JMoore

3/22

This week's reading included chapters 2 and 3.  Most of the information dealt with the differences between negativity and positivity.  Ways in which positive people live longer and are more healthy.

Praise and recognition fill buckets and leads to productivity regardless of the work site.

Negativity costs in loss of productivity--$250-300 billion annually.  Sinks organizations.

Most of us don't praise enough.  We focus on the negative--"Why did you get the "F"?  We should emphasize tell me how did you get the "A."  The author presented a ration of 5 to 1 in marriage relations and 3 to 1 in the work place (positive to negative).

Clearly, positive strokes are needed in the school setting.  I assume the rest of the book outlines ways to do this.  Thus far, the book is a rehash of educational psychology without practical "how to" methods.  I'll wait and see what the rest of the book reveals.

3/15/06

The first week's reading included an introduction by Dr. Donald Clifton's grandson and co-author Tom Rath.  He recounts his grandfather's final days of life while transcribing information to include in the book.  Dr. Clifton's life work revolved around a field of psychology termed "positive psychology."  He studied the negative effects of Korean War POWs that simply gave up when faced with endless months of being ignored by their captors.  The POWs only received negative reports, letters, and were denied ALL positive emotional support.  He termed this "mirasmus."  As a result the North Korean's "Ultimate Weapon" was the denial of emotional support that comes from interpersonal relationships.  Dr. Clifton studied this effect and set out to study the opposite of negativity--his premise was to see if positivity has an even stronger impact than negativity.

With this as background, I expect to read on to understand ways to be more positive than negative.  I wager that by filling others' invisible buckets to the brim by using positive psychology will increase self-worth of the affected students in the class room.