Level 3, 45 Union Street, Glasgow, G1 3RB, t: 0141 221 2626 e: contact@centreforconfidence.co.uk. Reg. Charity No. SCO37080
Carol's Blog 
The Wire
07/02/2010 | No Comments
I haven't been much of a blogger of late: I've just been too preoccupied with writing my latest book on Glasgow to have time left over to write other things. more
Bright-sided 2
07/01/2010 | 2 CommentsIn Bright-sided: how the relentless promotion of positive thinking has undermined America Barbara Ehrenreich includes a whole chapter called 'Positive Psychology; the Science of Happiness'. more
Bright-sided 1
04/01/2010 | No CommentsThose of you managing to break away from festivities in the last few weeks will be aware that the media have been giving a fair amount of attention to Barbara Ehrenreich's latest book - Bright Sided: How the relentless promotion of positive thinking has undermined America. more
An important agenda
03/12/2009 | No CommentsI met someone I knew on the train coming home tonight who is involved in the enterprise world. more
Resilience
22/11/2009 | No CommentsA word that just seems to come up everywhere at the moment is 'resilience': not only is it now common in programmes geared towards young people but also workplaces are also focusing on it. more
Starsuckers documentary
18/11/2009 | No CommentsIn the past few years I often use talks to warn people of the dangers of media and advertising and how consumerism, celebrity culture and television watching are undermining well-being. more
Inequality and the bonus culture
14/11/2009 | 1 CommentI go to a lot of events and what I’ve been noticing is the number of people who have been referring to Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett’s book The Spirit Level. more
Hartlepool
11/11/2009 | No CommentsI'm literally just back from speaking at an event in Hartlepool on Teeside which was called Paths to Well-being. more
Great Scot
09/11/2009 | No CommentsOne of the things which has caught my attention recently is a piece by Ken Roy on his Scottish Review On-line. more
2p or not 2p?
12/10/2009 | 3 CommentsAnyone who was at the event with Barry Schwartz in June will tell you how strong he was on how financial incentives don’t work. more
Hope
17/09/2009 | No CommentsI was fairly certain that the Norman Doidge event on ‘the brain that changes itself’ would prove popular but in fact the interest exceed my expectations. more
The Centre and the Curriculum for Excellence
31/08/2009 | No CommentsA few weeks ago The Sunday Herald carried a big essay I had written for their opinion section which they called The Princess Syndrome – one of the lines in the piece. more
The neuroplasticity revolution
17/08/2009 | 1 CommentAt the Centre we're delighted that Dr Norman Doidge, author of the international best-seller, The Brain that Changes Itself, is coming to Scotland and giving a multi-media presentation for us on the evening of 15th September. more
Tackling inequality
28/07/2009 | 1 CommentLast week the papers were full of the story that Britain is becoming even more unequal and that there’s less social mobility now than decades ago. more
A different angle on the banking crisis
24/06/2009 | No CommentsI went to hear Malcolm Gladwell at the Kings on Monday night. more
Shifting the balance of power
07/06/2009 | 1 CommentMalcolm Gladwell, of Tipping Point fame, makes the point that prior to the Berlin Wall coming down few people would have predicted this happening. more
Well-being in Wellhouse
19/05/2009 | No CommentsIn the first year of operation the Centre ran some action research training courses. more
Natural highs
28/04/2009 | 1 CommentThe psychologist Theodore Roszac once pointed out that if you ask someone who is highly stressed to imagine a relaxing scene they are likely to think of being in nature – on the beach, in the hills, on the banks of a burn. more
The dream of a middle aged woman
21/04/2009 | No CommentsI'm not a television fan but even I couldn't escape the sensational story of Susan Boyle on Britain's Got Talent. more
The need for a broader agenda
11/04/2009 | 1 CommentOver six months ago I wrote a blog explaining that the Centre wanted to broaden its agenda out beyond Positive Psychology. more
Barriers to Well-being
29/03/2009 | No CommentsOur latest event took place on Thursday in Edinburgh. more
The role of schools
15/03/2009 | 4 CommentsI spoke on Saturday in Birmingham at the annual conference of the Association of School and College Leaders – one of the main trade unions for head teachers. more
How to ruin organisations - sack the oldies and concentrate on strengths?
28/02/2009 | 3 CommentsYears ago when I worked as a consultant in organisations I used to talk to a lot of people who had problems at work with a bullying and autocratic boss. more
Wise words for turbulent times
11/01/2009 | No CommentsI’ve been enjoying using some of the cards we’ve produced recently. more
Thriving in flu-ridden times
18/12/2008 | 1 CommentI would have written a blog sooner but I’ve been laid low by one of the worst winter viruses I’ve ever been smitten by. more
System Redesign
28/11/2008 | No CommentsI’ve been down in Birmingham at a huge conference for secondary school head teachers run by the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust. more
Samuel Smiles: Self-Help
11/11/2008 | 1 CommentLast week I had was given a huge treat: I was asked to give an evening lecture at the National Library of Scotland on Samuel Smiles’s classic Self-Help. more
Crisis - which crisis?
24/10/2008 | 1 CommentListening to the news over the last few days about how we are on the brink of recession has been dispiriting. more
Bursting bubbles
09/10/2008 | No CommentsWhen I give talks I regularly point out that psychologists don’t use the word confidence very much. more
Saving Scotland's bacon
29/09/2008 | No CommentsJonathan Sher from Children in Scotland introduced me at an event the other day. more
The myth of talent
10/09/2008 | 2 CommentsOver five years ago Malcolm Gladwell, of Tipping Point fame, wrote an interesting piece for The New Yorker, called ‘The Talent Myth – Are smart people overrated?’ Gladwell argues that “‘the talent mind-set’ is the new orthodoxy of American management’”. more
In praise of Scotland
24/08/2008 | 2 CommentsIt is always great having visitors from another country because you really get a chance to see your own country through their eyes. more
Shhhh … the movie
11/08/2008 | 1 CommentI like Ken Wilber’s work and I particularly think he is right on track with one of his main observations about modern life: narcissism. more
Strathclyde Summer Academy
04/08/2008 | No CommentsI spent a terrific day last week at the
Summer School Christine Percival runs with her team at Strathclyde University. more
Stress, broccoli and running shoes
26/07/2008 | 1 CommentThe press carried a story this week that more than 11,000 Scots young people (under 25s) are on incapacity benefit due to ‘stress’. more
The Centre and Positive Psychology
20/07/2008 | No CommentsI wrote my first book 'The Scots Crisis of Confidence' as I had become to believe that there was something inherent in Scottish culture which tended to undermine confidence. more
The need for a broad agenda
08/07/2008 | No CommentsFelicia Huppert is a professor of psychology at Cambridge University. more
Classifying sadness as mental disorder
30/06/2008 | No CommentsI have a friend whose teenage son was very keen on a girl he was going out with. more
The power of networks
21/06/2008 | No CommentsI’ve never talked before a band before so the whole thing was a bit strange for me. more
Aping men
11/06/2008 | No CommentsI went to hear Oliver James give a lecture in Glasgow last week. more
Developing the Centre's work
28/05/2008 | 3 CommentsThe Centre is now mid-way through its fourth year. more
Marketing to children
21/05/2008 | 2 CommentsThink about families where the parents have little money and they don’t want to feel their children are missing out on toys, trainers, burgers or other things that other children have. more
Reflections on lifelong development
19/05/2008 | 2 CommentsOne of the things I’ve become a wee bit allergic to is the well-worn phrase used by many educators that what they want to do is develop children’s ‘full potential’. more
Selling politics
12/05/2008 | 1 CommentThere’s a story in the papers today about an all-party group of Christian MPs saying that the main cause of unhappiness in Britain is not about the lack of material wealth but an erosion of religious values. more
An error of judgement
29/04/2008 | 3 CommentsI was phoned last week by a Sunday paper and asked for my views on the SNP's first year in office. more
Big changes
09/04/2008 | No CommentsWe're now in the process of getting lots of things ready for the new look website. more
The meaning of confidence
24/03/2008 | No CommentsWhen the Centre started up we wanted to help project leaders measure the impact their interventions were having on people’s confidence. more
Being heard and seen
13/03/2008 | No CommentsWhen I was in Madeira last year I was shocked by my own attitude. more
Getting Scotland on an upward spiral
08/03/2008 | 1 CommentI am constantly taken aback at how negative the talk about sport is in Scotland. more
Becoming Your Own Woman
28/02/2008 | 2 CommentsI’m flying off for a few days tomorrow and one thing I know for certain: I won’t be buying a women’s magazine for the journey. more
Attention all parents
19/02/2008 | 4 CommentsI try not to write too many blogs on young people as it gives the impression that we are a charity working only in this area. more
The confidence to be ourselves
05/02/2008 | 1 CommentThe Netherlands has, unexpectedly, been in my thoughts this week. more
The pros and cons of happiness
22/01/2008 | 3 CommentsThe Tal Ben Shahar events proved very popular with most of the people who came along – and there were lots of them. more
Time for a kick-start
13/01/2008 | No CommentsIt's gratifying to run events which are so popular that they sell out. more
Elevation
02/01/2008 | 1 CommentI was so pleased when Mick Jackson, of Wildhearts in Action, was voted Scot of the Year. more
Columba 1400
06/12/2007 | No CommentsI went along to Greenock the other night to an event organised by Columba 1400. more
Reasons to be … sceptical
26/11/2007 | 2 CommentsOne of the things I like about Martin Seligman’s approach to optimism is that it doesn’t encourage mindless positive thinking. more
Expecting the best - not the worst
16/11/2007 | 1 CommentI was phoned this afternoon and asked to write 500 words for a paper on how the Scots should prepare themselves for defeat in tomorrow’s game against Italy. more
The Goods Life v. the Good Life
04/11/2007 | 2 CommentsJust finished reading ‘The High Price of Materialism’ by Tim Kasser. more
Rethinking happiness
18/10/2007 | 6 CommentsOne of the big news stories from the Washington Summit on Positive Psychology came from Martin Seligman. more
Learning from the beautiful game
13/10/2007 | 3 Comments‘The thing about sport is that it is a metaphor for life - it really lets us see what is going on culturally. more
Ken Wilber
03/10/2007 | 8 CommentsI'm off to the Positive Psychology Summit in Washington tomorrow. more
'Dissensus'
27/09/2007 | No CommentsI’ve been called many things in my life but puritan was a new one on me. more
The treadmill
13/09/2007 | No Comments'My life's dedicated to feeding a monster of my own creation’. more
A matter of principle
26/08/2007 | 1 CommentI was very pleased to see that our new book made the front page splash in the Times Educational Supplement. more
Stay tuned ...
02/08/2007 | No CommentsThe book I’ve been writing has now been sent off to the printers and it will due out on the 27th August. more
The myth of adolescence
13/07/2007 | 2 CommentsWhen I went into the office yesterday Emily, the Centre’s great psychology researcher, handed me a sheaf of such fascinating articles that it has got me blogging again. more
Changing Mindsets
18/06/2007 | 2 CommentsI couldn’t help thinking about Bill Duncan’s Wee Book of Calivin last Thursday during the Carol Dweck event. more
Ironic effects
07/06/2007 | 1 CommentSome of the most interesting articles I have read recently have been published by a social psychologist called Dan Wegner on what he calls ‘ironic processes of mental control’. more
In praise of whist drives
21/05/2007 | 1 CommentI watched the film Rob Roy on DVD the other night. more
Alive and writing
07/05/2007 | 1 CommentI know I have been silent for a while but it’s because I’ve been up to my elbows in writing. more
Wild Hearts In Action
16/04/2007 | No CommentsA few weeks ago I met a very inspirational Scottish entrepeneur at an event in Inverness. more
Getting EQ in perspective
01/04/2007 | 3 CommentsI haven’t been blogging much recently as I’m too busy writing other material. more
Tackling depression
15/03/2007 | 2 CommentsI went along last night to hear a presentation from Lord Layard – the economics professor from the LSE who recently published a book on happiness. more
Learning from Dundee
04/03/2007 | No CommentsI’ve been thinking a lot about Malcolm Gladwell’s Tipping Point recently. more
Programming our children for ill health
21/02/2007 | 2 CommentsI’m glad to see that the UNICEF report on child well-being has attracted so much attention. more
America's Report Card
11/02/2007 | No CommentsFor decades now Scotland has benefited from inward investment from the United States. more
Distress signals
29/01/2007 | 2 CommentsI was sitting next to someone at a dinner the other night who had been senior in health in Scotland. more
Thank God it’s the First Friday ….
25/01/2007 | No CommentsWhen I was involved in setting up the Centre I was always keen for it to provide the opportunity for people to meet up informally and discuss matters of mutual interest. more
Scottish confidence
18/01/2007 | 9 CommentsWith all the debate and talk about the Union of Scotland and England, I’ve been pondering issues of Scottish confidence yet again. more
Time to lighten up ‘the dismal science’
03/01/2007 | 3 CommentsI’ve been arguing for a while that the research behind Positive Psychology has the capacity to spawn a new Enlightenment. more
The roots of self-esteem
19/12/2006 | No CommentsThose of you who didn’t get a chance to come to the morning event on education we held at the Hub recently really missed yourselves. more
It's a boys' game
10/12/2006 | 2 CommentsWhen I was in France a few months ago I was surprised to see two teenage boys kiss each other when they met up in the street. more
Making faces (This is worth a look)
23/11/2006 | No CommentsIn Britain on the Couch the clinical psychologist Oliver James recounts research which shows how exposure to media images and television is very undermining for people's sense of themselves. more
Mindsets
19/11/2006 | No CommentsI’ve been doing a lot of reading recently for a book I’m writing on confidence and young people. more
Dreaming of a green Christmas
05/11/2006 | No CommentsFor decades now I’ve felt a real aversion for going into shops in the run up to Christmas. more
Scottish delight
29/10/2006 | No CommentsFrequent visitors to the site will know that the name we’ve given to what we’re doing with Positive Psychology in Scotland is the Vanguard. more
Log blog
18/10/2006 | 1 CommentI try to write a blog at least once a week and so I was surprised to see that a fortnight has gone past since my last entry. more
Positively green
06/10/2006 | No CommentsI gave a talk on Positive Psychology last week at a CIPFA conference in Northern Ireland. more
Time to detox
30/09/2006 | No CommentsIt is good to see that the 100 signatories to the letter about the dangers facing young people’s physical and mental health in modern times is causing a debate. more
Divine confusion
23/09/2006 | No CommentsReaders of last week’s Sunday papers in Scotland must have felt confused. more
Winning streaks
06/09/2006 | No CommentsSo the Scottish football team is finally on a winning streak. more
Open letter to Scotland
30/08/2006 | No CommentsIn case you missed it, there was a really interesting open letter in this Sunday’s Sunday Herald. more
Teaching and Learning
18/08/2006 | No CommentsGuenter Grass, the Nobel prize-winning German author, has recently admitted that he served in Hitler’s elite Waffen SS. more
In praise of humility
08/08/2006 | No CommentsI’ve been doing a lot of reading on self-esteem recently and was amused when someone sent me a copy of an over the top promotional leaflet. more
Face Values
26/07/2006 | No CommentsI’ve been very irritated recently by an email site I use from time to time as it has been carrying a huge ad of a glamorous woman which wouldn’t look out of place in a lad’s magazine. more
Sunny Days and Dark Hearts
18/07/2006 | No CommentsAll the talk recently about how wonderful it is to have a reasonably long spell of hot sunshine has got me thinking again about how the weather connects with the Centre’s agenda. more
Seeing the Big Picture
10/07/2006 | No CommentsThe conference in Portugal organised by the European Positive Psychology network (ENPP) was, as I suspected, a great success. more
Portugal
01/07/2006 | No CommentsI’m leaving tomorrow to attend the European Positive Psychology conference in Portugal. more
Having a nice day
18/06/2006 | No CommentsWhen I was undertaking research for my book I particularly enjoyed reading about Robert Louis Stevenson so it was with great pleasure that I visited the Robert Louis Stevenson park in California today. more
What's for ye ...
13/06/2006 | No CommentsI had a conversation the other day with someone who had run a variety of focus groups with young people. more
Switching Off
04/06/2006 | No CommentsI think Mark Easton’s Happiness Formula on BBC 2 is great. more
Scotland the best?
23/05/2006 | No CommentsAs you enter Scottish airports from an international destination these days you are told that you are now in ‘the best small country in the world. more
Michigan
18/05/2006 | No CommentsI'm currently in Ann Arbor, Michigan as I'm on a course on Leading the Positive Organisation run by the Positive Organisational Scholarship Department at the University of Michigan. more
Unwritten Rules
11/05/2006 | No CommentsSpent this morning training on a confidence-building course and I found myself going into material I haven’t used for ages but which seemed very relevant to what people were talking about. more
The Problem with Mothers
30/04/2006 | No CommentsRecently I’ve had several very similar conversations with women about their children. more
The Problem with Blogs
19/04/2006 | No CommentsI’ve not managed to write a blog for what seems like ages as I’ve been too involved with other things – particularly with reading and writing for the new Positive Psychology section on our website. more
The L Word
31/03/2006 | No CommentsA woman who was on secondment to the Scottish Executive from California told me recently that one of the things that struck her about Scotland is how good some of our initiatives are yet we give them very little attention, let alone praise. more
In Praise of Negativity
20/03/2006 | 1 CommentWhen people hear about the big vision the Centre has for helping to bring about a transformation in Scottish culture to make it more supportive of confidence and positive attitudes they often ask if I don’t feel daunted by the task. more
Going to Uni
10/03/2006 | 1 CommentI’ve been thinking a lot recently about university education for young people as my son has just unexpectedly quit his course and gone off to Australia for three months. more
Scotland's Fall Guys
09/03/2006 | No CommentsI’ve undertaken lots of training with teachers and in the past couple of years I’ve given a large number of talks to education staff. more
Cawing the Feet from Ourselves
13/02/2006 | No CommentsBeing optimistic isn’t just about how we handle bad events. more
Making Happy People
17/01/2006 | No CommentsI’ve been able to read much more in the past week as the much improved train service means means I’m now going to commute into Glasgow by train rather than by car. more
The Cynicism of Sunday Times Scotland
08/01/2006 | No CommentsI’ve just read the article on page 4 of Sunday Times Scotland and I feel speechless at the cynicism of Kathleen Nutt, their supposed ‘news’ journalist. more
Press Complaints
15/12/2005 | No CommentsI’ve just given my last talk of this year to a group of managers in a local authority department. more
The Wicked Witch of the West
05/12/2005 | No CommentsThere was an interview with Margaret Thatcher on tv the other night and she looked scary – a horrendous wicked witch with a twisted mouth and face of stone. more
Ending the Big Chill
24/11/2005 | No CommentsWe’ve just finished the fourth of our action research courses. more
Being Scottish
10/11/2005 | No CommentsI’ve been so busy recently with our office move and talking at conferences that I’ve hardly had time to think about blogging let alone write one. more
The Paradox of Choice
27/10/2005 | No CommentsBefore leaving work today we recorded the latest in the Vanguard Distance learning lectures. more
Mixed Feelings
12/10/2005 | No CommentsI am conscious that I haven’t written a blog for the past week and the reasons are a combination of being overly busy and then falling ill as a result of eating a tuna fish salad. more
Happy Talk
03/10/2005 | No CommentsThere’s an excellent article on happiness and the rise of positive psychology in the magazine of the latest Sunday Times. more
Boring Politics
21/09/2005 | No CommentsHaving plenty time to think when I´m on holiday I’ve kept going back over in my head a line from the lecture Professor Tom Devine gave at the Vanguard Programme. more
Of Bulls and Pipers
16/09/2005 | No CommentsOn holiday in Spain I´ve been pondering the subject of kitsch. more
Gender Roles
25/08/2005 | No CommentsNot being a great fan of TV, I haven’t bought a Radio Times for years but with all the fuss about Michael Buerk’s comments I decided to get one and read for myself. more
The Need for a Vanguard
16/08/2005 | No CommentsI went down to Dumfries the other day to talk to a group of people from various agencies about the Vanguard Programme. more
In Defence of Ideas
05/08/2005 | No CommentsOne of the criticisms a few academic social scientists have made about my book is that it isn’t based on hard evidence. more
No Fairy Wand
24/07/2005 | No CommentsWhen we were asked to take part in the npower/SFA summer schools initiative I knew we were bound to get a lot of publicity. more
Mean Streets
17/07/2005 | No CommentsOf all the cities in the world Glasgow is the one I know best. more
Bonnie Dundee
12/07/2005 | No CommentsOther than reading the Broons and Oor Willie avidly as a child, Dundee has never featured much in my life – until recently. more
Perspective
07/07/2005 | No CommentsI know it is trite to say that the bombings in London today put everything in perspective but they do. more
Wanted: Bus Drivers
28/06/2005 | No Comments‘Everything works better with numbers’ is the line from an advert running currently on radio. more
Getting Off the See-Saw
21/06/2005 | No CommentsI’m just back from doing a workshop with a group of women entrepreneurs on assertiveness. more
The Loneliness of the Late Night Blogger
16/06/2005 | No CommentsI tend to write my blog late at night as I’m what my mother would call ‘a hoolet’ – someone who is more alive at night than in the morning. more
Cousin Russia?
09/06/2005 | No CommentsApparently the word for self-confidence in Russian does not have positive connotations and is almost synonymous with arrogance. more
Place Making
06/06/2005 | No CommentsI used to live in Edinburgh and still have a real attachment to the city. more
Turning our Backs on Paradise
01/06/2005 | No CommentsI met Marc Lambert of the Scottish Book Trust a few weeks ago when we were both asked to take part in a talk in Borders bookshop. more
Confidence Matters
31/05/2005 | No CommentsWhen the Centre was launched a few months ago I was asked on to John Beattie’s Saturday morning programme for Radio Scotland and during the discussion he insisted in calling me ‘Scotland’s Confidence Tzar’. more
The Need for More Self-Reflection
27/05/2005 | No CommentsOne of the things I argue in my book which is slightly at odds with the mainstream cultural analysis of Scotland is that the problem with Scottish identity isn’t that it is too weak but that it is too strong. more
Econobabble - a superior form of fungus?
23/05/2005 | No CommentsIn the course of my life I’ve been described in various odd, or derogatory terms, but I’ve never been likened before to a ‘brain-destroying fungus’. more
Not a Psychologist and Proud of it!
20/05/2005 | No CommentsI spend my life meeting lots of new people and I’m regularly asked if I’m a psychologist. more
Reflections from the South
18/05/2005 | No CommentsI was at Darwin College in Cambridge at the beginning of the week at a briefing meeting about the Centre with some interested people. more
Wanted - Enlightened Thinking
13/05/2005 | No CommentsThe Centre’s flagship event this year is the Vanguard Programme and I’m heavily involved in finalising some of the arrangements for it. more
Bridging the Cultural Gap
10/05/2005 | No CommentsThere’s a further irony for me in my attitudes to America. more
American ‘can do’
09/05/2005 | No CommentsWhen I’m giving talks about Scotland and confidence I often make it clear that I’m not holding America up as an example of what we should become. more
Political Disenchantment
06/05/2005 | No CommentsWith wall to wall coverage of the general election I’ve been thinking a lot recently about my disenchantment with politics. more
Filling the Feedback Void
04/05/2005 | No CommentsAt a seminar a few months ago on changes to public services someone said: “the future is already here, it is just unevenly distributed. more
The Feedback Void
03/05/2005 | No CommentsOne of the big themes for me at the moment is ‘feedback’. more
The Press We Deserve?
27/04/2005 | No CommentsJack Perry, the Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise chose to devote his speech at the Press Awards dinner last Thursday night to the subject of confidence. more
More on Resilience
26/04/2005 | 1 CommentThere’s nothing particularly Scottish about the idea that ‘resilience’ is in decline. more
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