Notes from a Psychologist
Dr. Mel Whitehurst

The purpose of Notes from a Psychologist is to encourage and inspire the spread of optimism and hope.  Optimistic thinkers tend to be happier and healthier. I'll keep posting new ideas periodically.  Meanwhile....think positive 

            WE NEED MORE PROGRESSIVE WHIRLIGIGS

Progressive Whirligigs:  People who can take something negative and turn it into a positive.

A recent study found that some individuals are capable of experiencing positive emotions even in the midst of a predominantly negative situation, especially when they’re encouraged to do so. These are the progressive whirligigs, and we need more of them if we want to make our world a better place.

So, make it a practice to encourage your friends and yourself to look for the good hidden inside difficult moments.  A conscious effort can make a difference, just as the study found out.

Source 

Christian Waugh, Marquis Schieber, and Yifang Zhao, Feeling Good About the Bad:  Making Positive Appraisals of Predominantly Negative Stressors, Emotion, 2025, Vol. 25, No. 6, 1381-1399

         IF YOU NEED TO, GO AHEAD AND SWEAR AWAY

If you want to reduce pain start swearing every day. 

The Ig Nobel Peace Prize addressing the pain issue was awarded several years ago to UK researchers for a scientific study titled “Swearing as a Response to Pain.” (See source below.)

In the experiment, participants were divided into two groups. One group placed a hand in ice-cold water while repeatedly saying a swear word of their choice.  The other group placed their hands in the same ice-cold water but were not allowed to swear.  Both groups were instructed to keep their hands in the water for as long as they could tolerate.

On average, the group that was allowed to swear kept their hands submerged in cold-water about 40 seconds longer than those who remained silent.

Participants who swore also reported feeling less pain, and their heart rates increased, an indication that the body’s fight-or-flight response had been activated.  This response can temporarily reduce the perception of pain.

The researchers concluded that swearing can briefly increase pain tolerance and dull the sensation of pain.  In other words, simply uttering a swear word can measurably lessen how strongly pain is perceived.

I have to admit I occasionally use swear words, sometimes up to ten a day.  So, when my irritating, squeaky octogenarian body starts acting up while out walking, I can now swear freely and without any restraint.

SOURCE

Researchers Richard Stephens, John Atkins, and Andrew Kingston from Keele University (UK) won the 2010 Ig Nobel Peace Prize for demonstrating scientifically that swearing can reduce pain.  (The Ig Noble Peace Prize is awarded yearly by the Annals of Improbability Research Group.)

 

​           ARE SMILING PEOPLE MORE TRUSTWORTHY?

Predicting other people’s trustworthiness is an important aspect of everyday social life.  In a recent study, participants were shown three sets of faces, angry, sad, and smiling, and asked to rate each person’s trustworthiness.

Smiling faces earned the highest trust ratings, strongly suggesting that people who smile often are perceived as more trustworthy.

From now on, I’m turning over a new leaf.  I plan to smile more and to “try” to give up “some” of my cantankerous ways.  Also, I’m thinking it might be time to enroll in smiling lessons.

SOURCE

Michael Olszanowski, Aleksandra Tolopilo, and Ursula Hess, Smile and the World Smiles (and Trusts) With You:  Happiness mimicry Shapes First Impressions, Emotion, 2026, Vol. 26.  No. 2, 495-512

​COULD LEADERSHIP INCOMPETENCE BE THE REAL PROBLEM?

If you follow the news, you’ve probably noticed that people rarely see the world the same way you do.  With 8.7 billion individuals on the planet, it’s obvious their views will differ from yours.  So, it’s no surprise that most political leaders struggle to lead effectively when citizens approach public issues through intensely individualistic and biased viewpoints.

Fortunately, only a few leaders rise above this complex climate to lead communities in constructive and unifying ways.  Those are the leaders we should seek out and elect while withholding our support from those who practice divisive and destructive leadership behaviors.

Observe closely how leaders lead!  Vote for leaders you believe are competent.

                                        FORGIVENES

When someone is granted forgiveness for a wrongdoing against another person, it can release them from the weight of guilt and allow them to move forward in making amends.

Religious communities often demonstrate excellent examples of the conditions they believe are necessary for God to grant forgiveness. For instance, researchers at Messiah University conducted a study of 1,021 U.S. adult Christians to identify what they perceived as the prerequisites for divine forgiveness. The most frequently endorsed preconditions are listed below:

 66.2% Asking God for forgiveness.

64.0% Confessing the transgression to God.

58.0% Taking responsibility.

50.9% Feeling remorseful

51.2% Repenting & Atonement

Perhaps these same five principles can also guide us in our secular relationships when someone who has caused harm to another person: seeking forgiveness, admitting the harm, accepting responsibility, expressing sincere remorse, offering a truthful apology, and then making meaningful amends.

Reference

Edward Davis, Esther Kim, Dylan Pencakowski, Derek Kemp, Brady Brock, Ryon McDermott and Joseph Currier, What Must I Do to Be Forgiving: U.S. Christian Adults’ Perceptions of the Necessary Preconditions for Divine Forgiveness, Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 2025

               TEN PREDICTABLE WAYS HUMANS BEHAVE

The following is a list of human behaviors that have been scientifically verified in experimentally controlled research studies by social psychologists. 

1. People will work harder for a meaningful cause than for money.

2. If we frame a situation in terms of a potential gain, we act differently that if      we frame it in terms of a potential loss. 

3. Venting anger doesn’t eliminate it.  It may offer brief relief, but anger often      returns stronger after being expressed.

4. People get stronger when they take action.

5.People are motivated to follow other people’s behavior.  Once we see others taking actions, we tend to assume it’s correct.  People generally follow the most popular course of action even when it may not be the most beneficial.

6.Most people when directly confronted with proof that they are wrong, do not generally change their point of view or course of action but justify it even more tenaciously rather than reconsider.

7.The most effective way to change a person’s behavior is to offer a better alternative.

8. The more choices people have, the more likely they will not make a decision.

9. The more choices people have, the more discontent they will be with their final choice.  People are more satisfied with a choice when there are fewer choices.

10.“I have good news and bad news.”  “Which do you want first?”  Most people will say bad news first.  People prefer happy endings. 

                     ELEVEN IDEAS TO MAKE YOU STRONGER

1.     Put feelings second. Your thoughts dictate your feelings—good or bad.

2.     Be a positive force in other people’s lives. 

3.     Don’t blame anyone for your circumstances. 

4.     Stand up and be assertive and don’t back down on things that matter.

5.     Don’t dwell how difficult life may be. 

6.     Tell your loved ones you love them.

7.     Tell yourself things will work out one way or another. 

8.     Refuse to let yourself feel defeated. 

9.     Never, never feel sorry for yourself. 

10.   Be tough and caring. 

11.   Have courage to find courage when the moment calls for it

                                     IT’S EASIER

It’s easier to fall down than stand up.

It’s easier to fail than succeed.

It’s easier not to think, not to do, not to care.

It’s easier to hate than to love.

It’s easier to die slowly than to live fully.

(Anonymous Source)

                         CATS AND RATS ARE AT IT AGAIN

All my life I’ve heard people say, “I smell a rat” whenever they suspected something shady was going on.  Astonishingly, I just learned this idiom is all wrong.  It should be, “I smell a cat.” 

Two researchers, Robert Dielenberg and Ian McGregor, ran an experiment to compare the smelling abilities of cats and rats. They discovered that cats were far easier to smell than rats, and that rats could detect a cat much more easily than a cat could detect a rat.

In short, if you caught a whiff of something shady, you were probably smelling a cat instead of a rat.

My unreliable conclusion is this:  the next time something feels suspicious, it’s actually more accurate to say, “I smell a cat.”

PS

One of my friends thinks I must have too much time on my hands, given how deep I’ve gone into rat‑and‑cat behavior research.

Source

Robert Dielenberg and Ian McGreggor, Habituation of the Hiding Response to Cat Odor in Rats (Rattus norvegicus), Journal of Comparative Psychology, 1999, Vol. 113, No. 4, 376-387

DO WORDY PEOPLE WHO NEVER GET TO THE POINT ANNOY YOU?

Then you are probably getting old.

Neuropsychological research suggests that as we age, we naturally become less wordy and more concise.  Hence, we expect others to follow suit

Source

Schwartz, Jeffry and Begley, Sharon, (2002) The Mind and The Brain:  Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force, HarperCollins Publishers, New York, New York

                              ATTENTION SENIORS

A 2021 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (2021) involving 3,038 participants found that seniors who underwent cataract surgery at age 65 or older were about 30% less likely to develop any form of dementia over the following ten years than those who did not have the surgery.

Does improved vision itself reduce the risk of dementia? The study did not answer that question.

However, my best-guess theory is that improved vision supplies the brain with more visual stimuli, which subsequently enhances cognitive functioning and helps delay the onset of dementia.

HAVE YOU EVER MADE A PROMISE TO YOURSELF WITHOUT ANYONE KNOWING?  

I made a promise about thirty years ago when for some unknown reason one day I had this sudden insight that I would not live forever, that life was very tenuous.  Anything could happen at any moment.  Hastily, I made a promise to myself, which has influenced me every day since. 

I privately promised to the best of my ability, not to do anything that I could control to shorten my life.  I wanted to live as long as I could.  I did not want to die from something I had caused.  For example, I decided not to smoke, to eat healthy, to stay away from people who pulled me down when I could, to live more for the moment, and to pursue a low stress lifestyle.  Up to now, my promise has been going well.
                            ​

                                 PULL FOR THE UNDERDOG 

Unfortunately, most underdogs end up losing.  Only a few triumph.  So, why should one be drawn to underdogs knowing there is only a slight likelihood they will succeed?  It’s because underdogs’ determination to succeed in the face of nearly insurmountable obstacles is inspiring.  For me, the small fry struggling to triumph overrides the bad feelings of losing and encourages hope.  

WHICH IS BETTER: TO BE OPTIMISTIC AND WRONG, OR PESSIMISTIC AND RIGHT?

Research shows that people feel significantly worse when their pessimistic expectations are confirmed than when their optimistic expectations are disproven by a negative outcome.

Intuitively, we might assume that having our pessimistic expectations confirmed would make us feel somewhat better because we were “right.” Yet, this is not how people typically respond.  In reality, the confirmation of pessimistic expectations does not produce positive feelings.

Answer to the headline question:  It’s better to be optimistic and wrong.

SOURCE

Inon Raz, Niv Reggev and Michael Gilead, Is It Better to Be Happy or Right?  Examining the relative role of the pragmatic and epistemic imperatives in momentary affective evaluations, Emotions, 2024, Vol. 24, No. 6, 1342-1377

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                              Email: drmelwhitehurst@gmail.com