Exam Notes

Activities and Reminders

  • Short support due in two weeks.
  • Cohort results are out; there was an increase of approximately five points in well-being.
  • A minimum of three points on the scale is needed to indicate an important change in well-being.

Cohort Well-being Results

  • The pre-average wellness score was 47.4.
  • Post-intervention wellness increased to 52.
  • The increase from 47.5 to 52 suggests positive gains.

Reflection on Well-being Activities

  • Some activities may improve well-being more than others.
  • Long-term implementation of activities may be necessary to guide well-being.
  • Noted that well-being scores indicated someone earning score of one.

Course Progress

  • Students are halfway through the course.
  • After the strengths report, there is one last professional task report.
  • The exam has been removed from the course.

Activity: Color Identification

  • Participants will time their friends as they call out the colors of boxes on the screen, reading left to right.
  • First, identify the colors of the boxes.
  • Second, identify the colors of the words (but read the color instead of word itself).

Demonstration of Thinking Systems

  • The activity demonstrates two systems of thinking: System 1 and System 2.
  • Identifying the color of images is easy because it quickly processed by brain.
  • Identifying the color of words is harder because the brain defaults to reading the word.
  • System 2 has to work harder to overcome the default and identify the colors.

Thinking Systems

  • System 1: Automatic, default thinking.
  • System 2: Requires more effort to override defaults.

Designing for Happiness and Productivity

  • Aligning System 1 and System 2 can help design happiness, productivity, and goal achievement.
  • Solution: Context-focused approaches.

Context-Focused Approaches

  • Timing
  • Defaults
  • Commitments
  • Others (social norms)

Priming

  • The principle by which certain things are associated with each other.
  • Examples: Nurse is associated with doctor, fruit with banana or apple.
  • Associations can be words, visual cues, or smells.
  • Example: candy bars at the checkout.

Commitments

  • Making a promise or arrangement. Ex: Committing to gym sessions three times a week with a friend.

Others (Social Norms)

  • Normative: Enhancing likability by following certain norms.
  • Informational: Subscribing to knowledgeable sources to be informed. Ex: subscribing to physical trainers.

Applying Context-Focused Approaches

Nudging Oneself to Do Assignments

  • Aligning System 1 and System 2 to manage procrastination.
  • Priming: Put a printed version of a checklist on study desk.
  • Defaults: Setting a time in calendar to do assignment.
  • Commitments: Making commitments to friends to study
  • Others: Silent Fact (check in)-check in the discussion board to see what other people are doing.

Drinking More Water

  • Important, especially with caffeine consumption.
  • For every cup of coffee, drink at least 500ml of water.
  • Caffeine is a dehydrating agent.