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The owner of Happier Human is Steve Scott. Steve is an author who is also the owner of the popular blog DevelopGoodHabits.com. Steve has long been interested in positive psychology and specifically its applications to increase happiness.

Grit: Perseverance and Passion for Long-Term Goals

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Across six studies, the authors of this article attempted to prove the predictive validity of a new questionnaire which they created, the Grit Scale. In the first study, grittier adults were more likely to have attained a higher level of education. In addition, grit was shown to increase with age, although because this study was … Read more

Self Control

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Have you ever seen those cartoons where a character has an devil on one shoulder telling it all the bad things it should do; and an angel on the other shoulder telling it all the good things it should do and the reasons it shouldn’t do them. I have always thought of self-control as that … Read more

Role of Test Motivation in Intelligence Testing

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IQ tests, in their ideal form, accurately measure intelligence. In the real world, they don’t, for several reasons. First, many portions of an IQ assessment test crystallized knowledge – that is, they test for facts that have already been memorized. Although knowledge is a component of intelligence, intelligence, as it is usually used, means, ‘how fast can this person learn?’ The … Read more

What No Child Left Behind Leaves Behind: The Roles of IQ and Self-Control in Predicting Standardized Achievement Test Scores and Report Card Grades

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This study tests the hypothesis that report cards and standardized assessments test different things – specifically, that report cards focus more on testing self-control, and standardizes assessments on testing intelligence Their reasoning is that the individual components which build into a report card grade, like paying attention in class, doing homework, and showing effort, primarily require self-control. … Read more

Measures

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Positive Psychology Scales and Measurements The Brief Self-Control Scale (Tangney et al., 2004) is a 13-item questionnaire, which asks participants to endorse statements on a 5-point scale where 1 = not like me at all and 5 = very much like me (e.g., “I have a hard time breaking bad habits” and “I do certain things … Read more

Self-Regulation Strategies Improve Self-Discipline in Adolescents: Benefits of Mental Contrasting and Implementation Intentions

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Given the increasing evidence that self-control influences academic performance, it is important to try to increase the self-control of children. Of most interest are motivation strategies which have an immediate impact and don’t require a substantial time investment (e.g. unlike meditation). This study evaluated the impact of the combination of mental contrasting and implementation intentions on … Read more

Self-controlled Children Stay Leaner in the Transition to Adolescence

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Do levels of self-control in young children predict future weight status? Maybe. The level of self-control contained by an eight-grader four years earlier explains 8% of the variance of their weight. But after controlling for their BMI four years earlier, self-control explains just 1% of the variance of their weight. This suggests that self-control starts … Read more

Self-Discipline Gives Girls the Edge: Gender in Self-Discipline, Grades, and Achievement Test Scores

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Do girls achieve better than boys when it comes to self-discipline, grades and achievement? Using the same data as in this study, the idea that girls have higher average levels of self-discipline than boys were tested and confirmed. Adolescent girls were found to have 5 to 20% more self-control than adolescent boys, explaining in part why they do … Read more

Self-discipline Outdoes IQ Predicting Academic Performance in Adolescents

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Some combination of personality, intelligence, and environmental factors determine success. Intelligence and environment are usually considered to have a much larger role than personality. This study shows that personality may play a larger factor in academic performance than previously thought. Some background: The research behind IQ and performance in adolescents Greater ability to delay gratification measured at … Read more

Self Compassion – How Caring for Others can Bring you Success and Happiness

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Afraid of public speaking? You're not alone – more than 70% of Americans suffer from speech anxiety.

The butterflies, light-headedness, sweaty palms, fidgety legs, shaky knees, and incoherent mumbling? All normal.

But accepting that it's normal? Not so normal.

By skipping, ignoring, and even resisting the truth that failure is normal, we're losing out on a powerful tool for change – for getting over speech anxiety or for finally losing weight.

Don't worry, this isn't another post about the dangers of optimism.

This is a lighthearted story of defeat, inspiration, and redemption. Of what a person can accomplish when they have the courage to look bleak reality in its face.

Or something like that.

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