TPCS Podcast: Mental Health Resilience in Gay Men

 

It’s no surprise that gay men have been one of the many groups subject to mental health issues. What is surprising, though, is how well they bounce back from such issues. Our guest this week has studied resilience in gay men and literally wrote the book on the subject. He shares with us some stories found in the book and behind-the-pages experiences from the writing of it. He stresses that the book is not just for the gay community, however, as many of the issues are fairly universal, including the anger we feel due to our experiences. Listen to hear more.

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Resilience in Gay Men Show Highlights:

“The real surprise is not the disproportionate rate of mental illness among gay men, but the high proportion of resilience.” ~ John-Manuel Andriote

[4:30]   Is this book just for the gay community?

[5:58]   Stories of resilience.

[12:57] What about the anger from our experiences?

[15:36] Are there any specific mental health issues in the LGBT community that don’t exist outside of it?

[18:35] How John writes such a wide variety of genres.

[22:41] Surprising things learned while writing the book.

 

 

About Our Guest

John-Manuel Andriote has written about LGBT, HIV-AIDS, and other health and medical subjects since the early 1980s. He is the author of Stonewall Strong: Gay Men’s Heroic Fight for Resilience, Good Health, and a Strong Community; Victory Deferred: How AIDS Changed Gay Life in America; Hot Stuff: A Brief History of Disco/Dance Music; Tough Love: A Washington

Reporter Finds Resilience, Ruin, and Zombies in His ‘Other Connecticut’ Hometown; and a ‘fable for kids ages 5 to 105’ called Wilhelmina Goes Wandering. His articles have appeared in the Washington Post, The Atlantic, the Huffington Post, and leading LGBT publications across America. Andriote regularly speaks to audiences at conferences and universities and is interviewed by print and broadcast media. He has been an adjunct communication and journalism instructor at Eastern Connecticut State University and Three Rivers Community College, and has served as a communication and senior technical advisor for U.S. government-supported and non-governmental HIV-AIDS projects since the late 1980s.

Find him online:

Website | Facebook | LinkedIn | Twitter | YouTube

About The Psych Central Show Podcast Hosts

Gabe Howard is an award-winning writer and speaker who lives with bipolar and anxiety disorders. He is also one of the co-hosts of the popular show, A Bipolar, a Schizophrenic, and a Podcast. As a speaker, he travels nationally and is available to make your event stand out. To work with Gabe, please visit his website, gabehoward.com.

 

 

Vincent M. Wales is a former suicide prevention counselor who lives with persistent depressive disorder. He is also the author of several award-winning novels and creator of the costumed hero, Dynamistress. Visit his websites at www.vincentmwales.com and www.dynamistress.com.

 

 

from World of Psychology https://psychcentral.com/blog/podcast-mental-health-resilience-in-gay-men/

5 Personality Traits Happy People Share, According to Science

Are you happy? Only 33 percent of people would reply “yes” to that question, according to the 2017 Harris Poll Survey of American Happiness. Those results are perhaps unsurprising. We face more pressure now than ever before in our lives and careers. The world is an increasingly chaotic, noisy place.

Most of all, happiness means different things to different people, and because of that, there are many paths to achieve it. While one person may thrive in a fast-paced, competitive environment, another person may value being able to do their work alone in solitude.

While the “how” of happiness may vary between individuals, new research has found that there are a few personality traits that correlate strongly to better well-being.

The study conducted by positive psychologists, Jessie Sun, Scott Barry Kaufman, and Luke D. Smillie, broke down the classic Big Five personality framework into more nuanced dimensions, which allowed them to paint a more specific picture of what contributes to well-being and happiness.

In their results, they found five different “personal paths to well-being”:

1. Enthusiasm

Sociable and expressive, enthusiastic love to laugh and have fun. They tend to have more positive emotions, self-acceptance, and purpose in life. This reflects in their happiness levels:  people high in enthusiasm report higher life satisfaction and stronger relationships.

2. Low withdrawal

Everyone gets overwhelmed and turns inwards sometimes, but those low in withdrawal handle it more gracefully. They are lower in neuroticism, which means they experience less anxiety and aren’t as self-conscious. Put simply, they are more emotionally stable and less reactive to stress.

3. Industriousness

Perfectionists and productivity lovers rejoice! According to this study, being high in elements of conscientiousness is a good thing. The propensity to think ahead, plan, work hard, and follow through are not only linked to high-achievement, but also a feeling of mastery and engagement in life.

4. Compassion

Thoughtful, empathic people can get ahead after all. People who are compassionate care about others’ well-being, and as a result, increase their own. So go ahead and spend some time today practicing gratitude or helping someone in your network. It’ll be well worth the time investment.

5. Intellectual Curiosity

Those who are intellectually curious love to solve complex problems, yet are open to new ideas. They reflect, think deeply, and challenge themselves to grow.

Assertiveness and creative openness were two traits also predictive of certain aspects of well-being, but less so than the five above. Additionally, the study found that politeness, orderliness, and volatility were not at all predictive of well-being.

Can any of these traits be acquired or developed? “Relax!” Kaufman says, “Personality can be changed. A large number of scientific studies are piling up now showing that interventions exist to change personality.”

One place to start is getting control over negative thinking and emotions. You’re capable of more growth than you think.

from World of Psychology https://psychcentral.com/blog/5-personality-traits-happy-people-share-according-to-science/

9 Suggestions for Stressed-Out Working Moms

You’re a working mom who often feels stressed out. You’re exhausted. Maybe you feel like you’re not giving what you want to give to your kids and to your job. Maybe you also feel like you’re regularly running around and yet nothing really gets done. Maybe you don’t have enough energy. You certainly don’t have enough time.

Lack of time is a top stressor for Katelyn Denning’s clients. The moms she coaches feel like they don’t have enough time for their work, their kids, chores, projects and for themselves.

Maybe this sounds all-too familiar.

Working motherhood may be tricky and sometimes complicated. But it doesn’t have to be hard, according to Sarah Argenal, a mom to two boys who writes, speaks, consults and leads interactive trainings on work/life balance, intentional living, and connected family relationships for busy professionals at www.workingparentresource.com.

“Being a working mom can be an adventure, a fulfilling and enjoyable experience—albeit with challenging moments peppered throughout,” Argenal said.

Below you’ll find a variety of practical suggestions to help you minimize stress and savor the adventure.

Track and analyze your time. Denning suggested checking out Laura Vanderkam’s writing, which includes powerful time-management books, such as Off the Clock: Feel Less Busy While Getting More Done and I Know How She Does It: How Successful Women Make the Most of Their Time. (I love her work, too.) Vanderkam has a time-tracking sheet you can download at her website.

Denning has worked with many clients who discover that they actually have more time than they think they do, especially when they focus on an entire week (versus a single day).

“If you look at a single day as a working mom, it can feel overwhelming with everything that you have to do,” said Denning, a mom of two and a coach for new moms just returning to work, helping them set priorities, tackle mom guilt, and simplify their lives so they can enjoy working motherhood. But when you look at your week, you might realize that you have several open evenings or mornings for meaningful activities.

Tune in. “The longer I’m a mom, the more I realize that being a parent is all just one continuous evolution,” Argenal said. Every new phase her kids go through sparks new challenges and opportunities for growth. For everyone. Which also can feel disorienting, she said.

Argenal has found it helpful to regularly check in with herself. She suggested doing this especially “when you’re feeling overwhelmed, guilty, or like you’re doing it all wrong”: How are you feeling? What’s on your mind? What’s stressing you out, or draining you? What triggers you? What energizes you? What makes you happy? What do you need? How can you give this to yourself?

Be bad at things. “I don’t mind that I choose to be ‘bad’ at dinner parties,” said Sarah K. Peck, the founder of Startup Pregnant, a website for women entrepreneurial parents, and host of The Startup Pregnant Podcast, an interview show digging into the lives of working parents. She makes 8-minute pasta with butter because what really matters to her is being with friends (instead of waiting until she has the time and energy to prepare a big, fancy meal).

“Pick a few things to care about, and then make sure you’re getting ‘D’s’ and ‘F’s’ on your report card in other areas,” said Peck, a mom to one son and expecting her second.

Denning also helps her clients identify and prioritize what’s most important to them (versus doing something because they think they should). For instance, maybe you love making home-cooked meals or maybe you feel pressured to. Maybe you love yoga, and it’s vital for your well-being, and thereby a non-negotiable.       

Rethink work hours. Is it possible to adjust your work hours so they work better for you? Can you work from home some days? When Peck was growing up, her dad worked from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. and did school pick-up. As an entrepreneur, Peck sets her own schedule and doesn’t have a commute.

Focus on your energy. “[W]hen I have more energy, I can plan and deliver from a place of enthusiasm, instead of feeling depleted,” said Arianna Taboada, a maternal health expert, author, and owner of a consulting firm that helps female founders intelligently design maternity leave plans that meet their business model and personal needs.

Recently, she realized that she feels more energized after sitting quietly with a book than after taking exercise classes. So, today, she carves out time to read two to three times a week.

Do less. “What works for me in this season of life—parenting a toddler and being the sole breadwinner—is: constantly find ways to do less,” Taboada said. Right now, this looks like not traveling for work more than three times a year, having her son in one activity, and doing only one “event” on weekends.

Argenal is also selective and intentional about her time. She used to say yes to everything: from reviewing a friend’s manuscript to taking on last-minute work projects to handling most of the housework. Which only left her drowning. “Today my family, my health, and anything else that fulfills me as a person gets my precious time, attention, and energy. Everything else—household chores, relationship drama, work ‘emergencies’—is delegated, minimized, automated, or eliminated from my life altogether.”

Don’t wait until you’ve got more time. Many of Denning’s clients put off projects until they have plenty of time to work on them. But the key is to start. “You’ll be 5 minutes further along than you were before and eventually those add up to a completed project,” she said. “Besides, when was the last time you actually had a significant chunk of uninterrupted time?”

Denning also suggested setting a timer to see how long tasks actually take. They might take less time than you think.

Experiment and reevaluate. “The routines and priorities that my clients set today, don’t have to be forever,” Denning said. “I encourage them to always reevaluate and change as their circumstances change.”

Taboada does quarter-long experiments: “[I]f one way of doing things isn’t working, I make some small tweaks, try them for a quarter, and assess.”

Create a ta-da list. This is what Denning calls a running list of tasks you’ve accomplished.  “We tend to look only at our looming to-do lists and all that we haven’t done. When you think about all that you do, from getting dinner on the table, taking care of your kids, paying bills, washing laundry and even catching 10 minutes to read a book, it’s pretty amazing.” 

“There are things beyond your control that really suck in today’s society,” like finding daycare coverage and commuting between work and school, Peck said. Sometimes, it can feel overwhelming just getting from place to place.

Taboada also noted that our social institutions and structures don’t make it easy to be working moms. “I believe what will change that is larger socio-cultural shifts, as well as finding the small ways we can maintain and survive with the resources available in the meantime.”

And by making some changes and tweaks, you can not only survive as a working mom. You can thrive, and you can flourish. In all spheres of your life.

from World of Psychology https://psychcentral.com/blog/9-suggestions-for-stressed-out-working-moms/

Why the Therapist’s Children Have No Shoes: A Space Oddity

My family, like any other, has its ups and downs, especially now as we are free-falling somewhere in the middle of Monica McGoldrick’s stage of ‘launching children and moving on’. I’m not exactly sure if our children just aren't on the same launch schedule as my wife and I, or if we have simply failed to supply them with sufficient psychological propellant for their tanks.

In any event, a recent episode in our family’s unfolding narrative culminated with my wife, a social worker by training, texting our seed-sowing, soon-to-be 20-year-old ‘emerging-adult’ daughter a poignant, incisive and heartfelt text. Fearful that her venturing forth would leave family and friends behind, it read simply, “it’s much easier to ignore people and cut them off, than working at repairing relationships.”

Brilliant, I thought. My wife was quite proud, and I of her, for providing our child with yet another foundation stone in the launch pad from which she could eventually free herself from the massive gravitational pull of planet parent (not sure of why the intergalactic metaphors here, but it probably has something to do with encounters with alien life forms- our young-adult children).

We both eagerly awaited our daughter’s response, certain that it would be replete with affection and gratitude for sound advice. What my wife got back was, “Is that a dad quote?!” REALLY, is that a dad quote?!?! Was this a not-so-cryptic attempt to marginalize and diminish my wife? A backhanded insult at me for offering yet another of my unsolicited and perhaps patronizing pieces of parenting?

Mind you, I am a PhD clinical psychologist, with ABPP certification in child and adolescent psychology and a registered play therapist-supervisor. I have street cred with kids, teens and families. People pay me cash money, and those whose lives I have touched seem grateful, at least many of them do.

Which finally brings us around to the mixed metaphor title of this blog post. Parenting is rocky on any planet. And to paraphrase the great Sylvester Stallone from his movie Rocky, “life ain’t all sunshine and rainbows...it’s a mean and nasty place, and will drop you to your knees.”

So, getting back to the idea of therapists offering advice to their not-so-receptive children. The proverb says, that ‘the cobbler’s children always need new shoes,’ a popular example of the notion of vocational irony. A deep inspection finds this saying has several implications. If the cobbler was really good at his job, his kids wouldn’t need to go barefoot. Or perhaps it means that the cobbler is so busy cobbling for others, that his own children go without. But did anyone ever stop to think that the cobbler’s kids just don’t want to wear their father’s cobbled creations? Maybe the kicks (teen slang for shoes, I am told) are cooler in the cobblery down the street. Or maybe they would rather make their own shoes!

And maybe psychotherapists everywhere, especially those that dare to work with teens and their families, can take a lesson from this humble cobbler of young psyches. Keep your cobbling separate from your parenting, or you might end up with holes in the soles of your relationships. 

from http://www.psychotherapy.net/blog/title/why-the-therapist-s-children-have-no-shoes-a-space-oddity

7 Tips to Take Charge of Your Time — and Your Life

“I know I should get to the gym every day but I don’t have time.” “I’d love to read to my kids every night but I don’t have time.” “I’d really like to get together with friends but I don’t have time.” “I know I should volunteer more but I just can’t fit it in.” “I’d work on the hobby I love but I don’t have time.”

Time. Time. Time. It’s such a common lament. I hear it every day — from my clients, from my friends, from my adult kids, from myself. The clock seems to be the enemy of all that is enriching, delighting and nurturing. Caught up in what we think we have to do, we put the things we most love to do, even things we need to do for our own physical and emotional health, at the bottom of the list.

The result? Our health suffers. Our relationships suffer. Our kids grow up without the family fun and nurturing they deserve. Hobby supplies get relegated to the back of the closet. We give up on dreams.

Sound familiar? Are you in charge of your time or has it become in charge of you? If you want to take more control of your time and your life, here’s a 7 step program for getting there.

7 Tips for Making Change

1. Stop making excuses. You have the same number of hours in a day as everyone else. Look around. There are people you know who also have demanding jobs, families, and mental health issues who none the less are living more satisfying lives than you are. Yes, I know. There are people who seem to have more energy or need less sleep or who are not burdened by anxiety. But the fact is that there are people much like you who are living more balanced lives than you are. The first step to making any change, even a change in your use of time, is to take responsibility for however you are contributing to the problem.
2. Set goals: Make a serious list of the things you would do if you had more time. Keep it real and realistic. Yes, you might fantasize about saving the world or making a cool million. But more realistic ideas are to make time to do some charitable work and to gradually increase your income. You might want to find a final cure for social anxiety that keeps you isolated. But a more realistic goal is to identify and take a first step toward getting back out into the world. Star the 3 things on the list that are most important to you. Those are your immediate goals.
3. Keep a time diary for two weeks: Before bed each night, write down how you spent each hour of the day. Write down what you were doing and how you felt about it. Did you really have to do it? Did you want to do it? Are there things you could have done differently so you’d have more time for the things that most matter to you? If you find you can’t look back and remember a whole day, then take out your diary several times a day and fill it in. Yes, I know this is tedious. I know that it is hard to take time to keep track of your time. But if you are serious about making a change, this is where you start. As a bonus: Researchers have found that as soon as people start tracking any effort to change a habit, whether it is weight loss, smoking cessation, daily exercise, or anything else, there is improvement. Being aware is the first step to making change.
4. Examine your data: Look at your patterns and choices in your time diary. Is there a difference between how you say you want to spend your time and what you are actually doing with it? Are there demands on your time that you really, really wish were not there? Are there practical reasons (low income) or emotional issues (depression) that are getting in the way? Take notes. Think hard about what you are discovering.
5. Make a plan: Studies show us that making a plan and taking even a step or two makes us feel better about ourselves. Go back to those 3 goals. Identify one or two new choices you can make right now, this minute, that will move you closer to being more in charge of your time and your life. Do take real limitations into consideration but don’t make them bigger than they are.
6. Get support: It’s human nature: People generally stick to making changes if they feel accountable to someone else. Find a partner or a group. Check in regularly. Be a helper as well as a help-ee. Too anxious to meet with others? Use one of the forums here at PsychCentral as a starting point. Too little time for checking in? Really? Maybe committing to a daily or weekly check-in is the first step toward taking charge of your time.
7. Track your changes: Someone once said “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” Move from thinking about making changes in how you use time to doing it! Before bed every night, review what you’ve done or not done. Give yourself lots of credit for every small victory. But don’t scold yourself if your old habits caught you yet again. Just think about what you can do tomorrow to get back on track.

Change is difficult. We are all capable of staying in our uncomfortable but familiar ruts. It’s important to remember that anything that is important takes the willingness to be uncomfortable for awhile and the commitment to stick with it. You can do it.

from World of Psychology https://psychcentral.com/blog/7-tips-to-take-charge-of-your-time-and-your-life/

Therapeutic Ethics: A Sacred Bond of Trust

As a licensed Social Worker (MSW, LSW), I am required to take an ethics class every two years as part of my continuing education. These guidelines were established by the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), for the purpose of framing behavior that is both beneficial to our clients and does no harm to them.

Each time I sit in the classroom and go over scenarios and structure, the take home message is, if it breaks confidentiality, don’t do it. If it puts the client in a lesser position and takes away their personal agency and decision making, don’t do it. If it creates a dual relationship (business or interpersonal) or if it is of additional financial benefit to the therapist beyond the established or insurance contracted fee, don’t do it. If it even slightly resembles taking advantage don’t do it. Conscience is an equally important therapeutic skill.

My favorite parts of the training are the “what would you do?” scenarios.

Since I live and work in the same community, I am clear with clients that our paths may cross in public places and social settings. I assure them that I will not identify them as my client (they are welcome to do so if they choose) and will not discuss their therapeutic issues with them in those venues. Most shrug it off and say they don’t care. Some have even asked if we could be friends. I have kindly declined, letting them know that as a licensed professional, I can’t engage in “dual relationships“ with them since it involves a power differential. On a few occasions, I have run into some in supermarkets, faith communities, local events and a few parties. I have said hello and moved on.

Consider why you became a therapist. Hopefully, it is because you want to be of service and you have the wherewithal to do it. Although I hadn’t set out to sit opposite someone and listen to their stories, assisting them in sorting through sometimes dog eared and torn pages, it is where I now find myself after nearly four decades in the field. I attended school, studied diligently and earned my degrees — not to mention the “alphabet soup” letters those degrees permit me to tack onto the end of my name.

I put in my time, in previous years, in excess of 14 hours a day. A series of health crises and the desire to remain vertical, had me cutting back to a “normal” schedule. In that way, I am also able to offer clients my best. I incorporate my formal training and “seat of the pants” interventions as needed. There are times when I leave the office, and symbolically carry clients with me as I am contemplating interventions.

Potential pitfalls of such choices include compassion fatigue and burnout. Another risk is vicarious traumatization, which can happen when you spend so much time hearing about violence, abuse, neglect and suicidality that you begin to feel affected by these traumas yourself.

These stresses accumulate and show themselves in therapists through emotional and physical exhaustion, anxiety and depression, apathy toward clients, feelings of distance from loved ones, absence from work and feeling overwhelmed with the enormity of others’ needs — to the extent that some clinicians get lax about their service, may make ill-advised decisions or leave the field. To me, these are ethical issues as well. It would be equivalent to being an impaired professional. There was a time when I needed to step back from my practice, so I could again find my balance.

Therapists, teachers, and clergy have a sacred bond of trust with those they serve. I am in all three categories, since I also teach adults and children and I am an interfaith minister. I don’t take those roles and the responsibilities they entail for granted. People come to us at some of the most vulnerable times in their lives, at the loss of loved ones, illness, financial crises, unemployment, and after experiencing trauma. They want to believe that we will create a safe container for them to unpack their emotional baggage. Some they have been carrying for decades, some newly arrived with a ferocity that knocks the stuffing out of them and has them wondering if they will ever stand again. I am in awe of the resilience they embody as well as the vulnerability they are willing to expose in our presence.

Trigger warning: That is part of what appalls me about the recent revelations of widespread clergy abuse in my home state of Pennsylvania. Those who were assaulted, and their families faced and continue to face betrayal by those they were told they could trust. Like most predators, they groomed their victims by befriending them and their families who believed these men were above reproach because of their status in the church. Their actions not only caused physical and emotional damage, but a spiritual rift. It is difficult for some to experience a demarcation between their faith and those who are stand-ins for the divine. I wonder if clergy are expected to take ethics trainings. What also puzzles me is those who covered it up would be considered mandated reporters. They are in breach of both moral and civil laws. Wondering if there are repercussions for not revealing identities of abusers.

It is essential that we hold ourselves and our colleagues to impeccably high standards and treat those we serve the way we would want to be cared for or would want those we love to be cared for.

Establishing and maintain a moral compass seems like a necessary therapeutic skill.

from World of Psychology https://psychcentral.com/blog/therapeutic-ethics-a-sacred-bond-of-trust/

Laptops & Smartphones May be Hurting Your Ability to Learn in Class

I find it odd that society seems to embrace technology first, and asks questions later.

We only conduct psychological research on technology’s impact on our daily lives long after we’ve adopted our behaviors and habits to its use. No matter, even if that use may negatively affect our relationships, social interactions, and even our ability to learn and retain knowledge in the long-term.

We just assume something that makes it easier to take notes in the classroom, for instance, would make learning easier.

But over the past two decades, research is showing that our relationship with technology is far more complex and nuanced. It’s not as simple as, “Technology, in all forms and whatever default settings, is good.”

Here’s why using your laptop or smartphone while in class may not be such a good idea after all.

There are both benefits and drawbacks when students use technology in the classroom. For instance, in a study conducted in 2010, researchers found no benefits to social media use in the classroom while a 2011 study on virtual worlds found them beneficial to children with autism to help them with their social skills. Technology can also be helpful to teachers, identifying students who may need personalized learning attention.

Surprisingly, you don’t even have to interact with technology to experience its deleterious effects. A 2017 study found that the mere presence of your smartphone when you’re trying to learn something can impact your cognitive abilities and memory (Ward et al., 2017). Even sitting on your desk face-down, or in your purse or pocket, your smartphone can still be a cognitive distraction.

One of the researchers suggested the reason for this finding, “Your conscious mind isn’t thinking about your smartphone, but that process — the process of requiring yourself to not think about something — uses up some of your limited cognitive resources. It’s a brain drain.”

That’s the real challenge of technology — how to make our interactions with it be a brain enhancer and not a brain drain.

A more recent study, published earlier this summer, found similar concerns regarding laptop use in the classroom (Glass & Kang, 2018). There, the researchers found “following the lessons in which cell phones and laptops were allowed, performance was poorer on the unit exam and final exam questions. This finding demonstrates for the first time that the main effect of divided attention in the classroom is not an immediate effect of selection or switching on comprehension but a long-term effect of divided attention on retention.”

In short, you may not notice any impact from using your laptop or smartphone while in class. In fact, the researchers tested the students during each class on short-term memory recollection and found no differences between those who use technology and those who don’t. But when it comes time to test your overall knowledge and comprehension of the material during mid-terms or finals, the deficit appears to catch up with you.

The Problems with Technology in the Classroom

Then the researchers discovered something even more profound — and disturbing:

Furthermore, when the use of electronic devices was allowed in class, performance on the unit exams and final exams was poorer for students who did not use electronic devices during the class as well as for the students who did use an electronic device.

Even those students who refrained from using their laptop while in class to take notes (or skim social media) suffered. It appears that just the mere presence of the devices make it harder for other students in the class to also learn. This is likely because technology in this context acts as much as a distraction as it does a learning aid:

It meant that for the few students who tried to direct attention to the instructor there was distracting activity on both sides and in front of them. The instructor often noticed two students giggling as they together viewed an image on a laptop. It seemed that such behaviour would be distracting to individuals around them.

Sure, a laptop is a great and fast way to take notes. As long as that’s all anyone is ever doing on their laptop during class.

But the reality is that many students are doing a half-dozen activities on their laptop while taking notes. Those other activities not only negatively impact that student’s own learning ability, but of those around them as well.

Divided Attention is at Fault

Divided attention has a distinct and measurable cost in the classroom. There are three reasons that research has identified for the costs of divided attention. According to the researchers:

The first effect is the selection effect. For example, when more than one person is speaking, while listening to one person speak a listener hears nothing of what the other speaker is saying.

The second effect is the switching effect. When two tasks are being performed, there is a switching time between tasks when neither task is being performed. Both selection and switching immediately degrade performance on at least one, and usually both tasks, causing an immediate effect of divided attention.

However, there is a third, delayed effect of divided attention on retention. When attention is divided between two tasks, fewer targets of a study task are subsequently remembered. Even when there is little or no selection or switching effect, divided attention reduces retention of the targets for both tasks.

In short, divided attention is bad for learning. It is the exact opposite thing you want when trying to learn a new idea, theory, fact, or skill. The more divided your attention, the less likely you are to retain the thing it is you’re trying to learn.

Putting it Into Practice

The reality is that most universities and professors are not going to suddenly stop banning laptops in class. They have become an integral part of many the way students and teachers perform in the classroom. The train has already left this particular station a long time ago.

One strategy for increasing learning while decreasing being distracted while in class includes ditching the laptop in favor of paper and pencil note-taking, and locking up your smartphone in your pocket, backpack, or purse. This eliminates one of the primary sources of distraction plaguing students today — self-distraction.¹ This may be something that you need to do in increments, to get comfortable with over time. You’d be building a new habit, moving from automatically checking your phone every five minutes or when you see a new notification pop up, to checking your phone strictly in-between classes.

Another strategy to try is to strategically find a seat in the classroom that keeps your being distracted by the behavior of others to a minimum. Maybe that means sitting closer to the front of the room than you normally would be comfortable doing. Maybe it means finding a section of other paper-and-pencil note-takers and sitting there, which will eliminate the distraction of seeing other people’s laptop activities.

If you feel you must use a laptop while in class, for whatever reason, consider using a social media blocker. Such blocking software allows you to schedule blocks of time throughout the day to be social media-free (e.g., during class). Two such popular programs include Cold Turkey (both Windows and MacOS) and FocusMe (for all platforms, even mobile). While not a perfect solution, using one of these services will likely help you cut down on your distractions while taking notes.

Don’t have the money for media blocking software? Why not just disconnect from the wifi access point while in class? No wifi, no access to the Internet, which equals fewer distractions while taking notes.

Remember, the power and responsibility of staying focused on a task is in your hands. It is a skill you can learn and hone over time where you are no longer a victim of notifications and distractions.

You may find it difficult at first (since it has become such an integrated part of our lives virtually overnight), but with time and practice, you can put these strategies into use to become a person who is living more in-the-moment and who experiences the benefits of fully focusing your attention. Good luck!

 

References

Adrian F. Ward, Kristen Duke, Ayelet Gneezy, & Maarten W. Bos. (2017). Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research 2, 2, 140-154.

Glass, Arnold L. & Kang, M. (2018). Dividing attention in the classroom reduces exam performance. Educational Psychology, 1-14. doi: 10.1080/01443410.2018.1489046

Footnotes:

1. Let me assure you that your life will not end just because you haven’t checked your social media feed for 50 minutes. In fact, you’ll likely find it improves the quality of your life in general. When we use the phone as a tool rather than as our master, it can act as an enhancement to your life, instead of your feeling like you’re tied or beholden to it.

from World of Psychology https://psychcentral.com/blog/laptops-smartphones-may-be-hurting-your-ability-to-learn-in-class/