Monitor on Psychology - February 2012 - (Page 27)

Yes, people don’t really distinguish between life satisfaction and happiness. At one point I was saying the word “happiness” should be retired because it’s so ambiguous. But if it’s to be retained, it should be applied to experience, and what you think about your life should be called “satisfaction” or some other word. There’s such a dilemma about defining subjective wellbeing. All of us prefer unitary definitions to definitions that are all over the place. But for this one, a unitary definition doesn’t work because you cannot ignore life satisfaction as a measure of well-being. And the reason you cannot ignore it is that this is what people want to achieve. People have goals, and they want to achieve those goals. And the tradeoff between the misery of diapers and measles and all that, and just the joy of children, are incommensurate. I mean it’s clear that one of them is vastly more important than the other. So, this is one way of looking at it. On the other hand, you really cannot ignore the experiencing self either. So how do you find a balance between these two not entirely compatible ways of looking at life and happiness and well-being? That’s unsolved. I haven’t solved it. I take some pride in having raised the question, but I haven’t solved the question. one last question. your book was dedicated to Amos Tversky, and painted a vivid portrait of how you two worked together. Could you talk a bit about that collaboration and how it made your research possible? We were really exceptionally lucky. What we were doing and the way we were doing it meshed very well. It turned out we could do a lot of research while walking, by testing each other’s intuitions, and so we didn’t need a lab. If the two of us agreed that we shared the same intuition, collecting the data and showing that other people shared the intuition became almost secondary. We were pretty sure, and we were almost always right. Each of us found the other extremely interesting. That was a joy and we knew it. We were particularly fortunate because our skills overlapped enough that we understood each other immediately, but we kept surprising each other, and that’s because we had somewhat different skills. I was more intuitive and he was more formal; he had the clearer mind. And the combination really worked extremely well. We were very lucky. That comes through, doesn’t it? n F e b ru a ry 2 0 1 2 • M o n i t o r o n p s y c h o l o g y N O W AV A I L A B L E ON TARGET. The accuracy you expect. The e ciency you need. Today’s leading brief cognitive measure has been revised! Up-to-date, brief, and reliable, the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence®, Second Edition (WASI ® –II) maintains the structure of the original WASI while o ering new content and improvements to provide greater utility and e ciency. Updated norms for ages 6:0–90:11 Flexible administration options Simpli ed administration and scoring Closer parallels to WISC® –IV and WAIS® –IV assessments Updated subtests Call 800.627.7271 to place your WASI–II kit order! For more information visit PsychCorp.com/WASI–II. 800.627.7271 | | PsychCorp.com Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. or its a liate(s). All rights reserved. WAIS, WASI, Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence, WISC, Pearson, design for Psi, and PsychCorp are trademarks, in the U.S. and/or other countries of Pearson Education, Inc. or its a liate(s). 6191 02/12 A7P 27 12/8/11 3:18 PM 6191-2011 WASI-II APA Monitor AD (TYSOCD)_f.indd 1 http://www.PsychCorp.com http://www.PsychCorp.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Monitor on Psychology - February 2012

Monitor on Psychology - February 2012
Letters
President’s column
Contents
From the CEO
APA files two briefs in support of same-sex couples
New registry seeks to understand addiction recovery through ‘crowdsourcing’
APA launches a database of tests and measures
Watch for new member benefit: “APA Access”
Apply now for APA’s Advanced Training Institutes
PsycTHERAPY, APA’s new database, brings therapy demos to life
In Brief
APA scientists help guide tobacco regulation
A-mazing research
‘A machine for jumping to conclusions’
Judicial Notebook
Random Sample
Righting the imbalance
The beginnings of mental illness
Science Directions
Improving disorder classification, worldwide
Protesting proposed changes to the DSM
Interventions for at-risk students
Harnessing the wisdom of the ages
Anti-bullying efforts ramp up
Hostile hallways
R U friends 4 real?
Support for teachers
Speaking of Education
Record keeping for practitioners
Going green
At the intersection of law and psychology
Division Spotlight
Grants help solve society’s problems
Personalities

Monitor on Psychology - February 2012