At the end of each month’s section is a portion of the research on which Handful of Hope is based. Here are some of the research findings referred to in this introduction:
Positive Emotions and Longevity: Positive emotions have a life and death impact on us. The now-famous nun study on aging also gives us some evidence of the power of positive emotions. Hundreds of young Catholic nuns were asked to write about the major events in their lives before joining a convent in the 1930’s. Sixty years later the nuns decided to dedicate themselves to a scientific study. One finding from the study is that the nuns who expressed more positive emotions as young adults lived an average of 10 years longer, than those who expressed few positive emotions. Other studies show similar results.
•Danner, D. D., Snowdon, D. A., & Friesen, W. V. (2001). Positive Emotions in Early Life and Longevity: Findings from the Nun Study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 804-813.
•Xu, J., & Roberts, R. E. (2010). The Power of Positive Emotions: It’s a Matter of Life or Death—Subjective Well-being and Longevity Over 28 Years in a General Population. Health Psychology, 29(1), 9.
•Tugade, M. M., Fredrickson, B. L., & Feldman Barrett, L. (2004). Psychological Resilience and Positive Emotional Granularity: Examining the Benefits of Positive Emotions on Coping and Health. Journal of Personality, 72(6), 1161-1190.
Positive Emotions vs. Positive Thoughts: Something different happens in your body when positive thinking actually leads you to feel positive emotions. Researchers measured positive thinking, or as it was described in the study, “benefit finding” or finding something good about a challenging situation. They also looked at positive emotions. They found if the participants described just having positive thoughts, such as “I discovered that I’m stronger than I thought I was” or “I have a greater appreciation for the value of my own life,” and did not also have positive emotions, their stress level remained high. Actually feeling positive emotions was the key to undoing their stress.
•Moskowitz, J. T., & Epel, E. S. (2006). Benefit Finding and Diurnal Cortisol Slope in Maternal Caregivers: A Moderating Role for Positive Emotion. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 1(2), 83-91.
Positive Emotions and Resiliency: Dr. Barbara Fredrickson, the foremost expert on positivity, found that those who experienced higher levels of positive emotions prior to the terrorist attack of 9/11 not only showed fewer symptoms of clinical depression, they even emerged emotionally stronger than before. It is important to note, that the people with higher positivity didn’t just plaster a smile on their faces in order to block feelings of negative emotions, but bounced back stronger than before. They recovered more quickly from the trauma and they had an increase of gratitude, optimism, life-satisfaction, and even a greater sense of tranquility.
•Fredrickson, B. (2009). Positivity: Top-notch Research Reveals the 3 to 1 Ratio that Will Change Your Life. Random House Digital, Inc., p., 97-119.
•Fredrickson, B. L., Tugade, M. M., Waugh, C. E., & Larkin, G. R. (2003). What Good are Positive Emotions in Crisis? A Prospective Study of Resilience and Emotions Following the Terrorist Attacks on the United States on September 11th, 2001. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(2), 365.
Positive Emotions Open Minds: A group of students were asked to close their eyes and think of the happiest day of their lives. They were then given five minutes to work on math worksheets. Another group of students were just asked to do the math worksheets. The students in the first group, with more positive emotions, completed more math problems and got a higher percentage of correct answers than the other group.
•Bryan, T., and J. Bryan (1991), Positive Mood and Math Performance. Journal of Learning Disabilities 24:490-94.).
Active Participation Enhances Learning: Using discussion questions and engaging children in talking about what they are learning, increases their ability to understand numerous topics, including subjects like math, that generally do not use a discussion approach. Also, researchers have found that there are several benefits to hands-on learning. Not only are students more engaged and remember what is taught, they also develop critical thinking skills and communication and language skills.
•Jensen, E. (1996) Brain-Based Learning, California: Turning Point, 74.
•Chapin, S. H., & O’Connor, C. (2007). Academically Productive Talk: Supporting Students’ Learning in Mathematics. In W. G. Martin & M. E.
•Strutchens (Eds.), The Learning of Mathematics (pp. 113–128). Reston, VA: The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM).
•In their book, The Big Picture: Education Is Everyone’s Business, Dennis Littky and Samantha Grabelle, state that the message “Teaching is listening, learning is talking” “was painted on a Met advisor’s truck by his students.” (Virginia, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Alexandria, 2004), 11.
•Hmelo-Silver, C. E. (2004). Problem-based Learning: What and How do Students Learn?. Educational Psychology Review, 16(3), 235-266.
•Bass, K. M., Tumol, D. & Hazer, J. (2011). The Effect of Raft Hands-on Activities on Student Learning, Engagement, and 21st Century Skills. RAFT Student Impact Study. Rockman et al, 2011. Captured 9/4/2014. http://www.raft.net/public/pdfs/Rockman-RAFT-Report.pdf
Benefits That Come from Eating Meals Together: Research suggests that children who participate in family meals, are less likely to be overweight and more likely to eat more healthy food, and have less delinquency, greater academic achievement, improved psychological well-being, and more positive family interactions. One researcher teased out the benefits of family meals from other family functions, and found that youth who had more frequent family meals had fewer depressive symptoms.
•A good summary and explanation of the research on the benefits of eating meals together can be found at: http://www.human.cornell.edu/pam/outreach/upload/Family-Mealtimes-2.pdf
•Musick, K., & Meier, A. (2012). Assessing Causality and Persistence in Associations Between Family Dinners and Adolescent Well-being. Journal of marriage and family, 74(3), 476-493.
From Motion to Mind: Commonly called kinesthetic learning, using your body and movement, is a proven teaching method for helping children store integrate, and then retrieve information. For example, educators developed simple gestures to help students identify keys aspects of reading comprehension. There was a separate gesture for finding main ideas, inferring, making predictions, and clarifying. Those students who had 6 consecutive days of being taught using the kinesthetic method scored higher on tests measuring explicit and implicit comprehension, as well as on vocabulary tests. Twelve weeks later a much higher percentage of students taught the kinesthetic method, remembered the different aspects of comprehension and used them independently, even though they were no longer being directly taught the concepts.
•Hannaford, C. (2007) Smart Moves: Why Learning is Not All in Your Head. Green River Books, pp. 15, 107 and http://www.teachingvalues.com/whymovement.html. Captured 9/2/2014.
•Block, C. C., Parris, S. R., & Whiteley, C. S. (2008). CPMs: A Kinesthetic Comprehension Strategy. The Reading Teacher, 61(6), 460-470.
•Willis, J. (2007) Research-Based Strategies to Ignite Student Learning: Insights from a Neurologist and Classroom Teacher. Association for Supervision & Curriculum Deve and http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/107006/chapters/Memory,_Learning,_and_Test-Taking_Success.aspx. Captured 9/2/2014.
Trigger Habits: One of the most useful findings from the research of habits is “trigger” habits. These are habits that trigger a chain reaction of other changes, and they also rearrange old habits. Focusing on and developing one key habit creates a ripple effect. Part of the contagiousness of a trigger habit comes from the confidence that develops through making a change, and realizing that other shifts are possible too. One way to ensure success in the formation of a trigger habit, is to decide ahead of time what you will do when you face a challenge, and write down your plan. For example, one study of patients recovering from hip replacement surgery, found that those who wrote down a specific plan for overcoming challenges, started walking almost twice as early as the other patients.
•Duhigg, C. (2012). The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. Random House LLC.
•Orbell, S., & Sheeran, P. (2000). Motivational and Volitional Processes in Action Initiation: A Field Study of the Role of Implementation Intentions. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 30(4), 780-797.
Small Win—Do It Again: One of the elements of a trigger habit is that it creates a pattern of small wins or small successes. Small wins or minute daily progress spells success to our brain by releasing dopamine. This chemical gives us a feeling of pride and accomplishment, which means we are more likely to do it again.
•Shultz, W. Reward Signaling by Dopamine Neurons. Neuroscientist. 2001; 7 (4): 293-302.
Family Stories: Children who knew the stories about their family, the memories and stories from their parents and grandparents, had higher self-esteem, and lower anxiety. They also had belief that their actions make a difference, that they can control their lives rather than being at the mercy of chance or fate. Researchers believe it is the process of telling the family stories, (not necessarily the information itself) that creates what they call an “intergenerational sense of self”, or a greater sense of personal strength. One such process is communicating or telling family stories. This often occurs during family dinners, vacations, and holidays.
•Duke, M.P., Lazarus, A., & Fivush, R. (2008). Knowledge of Family History as a Clinically Useful Index of Psychological Well-being and Prognosis: A Brief Report. Psychotherapy Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 45, 268-272.
•Fivush, R., Bohanek, J. G., & Zaman, W. (2011). Personal and Intergenerational Narratives in Relation to Adolescents’ Well-being. New directions for child and adolescent development, 2011(131), 45-57.