Theoretically, everyone knows that it is good to be good and correct. But it is also useful – for our well -being, health and relations with other people. Arguments of scientists.
Response helps to study
Covenants are drawn to friendly children, teachers love them more. Responsiveness increases self -esteem, helps more positively about school life. It also turned out that these qualities help children study better. For several years, German psychologists followed the performance of a group of children with similar school problems*. It turned out that those who willingly helped their classmates carry out homework have improved their grades. With the same initial level, two years later, those who were attentive to comrades and were ready to help them, were significantly ahead of those who worked only for themselves.
H.-W. Bierhoff “Prosocial Behavior”. PSYCHOLOGY PRESS, 2002.
Self -giving makes it happier
Volunteers who invest time and effort into the work of various charitable communities, in the long run improve their life. Their feeling of happiness, quality of life, self -esteem above the average level. They are less likely to experience depression, they are less likely to affect Alzheimer’s disease, and their general health is better. And mortality is below. But it must be borne in mind that this charity effect disappears when a certain threshold is reached – 100 hours of volunteer work per year. Maybe here is the border between “dedication” and “self -forgetfulness”?
P. Thoits, l. Hewitt “Volunteer Work and Well-Beeing”. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 2001.
Care strengthens the couple
Arrange
dinner in honor of raising a partner in the service, bring children to the zoo to let their mother take a break, drop by buying your favorite coffee for your beloved. The pleasant trifles that we make for each other delight us, cause a feeling of gratitude in another and give the meaning of everyday life. The psychologist Sarah Elgoe and her colleagues from the University of North Carolina (USA)* are sure of this. For two weeks they studied 67 heterosexual couples, which had a romantic relationship. Caring for the partner every time caused a feeling of gratitude, and she, in turn, launched a cascade of emotions that strengthen relations: kindness, attentiveness and generosity of a partner allow him to look at him in a new way, enhance interest in him, bring two closer.
S. Algoe et al. “It’s The Little Things: EVERYDAY GRATITUDE as Booster Shot Romantic Relationships”. Personal Relationships, 2010.
Forgiveness protects our heart
Sometimes we forgive the offender, sometimes we keep a bitter feeling in ourselves, sad or inventing a way to take revenge. And how is it reflected in our cardiovascular system? At first, the participants of the experiment were supposed to restore the case when they were brutally offended. They were asked to imagine that they revenge the offender, and in order to warm up the insult, to remember how they suffered, what pain they experienced. Then they were offered to forgive their offender, try to find an explanation of his act, admit that all people have their weaknesses … Cardiograms and Tomograph testimony left no doubt: negative emotions and resentment increase the heartbeat and increase blood pressure, and the manifestation of empathy immediately softens stress. So now scientifically proven: offended is harmful.
Ñ. Witvliet et al. “Granting Forgivence or Harboring Grudges: Implications for Emotion, Physiology, and Health”.PSYCHOLOGICAL Science, 2001, ¹ 12.
