Elliot Aronson – a collection of info

 

From the NPR website:

We all have a hard time admitting that we’re wrong, but according to a new book about human psychology, it’s not entirely our fault. Social psychologist Elliot Aronson says our brains work hard to make us think we are doing the right thing, even in the face of sometimes overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Elliot Aronson, co-author, Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me); social psychologist; professor emeritus, psychology, University of California Santa Cruz

 

An excerpt from Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson’s book  Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me):

Cognitive Dissonance: The Engine of Self-justification

It’s fascinating, and sometimes funny, to read doomsday predictions, but it’s even more fascinating to watch what happens to the reasoning of true believers when the prediction flops and the world keeps muddling along. Notice that hardly anyone ever says, “I blew it! I can’t believe how stupid I was to believe that nonsense”? On the contrary, most of the time they become even more deeply convinced of their powers of prediction. The people who believe that the Bible’s book of Revelation or the writings of the sixteenth-century self-proclaimed prophet Nostradamus have predicted every disaster from the bubonic plague to 9/11 cling to their convictions, unfazed by the small problem that their vague and murky predictions were intelligible only after the event occurred.

Click here to read more.

Click here to hear Elliot Aronson give a wonderful 30-minute radio interview on Cognitive Dissonance

Click here to go to Elliot Aronson’s website: Jigsaw Classroom. This web site is an effort to share some of the results from Professor Aronson’s research on cooperative learning techniques.

Overview of the Jigsaw Technique

History of the Jigsaw Classroom

Jigsaw in 10 Easy StepsJigsaw Method for Busy Teachers (Part 1)

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Jigsaw Method for Busy Teachers (Part 2)

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Elliot Aronson in an interview explaining how the Jigsaw Classroom improves cooperation and harmony among children:

How to improve our marriage and other important relationships: John Gottman’s research discoveries explained in a series of short videos

 

John Gottman speaking about how his ground-breaking research into relationships came about and the fundamentals of his approach.

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Dr John Gottman’s research on couples in a lab setting in the Love Lab

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John Gottman  on the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse by Dr. John Gottman that can predict relationship disaster and even physical illness and disease are: Criticism, Contempt, Defensiveness, & Stonewalling. Dr. Gottman offers ways of healing intense conflict.

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John Gottman on the Four Horsemen

Learn about the Master and Diasters in relationships and the secret on how to make yours great. Hear what Dr. John Gottman saw in relationships from his 35 year study of over 3000 couples.

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John Gottman on the best predictor of divorce: Contempt

Dr. Gottman talks about how a critical mindset poisons relationships and even affects the immune system. Couples can learn how to avoid this by learning some new skills. For more information visit us at www.gottman.com.

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John Gottman: Why do 50% of marriages fail?

After the honeymoon phase, many marriage partners begin to struggle with one another. Why are things often so difficult? Listen to the answer in this interview with KCTS, Seattle’s PBS station. Visit www.gottman.com for more information.

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John Gottman:  How can you keep your marriage together?

The three things to focus on for relationship harmony. From an interview with KCTS 9, Seattle’s PBS station. For more information please visit www.gottman.com

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John Gottman:  What if we can’t make it work?


If your best efforts and professional assistance over time still aren’t helping, what then? Dr. Gottman shares his opinion in this interview with KCTS 9, Seattle’s PBS station. For more information please visit www.gottman.com

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John Gottman:  How much negativity can your relationship stand?


Dr. Gottman talks about how the ratio of positive to negative interactions during conflict predicts divorce. For more information visit us at www.gottman.com.

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John Gottman on criticism:

What discriminated the disasters from the masters is that the masters are really very gentle. This was filmed at a Seattle Rotary Meeting in October 2009. Learn more about Dr. Gottman and relationships at www.gottman.com.

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John Gottman:  The mental divorce:  

The ability to accept influence is critical for solving difficult problems in relationships. In this clip Dr. Gottman explains what happens when partners cannot accept influence from each other. Fortunately, there are ways to talk and build trust enough to learn how to do this. For more information, visit www.gottman.com

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John Gottman: 7 key things couples need to do:

86% of the couples who attend our weekend workshops get “unstuck” on a painful or gridlocked conflict. This is just one positive result of the 2 day, 5x a year program. Here Dr. Gottman details 7 key areas couples will learn about and will take home the skills to build and maintain good relationships.

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John Gottman on constant conflict: Is there hope?
All couples have conflicts, but what does it mean when you can’t come to a compromise? Dr. Gottman sees possibilities within the seeming dead-end of gridlock. To learn more visit us at www.gottman.com

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John Gottman: The magic realtionship ratio

Dr. John Gottman has revolutionized the study of marriage. He uses rigorous scientific procedures to observe the habits of married couples in detail over many years for unprecedented insight into the inner workings of successful relationships. Here is the culmination of this life’s work: the seven principles that guide couples on the path toward a harmonious and long-lasting relationship. Learn how to build a positive dynamic with your spouse; Hear tips for getting closer through everyday interactions; Gain insight into the ways lasting marriages operate. This presentation is sure to spark some serious conversations about your relationship. More importantly, this DVD can put you and your partner on a real path to a stronger, more fulfilling and ultimately happier relationship.

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John Gottman: Relationship repair that works:

Dr. Gottman describes how the “masters” of relationships make repairing things after an argument a priority. But what makes some repair attempts succeed while others fail? Have a listen. For more information visit us at www.gottman.com

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John Gottman: Is it ever too late to turn things around?

The short answer is no, and it’s simpler than you may think. From an interview with KCTS 9, Seattle’s PBS station. For more information, please visit www.gottman.com

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How to cook and simple, popular dishes: seven 3-minute Howcast videos

Randy Pausch’s time management video — watched by over a million people

In this hour-long talk on time management, Randy Pausch offers lots of pragmatic tips and  thought-provoking  questions on how we can manage our time better.

His message is especially poignant as he knew he had only a few months to live when he gave this talk.

In fact, when deciding whether to give this talk, he was making a significant time-management decision himself: 

Would all the time to prepare and deliver this talk represent  the best way he could be spending this limited time he had left?

He decided it would be time well spent giving this talk as a legacy gift.  I’m sure the one million people who have downloaded this video so far would agree.

Randy seemed such a nice guy. For some reason, hearing a time-management message from a really nice guy who knows this is his last chance to get an important message through before he has to go makes me feel almost duty-bound to apply at least some of his excellent ideas to my life!

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Here’s a summary of the key points of Randy’s talk:

  1.  “A lot of this is life advice. This is how to change the way you’re doing a lot of things and how you allocate your time so you will lead a happier, more wonderful life… The overall goal is fun.”
  2. “Being successful doesn’t make you manage your time well;
    it’s managing your time well that makes you successful.”
  3. A good question to ask ourselves:
    “This thing I am doing: why am I doing this?…What will happen if I don’t do it?”
  4. “It’s very dangerous to focus on ‘doing things right’. It’s much more important to do the right things. If you do the right things adequately, that’s much more important than doing the wrong things beautifully.”
  5. Draw up a list of  100 things to do in your life. Then ask yourself, “If I’m not working on those 100 things, why am I working on these other things?”
  6.  Remember the 80:20 rule. (to be continued)

fun videos that teach common English expressions (idioms)

The BBC has a very funny (and award-winning) series of 20 videos that teach common English expressions (idioms). Each video covers a specific theme and runs for about 3 – 7 minutes. The guy presenting is very entertaining. This is definitely a painless, fun way to learn odd English expressions! The videos are excellent for non-native speakers of English and young children.

1. pies:

2. eggs:

3. fruit:

4. silver:

5. gold:

6. hair:

7. legs:

8. arms:

9. heads:

10. feet:

11. eyes:

12. pigs:

13. horses:

14. monkeys:

15. cats:

16. dogs:

17. birds:

18. fish:

19. bees:

20. insects:

Good skill-building videos

 

How to remember people’s names:

1. This 2-minute video by Howcast gives you 6 name-remembering strategies:

1. Calm yourself before you get introduced.
2. Make good eye contact with the person as they tell you their name.
3. Repeat their name as soon as you hear it.
4. Tell your brain to remember the name — apparently it listens!
5. Picture the person’s name written on their forehead.
6. Think of a word association to help you recall the name.

2. Ron White, champion name-rememberer, gives you four strategies in just 2 minutes:

1. Get yourself ready to receive the name.
2. Note some distinctive feature of the person’s face e.g. bushy eyebrows.
3. Pre-learn picture associations to go with all the common names e.g. Brian = brain; Ron = runner.
4. Connect the person’s name-picture to their distinctive facial feature e.g. Brian has lots of brains growing out of his bushy eyebrows!

How to tell a joke:

This 2-minute video by Howcast gives some pointers on how to tell a good joke:

1. Watch actors and comedians tell jokes for tips on timing and delivery.
2. Practise telling jokes to a friend or into a tape recorder.
3. Memorise your jokes.
4. Match your audience to your joke.
5. Tell your joke confidently and straight — without explanatory comments or laughter.
6. Act it out as you tell it if that improves it.

Watch Buddy Hackett show you how to do it!

How to listen well

This 4-minute video is a good starter video on the skill of listening.

Here is some very good listening practice: 11 short stories to train your attending skills.

It’s very hard to fully attend to what we’re hearing for more than a couple of minutes. We think we’re listening, but our mind wanders off of its own accord. We need to train it to focus.

Listening with our full attention is a type of mindfulness where we focus our thoughts only on what the other person is saying (and on the meaning and the feelings behind the words).

Andrew Ikeda prepared these 11 videos as listening exercises for his English-as-a-second-language students. But when you listen to the first couple of videos, you’ll discover how hard it is to answer all five questions correctly – even though English is probably your first language!

See how you go.

If you find the first few listening exercises challenging, then listen to all 11 videos, practising to concentrate really, really hard.

These exercises give you perfect practice for listening hard in real-life conversations.

(By the way, the answers aren’t given on Andrew’s website, as stated. To find out the answers you’re not sure of, go back and listen to the story again.)