Articles by author: Brock University

  • Being kind is good for your emotional health, says Brock expert

    EXPERT ADVISORY – November 11, 2024 – R0135

    Be kind — both for the betterment of humanity and for your own well-being, says Sandra Bosacki.

    As World Kindness Day nears on Nov. 13, the Brock University Professor of Educational Studies is reminding people of the benefits of practising kindness towards themselves and others.

    The message, Bosacki says, comes at a pertinent time, with contentious global events filling news feeds and difficult conversations spilling into day-to-day interactions.

    The Director of Brock’s Theory of Mind in Education (ToME) Lab explores how having a kind and controlled mindset can help people to treat others with compassion and feel better emotionally.

    “Our research team is learning more about emotional regulation and control and investigating if our ability to control our emotions guides our kind behaviours — such as being generous, helpful or comforting — or is it the other way around?” Bosacki says.

    Bosacki’s research, which focuses on cognition and emotional well-being in teens, shows that people can act kind and show self-control for different reasons.

    Some people control their emotions for the benefit of others, such as being friendly and helpful to friends, she says. Others control their emotions to benefit themselves — often at the cost of others —to acquire things or achieve desired goals, potentially acting in manipulative or coercive ways.

    Bosacki says the exploration of the complex links between self-control and kindness can provide valuable insight into how people, especially youth, can learn to balance “self-skills,” such as self-regulation and emotional control, as a way to be kinder and more compassionate to oneself.

    “Our research builds on past data that shows when children and adolescents have a kind, gentle and compassionate mindset towards themselves and others, they are more likely to be able to regulate their emotions and actions, and experience well-being and competence in school,” she says.

    Bosacki hopes her research will shed light on ways to balance self-control and kind thoughts and actions, and how developing a kind mindset during the teenage years will ultimately lead to a mindful and compassionate new generation of young adults.

    “With many feeling the often-heavy emotional weight of global events, understanding as much as we can about how we regulate our emotions will help shape a better, kinder future for us all,” Bosacki said.

    Currently underway, the Mentalization, Kindness and Self-Control and Well-being Teen Study is part of a larger five-year research project led by Bosacki.

    Adolescents between the ages of 11 and 18 years old are invited to participate in the on-line study. Each participant is required to have informed parental consent, and for the child and their parent to have a personal email address.

    Parents who think their children may be interested in taking part can contact the Theory of Mind in Education lab at tomelab@brocku.ca

    Brock University Professor of Educational Studies Sandra Bosacki is available for media interviews on this topic.

    For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

    *Sarah Ackles, Communications Specialist, Brock University sackles@brocku.ca or 289-241-5483

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    Categories: Media releases

  • Trade agreements, digital regulation among key Canadian ramifications of Trump re-election: Brock expert

    EXPERT ADVISORY – November 6, 2024 – R0134

    The United States, under newly elected president Donald Trump, will have “a direct lever to hold the Canadian economy hostage to its demands” in mandated upcoming trade renegotiations, according to Blayne Haggart.

    But the Brock University Associate Professor of Political Science says that Trump’s re-election poses challenges far beyond managing trade relationships and the future of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement.

    He calls it “an existential threat” to Canada’s economy and to Canadian society more broadly.

    “To be blunt, the fundamental assumptions that have served as the foundations for Canada-U.S. relations — commitment to a rules-based order, human rights and mutual self-restraint — no longer hold,” says Haggart. “We can expect a much more transactional approach to Canada-U.S. politics, with the United States reserving to itself the right to reverse any decision at any time.”

    What Haggart sees as a clear shift toward authoritarianism in the U.S. poses “an unprecedented challenge to Canada’s liberal democracy.”

    “We’ve never had an authoritarian government on our borders before,” he says. “While government officials are putting forward a calm face, the reality is that the country is not prepared for the next four years, and likely longer.”

    For Haggart, another key area of concern is digital regulation in spheres like social media and cryptocurrency, where the president-elect has business interests.

    “On social media regulation, Elon Musk’s tanking of Twitter/X for Trump shows that Canada is extremely vulnerable to the U.S. social media and tech companies that dominate our information ecosystem,” says Haggart, co-author of The New Knowledge: Information, Data and the Remaking of Global Power. “It strongly suggests that Canada’s response — via the Online Streaming Act, theOnline News Act and the proposed Online Safety Act — is wholly inadequate to the challenges we now face, and that we need to seriously think about how to make these platforms operate in the interests of Canadians, not of their billionaire U.S. owners.”

    Brock University Associate Professor of Political Science Blayne Haggart is available for media interviews on this topic.

    For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

    *Sarah Ackles, Communications Specialist, Brock University sackles@brocku.ca or 289-241-5483

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    Categories: Media releases