A new study from Northwestern University compared personality types used frequently in consumer research to self-improvement goal-setting strategies. People are motivated by one of two fundamental needs: we are either “promotion-focused,” seeking products that will help us achieve hopes and aspirations, or we are “prevention-focused,” seeking items that help satisfy a need for safety and security. According to the research, people are better able to exercise self-control when they choose goal-pursuit strategies that “fit” with their promotion or prevention focus.

“This research has important implications for consumer welfare,” explain Jiewen Hong and Angela Y. Lee (both of Northwestern) in the February issue of the Journal of Consumer Research. “While self-help remedies are saturating the market, resisting temptations remains a strenuous process and a constant struggle for many people. The data reported in this research offer an important step toward understanding self-control and highlight the benefits of adopting the right goal pursuit strategies.”

“[We] find that when people adopt goal pursuit strategies that fit with their promotion or prevention focus, they have better self-control. In contrast, their self-control is weakened when they adopt goal pursuit strategies that conflict with their focus,” the researchers explain.

They conclude: “Self-control is not just about doing the right things, but also about doing things the right way.”

Jiewen Hong and Angela Y. Lee, “Be Fit and Be Strong: Mastering Self-Regulation through Regulatory Fit.” Journal of Consumer Research: February 2008.

I like to think of myself as a very grounded, pragmatic person open to possibilities. I like evidence and supporting research that is non-biased. I used to think that double blind studies were the way to go because they seemed so objective – now I find that these, too, can be tainted and unreliable. I also like to try things out myself to get a more personal testimony of a process’ efficacy – if it works well on me, I’ll endorse it.

I have come to realize that scientific knowledge is not the same thing as understanding the scientific method. In the scientific method, one observes a phenomenon, like RET, for example; then applies a possible theoretical hypothesis to that observation; tests the hypothesis in such a manner as to prove or disprove the hypothesis – making both results (proof or disproof) possible and viable; and then reevaluates in light of this new evidence.

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Every two to three hours our brains subtly shift from right dominance to left dominance and back again.

There are obvious advantages to using both hemispheres when addressing a goal or project. When both “people” in your head work together on a common goal, magical things tend to happen. The reason those magical things don’t happen more often may be because your brains are in conflict with each other. Bringing them together in a common direction may be all you need to do to get things moving in your life – moving in the direction of your goals.

Quite basically, you have one brain hemisphere that thinks in a linear fashion and is great for organization. The other is great for spatial, non-concrete thinking – creativity. To avoid total confusion, we humans will assign one brain hemisphere or the other to be dominant for any given task. Usually the dominant one is the one that was dominant the last time you did the task – not because it is better suited to the task, but purely by the luck of the draw – that was the one that happened to be dominant at that time.

That’s pretty haphazard if you ask me.

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Perhaps they are observing the “God Pattern” – a fundamental, universal pattern underlying all things (patterns) – hidden, as it were, in the noise that pervades everything everywhere.

A rather amazing study out of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis discovered that EEG readings once discarded as “noise” are instead remarkably useful information – using a well-known mathematical technique a pattern emerges that matches many other patterns in nature and in human endeavors.

“We don’t yet know how to decode the information contained in these signals, but the fact that they’re such a large part of brain activity and that they can be modulated when you do a task suggests that they are going to be very important to understanding the brain,” says lead author Biyu Jade He, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow.

By using a mathematical technique called spectral analysis, neuroscientists have found that these “irregular” signals produce a regular pattern – one that is nearly identical to spectral analyses of many other phenomena that produce the same pattern. For example, analysis of the most frequently used words in a language and the number of times they appear in a typical text produces a similar pattern when graphed. Analyzing changes in stock market prices versus how fast they change, or the power and frequency of waves of seismic energy also produces similar results.

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A scotoma is a mental situation in which one locks on to one idea and excludes all others – known as the “lock on lock out” principle. We all do it – it’s our human way of avoiding overwhelm when faced with too many choices. However, a scotoma can get you into trouble as we shall explore here.

In a Spongebob Squarepants cartoon, Spongebob gets up one morning and thinks he’ll create a fantastic dessert for himself. Unfortunately, his choice of ingredients cause him to have horrific halitosis (bad breath). Spongebob proceeds to go outside, where he meets several people, all of whom scream and run away from him as soon as he opens his mouth and says, “Hello.”

His conclusion – “I must be terribly ugly!”
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