Ellen Langer

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Langer, Ellen

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Dr. Ellen Langer is a professor in the Psychology Department at Harvard University. Her books written for general and academic readers include Mindfulness and The Power of Mindful Learning, and the forthcoming Mindful Creativity. Dr. Langer has described her work on the illusion of control, aging, decision-making, and mindfulness theory in over 200 research articles and six academic books. Her work has led to numerous academic honors including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest of the American Psychological Association, the Distinguished Contributions of Basic Science to Applied Psychology award from the American Association of Applied & Preventive Psychology, the James McKeen Cattel Award, and the Gordon Allport Intergroup Relations Prize.

The citation for the APA distinguished contributions award reads, in part, "...her pioneering work revealed the profound effects of increasing mindful behavior…and offers new hope to millions whose problems were previously seen as unalterable and inevitable. Ellen Langer has demonstrated repeatedly how our limits are of our own making."

Dr. Langer is a Fellow of The Sloan Foundation; The American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Society, The American Association for the Advancement of Science; Computers and Society; The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues; The Society of Experimental Social Psychologists. In addition to other honors, she has been a guest lecturer in Japan, Malaysia, Germany, and Argentina.

Professor Langer earned her Ph.D. at Yale University in 1974 in Social and Clinical Psychology. She taught at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York for three years before joining the faculty at Harvard. Although she considers herself a social psychologist, her early clinical interests continue to influence the problems she chooses to study. Her primary interest is in doing research that is balanced between theoretical issues and applied concerns. Such projects have been in the general areas of decision making, behavioral medicine, deviance, the social psychology of aging, control, and socially induced performance debilitations. Her most recent work analyzes each of these from the perspective of her theory of mindfulness.

Biography Information http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~langer/

Application in classrooms and similar settings Mindlessness, appropriately enough, is the easiest to grasp: it’s the human tendency to operate on autopilot, whether by stereotyping; performing mechanically, by rote; or simply not paying attention. Although exceedingly common, few people (unless they’re practicing Buddhists, perhaps) realize the extent to which they live mindlessly.

Evidence of effectiveness Our lab's current research continues to explore, extend, and refine mindfulness theory across several domains. Most of the work in progress is concerned with the interaction of mindfulness and health, business, and education.

In the area of health, members of the lab are examining new ways of understanding and ameliorating problems people have with medical stress, dyslexia, ADHD, depression, diabetes, uriniary incontinence, hot flashes, heart-rate control, and medical decision-making.

In business, we are conducting research into mindful leadership, mindful contagion (i.e the effect of one person's mindfulness on another), and mindful decision-making. Included in mindful decision-making is work that compares the effects of single versus multiple goals and work that considers ways to reduce the time it takes to become psychologically prepared to engage in a new task.

In education, we are examining areas such as mindful reading and mindful learning. As our lab discussions make clear, each project informs the others.

The Langer Mindfulness Scale

The LMS is a 21-item questionnaire intended for use as a training, self-discovery, and research instrument. It assesses four domains associated with mindful thinking: novelty-seeking, engagement, novelty producing, and flexibility. An individual who seeks novelty perceives each situation as an opportunity to learn something new. An individual who scores high in engagement is likely to notice more details about his or her specific relationship with the environment. A novelty producing person generates new information in order to learn more about the current situation. Flexible people welcome a changing environment rather than resist it.

The Langer Mindfulness Scale is published by IDS Publishing. More information about it can be found here.

Biography Information http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~langer/

Critics and their rationale For information from critics and Langer's explanation and rationale, see http://www.dupagewriting.com/newsletter8_02_pdf.pdf#search='critics%20of%20ellen%20langer'

and

An attack on our schools as places that cultivate mindlessness School Reform.net’s “Mindlessness: What It Looks Like�? (http://www.school-reform.net/mindlessness.htm)

Alternative explanations due to Diversity considerations See this article about examining mindfulness by looking at the alternative uses and settings. Stay Free! Magazine Archives, “Mindless in America�? (http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/archives/16/mindlessness.html)

Signed 'life experiences', testimonies and stories For a interview with Dr. Langer on her beliefs and supports of her theories of Mindful, please go to http://www.pbs.org/lflc/backstage/march3/langer.htm

[edit]References and other links of interest Professor Profile http://langer.socialpsychology.org/

Biography Information http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~langer/

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