Author: Elaine FoxPublisher:
ISBN: 0465019455
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 274
Book Description
"A leading psychologist explains the new science of mind"--
Rainy Brain, Sunny Brain
Author: Elaine FoxPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Optimism
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Book Description
In Rainy Brain, Sunny Brain, pioneering psychologist and neuroscientist Elaine Fox explores the little-understood connection between optimism and happiness, showing how we can brighten our lives - and help ourselves flourish - by retraining our brains.
Rainy Brain, Sunny Brain
Author: Elaine FoxPublisher:
ISBN: 9781554686841
Category : Cognitive psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Book Description
Why are some people driven to take risks, while others shun danger? Why do some individuals seem to be born optimists, while others are prone to worry and pessimism? There are two basic types of personalities: "sunny" and "rainy." The tendency to see the world optimistically or pessimistically is hardwired into the brain and reflects primal impulses to seek pleasure or avoid danger. When our "fear brain" is too strong, debilitating shyness, depression and anxiety can result. But stunning new research shows that a range of techniques can alter our brains' circuity, allowing even lifelong pessimists to think positively and find happiness. In Rainy Brain, Sunny Brain, pioneering psychologist and neuroscientist Elaine Fox explores the connection between optimism and happiness, showing how we can retrain our brains and learn to flourish. With keen insights into the genetic, neurological and experiential factors that make us who we are, Rainy Brain, Sunny Brain is a powerful and uplifting tool for improving our lives.
Rainy Brain, Sunny Brain
Author: Elaine FoxPublisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 046502923X
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 274
Book Description
Are you optimistic or pessimistic? Glass half-full or half-empty? Do you look on the bright side or turn towards the dark? These are easy questions for most of us to answer, because our personality types are hard-wired into our brains. As pioneering psychologist and neuroscientist Elaine Fox has discovered, our outlook on life reflects our primal inclination to seek pleasure or avoid danger -- inclinations that, in many people, are healthily balanced. But when our "fear brain" or "pleasure brain" is too strong, the results can be disastrous, as those of us suffering from debilitating shyness, addiction, depression, or anxiety know all too well. Luckily, anyone suffering from these afflictions has reason to hope. Stunning breakthroughs in neuroscience show that our brains are more malleable than we ever imagined. In Rainy Brain, Sunny Brain, Fox describes a range of techniques -- from traditional cognitive behavioral therapy to innovative cognitive-retraining exercises -- that can actually alter our brains' circuitry, strengthening specific thought processes by exercising the neural systems that control them. The implications are enormous: lifelong pessimists can train themselves to think positively and find happiness, while pleasure-seekers inclined toward risky or destructive behavior can take control of their lives. Drawing on her own cutting-edge research, Fox shows how we can retrain our brains to brighten our lives and learn to flourish. With keen insights into how genes, life experiences and cognitive processes interleave together to make us who we are, Rainy Brain, SunnyBrain revolutionizes our basic concept of individuality. We learn that we can influence our own personalities, and that our lives are only as "sunny" or as "rainy" as we allow them to be.
Mastermind
Author: Maria KonnikovaPublisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101606231
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 288
Book Description
The New York Times bestselling guide to thinking like literature's greatest detective. "Steven Pinker meets Sir Arthur Conan Doyle" (Boston Globe), by the author of The Confidence Game. No fictional character is more renowned for his powers of thought and observation than Sherlock Holmes. But is his extraordinary intellect merely a gift of fiction, or can we learn to cultivate these abilities ourselves, to improve our lives at work and at home? We can, says psychologist and journalist Maria Konnikova, and in Mastermind she shows us how. Beginning with the “brain attic”—Holmes’s metaphor for how we store information and organize knowledge—Konnikova unpacks the mental strategies that lead to clearer thinking and deeper insights. Drawing on twenty-first-century neuroscience and psychology, Mastermind explores Holmes’s unique methods of ever-present mindfulness, astute observation, and logical deduction. In doing so, it shows how each of us, with some self-awareness and a little practice, can employ these same methods to sharpen our perceptions, solve difficult problems, and enhance our creative powers. For Holmes aficionados and casual readers alike, Konnikova reveals how the world’s most keen-eyed detective can serve as an unparalleled guide to upgrading the mind.
The Ravenous Brain
Author: Daniel BorPublisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0465032966
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 362
Book Description
Consciousness is our gateway to experience: it enables us to recognize Van Gogh's starry skies, be enraptured by Beethoven's Fifth, and stand in awe of a snowcapped mountain. Yet consciousness is subjective, personal, and famously difficult to examine: philosophers have for centuries declared this mental entity so mysterious as to be impenetrable to science.In The Ravenous Brain, neuroscientist Daniel Bor departs sharply from this historical view, and builds on the latest research to propose a new model for how consciousness works. Bor argues that this brain-based faculty evolved as an accelerated knowledge gathering tool. Consciousness is effectively an idea factory -- that choice mental space dedicated to innovation, a key component of which is the discovery of deep structures within the contents of our awareness.This model explains our brains"; ravenous appetite for information -- and in particular, its constant search for patterns. Why, for instance, after all our physical needs have been met, do we recreationally solve crossword or Sudoku puzzles? Such behavior may appear biologically wasteful, but, according to Bor, this search for structure can yield immense evolutionary benefits -- it led our ancestors to discover fire and farming, pushed modern society to forge ahead in science and technology, and guides each one of us to understand and control the world around us. But the sheer innovative power of human consciousness carries with it the heavy cost of mental fragility.Bor discusses the medical implications of his theory of consciousness, and what it means for the origins and treatment of psychiatric ailments, including attention-deficit disorder, schizophrenia, manic depression, and autism. All mental illnesses, he argues, can be reformulated as disorders of consciousness -- a perspective that opens up new avenues of treatment for alleviating mental suffering.A controversial view of consciousness, The Ravenous Brain links cognition to creativity in an ingenious solution to one of science's biggest mysteries.
The Empathic Brain
Author: Christian KeysersPublisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1105018075
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 248
Book Description
The discovery of mirror neurons has caused an unparalleled wave of excitement amongst scientists. The Empathic Brain makes you share this excitement. Its vivid and personal descriptions of key experiments make it a captivating and refreshing read. Through intellectually rigorous but powerfully accessible prose, Prof. Christian Keysers makes us realize just how deeply this discovery changes our understanding of human nature. You will start looking at yourselves differently - no longer as mere individual but as a deeply interconnected, social mind.
Emotion Science
Author: Elaine FoxPublisher: Red Globe Press
ISBN: 9780230005181
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 490
Book Description
Shortlisted for the 2011 BPS Book Award Emotion Science is a state-of-the-art introduction to the study of emotion. Drawing on a wide array of research from psychology and neuroscience, the author presents an integrated picture of our current understanding of normal as well as disordered emotions such as anxiety and depression. The author draws a clear distinction between emotions, moods and feelings, and suggests how they can be understood within an integrated model. The book is ideal for undergraduate and graduate courses in psychology and related areas, and will be a useful reference for active researchers.
Author: Rhawn JosephThe Brain
Author: New ScientistPublisher: Nicholas Brealey
ISBN: 1473685079
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 224
Book Description
Join New Scientist on a mind-expanding rollercoaster ride through intelligence, creativity, your unconscious and beyond. Congratulations! You're the proud owner of the most complex information processing device in the known universe. The human brain comes equipped with all sorts of useful design features, but also many bugs and weaknesses. Problem is you don't get an owner's manual. You have to just plug and play. As a result, most of us never properly understand how our brains work and what they're truly capable of. We fail get the best out of them, ignore some of their most useful features and struggle to overcome their design faults. Until now, that is. Featuring witty essays, enlightening infographics and fascinating "try this at home" experiments, New Scientist take you on a journey through intelligence, memory, creativity, the unconscious and beyond. From the strange ways to distort what we think of as "reality" to the brain hacks that can improve memory, The Brain: A User's Guide will help you understand your brain and show you how to use it to its full potential.
