Albert Bandura has an article about self-efficacy that I have read over and over again. I’ll summarize my own take-aways from it with the hopes that you’ll be interested enough to go see what he REALLY said.
Self-efficacy is a sense of personal effectiveness, a belief that I have the power through my performance to [...]
In January, Frank Taylor Wright died, age 90.
For years, I’d heard stories from my children and husband about seeing him walking downtown dressed to the 9’s. He wore suits in a rainbow array of colors, complete with matching pocket squares, shoes, ties, socks, hats, and umbrellas. I’d love to include pictures here, but [...]
At a recent workshop, I met a young parent who was astounded to hear that I have a personal library of almost 1,200 childrens books ranging from very early picture books through young adult novels.
I started collecting children’s books long before I had children of my own. I started with books that people [...]
Since Christmas day, I’ve been re-reading Tamora Pierce’s young-adult fantasy series, Protector of the Small. The story, which takes place in a fantasy kingdom, describes the adventures of a young girl, Keladry, going through knight training, from page to squire to ordeal to knighthood to first quest, against the opposition of many people who [...]
My latest article in Positive Psychology News Daily is called Social Activism: What Works? It is about a session at the Gallup Well-being Forum 2007 where Scott Sherman talked about what does and does not work with social activism. He wrote a dissertation on the analysis of 60 case studies involving social action [...]
I just read a beautiful description of a petition to God in Elizabeth Gilbert’s book, Eat, Pray, Love. It’s so good that if I lived in a world without copyrights, I’d type the whole chapter here to make sure I can come back to it.
The author is having a discussion with a friend about [...]
When I was a girl, I read a book called Hitty, First 100 Years — the story of a doll as it passed through the lives of different generations. That came to mind this morning when I was making my bed and pulling up the quilt that I use as a bedspread.
This quilt was pieced [...]
I’ve been involved in a discussion on Positive Psychology News Daily in response to the challenge “How can we use Positive Psychology to improve the lives of the veterans living with never-before-seen levels of debilitation?” (Jordan Silberman, Let’s put our heads together and subsequent comments.)
It’s an interesting question to ponder. It makes [...]
It’s been a whole week since I last posted, and a very full week. I traveled out to Seattle to be with my mother for her cancer surgery. I didn’t know what to expect, but she has bounced back like a true healer. She sometimes talks about being in the 80’s is if it is [...]
Yesterday I attended the memorial service for Thomas, a young man who had coped with Friedrich’s ataxia, a progress neurological disorder that gave him a heart attack and stroke at the age of 22. Many people spoke about what made him extraordinary — his sardonic sense of humor, his artistic talents and staunch [...]
