The study, published this summer, examined the effects of exercises that build positivity on more than 250 participants. It found that people with needy personalities reported lower self-esteem after listening to three or four uplifting songs of their choosing every day over the course of a week.

Needy individuals suffer from deep insecurities and need interpersonal support to ward off acute feelings of despair and loneliness. They tend to be submissive in interpersonal relationships, feel helpless and fear abandonment.

鈥淲e were quite surprised at this result,鈥� says study lead author Myriam Mongrain (right), professor of psychology in 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Health. 鈥淯ntil now, the vast majority of studies have suggested that positive psychology exercises result in either improvements for participants or no change over time. This result hints that self-help exercises may actually be detrimental for those with needy personalities,鈥� she says.

Study participants were randomly assigned one of three daily exercises: recalling five things that they were grateful for over the course of the day; listening to three or four uplifting songs of their choosing; or writing about a specific memory from their early life (the latter was used as a control exercise). Participants then completed questionnaires to measure changes in their mood and outlook; these same measures were administered at intervals of one, three and six months post-study.

Those with needy personalities reported no significant benefits from the gratitude exercise, while the music exercise dragged them down further. Highly self-critical individuals experienced the greatest improvement to their subjective happiness when they practiced the gratitude exercise. They also demonstrated a larger increase in self-esteem and greater decrease in physical symptom severity in both the gratitude condition and the music condition.

鈥淲e hypothesized that listening to happy music was a kind of self-soothing that would benefit people with needy personalities. However, this independent activity, which involved no interaction with others, may have had a negative effect on participants,鈥� says Mongrain.

鈥淣eedy people rely on secure intimate bonds with others in order to experience well-being, and they may have felt frustrated with the lack of improvement and expressed their disappointment on the outcome measures. Given these results, one-on-one counselling is likely more appropriate for this personality type.鈥�

The study was published in August 2011 in the Journal of Positive Psychology. It is co-authored by Susan Sergeant, a PhD student in 91亚色鈥檚 Department of Psychology.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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On Wednesday, David Tsubouchi joins a panel discussion about the internment of Japanese and Italian Canadians in Canada during the Second World War.聽聽

Left: David Tsubouchi

The discussion kicks off this academic聽year鈥檚 Research Matters series, a monthly showcase of research in 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.聽聽

鈥淥ur first panel of the year provides us with some important reflections on Canadian internment, government redress policies and ways to move forward,鈥� says Barbara Crow, LA&PS associate dean, research.

The two-hour panel starts at 2pm in 280N 91亚色 Lanes.

Panelists will talk about their families鈥� experience, government redress, balancing state security and civil liberties, and the impact of the internment on 21st century Canada.聽聽

Tsubouchi (BA '72, LLB '75) is a member of 91亚色鈥檚 Board of Governors and a聽former Ontario cabinet minister. In his presentation, Bachan's Story, he聽will tell what happened to his mother. She was one of 22,000 Japanese Canadians 鈥� including women, children and older people 鈥� whose property was confiscated by the government and who were interned after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1942.

Social science Professor Livy Visano will talk about otherness and refugee experience in The Refuge of Dislocation and the Conscience of Critique. Unlike immigrants, refugees are compelled by survival rather than choice. Displaced refugees face the horrendous shock of abandonment by one鈥檚 own country and people, and are haunted by rather than nostalgic about their past.聽聽

History Professor Roberto Perin will ask what聽Canada can learn from the Second World War internments. In his talk,聽Wartime Internment and Government Redress: Are We Learning from Past Mistakes?, he聽will look at the consequences of government policy toward 鈥渆nemy aliens鈥� 鈥� Japanese, Germans, Italians and communists 鈥� during the war, and ask: Was the right balance found between the imperatives of state security and the civil liberties of vulnerable individuals and groups?聽Given the War Measures Act and the war on terrorism since Sept. 11, 2001, achieving a balance between state security and civil liberties remains a current concern today.

The panel will be moderated by Merle Jacobs, chair of Equity Studies.

Research Matters is open to all. RSVP to rirons@yorku.ca or 416-736-2100 ext. 33584.

For upcoming talks in the series, visit the Research Matters webpage.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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