29.
People have higher expectations as their lives get better. However, the higher the expectations, the more difficult it is to be satisfied. We can increase the satisfaction we feel in our lives by controlling our expectations. Adequate expectations leave room for many experiences to be pleasant surprises. The challenge is to find a way to have proper expectations. One way to do this is by keeping wonderful experiences rare. No matter what you can afford, save great wine for special occasions. Make an elegantly styled silk blouse a special treat. This may seem like an act of denying your desires, but I don't think it is. On the contrary, it's a way to make sure that you can continue to experience pleasure. What's the point of great wines and great blouses if they don't make you feel great?
32
Good managers have learned to overcome the initial feelings of anxiety when assigning tasks. They are aware that no two people act in exactly the same way and so do not feel threatened if they see one employee going about a task differently than another. Instead, they focus on the end result. If a job was successfully done, as long as people are working in a manner acceptable to the organization (for example, as long as salespeople are keeping to the company's ethical selling policy), then that's fine. If an acceptable final outcome wasn't achieved, then such managers respond by discussing it with the employee and analyzing the situation, to find out what training or additional skills that person will need to do the task successfully in the future.
33.
There is good evidence that in organic development, perception starts with recognizing outstanding structural features. For example, when twoyearold children and chimpanzees had learned that, of two boxes presented to them, the one with a triangle of a particular size and shape always contained attractive food, they had no difficulty applying their training to triangles of very different appearance. The triangles were made smaller or larger or turned upside down. A black triangle on a white background was replaced by a white triangle on a black background, or an outlined triangle by a solid one. These changes seemed not to interfere with recognition. Similar results were obtained with rats. Karl Lashley, a psychologist, has asserted that simple transpositions of this type are universal in all animals including humans.
40.
Recent studies point to the importance of warm physical contact for healthy relationships with others. In one study, participants who briefly held a cup of hot (versus iced) coffee judged a target person as having a "warmer" personality (generous, caring); in another study, participants holding a hot (versus cold) pack were more likely to choose a gift for a friend instead of something for themselves. These findings illustrate that mere contact experiences of physical warmth activate feelings of interpersonal warmth. Moreover, this temporarily increased activation of interpersonal warmth feelings then influences judgments toward other people in an unintentional manner. Such feelings activated in one context last for a while thereafter and have influence on judgment and behavior in later contexts without the person's awareness.
Experiencing physical warmth promotes interpersonal warmth, which happens in a(n) automatic way.
41~ 42.
Hundreds of thousands of people journeyed far to take part in the Canadian fur trade. Many saw how inhabitants of the northern regions stored their food in the winter―by burying the meats and vegetables in the snow. But probably few of them had thoughts about how this custom might relate to other fields. One who did was a young man named Clarence Birdseye. He was amazed to find that freshly caught fish and duck, frozen quickly in such a fashion, kept their taste and texture. He started wondering: Why can't we sell food in America that operates on the same basic principle? With this thought, the frozen foods industry was born. He made something extraordinary from what, for the northern folk, was the ordinary practice of preserving food. So, what went on in his mind when he observed this means of storage? Something mysterious happened in his curious, fully engaged mind. Curiosity is a way of adding value to what you see. In the case of Birdseye, it was strong enough to lift him out of the routine way of seeing things. It set the stage for innovation and discovery, for coming up with something new.
