Category: current directions

It’s that time of the year again where many are thinking about their New Year’s resolutions. Especially in the current time during the Corona crisis, choices for health behaviors are particularly prominent. Although good resolutions are made, they are often not put into action. But why is that?

A hurdle that can get in the way of achieving healthy resolutions are compensatory health beliefs (CHBs). These are beliefs that an unhealthy behavior can later be compensated by a healthy behavior (Rabia et al., 2006). For example, “It is okay if I eat this snack now because I am going to workout later”. Some findings show that individuals with stronger compensatory health beliefs engage in more unhealthy behavior such as drinking alcohol (Matley & Davies, 2018), smoking cigarettes (Radtke et al., 2012), and have a high-calorie intake (Kronick et al., 2011). The compensatory health beliefs can become problematic when they are used as justification to perform the unhealthy behavior nevertheless the compensatory behavior is not exhibited. The accompanying cognitive bias is not perceived and thus one can justify unhealthy behaviors without performing the compensation. 

A study by Amrein et al. (2021) investigated the relationship between CHBs and unhealthy snack consumption in daily life. Subjects were required to provide information about their snack consumption several times a day, state and trait CHBs related to compensation with subsequent eating behaviors and physical activity. The results of the study show that compensatory health beliefs are important for unhealthy snack consumption in daily life.  That means if you have stronger beliefs about compensating for the snack later, you’re more likely to eat an unhealthy snack.  

Of course, such compensatory health beliefs occur not only in the context of unhealthy eating behaviors, but also take place in other areas. But how can you counteract these beliefs? A good strategy for achieving any type of goal is If-Then plans. Typically, goals are described as an end product such as “I want to quit smoking.” If-Then plans, on the other hand, capture predetermined responses when a particular situation occurs. For example, “When I feel the urge to smoke a cigarette, I will eat a chewing gum instead.” Deciding such things in advance reduces the demands on your willpower.

With these mechanisms in mind, it might be helpful to frame your New Year’s resolutions as If-Then plans to reach (or at least increase the chance of reaching) your desired goals.

Bibliography :

• Amrein, M. A., Scholz, U., & Inauen, J. (2021). Compensatory health beliefs and unhealthy snack consumption in daily life. Appetite, 157, 104996. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2020.104996

• Kronick, I., Auerbach, R. P., Stich, C., & Knäuper, B. (2011). Compensatory beliefs and intentions contribute to the prediction of caloric intake in dieters. Appetite, 57(2), 435–438. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2011.05.306

• Matley, F. A. I., & Davies, E. L. (2018). Resisting temptation: Alcohol specific self-efficacy mediates the impacts of compensatory health beliefs and behaviours on alcohol consumption. Psychology, Health & Medicine, 23(3), 259–269. https://doi.org/10.1080/13548506.2017.1363395

• Rabia, M., Knäuper, B., & Miquelon, P. (2006). The eternal quest for optimal balance between maximizing pleasure and minimizing harm: The compensatory health beliefs model. British Journal of Health Psychology, 11(1), 139–153. https://doi.org/10.1348/135910705X52237

• Radtke, T., Scholz, U., Keller, R., & Hornung, R. (2012). Smoking is ok as long as I eat healthily: Compensatory Health Beliefs and their role for intentions and smoking within the Health Action Process Approach. Psychology & Health, 27(sup2), 91–107. https://doi.org/10.1080/08870446.2011.603422

Featured image :

• Hands Holding a 2021 Calendar by Olya Kobruseva www.canva.com (no date available)

Author : Jessica Wiedmer

During the night the first snow of the season fell over Bern and Mariah Carey is slowly creeping up the charts. Without a doubt, we are heading towards Christmas. Or is Christmas getting closer? That corresponds to the question Claudia Hammond (2012) asks the readers in her book “Time Warped”. If the meeting on Wednesday must be moved two days forward, when is the meeting? There are two different but equally correct answers to this question. It depends on a person’s view of the future and the perception of time itself. If you arrive in the office on Monday for the scheduled meeting, you see time in a permanent flow. Therefore, the future is an event which moves towards you. If you find yourself at the office on Friday, you perceive yourself in motion through a stationary timeline. You are moving towards the future. This thought experiment is just one example of how different we deal with the concept of “time”.

Our understanding of time is shaped by many aspects. On the one hand, culture plays an important role in how we imagine time. In our western Society time is often visualized as a line with past events on the left end, the present in the middle, and future events on the right end. This picture is also used in the English language. We look forward to something in the future and look back at past events that are behind us. These horizontal metaphors are also used in Mandarin. But unlike in the English language, there are also a lot of vertical metaphors in Mandarin, such as “shàng (‘‘up”) and xià (‘‘down”) who are used to talk about the order of events. Earlier events are “up”, and later events are said to be “down”. This may be the reason or origin of the fact that Mandarin speakers are more likely to visualize time as a vertical line with the past on top and the future on the bottom (Boroditsky, Fuhrman & McCormick, 2011).

But we not only visualize and talk about time in different ways, our perception of time also differs depending on the person. Children with ADHD perceive time differently than children without ADHD. They are less able to estimate how much time has really passed and answer a 12-second reproduction task earlier than their peers. Even if this is only the case in the millisecond range and more studies are needed, it seems that the time for children with ADHD is passing faster (Smith, Taylor, Warner Rogers, Newman, & Rubia, 2002). On the other hand, depressed people experience exactly the opposite. Even though they are able to accurately estimate the time, they seem to experience a slow passage of time on an individual level (Thönes, & Oberfeld, 2015).

One last aspect we should consider is the situation. People who survived a life-threatening event often report that time seems to have moved in slow motion. Could it be that such an intensely emotional moment enables us to speed up our inner clock and act faster than we normally do? Stetson, Matthew and Eagleman (2007) thought it was time to find an answer to this question and threw some people off a 31-meter tower. So, if you think this one time you participated in a study was bad, think again. Sadly, their dedication did not pay off. They found no evidence of increased temporal resolution even though participants retrospectively estimated their own fall to last 36% longer than others’ falls. They suggest that time-slowing is a function of recollection, not perception.

In summary, one can say that time is something very individual. We experience it differently, depending on where we were raised, who we are and in which situation we are currently in. And even if we might not be able to slow it down, we can still use it smartly. For example, by getting the Christmas presents early this year. Because in the end it doesn’t matter if Christmas is getting closer or we are heading towards it, you will have to get them anyway.

Bibliography :

• Hammond, C. (2012). Time wrapped: unlocking the mysteries of time perception. New York: Harper Collins.

• Boroditsky, L., Fuhrman, O., & McCormick, K. (2011). Do English and Mandarin speakers think about time differently?. Cognition, 118(1), 123-129.

• Smith, A., Taylor, E., Warner Rogers, J., Newman, S., & Rubia, K. (2002). Evidence for a pure time perception deficit in children with ADHD. Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, 43(4), 529-542.

• Stetson, C., Fiesta, M. P., & Eagleman, D. M. (2007). Does time really slow down during a frightening event?. PloS one, 2(12), e1295.

• Thönes, S., & Oberfeld, D. (2015). Time perception in depression: A meta-analysis. Journal of Affective Disorders, 175, 359-372.

Featured image :

• Kia Abell. (2004). Clock. Retrieved from: https://www.freeimages.com/de/photo/clock-1425684

Author : Max Frutiger

We thought that Corona was gone during the summer but here we are, having a second wave. We have to social distance again and some of us have to self-quarantine. The psychological damages during the first lockdown were not well-known and most of us had difficulties to deal with it. Yet that we know what it is to love from afar it can either feel more bearable or a contrary can be perceived as a second “punishment”.

In this article, I want to discuss the power of physical touch and what it implies to be deprived of it. 

To illustrate I will present a study that was conducted by Harlow in 1958 (Harlow’s Classic Studies, 2018). At that time the study’s purpose was to discover more about the parenting bond, especially between mother and infant. 

I must warn that this kind of study is now considered as unethical and would not be reproducible.

Harlow isolated several baby monkeys directly after birth to see if they craved their mother only to be fed or if there was something more than just a primary need. Behaviorists tended to affirm that they needed their mother only for food issues and resumed the relation with the notion of stimulus-response. 

The psychologist first isolated the baby monkeys and created two false “mum-monkeys”. On one side there was a “wire mother” who provided only food and on the other side there was a “cloth mother” (see fig. 1). When released, the monkeys went to the “wire mother” to be fed and immediately after went to the “cloth mother” and stayed by it during the eighteen hours left. The searchers wanted to take the experience further and see which of the two monkey mums the baby would choose in a fearful situation.  They put the baby in the cage where the two mums were and scared it with a constructed robot that made a lot of noise. The baby monkey immediately ran to the “cloth mother” to seek comfort. 

I intentionally chose this study to illustrate the need of physical touch. There is a huge amount of studies which prove that we need physical touch in our social construction and well-being. So, what I am telling is that we are not monkeys but we need physical touch to feel good and develop well. The social distancing we endure these days can really low our well being if we feel isolated mentally.

However, we can still manage to somehow “replace” the physical touch (not at 100% but enough). The chemical hormon delivered in our brain during a touch is oxytocin (Pierrehumbert, 2003), the so-called “happy hormone”. Luckily for us, we also produce this hormone when we give or receive compliments, eat something good, dance or do little attention for someone we love. So go bake that cake you saw on Instagram and write a letter to someone you love. 

Featured image :

• Weill Cornell Medicine. (2020). ‘Social distancing:’ What does it mean, and how do we do it? Retrieved from : https://weillcornell.org/news/social-distancing-what-does-it-mean-and-how-do-we-do-it

Bibliography :

• Harlow H. F., Dodsworth R. O., & Harlow M. K. (1965). Total social isolation in monkeys. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC285801/pdf/pnas00159-0105.pdf
• Harlow’s Classic Studies Revealed the Importance of Maternal Contact. (2018). The Association for Psychological Science. Retrieved from https://www.psychologicalscience.org/publications/observer/obsonline/harlows-classic-studies-revealed-the-importance-of-maternal-contact.html
• Pierrehumbert, B. (2003). Amour et attachement. Spirale, n^o 28(4), 31-48. https://doi.org/10.3917/spi.028.0031
• G. J., (2020) Untitled. http://janegerhard.com/on-primates/synopsis/

Author : Ardiana Dacaj

Perhaps one of the most troubling questions you can ask someone is if they’re happy. More often than not, the person feels the obligation to say yes. It is obvious that the question regarding our general well-being and happiness is not an easy one to answer and can’t be reduced to a yes or no, so I decided to give you a glimpse into some literature related to this. 

For quite some time now, psychologists have been tasked with studying and observing how different people respond to life’s events. How can some go through live so weightlessly and untroubled, while others have difficulty finding a reason to wake up in the morning. Most of us try to live our life striving for happiness, whatever that represents for each person. So, all possible socio-economic factors controlled, how can some achieve it easily while others have such a hard time. Well, it seems like part of the answer can be found in our personality type. 

Flow experience refers to an experience of deep absorption, engagement and enjoyment (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). It is characterized, among others, by a state of complete concentration, an increased sense of control and a loss of self-awareness (Csikszentmihalyi, 1997). According to the literature on flow experience, some people are more prone to experience it during their daily activities, which in turn is associated with higher levels of well-being. We can then ask ourselves why there is such a difference. According to several theorists, some people possess certain personal attributes that encourage the experience of flow. These include curiosity, persistence, low self-centeredness, enjoyment of challenges, attentional control and others (Tse, Nakamura & Csikszentmihalyi, 2020). A profile that corresponds to these attributes was coined under the term of autotelic personality (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). A recent study that measured autotelic personality, proneness to experiencing flow and well-being found a positive effect of autotelic personality on well-being (Tse, Nakamura & Csikszentmihalyi, 2020). What’s even more interesting is the fact that this relationship was mediated by the proneness to experiencing flow. If that’s so, why then don’t we engage more often in activities that facilitate the flow experience? Simple answer: we’re lazy. Indeed, another study showed that because flow activities require more effort than passive activities, people are simply not interested – despite knowing that the flow activities might lead to more happiness (Schiffer & Roberts, 2017). 

In conclusion, there seems to be some people who have the attributes to engage in a deeper level with their daily activities and who make the effort to become involved in more difficult tasks that lead to the so-known flow experience. I hope I succeeded in getting you interested in the topic and I hope you have a lot of flow experiences from now on – or at least now you know the term for that state when you’re playing music or writing your essay.

Bibliography

• Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow. New York, NY: Harper and Row. 

• Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1997). Finding flow: The psychology of engagement with everyday life. New York, NY: Basic Books. 

• Schiffer, L. P., & Roberts, T.-A. (2017). The paradox of happiness: Why are we not doing what we know makes us happy? The Journal of Positive Psychology, 13(3), 252-259. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2017.1279209

• Tse, D. C. K., Nakamura, J., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2020). Living well by “flowing’ well : The indirect effect of autotelic personality on well-being through flow experience. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2020.1716055

Featured image:

• Johnson. S., [@samjsn], (2020, August 8). August. https://www.instagram.com/p/CDoYuA7nV7o/

Author: Paula Morales

What is a dream?

Dreams include thoughts, images, and emotions that are experienced during sleep. They can range in between extremely emotional to very fleeting, vague, or confusing. Some dreams are pleasant, while others are sad or frightening. Sometimes dreams tend to have a clear story, while many others tend to make no sense at all (Cherry, 2020). There are many unknowns about dreaming and sleeping. What scientists know is that almost everyone dreams every time they sleep, for about two hours a night in total, whether or not they remember it when they wake up (NINDS, 2019). The most vivid dreams occur during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, and these are the dreams we are most likely to remember. We also dream during non-rapid eye movement (non-REM), but it is known that these dreams are less frequently remembered (De Gennaro et al., 2011). In general, the dream content is collected from the subjective memories of the dreamer upon awakening. Increasingly, objective measures are also used for observation. For example, researchers in one study created a rudimentary dream content map that was able to trace people’s dreams in real-time using a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) pattern, which was confirmed by the dreamers’ reports after waking up (Horikawa, Tamaki, Miyawaki, & Kamitani, 2013).

But apart from what is contained in a particular dream, the question arises as to why we dream at all.

Why do we dream?

The question of why we dream has fascinated various experts for thousands of years. Despite scientific studies on the function of dreams, there is still no clear response to why we have dreams. Although much about dreaming remains uncertain, many experts have developed theories to explain the purpose of dreaming and new empirical studies are also providing greater clarity. Some of the better-known dream theories state that the function of dreaming is to express our deepest desires, process emotions, consolidate memories, and gain practice in dealing with potential dangers (Cherry, 2020). Many claim that we dream from a combination of these and other factors rather than sticking to one singular theory. Moreover, while many researchers believe that dreams are essential for emotional, mental, and physical well-being, some scientists believe that dreams serve no useful purpose at all (Ruby, 2011).

Bibliography

• Cherry, K. (2020). Why do we dream?. verywellmind. Retrieved July 22, 2020, from https://www.verywellmind.com/why-do-we-dream-top-dream-theories-2795931#citation-14
• De Gennaro, L., Cipolli, C., Cherubini, A., Assogna, F., Cacciari, C., Marzano, C., . . . Spalletta, G. (2011). Amygdala and hippocampus volumetry and diffusivity in relation to dreaming. Human Brain Mapping, 32(9), 1458-1470. doi:10.1002/hbm.21120
• Horikawa, T., Tamaki, M., Miyawaki, Y., & Kamitani, Y. (2013). Neural Decoding of Visual Imagery During Sleep. Science, 340(6132), 639-642. doi:10.1126/science.1234330
• National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. (2019). Brain Basics: Understanding Sleep. Retrieved July 22, 2020, from https://www.ninds.nih.gov/Disorders/Patient-
  Caregiver-Education/Understanding-sleep
• Ruby, P. (2011). Experimental Research on Dreaming: State of the Art and Neuropsychoanalytic Perspectives. Frontiers in Psychology, 2(286). doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00286

FEATRURED IMAGE

Quelle: https://www.sleepcycle.com/how-to-fall-asleep/sleep-dream-and-boost-your-creativity/

Author: Alexander Ariu

As a psychology student working with patients with addiction, I know a lot about the fate of our patients and how their addiction developed throughout their lives. I have always been interested in the turns someone’s life takes to lead them into an addiction, how they can overcome it and where they can find the motivation to do so. There is one story I have heard from some of our heroin-addicted patients and it made me wonder where it comes from. They had a normal and inconspicuous life before they started taking drugs. It all started when they were prescribed, opioid-based pain killers. 

Worldwide, especially in the United States, cases like the one described above exist. The problem is known as the opioid crisis.  In 2016 more than 42’000 people died in the United States alone, due to an overdose based on prescribed opioids. The World Health Organisation announced a public health emergency and programs to combat the epidemic. The problem stems from the 1990s when pharmaceutical companies downplayed the addictive effects of opioid-based pain-killers and sold them in great quantities. The problem isn’t restricted to the United States, Switzerland has also been widely affected. 

One of the side effects of consumption is the development of tolerance toward the opioids. To get the same pain releasing effect each time, the doses have to be taken in higher amounts. However, there is usually a limit on the legal prescription dose and even the highest amounts end up being insufficient in relieving pain. 

• If you are interested in how the drug functions in the human body and how the tolerance development works, you can find out more here.

The affected people have the option to go through a withdrawal (which is very painful – see video below). Therefore, a lot of patients end up reaching for other opioid-based drugs like heroin. This shift in substances leads to more uncontrolled consumption and overdoses. The development of an opium addiction is a gradual process and most of the patients are not aware of it until it is too late. It can happen to anyone. 

• If you want to know more about the symptoms and the withdrawal of an opioid addiction, you can check out Travis Rieder’s TED-Talk. He talks about his personal experiences during his opioid withdrawal and explains the stages a lot of patients go through very accurately. 

As a budding psychologist, you might be confronted with the ongoing problem if you are working with addiction or chronic-pain patients. Moreover, if you are working in prevention, this is certainly a subject on which awareness should be raised, for patients as well as society. 

Bibiography

U.S. Department of Health and Human Service. 2020.  https://www.hhs.gov/opioids/about-the-epidemic/index.html. 

Featrured Image

Quelle: https://pixabay.com/de/photos/thermometer-kopfschmerzen-schmerz-1539191/

Author: Carla Wüthrich

You may have heard about mindfulness before, but not be sure what it is. Meditation and mindfulness are used a lot in spiritual contexts but have been adapted to be used in a secular, therapeutic context. Probably the most strongly established form is MBSR (Mindfulness-based stress reduction) as well as MBCT (Mindfulness-based cognitive training) developed by Kabat-Zinn.  Kabat-Zinn was a professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and is the founding father of mindfulness-based stress reduction, which he developed in the 70s. In this article, I am going to introduce what MBSR is, what it can be helpful for, and then introduce some resources to let you try out mindfulness on your own.

What is MBSR/MBCT and how useful is it?

Forms may vary, but the form that I am going to introduce here is the 8-week, group-based, in-person program, which originated at the  University of Massachusetts Medical School. The course focuses on new aspects every week and introduces new forms of practice as well as a space to reflect personal behavioral patterns as well as thought patterns. The practice takes place in a group and in private and consists of exercises like mindful yoga, body scans, mindful eating (raisin exercise), and sitting meditation. According to Kabat Zinn, 7 attitudes are important to cultivate, including non-striving, acceptance and trust. (For more information on the attitudes see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n7FOBFMvXg). While mindfulness can be beneficial for all, the MBSR and MBCT programs are starting to be applied in clinical settings more and more. They are used for patients suffering from depression, chronic pain, cancer substance abuse, and much more. Nevertheless, when it comes to studies concerning the effectiveness of these therapies, there is a need for more research. Hempel et al. (2014) created an overview of the results found in research so far. Their overview shows, that there seems to be evidence of potential positive effects when using MBSR/MBCT to treat depression, pain and anxiety. However, when it comes to stress, cancer in general and substance use, the results are mixed. In conclusion, while MBSR/MBCT seems to help treat depression and pain patients, more research is required, as there is unclear evidence when it comes to other illnesses like cancer or substance abuse. 

Resources 

 There are many ways to give mindfulness a shot. You can stroll into your bookstore, where there are many books including theoretical backgrounds as well as guided practices or search the internet. Here are a few digital resources for you to try:

• MBSR-based exercises
  • https://mbsrtraining.com/jon-kabat-zinn-guided-body-scan-meditation/

• Full 8-week MBSR program
  • The center where MBSR was founded: https://www.umassmemorialhealthcare.org/umass-memorial-medical-center/services-treatments/center-for-mindfulness/mindfulness-classes

• MBSR in Switzerland: https://www.mindfulness.swiss/ 
• Apps
  • Simple Habit 
  • Headspace

Hopefully, these resources help get you started. Enjoy!

BIbiographY

Hempel, S., Taylor, S. L., Marshall, N. J., Miake-Lye, I. M., Beroes, J. M., Shanman, R., … & Shekelle, P. G. (2014). Evidence map of mindfulness. Washington DC: Department of Veterans Affairs, Health Services Research & Development Service.

Featured image

Quelle: https://www.elsevier.com/connect/atlas/can-mindfulness-based-interventions-help-women-victims-of-violence

Author: Sabrina Sovilla

Resilience in developmental psychology refers to the ability of children to develop normally despite stressful circumstances and conditions. In general, resilience is the ability of people to react appropriately and flexibly to changing life situations and demands and to master difficult, frustrating and stressful situations without psychological consequences. Individual differences in resilience can then explain why some people do not experience such consequences despite stress, which means that the topic of resilience in the broadest sense can be counted among the topics of positive psychology (Stangl, 2020).

The origins of resilience research go back to the 1950s when the American developmental psychologist Emmy Werner began a study on the Hawaiian island of Kauai in which she observed 698 boys and girls over four decades whose chances of living a successful life were poor because of neglect, poverty, and abuse. Often the marriages of the parents were troubled, no money was available, many parents were addicted to alcohol. But in the end, there was a big surprise, because normally one would have predicted a sad fate for the children, but since this long-term study, it was clear that even if the conditions are bad, some people master their lives well. A third of Kauai’s children grew up into caring, self-confident and capable adults, both in their jobs and in personal relationships. The strong children of Kauai had something that the others did not have. There was at least one loving caregiver to take care of them, whereby the confidant does not necessarily have to be a mother or father, but another caregiver can also fill this role (one significant other). (Werner & Smith, 2001). Werner summarized her findings in three protective factors:

• A temperament and an average intelligence that has a positive effect on parents/caregivers. In this context, certain energy, robustness and a socially binding nature are also mentioned, because children who possess these qualities receive more positive attention from their parents or caregivers (Werner & Smith, 2001).
• An emotional bond with the parents or substitute caregivers who encouraged the children to trust and be independent. This also included the children’s conviction that they were responsible for their own successes. This conviction enables adolescents to react actively to adverse circumstances and also to seek out people who can give them advice (Werner & Smith, 2001).
• The support of society, which provides sustainable values, whereby schools, in particular, have a strong influence on the development of children’s resilience by recognizing and rewarding their skills. This aspect shows the responsibility of society in terms of forming resilient skills in children (Werner & Smith, 2001).

Resilience in everyday life

For the individual, being a resilient person means being able to deal successfully with stressful life events and with the negative consequences of stress. It is crucial not to be discouraged by resistance in life, but to learn from it and integrate these experiences into one’s own life. A basic or basic trust that is formed in childhood is important for this, but the genetic make-up also determines the mental resistance. 

Resilient people often have good relationships with friends and partners and have a positive self-image of themselves. These people have a broader interest, are disciplined, tend to be less catastrophic and also look for positive aspects when faced with negative life events. Persistent negative feelings, long-lasting dissatisfaction, and tension contribute to mental illness, while a positive mood promotes and relaxes creative thinking (Stangl, 2020). Resilience research gives some practical recommendations:

• Friends and a social life that surround you is crucial.
• Develop a sense of non-material values.
• Positive feelings like cheerfulness, humor, fascination, and love can neutralize negative events.
• Asking yourself whether everything you have taken on in your daily life is still relevant and whether you enjoy doing it. Admittedly, every job or obligation also involves unpleasant activities, although this is only problematic if the negative clearly predominates.

In the opinion of experts, resilience can be learned to a certain extent and can also be increased in adults by solution orientation, promoting optimism, and the assumption of responsibility. Especially in children, resilience factors can be promoted, which a child acquires in interaction with the environment and through the successful accomplishment of age-specific developmental tasks (Stangl, 2020).

Following factors strengthen children and increase their resistance (Fröhlich-Gildhoff & Rönnau-Böse, 2009): 

• Self-control capability
• Social skills
• Positive self-perception
• Problem-solving competence
• Conviction of self-efficacy
• Appropriate management of stress

Bibliography

• Fröhlich-Gildhoff, K. & Rönnau-Böse, M. (2009). Resilienz. München: Reinhardt. 
• Stangl, W. (2020). Resilienz. Online Lexikon für Psychologie und Pädagogik. Retrieved March 10, 2020, from https://lexikon.stangl.eu/593/resilienz/
• Werner, E. E. & Smith, R. S. (2001). Journeys from childhood to midlife: Risk, resilience, and recovery. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Featured Image

Quelle: https://safety4sea.com/cm-building-resilience-dealing-with-a-crisis/

Author: Alexander Ariu

To be interested in health psychology means for me to care about mental health in our society. The WHO announced depression as the leading cause of diseases by 2030. In Switzerland, one-fifth of all inhabitants are affected by a mental disorder.

But have you ever heart speaking someone about it in public or even in private conversations?

It is still a big taboo in our society and most people remain silent out of fear to get stigmatized. As it happens with a lot of the global challenges today, people start to talk about it on the internet. It gives them a platform to speak openly about their experiences and to connect with others affected.

Out of this idea of connection, ZETA Movement was created by a group of young people who didn’t want to remain silent about this global issue. It all started at a workshop against stigmatization where the founders of the movement met. They all had direct or indirect experienced what it means to suffer from mental illness and where thereby aware of the social stigma around it. They decided to create a social movement and an open community where members could speak freely about all the issues and challenges, they have experienced with it.

The name ZETA was developed out of the thought that generation Z should be the last generation that is impacted by social stigmatization of mental health issues.

Therefore, ZETA works with the concept of open communication and storytelling. The core idea is to build up a community where “ambassadors” can share their personal experiences with mental health issues. Their goal is to be operative in schools and other youth-related organizations. Furthermore, the associations will focus on the building of a community, the organization of training courses for the ambassadors, and the organization and mediation between ambassadors and authorities.

Like any other social movement, ZETA can just achieve it’s goals if there are young people out there which are interested in being part of a movement and which feel responsible for the mental health of our society. If you have new ideas or inputs, if you are impacted in the topic and you would like to become an ambassador, or if you want to be part of the association, ZETA is happy about every input and new member they can reach to achieve their global goal. There is still a lot to do and help can be needed from everyone so don’t hesitate to get in touch. Rather Either on social media or you can directly contact the board by e-mail.

Page: www.zetamovement.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/ZETAmovement

Instagram: zeta.movement

E-Mail: zeta.movement@gmail.com

Author: Carla Wüthrich

We assume that during the last days, you have wrestled with a lot of questions, as we probably all did and maybe some of them were highly psychological in their nature. The field of psychology has a lot to say about all kind of areas that are currently making headlines and are relevant for our society, as we are navigating through this exceptional time. That’s why we decided to give you a brief compilation of some interesting content in this respect.

Below, you will find descriptions of some absorbing articles (along with their hyperlinks) about psychology and its contributions for the fight against the current corona virus outbreak. 

The Federation of Swiss Psychologists (FSP) has published an important article about mental health and self-care during quarantine. On their webpage, you will find valuable materials, such as contact details from professional aid providers and practical advice for coping with isolation and anxiety (Note: On the website below the article, you can switch to another language). We also highly recommend you to visit dureschnufe.ch, a special platform for mental health in connection with the corona virus.

Maybe you or someone you know is currently working in home-office and therefore has to deal with quite unusual working-conditions, depending on their experiences with working from home. In order to adjust to this situation, one should particularly look for advice from an occupational psychologist. Here you’ll find an article that provides you exactly that. Also, since all universities are closed for an unforeseeable time, it might be useful for all of us to implement some of these tips in our daily routines, as well.  

As you clicked through the internet, you might have encountered some rare or even strange theories about why the world is now dealing with this global pandemic. Here, too, psychology has a lot to offer, as it attempts to explain why people come up with such a variety of highly alternative and often paradoxical theories about major events, such as the corona virus outbreak. We came across two contributions to this intriguing topic, another article published by FSP, and a radio show aired on SRF 1.

Lastly, we would like to present you some initiatives that allow you to use your particular skills and become active during the current crisis. If you are interested in voluntarily supporting people who are struggling with social isolation or medical workers by providing an open ear to them, click on the links! Also, if you want to help your local hospital, here’s a possibility to do that.

We hope you will find this material as valuable and interesting as we did. The psyCH-team wishes you to stay healthy and we will go on with providing you gripping and useful articles in the upcoming weeks.

Featured image

• Pixabay (2020). Retrieved April 06, 2020 from https://pixabay.com/de/illustrations/virus-erreger-infektion-biologie-4937553/

Climate change, which has been increasingly identified in recent decades, confronts us with one of the greatest challenges of our time. International agreements such as the Paris Climate Conference in 2015 have already taken the first decisive steps towards a more sustainable energy policy. Switzerland has also recognized the need to change its energy policy and has initiated the transition of the energy system with its “Energy Strategy 2050”. However, the success of this energy system transformation depends not only on the development and expansion of new infrastructures and technologies but also on fundamental changes in consumer behavior and decision-making patterns. The potential for such changes is huge: the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences estimate that energy consumption could be reduced by up to 30 percent by 2050 compared with 2010. Behavioral sciences, and psychology, in particular, have the potential to make a major contribution to energy system transformation by providing information on the mechanisms underlying consumer behavior and the factors that favor the behavioral changes needed to reduce energy consumption (Brosch & Mertens, 2017).

Previous approaches to promote more sustainable energy consumption have focused on providing information and financial incentives. For example, the Swiss Federal Office of Energy provides brochures on the subject of energy saving. Additionally, some Swiss cantons support the purchase of energy-efficient vehicles with tax benefits. However, research in behavioral economics and psychology has repeatedly shown that consumers only behave rationally to a limited extent, especially when it comes to complex issues such as climate protection. Therefore, these measures only partially achieve the desired behavioral changes among consumers. In recent years, the effectiveness of so-called “nudging” has therefore been increasingly investigated. These are interventions that, through small changes in the decision-making environment, can lead to more energy-efficient decisions and behaviors without creating financial incentives or restricting consumer choice through prohibitions (Brosch & Mertens, 2017).

An example of such a nudge is the so-called “default effect” (= the tendency to keep the default settings). In one study, two economists show that the careful selection of defaults in the energy sector can also be an extremely effective way of persuading consumers to make more sustainable decisions. As part of the study, around 42,000 households were able to choose between different tariffs of an energy supplier. Each of these tariffs offered the option of purchasing electricity from renewable energy sources for a small additional charge. Consumers who already were pre-selected with this “green” add-on option were ten times more likely to use renewable electricity than consumers who first had to actively choose this option (Brosch & Mertens, 2017).

How can this effect be explained? One explanation is that consumers see the pre-selection of certain options as a standard or recommendation. The two economists offer a further explanation: The conscious decision against a green electricity tariff, which should be preferred from a moral point of view, could be much more difficult for consumers than not to choose this tariff if there are no defaults (Brosch & Mertens, 2017).

In this example, a study of environmental psychological interventions by economists was briefly described. However, economists are not the only ones who deal with environmental psychological interventions. Other professional groups are also involved in such interventions, such as environmental psychologists.

Environmental psychologists deal both with the influences of the environment on humans and with the influences of humans on the environment. In the psychological sense, the environment is regarded as the outer physical-material and sociocultural habitat of humans. Accordingly, this does not only mean the “natural” environment but also, for example, the urban areas (Netzwerk Psychologie und Umwelt, 2019).

Environmental psychological research relates to topics such as the perception, assessment, and design of environments. Thus, environmental psychology provides a crucial contribution to explaining, understanding and predicting environmental human behavior and experience. Environmental psychology is very interdisciplinary, application-oriented and has high relevance for society as a whole due to its broad range of topics (Netzwerk Psychologie und Umwelt, 2019).

Topics for environmental-psychological questions are for example:

• Environmental perception and assessment
• Environmental planning, environmental design, participation processes
• Spatial behavior and mobility
• Environmental awareness and environmental protection behavior
• Environmental education and influencing environmentally relevant behavior
• Mediation in environmental conflicts
• Evaluation of environmental actions

 (Netzwerk Psychologie und Umwelt, 2019).

Bibliography:

• Brosch, T., & Mertens, S. (2017). Kleine Intervention mit grosser Wirkung – Green Nudges als Feinjustierungen am Anpassungsmechanismus an sozialen Normen. Psychoscope, (3), 10 – 13.
• Netzwerk Psychologie und Umwelt (2019). Was ist Umweltpsychologie?. Retrieved December 14, 2019, from http://www.umweltpsychologie.at/?page_id=889

Featured image:

• Deutsche Gesellschaft für Psychologie (n.d). Umweltpsychologie. Retrieved April 02, 2020 from https://studium.dgps.de/infos-zum-studium/faecher-im-psychologie-studium/umweltpsychologie/

Author: Alexander Ariu