tunney, 2008); verbal proficiency universally raises especially male status (Brown, 1991); many linguistic features are handicaps (Miller, 2000a) in the Zahavian sense; most literature is produced by men at reproduction-relevant age (Miller, 1999). However, neither an experimental study investigating the causal relation between verbal proficiency and attractiveness, nor a study showing a correlation between markers of literary and mating success existed. In the current studies, it was aimed to fill these gaps. In the first one, I conducted a laboratory experiment. Videos in which an actor and an actress performed verbal self-presentations were the stimuli for counter-sex participants. Content was always alike, but the videos differed on three levels of verbal proficiency. Predictions were, among others, that (1) verbal proficiency increases mate value, but that (2) this applies more to male than to female mate value due to assumed past sex-different selection pressures causing women to be very demanding in mate choice (Trivers, 1972). After running a two-factorial analysis of variance with the variables sex and verbal proficiency as factors, the first hypothesis was supported with high effect size. For the second hypothesis, there was only a trend going in the predicted direction. Furthermore, it became evident that verbal proficiency affects long-term more than short-term mate value. In the second study, verbal proficiency as a menstrual cycle-dependent mate choice criterion was investigated. Basically the same materials as in the former study were used with only marginal changes in the used questionnaire. The hypothesis was that fertile women rate high verbal proficiency in men higher than non-fertile women because of verbal proficiency being a potential indicator of “good genes”. However, no significant result could be obtained in support of the hypothesis in the current study. In the third study, the hypotheses were: (1) most literature is produced by men at reproduction-relevant age. (2) The more works of high literary quality a male writer produces, the more mates and children he has. (3) Lyricists have higher mating success than non-lyric writers because of poetic language being a larger handicap than other forms of language. (4) Writing literature increases a man’s status insofar that his offspring shows a significantly higher male-to-female sex ratio than in the general population, as the Trivers-Willard hypothesis (Trivers & Willard, 1973) applied to literature predicts. In order to test these hypotheses, two famous literary canons were chosen. Extensive biographical research was conducted on the writers’ mating successes. The first hypothesis was confirmed; the second one, controlling for life age, only for number of mates but not entirely regarding number of children. The latter finding was discussed with respect to, among others, the availability of effective contraception especially in the 20th century. The third hypothesis was not satisfactorily supported. The fourth hypothesis was partially supported. For the 20th century part of the German list, the secondary sex ratio differed with high statistical significance from the ratio assumed to be valid for a general population.

Emotional characteristics of psychology students: a study based on the formative research perspective

In the formative research scheme, the author built a psychological scale, with the purpose of analyzing psychological characteristics of the School of Psychology students. The instrument showed a high reliability coefficient (α=0,86), the exploratory factorial analysis found five variables which allowed to predict some aspects of sex and career level through a logistic regression; the ALSCAL showed two emotional dimensions. The author recommends to improve the instrument and to continue its application in the School. It is also necessary to develop qualitative research to acquire new data about the topic of the research.

Qualitative research and consumer psychology: alternatives for application

Qualitative research is a research strategy used to analyze the reality. When applied to consumer psychology, it allows a deeper knowledge about consumer’s behavior and associated emotions and motivations. Qualitative research goes beyond the description of buyers’ behavior and shows information about how and why that behavior is produced.The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how qualitative research is relevant for the knowledge and the understanding of consumers’ behavior and how, through its techniques, it approaches the consumer’s socio-cultural reality and provides an interpretation of it. The present paper resumes the key aspects of qualitative research, mentioning its related antecedents of its contributions to the marketing and explaining the four most applied techniques in consumer psychology (interviews, focus group, ethnography and observation); moreover, it also studies the way to carry them out and gives some examples of some of the market issues which it can analyze. Finally, we take up again the qualitative data analysis as one of the most relevant topics because it produces important information for the decision making process related to the consumer. In addition, we explain the steps, strategies, types and technological tools to carry it out.