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The Incredible Ways Time Will Probably Change Your Personality

Many of us will change much more than we imagine over the coming decades.

As they get older, many people become more emotionally stable, more agreeable and more conscientious, research finds.

Emotional stability is linked to fewer mental health problems, agreeableness is linked to being considerate and kind while conscientious people are more reliable.

The stereotype of the grumpy senior is totally misplaced, where personality is concerned.

The conclusions come from a study of how personality changes over 50 years.

The results showed that while personality is reasonably stable over a lifetime, it can also change.

Dr Rodica Damian, the study’s first author, said:

“The rankings (of personality traits) remain fairly consistent. People who are more conscientious than others their age at 16 are likely to be more conscientious than others at 66.

But, on average, everyone becomes more conscientious, more emotionally stable, and more agreeable.”

The study included data from 1,795 people who were followed for 50 years from the age of 16 to 66.

Somewhere approaching half of the participants saw changes in their personality over the five decades.

Some people changed more than others, while a few saw negative shifts in their personality.

The researchers conclude:

“Our findings suggest that personality has a stable component across the lifespan, both at the trait level and at the profile level, and that personality is also malleable and people mature as they age.”

Not all psychologists are convinced, though, that personality is even as stable as that.

One study of personality and aging tracked people over 63 years to see if their personality had changed.

The surprise result — well, it’s a surprise to me at any rate — is that there was no relationship whatsoever between people’s personality at age 14 and at age 77.

It was as if the second set of tests — administered 63 years later — had been given to a totally different person.

Perhaps, then, many of us will change much more than we imagine over the coming decades.

→ Read on: How to change your personality

The study was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Damian et al., 2018).

Hello, and welcome to PsyBlog. Thanks for dropping by.

This site is all about scientific research into how the mind works.

It’s mostly written by psychologist and author, Dr Jeremy Dean.

I try to dig up fascinating studies that tell us something about what it means to be human.

You can get free email updates with more articles like this from PsyBlog by clicking here.

Author: Jeremy Dean

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How To (Legally) Record A Phone Call On Android

The technical details of recording a call on an Android phone are relatively easy to grasp, but there’s more to it than meets the eye. First and foremost, it’s important that you are substantially aware of the social and legal ramifications of your phone recording activity.

As a general rule of thumb, it’s a good practice to inform any and all other participants whenever you are recording a call. Apart from being polite and cordial, this approach can also build trust and avoid awkward situations down the line.

But cordiality isn’t a matter of law.

Phone calls can generally be recorded, but it’s only legal if the rules of consent are followed—and these can vary based upon the particular jurisdiction in question. Many countries and U.S. states have different laws concerning recording phone calls. Therefore, you must be aware of the relevant laws in the locality/localities where the phone recording occurs to avoid running afoul of them.

Avoid a Hefty Fine—Or Worse

There are many pitfalls in the form of laws and regulations you should be aware of regarding telephone call recording. No one-size-fits-all protocol exists, but you normally have to ensure you’re providing proper notice and obtaining legitimate consent before initiating a phone recording.

Violating these laws, statutes, or regulations invites fines, penalties, imprisonment, and/or civil damages. For example, legal statutes such as the Federal Wiretap Act and the Louisiana Electronic Surveillance Act can impose penalties of five years in prison, a $500 fine, or both.

It should be noted that these laws cover recording conversations overall, whether they take place in person or over the phone.

One-party consent or two-party consent?

Many states (precisely 37 states, plus the District of Columbia, according to the Wisconsin-based Matthiesen Wickert & Lehrer law firm)…

Overcoming Self-Defeating Behaviors – Leadership Freak

Overcoming Self-Defeating Behaviors

You do things for good reasons that have bad endings. Some work long hours till they lose their family while telling themselves they’re working for their family, for example.

The worst self-defeating behavior is persisting in self-defeating behaviors.

Self-defeating behaviors are like tires with holes. It doesn’t matter how many times you pump them up.

3 reasons self-defeating behaviors persist:

#1. Misguided self-reflection.

Everyone thinks about their life. Very few engage in structured self-reflection. Self-reflection isn’t thinking about frustrating people. It’s noticing things you do that allow frustration to persist.

Dumb self-reflection ends with blame instead of responsibility.

Today’s challenge:

Write about this in a journal for a week. The life I live is the one I’m building. What specifically am I doing that makes my day better? Worse?

The above is an example of structured self-reflection. Take it to the next level by completing this sentence. The one thing I will do today to make life better is __________. Or eliminate a self-defeating behavior. The one thing I won’t do today is _________.

#2. Stupid works for a while.

You can eat unhealthy food for a day with few negative consequences. Eat it every day and it will kill you.

You get away with…

Rudeness until people speak up.
Working long hours until stress catches you.
Pushing people instead of inspiring people until they leave.

Stupid persists when you don’t ponder the path. Every path has an end.

Today’s challenge:

Make a list of behaviors you persistently do and ask, “Where does this behavior take me?”

#3. Correction stings.

Someone suggested you change, and you defended yourself instead of leaning in.

Smart leaders seek correction. Stupid leaders resist.

Today’s challenge:

Seek correction. Ask, “What am I doing that doesn’t serve my goals?”

What are some common self-defeating behaviors?

Why do self-defeating behaviors persist?

Still curious:

The #1 Self-Defeating Behavior That Brings Leaders Down

10 Self-Defeating Behaviors You Need to Let Go

Our book, The Vagrant enables leaders to spot self-defeating behaviors and offers strategies for structured self-reflection.

Click here to purchase: https://amzn.to/47G98jP

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This Type Of Yoga Reduces Severe Depression By 50% (M)

Almost two-thirds of patients experienced 50 percent decreases in their moderate-to-severe depression symptoms.

Author: Jeremy Dean

Psychologist, Jeremy Dean, PhD is the founder and author of PsyBlog. He holds a doctorate in psychology from University College London and two other advanced degrees in psychology. He has been writing about scientific research on PsyBlog since 2004. He is also the author of the book “Making Habits, Breaking Habits” (Da Capo, 2013) and several ebooks. View all posts by Jeremy Dean

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CPaaS: The Complete Beginner’s Guide

CPaaS, short for Communication Platform as a Service (CPaaS), is a cloud-based platform that enables developers to integrate real-time communication features into their own applications without having to build backend infrastructure from scratch.

More simply put? CPaaS lets you embed calling, texting, video, and other communication functions directly into your software or application.

The main advantage of CPaaS is that it lets you integrate real-time communication capabilities without having to construct them yourself from the ground up. All you need is a cloud-based provider.

How CPaaS is Different from Other Phone Platforms

There’s a ton of different phone and communication platforms out there. So what exactly makes CPaaS unique?

Let’s take a look at the major platforms and compare them to CPaaS:

1. VoIP Systems (Voice over Internet Protocol):

At its core, VoIP works by taking voice calls and transforming them into digital data packets, which travel across the internet. This is fundamentally different from traditional telephone technology, which relies on dedicated physical lines to transmit voice signals.

Here are the key differences between VoIP and CPaaS:

Nature of Service

VoIP and CPaaS both leverage the power of the internet for call transmission. The big difference is in their focus.

VoIP primarily zeroes in on voice communication, though some modern systems are also now starting to include additional features like video conferencing. CPaaS, on the other hand, typically offers a more versatile suite of communication tools, including everything from video to traditional voice messaging.

Integration Possibilities

VoIP, in its traditional form, is also a standalone system. It’s designed predominantly for voice calls, with some modern systems offering supplementary features like texting or video.

CPaaS goes one step further. It’s not just about facilitating communication, but also seamlessly integrating these features into other applications. Imagine…

Wisdom from Charlie Munger – Leadership Freak

Wisdom from Charlie Munger

Charlie Munger died November 28, 2023. He was the right-hand man of Warren Buffet for 60 years.

If you want to gain wisdom:

“I sought good judgment mostly by collecting instances of bad judgment, then pondering ways to avoid such outcomes.”

You can gain wisdom by studying stupidity and doing your best to avoid it.

Charlie expanded his search for stupidity beyond investing. “After all, why should I search for some tiny, unimportant, hard-to-find new stupidity in my own field when some large, important, easy-to- find stupidity was just over the fence in the other fellow’s professional territory?”

On incentives:

“Never, ever, think about something else when you should be thinking about the power of incentives.”

Know what motivates people to action and stick with it. Hint: It isn’t reason.

Benjamin Franklin put it this way, “If you would persuade, appeal to interest and not to reason.”

On grannie’s rule:

“Granny’s Rule, to be specific, is the requirement that children eat their carrots before they get dessert. And the business version requires that executives force themselves daily to first do their unpleasant and necessary tasks before rewarding themselves by proceeding to their pleasant tasks.”

On liking and loving:

“… (We) like and love being liked and loved.”

Don’t expect devotion from people you don’t like. Do you like the people on your team? More importantly, do they know you like them?

On doubt:

“The brain of man is programmed with a tendency to quickly remove doubt by reaching some decision.”

You rush to decisions because living with doubt is painful. If you can tolerate doubt you are likely to make better decisions.

Random quotes:

“… bad behavior is intensely habit-forming when it is rewarded.”

“…Repeat behavior that works…”

All quotes are from, “Revised Psychology of Human Misjudgment,“ by Charlie Munger.

What bit of wisdom will you take with you today?

What Charlie Munger quote can you add?

Still curious:

Between Stupidity and Wisdom

How to Stumble Toward Wisdom and Find Success

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Weight Loss: These Foods Burn Belly Fat Without Effort

How to burn belly fat without eating less or trying to lose weight.

Swapping fatty foods for lower fat alternatives can reduce weight and belly fat, research finds.

Weight loss of around 3.5 pounds was achieved by people in many studies without going on a diet.

People lost weight without eating less or specifically trying to lose weight.

Those who reduced their fat intake also enjoyed lower blood pressure and lower levels of bad cholesterol.

The more fat people cut out of their diet, the greater their weight loss, researchers found.

Dr Lee Hooper, the study’s first author, said:

“The weight reduction that we found when people ate less fat was remarkably consistent – we saw it in almost every trial.

Those who cut down more on fat, lost more weight.

The effect isn’t dramatic, like going on a diet.

The research specifically looked at people who were cutting down on fat, but didn’t aim to lose weight – so they were continuing to consume a normal amount of food.

What surprised us was that they did lose weight, their BMI decreased and their waists became slimmer.”

The conclusions come from a review of 33 separate randomised controlled trials including 73,589 people around the world.

The studies compared people who cut down on their fat intake with those who carried on eating as normal.

The results showed that those who cut down on fat intake lost an average of 3.5 pounds and also reduced their waist circumference by 0.5 cm.

Dr Hooper continued:

“We didn’t consider different types of fat in this study, but cutting down on saturated fat reduces our risk of heart disease and strokes, so the healthiest way to cut down on fat is to cut down on saturated fats.

This means having low fat milk and yogurt, cutting down on butter and cheese, and cutting the fat off meat.

Most importantly have fruit instead of fatty snacks like biscuits, cake and crisps.

And remember, this isn’t a diet, so don’t take it to extremes, but work out a way of eating that you can stick to permanently.

Keeping healthy is not just about fat and weight – but cutting down on fat, especially saturated fat, is a great start.

Being physically active, not smoking, drinking alcohol in moderation, eating plenty of fruit and vegetables, and drinking plenty of fluid also help to keep us healthy.

We just need to get in the habit of doing these things,”

The study was published in the British Medical Journal (Hooper et al., 2012).

Hello, and welcome to PsyBlog. Thanks for dropping by.

This site is all about scientific research into how the mind works.

It’s mostly written by psychologist and author, Dr Jeremy Dean.

I try to dig up fascinating studies that tell us something about what it means to be human.

You can get…

Keep reading here

WooCommerce Shortcodes: Design Online Store Pages In Seconds

As the name suggests, shortcodes are small bits of programming code that perform specific functions with minimal effort. They simplify the process of adding features and customizations to websites, especially those built with content management systems like WordPress.

As snippets of code, shortcodes are often a single word or a collection of simple words separated by underscores and enclosed within square brackets—resulting in something like [woocommerce_cart]. They can be inserted into pages, posts, theme files, and various widgets to accomplish all kinds of tasks and design functions.

For instance, you can create a [recent-post] shortcode to insert your blog’s most recent post in the area where the shortcode is placed.

One of the main benefits of WordPress shortcodes is that they remove the need to write (or even understand) the underlying HTML, CSS, or PHP code that makes them work. As such, their simplicity is especially helpful for non-programmers to customize websites.

How WooCommerce shortcodes work

Widely known as the preeminent ecommerce toolkit for WordPress, WooCommerce is installed as a WordPress plugin to help shop owners, merchants, and entrepreneurs build online stores with features to improve product displays, payment options, shipping methods, and inventory tracking.

Shortcodes also come with attributes that identify particular product features. For instance, the best_selling attribute allows merchants to display their best-selling products.

In WooCommerce’s own shortcode documentation, it shows how you can combine the limit, columns, and best_selling attributes to display products that meet those criteria in the desired layout.

There are many ways to use combinations of shortcodes to your advantage, but before…

How AI Can Assist In Coaching People To Change (M)

Using an AI chatbot on a phone is like having a therapist in your pocket, available 24/7.

Author: Jeremy Dean

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5 Types of Call Center Dialers and When To Use Each

If you were born before the internet, you may remember when marketing and sales practices involved hiring an army of agents to make hundreds of phone calls per hour. These days, the same basic principles are still in play, but modern technology has provided a way to automate a big chunk of that process.

Call center dialers do exactly what they promise—they dial prospective customers foryou, and then they assign the calls to real agents. As far as the actual dialing and calling is concerned, call center dialers can do the work of an army in minutes.

But there are many different types of call center dialers, so if you’re in the market and don’t know what to get, it’s important to understand each type so you can narrow down the options according to your needs.

Auto Dialers

As the name implies, auto dialers can automatically punch in phone numbers and call hundreds of customers based on a predetermined list of criteria set by an administrator. When a call gets answered, the dialer connects the customer with a live agent. When a call goes to voicemail, the software shifts to the next number automatically.

Auto dialers are the most commonly used type of dialer because they’re usually the most efficient. Since the auto dialer is alwaysrunning, it almost necessarily increases the number of answered calls—meaning your agents will wait less and talk more. On the flip side, this also makes these dialers notoriously persistent, which can be annoying both for customers and for agents when they don’t get a break.

Nevertheless, the outbound calling speed of auto dialers is so fast that it enables companies to run multiple campaigns simultaneously, just as long as they have the auto dialer, human operators on standby, and a working phone—be it a…