December 2011

Tri-City Psychology Services is located on the West Coast of British Columbia Canada, and as such we are among the last places in the world to celebrate the arrival of 2012. Many of you reading this post will already have counted down, and set foot into the New Year.

2011 was a great year for us, we relocated and built amazing new offices, we launched a new website, we revamped our practice focus, and holey moley guess what? It’s all been a huge success! We are excited and looking forward with anticipation to an equally great 2012!

To all our readers, clients and friends enjoy your New Years Celebration and choose to make 2012 your best year!

Remember life is short, savour the moments šŸ˜‰

Living a long and healthy life

There is a very interesting interview in the Monitor with University of California, Riverside, psychologist Howard S. Friedman, PhD, co-author with Leslie Martin, PhD, of the 2011 book “The Longevity Project.”

This is a relevant and timely interview as many of us look forward to a new year, and resolve to do things differently with some aspect or other in our lives.

Eating vegetables and going to the gym are not as important to our long-term health as having a rich, productive life. ~ Howard S. Friedman, PhD

We all know lots of things that are health-promoting ā€” stop substance abuse, stay active, eat right, sleep well, don’t gain weight, make friends ā€” so why aren’t most people healthy?

Instead, Friedman advises:

“Throw away your lists” because our studies suggest that it is a society with more conscientious and goal-oriented citizens, well-integrated into their communities, that is likely to be important to health and long life. These changes involve slow, step-by-step alterations that unfold across many years. But so does health. For example, connecting with and helping others is more important than obsessing over a rigorous exercise program.

Link to read the full interview

Source: Monitor, American Psychological Association

thumbs up

Image: istockphoto

Both children and the elderly have slower response times when they have to make quick decisions in some settings.

But recent research suggests that much of that slower response is a conscious choice to emphasize accuracy over speed.

In fact, healthy older people can be trained to respond faster in some decision-making tasks without hurting their accuracy ā€“ meaning their cognitive skills in this area arenā€™t so different from younger adults.

ā€œMany people think that it is just natural for older peopleā€™s brains to slow down as they age, but weā€™re finding that isnā€™t always true,ā€ said Roger Ratcliff, professor of psychology at Ohio State University and co-author of the studies.

ā€œAt least in some situations, 70-year-olds may have response times similar to those of 25-year olds.ā€

Ratcliff and his colleagues have been studying cognitive processes and aging in their lab for about a decade. In a new study published online this month in the journal Child Development, they extended their work to children.

Ratcliff said their results in children are what most scientists would have expected: very young children have slower response times and poorer accuracy compared to adults, and these improve as the children mature.

But the more interesting finding is that older adults donā€™t necessarily have slower brain processing than younger people, said Gail McKoon, professor of psychology at Ohio State and co-author of the studies.

ā€œOlder people donā€™t want to make any errors at all, and that causes them to slow down. We found that it is difficult to get them out of the habit, but they can with practice,ā€ McKoon said. [continue reading…]

What is Happiness?

happiness quote

As the New Year approaches I thought I would share thisĀ  greatĀ  quote that I came across via Angelyn Harvey on Pinterest

What is your definition of happiness?