The Social Leap

Author: William von Hippel
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062740415
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 387

Book Description
In the compelling popular science tradition of Sapiens and Guns, Germs, and Steel, a groundbreaking and eye-opening exploration that applies evolutionary science to provide a new perspective on human psychology, revealing how major challenges from our past have shaped some of the most fundamental aspects of our being. The most fundamental aspects of our lives—from leadership and innovation to aggression and happiness—were permanently altered by the "social leap" our ancestors made from the rainforest to the savannah. Their struggle to survive on the open grasslands required a shift from individualism to a new form of collectivism, which forever altered the way our mind works. It changed the way we fight and our proclivity to make peace, it changed the way we lead and the way we follow, it made us innovative but not inventive, it created a new kind of social intelligence, and it led to new sources of life satisfaction. In The Social Leap, William von Hippel lays out this revolutionary hypothesis, tracing human development through three critical evolutionary inflection points to explain how events in our distant past shape our lives today. From the mundane, such as why we exaggerate, to the surprising, such as why we believe our own lies and why fame and fortune are as likely to bring misery as happiness, the implications are far reaching and extraordinary. Blending anthropology, biology, history, and psychology with evolutionary science, The Social Leap is a fresh and provocative look at our species that provides new clues about who we are, what makes us happy, and how to use this knowledge to improve our lives.

The Social Leap

Author: Bill von Hippel
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781925713022
Category : Evolutionary psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Book Description
Our chimpish ancestors were superbly adapted to a life of leaping through the trees. To survive on the savannah, they had to make a social leap -- a change that drives us still today. Human psychology is rife with contradictions: We work hard to achieve our goals, but when we succeed, our happiness is fleeting compared with our efforts. We hope our friends will do well in life, but can't help feeling jealous if they do too well. We're aghast at the thought of people we know being murdered, even if we despise them, but are unconcerned when our armed forces kill enemies who are strangers to us. We complain about difficult bosses, but are often behave just as badly when we're in charge. These inconsistencies may seem irrational, but each of them has evolved to serve a vital function in our lives. Indeed, the most fundamental aspects of our psychology were permanently shaped by the 'social leap' our ancestors made from the rainforest to the savannah. In their struggle to survive on the open grasslands, our ancestors prioritised teamwork and sociality over physical prowess, creating an entirely new kind of intelligence that forever altered our place on this planet. In The Social Leap, leading psychologist William von Hippel traces our evolutionary history to show how events in our distant past continue to shape our lives today. From the everyday, such as why we exaggerate, to the exotic, such as why we believe our own lies, the implications are far-reaching and extraordinary. Blending anthropology, biology, history, and psychology with evolutionary science, The Social Leapis a fresh, provocative look at our species. It provides new clues about who we are, why we do what we do, and how to live the good life.

The Social Leap

Author: William von Hippel
Publisher: Scribe Publications
ISBN: 1925548945
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 281

Book Description
Our chimpish ancestors were superbly adapted to a life of leaping through the trees. To survive on the savannah, they had to make a social leap — a change that drives us still today. Human psychology is rife with contradictions: We work hard to achieve our goals, but when we succeed, our happiness is fleeting compared with our efforts. We hope our friends will do well in life, but can’t help feeling jealous if they do too well. We’re aghast at the thought of people we know being murdered, even if we despise them, but are unconcerned when our armed forces kill enemies who are strangers to us. We complain about difficult bosses, but are often behave just as badly when we're in charge. These inconsistencies may seem irrational, but each of them has evolved to serve a vital function in our lives. Indeed, the most fundamental aspects of our psychology were permanently shaped by the ‘social leap’ our ancestors made from the rainforest to the savannah. In their struggle to survive on the open grasslands, our ancestors prioritised teamwork and sociality over physical prowess, creating an entirely new kind of intelligence that forever altered our place on this planet. In The Social Leap, leading psychologist William von Hippel traces our evolutionary history to show how events in our distant past continue to shape our lives today. From the everyday, such as why we exaggerate, to the exotic, such as why we believe our own lies, the implications are far-reaching and extraordinary. Blending anthropology, biology, history, and psychology with evolutionary science, The Social Leap is a fresh, provocative look at our species. It provides new clues about who we are, why we do what we do, and how to live the good life.

Connecting to Change the World

Author: Peter Plastrik
Publisher: Island Press
ISBN: 9781610915328
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Something new and important is afoot. Nonprofit and philanthropic organizations are under increasing pressure to do more and to do better to increase and improve productivity with fewer resources. Social entrepreneurs, community-minded leaders, nonprofit organizations, and philanthropists now recognize that to achieve greater impact they must adopt a network-centric approach to solving difficult problems. Building networks of like-minded organizations and people offers them a way to weave together and create strong alliances that get better leverage, performance, and results than any single organization is able to do. While the advantages of such networks are clear, there are few resources that offer easily understandable, field-tested information on how to form and manage social-impact networks. Drawn from the authors’ deep experience with more than thirty successful network projects, Connecting to Change the World provides the frameworks, practical advice, case studies, and expert knowledge needed to build better performing networks. Readers will gain greater confidence and ability to anticipate challenges and opportunities. Easily understandable and full of actionable advice, Connecting to Change the World is an informative guide to creating collaborative solutions to tackle the most difficult challenges society faces.

Knowledge as a Feeling

Author: Troy A Swanson
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538178931
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 325

Book Description
This book explores the idea that knowing is a feeling that results from the interactions of the brain's unconscious and conscious processes and not through the accumulation of facts. It explains what neuroscience and psychology reveal about what it means to know and how our brain learns.

Curious Habits

Author: Luke Mathers
Publisher: Major Street Publishing
ISBN: 1922611433
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 219

Book Description
A curious habit is helpful... until it's not.Attention to detail is great – perfectionism is a curious habit.Chocolate is awesome – using it to treat anxiety is a curious habit.Honest self-awareness is admirable – constantly beating yourself up is a curious habit.We have habits for a reason, we repeat things that feel good and move away from the stuff we don't like. Our habits solve a problem and make life easier. Unfortunately, our habits can turn on us. This book teaches us how to use curiosity as a superpower. It takes the blame and shame out of habit change so that we make the change not because we HAVE to, but because we WANT to.Drawing from the collective wisdom of evolutionary biology, neuroscience, Stoic philosophy and even Instagram, leading mindset coach Luke Mathers helps us embrace the power of curiosity to recognise when habits start to impact negatively our health and happiness. Curious Habits offers an entertaining, thought-provoking and non-judgmental exploration into why we do the things we do, and how to reset for a healthier, happier and more fulfilling life.

Travel Connections

Author: Jennie Germann Molz
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136337032
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 218

Book Description
Living in a world that is increasingly ‘on the move’ means that many of us now rely on mobile devices, social media, and networking technologies to coordinate togetherness with our social networks even when we are apart. Nowhere is this phenomenon more evident than in the emerging practices of ‘interactive travel’. Today’s travellers are more likely than ever to pack a laptop or a mobile phone and to use these devices to stay in touch with friends and family members – as well as to connect with strangers and other travellers – while they are on the road. New practices such as location-aware navigating, travel blogging, flashpacking and Couchsurfing now shape the way travellers engage with each other, with their social networks, and with the world around them. Travel Connections prompts a rethinking of the key paradigms in tourism studies in the digital age. Interactive travel calls into question longstanding tourism concepts such as landscape, the tourist gaze, hospitality, authenticity and escape. The book proposes a range of new concepts to describe the way tourists inhabit the world and engage with their social networks in the twenty-first century: smart tourism, the mediated gaze, mobile conviviality, re-enchantment and embrace. Based on intensive fieldwork with interactive travellers, Travel Connections offers a detailed account of this emerging phenomenon and uncovers the new forms of mediated and face-to-face togetherness that become possible in a mobile world. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of sociology, tourism and hospitality, new media, cosmopolitanism studies, mobility studies and cultural studies.

Belonging

Author: Dustin Bindreiff
Publisher: Corwin Press
ISBN: 1071876155
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 169

Book Description
Develop a sense of safety and connection in our youth Research shows that a sense of belonging has a profound effect on the physical, mental, and social well-being of children and adolescents. Yet, current events, including the decline of community and rising tensions over racial and economic inequalities, have endangered that fragile and critical component—and nowhere is this felt more acutely than in schools. In Belonging, the author, who has spent decades working with the most challenging students, provides research-based strategies to strengthen relationships, build inclusive classrooms, develop trust, and foster a sense of psychological safety. Readers will find: Vignettes demonstrating how belonging applies to a variety of learning contexts Research around mindsets, the development of empathy, and community-building Sections dedicated to equity and inclusion Strategies teachers can directly apply in their classrooms With his deep knowledge of education, behavior, and neuroscience, Dustin Bindreiff provides a fresh look at the troubling issues our students face and provides practical strategies for building a more hopeful future.

The Social Authority of Reason

Author: Philip J. Rossi, SJ
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791483363
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 218

Book Description
In The Social Authority of Reason, Philip J. Rossi, SJ argues that the current cultural milieu of globalization is strikingly reflective of the human condition appraised by Kant, in which mutual social interaction for human good is hamstrung by our contentious "unsociable sociability." He situates the paradoxical nature of contemporary society—its opportunities for deepening the bonds of our common human mutuality along with its potential for enlarging the fissures that arise from our human differences—in the context of Kant's notion of radical evil. As a corrective, Rossi proposes that we draw upon the social character of Kant's critique of reason, which offers a communal trajectory for human moral effort and action. This trajectory still has power to open the path to what Kant called "the highest political good"—lasting peace among nations.

Madness and the Social Link

Author: Jean Max Gaudillière
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000176630
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 225

Book Description
This book provides a psychoanalytic reading of works of literature, enhancing the illuminating effect of both fields. The first of two volumes, Madness and the Social Link: The Jean-Max Gaudilliere Seminars 1985-2000 contains seven of the "Madness and the Social Link" seminars given by psychoanalyst Jean-Max Gaudillière at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) in Paris between 1985 and 2000, transcribed by Françoise Davoine from her notes. Each year, the seminar was dedicated to an author who explored madness in his depiction of the catastrophes of history. Surprising the reader at every turn, the seminars speak of the close intertwining of personal lives and catastrophic historical events, and of the possibility of repairing injury to the psyche, the mind, and the body in their wake. These volumes expose the usefulness of literature as a tool for healing, for all those working in therapeutic fields, and will allow lovers of literature to discover a way of reading that gives access to more subtle perspectives and unsuspected interrelations.