Multilevel cultural evolution: From new theory to practical applications.

Evolutionary science has led to many practical applications of genetic evolution but few practical uses of cultural evolution. This is because the entire study of evolution was gene centric for most of the 20th century, relegating the study and application of human cultural change to other disciplines. The formal study of human cultural evolution began in the 1970s and has matured to the point of deriving practical applications.

Common asset trusts to effectively steward natural capital and ecosystem services at multiple scales.

Ecosystems (natural capital) produce a range of benefits to humans. Natural capital is best thought of as common property since many of the ecosystem services it helps produce are non-rival and/or non-excludable. Private property regimes and markets alone are ineffective and inappropriate institutions to manage them sustainably.

Core design principles for nurturing organization-level selection.

Dynamic relationships between individuals and groups have been a focus for evolutionary theorists and modelers for decades. Among evolutionists, selfish gene theory promotes reductionist approaches while multilevel selection theory encourages a context-sensitive approach that appreciates that individuals and groups can both matter. Among economists, a comparable contrast is found wherein the reductionist shareholder primacy theory most associated with Nobel laureate Milton Friedman is very different from the context-sensitive focus on managing common resources that Nobel laureate Elinor Ostrom pioneered.

Does your mindfulness benefit others? A systematic review and meta-analysis of the link between mindfulness and prosocial behaviour.

Mindfulness-based meditation practices have received substantial scientific attention in recent years. Mindfulness has been shown to bring many psychological benefits to the individual, but much less is known about whether these benefits extend to others. This meta-analysis reviewed the link between mindfulness - as both a personality variable and an intervention - and prosocial behaviour.

Departing from the essential features of a high quality systematic review of psychotherapy: A response to Öst (2014) and recommendations for improvement.

Öst's (2014) systematic review and meta-analysis of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) has received wide attention. On the basis of his review, Öst argued that ACT research was not increasing in its quality and that, in contradiction to the views of Division 12 of the American Psychological Association (APA), ACT is "not yet well-established for any disorder" (2014, p. 105).

Contextual Positive Psychology: Policy Recommendations for Implementing Positive Psychology into Schools.

There has been a rapid growth in positive psychology, a research and intervention approach that focuses on promoting optimal functioning and well-being. Positive psychology interventions are now making their way into classrooms all over the world. However, positive psychology has been criticized for being decontextualized and coercive, and for putting an excessive emphasis on positive states, whilst failing to adequately consider negative experiences.

Cognitive Defusion Predicts More Approach and Less Avoidance Coping With Stress, Independent of Threat and Self-Efficacy Appraisals.

Objective: Recent evidence suggests that the way in which individuals relate to their aversive thoughts predicts behavioral effectiveness more than the content of such thoughts. This article is among the first to explore whether this is true for coping with stressful events.

Method: Three studies with emerging adults (Study 1, N = 202) and adults (Study 2, N = 201; Study 3, N = 141) tested whether changes in how individuals relate to their stress-related thoughts, measured using the individual-difference construct of cognitive defusion, predicted more approach and less avoidance coping behavior, controlling for stress-related appraisals.