Part I Readers' Choice: Top 10 Posts of 2014: Country Music, Marital Therapy, Quotes & More

Thought for the Day: As the year draws to an end, I like to look back and see which posts have been viewed the most by my readers. Here are the #10, #9, #8, #7 and #6 most read posts of 2014 with a wide range of topics from psychology, inspiration, music, therapy and more. Click on the links below to read the posts:

#10 Saturday's Songs For The Soul:
"She Misses Him In Memory Of Tim Johnson, Hit Songwriter

# 9 Miraculous Mondays:
Can Our Marriage Be Repaired After An Affair?

# 8 Wednesday's Words Of Wisdom:
Carl Rogers And Dr. Barbara Lavi
On Optimism And Psychotherapy

# 7 Wednesday's Words Of Wisdom:
 Rebound Relationships And Brokenhearted Blindness

# 6 #FF Wonderful Weekend Review:
Fabulous Finds From Psychology, Art, Music, Quotes
& Comics Plus Delbert McClinton

Thursday's Psychology Trivia Question: IQ Counts 4 What % of Success In Life?

Thought for the Day: Today I am reposting an older trivia question and adding some additional information. Here's Thursday's Psychology Trivia Question:

Psychologists generally agree that among the ingredients for success:

        a)  IQ counts for roughly 10%, 
        b)  IQ counts for roughly 50%,
        c)   IQ counts for roughly 80%, or
        d)  IQ counts for roughly 90%

What do you think the answer is? Read more for the answer.

Thursday's Psychology Trivia: T or F: Analytical People Are Left-Brained while Creatives Are Right-Brained?

Thought for the Day: Here in New England, everyone seems to be basking in the rays of sunlight which have been doled out in small doses over the past week or two. Somehow Mother Nature has not been convinced that we have had enough cold wintery weather for the year. Hopefully, the frequency of sunny days will increase and spring will take over. Hopefully today's Psychology Trivia question will help you pass some time and ignore any remnants of wintery weather that are still around. Here's the question:

True or False: Logical, methodical and analytical people are left-brain dominant, while the creative and artistic types are right-brain dominant. 

What do you think the answer is?  

Reader's Choice Top 5 Psychology Trivia Posts of 2013

Thought for the Day: We continue to celebrate close to 84,000 page views over the two years since this blog was born in January of 2012. At the current level of page views the total number of  views will double in 2014!!! Thank  you all for reading, commenting and sharing my posts online. Please let me know what you would like to see more of here.

Two weeks ago I shared Part I: Readers' Top 10 Psychology Trivia Posts 2013. Here is Part II: Reader's Top 5 Psychology Trivia Posts 2013. These are the posts with the highest number of page views in 2013 in this category. As those of you following my trivia posts know, there is nothing trivial about them. They report interesting sometimes surprising new research from the field of psychology,  education, society, social media's impact on our relationships and personality, intelligence, neurology and parenting. Here are your choices of the top 5 from 2013:

#5. At What Age Do Humans Have the Largest Number of Brain Cells? 11/21/2013

#4. Does Facebook Change Us for Better or for Worse?
 6/13/13

#3. How Often Is a Child Bullied On Playgrounds in the USA? 11/7/2013

#2. How to Prevent Divorce? 3/7/2013

#1.  Why Doesn't IQ Predict Success?

10/17/13

Thursday's Psychology Trivia Answer: Why Doesn't IQ Predict Success?

Thought for the Day: Today's trivia answer raises some serious questions. If you were baking a pie & only put in 10% of the ingredients, the pie would not be very tasty. Are we making a similar mistake in how we are educating our children? On Tuesday, I told you that parents & teachers might want to come back for the answer to the Psychology Trivia Question. Tuesday's Trivia Question was:

Psychologists generally agree that among the ingredients for success:

        a)  IQ counts for roughly 10%, 
        b)  IQ counts for roughly 50%,
        c)   IQ counts for roughly 80%, or
        d)  IQ counts for roughly 90%

What did you think the answer was? Be honest. Even I was surprised by the answer. IQ accounts for a) roughly 10% of a person's success. If you thought it was more like 50 or 80%, there may be some good reasons for the mistake. IQ or your Intelligence Quota is a very good predictor of academic success & even for future salary; however, when other factors are taken into account, it is not the best predictor of overall success. Studies have found that other variables lead to successful careers. People tend to prefer to work with people whom they like more than with those who may be more intelligent. The IQ tests measure parts of intelligence, but have no bearing on others. 

In the book, Emotional Intelligence Daniel Goleman describes some of the attributes fnot covered well in IQ tests which may be better predictors of success, such as self awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, & social skills. How much time is spent in our schools fostering emotional intelligence? 

If 90% of success is not reflected in the variables measured by IQ tests, are schools missing the mark by focusing on standardized testing of reading, writing & math skills? Why are we not designing more programs that will build Emotional Intelligence? Would we be better off spending more time enhancing our children's social & emotional skills? The importance of teaching children how to deal with differences & learning how to respect one another may not only be important for reducing bullying in our schools, but also promoting our children's overall success in life. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this finding.


You can read more about Emotional Intelligence from these resources:
http://psychology.about.com/od/personalitydevelopment/a/emotionalintell.htm
Wayne Payne tends to be credited for coining the term in his doctoral thesis, A Study of Emotion: Developing Emotional Intelligence from 1985 [1]. However, prior to this, it had appeared in Leuner (1966).^[2]. Stanley Greenspan (1989) also developed an EI model, as did Peter Salovey and John Mayer (1989),^[3] and Daniel Goleman (1995).

Tuesday's Psychology Trivia: Are We Dumber Than Our Victorian Ancestors?

Original Photos from FlickrCC.com*

Thought for the Day: On Sunday's Comic Strip I posted a bold sign posted by teachers at Roosevelt High School raising questions about what real education is. Today's Psychology Trivia Question raises another question about how well we are doing intellectually.

Here's Tuesday's Psychology Trivia Question:
          Are we dumber than our Victorian ancestors? Who's IQ is higher? 
             a) Victorians
             b) People today

Are all our technological advances & educational opportunities increasing our IQ? What do you think?

Come back on Thursday for the answer.

*Photos from Flickr.com

Photo on Right:  'Queen Victoria' http-/www.flickr.com/photos/96526303@N00/3435244541
Photo on Left: 'untitled' http-/www.flickr.com/photos/9020344@N02/7990153054