Positive Psychology: "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers: Stress and Health" by Dr. Robert Sapolsky

Thursday, June 30, 2022

"Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers: Stress and Health" by Dr. Robert Sapolsky

Science writer, biologist, neuroscientist, and stress expert Dr. Robert Sapolsky presents the inaugural Fenton-Rhodes Lecture on Proactve Wellness.

Sapolsky states that our bodies' stress response evolved to help us get out of short-term physical emergencies - if a lion is chasing you, you run. But such reactions, he points out, compromise long-term physical health in favor of immediate self-preservation.

Unfortunately, when confronted with purely psychological stressors, such as troubleshooting the fax machine, modern humans turn on the same stress response. "If you turn it on for too long," notes Sapolsky, "you get sick."

Sapolsky regards this sobering news with characteristic good humor, finding hope in "our own capacity to prevent some of these problems... in the small steps with which we live our everyday lives."

This lecture was recorded on September 22, 2016 at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts' Colwell Playhouse as part of the Pygmalion TechFest

https://youtu.be/D9H9qTdserM

Positive Psychology given credence by Academia:

Positive psychology is the scientific study of the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive.

Commentators on the subject Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, note that:

"The field of positive psychology at the subjective level is about valued subjective experiences: well-being, contentment, and satisfaction (in the past); hope and optimism (for the future); and flow and happiness (in the present).

At the individual level, it is about positive individual traits: the capacity for love and vocation, courage, interpersonal skill, aesthetic sensibility, perseverance, forgiveness, originality, future mindedness, spirituality, high talent, and wisdom.

At the group level, it is about the civic virtues and the institutions that move individuals toward better citizenship: responsibility, nurturance, altruism, civility, moderation,tolerance, and work ethic."