underachievement; effectivity praise for effort is reinforced?

Don't praise your child for their intelligence, but do praise them for their effort says this article on praising intelligent children describing one of the origins of underachievement. I would say there is also a reward-angle to this. The reward is bigger when effort is emphasised as contributing to the successful solution of a problem than when there is no relation to effort. This means there is a reinforcement of the effect reported in the article.

Healthy narrative writing

Write for your health? Yes, if you write a story you feel better: the “writing cure” research shows that expressive writing improves health. There is an abundance of evidence that professional poets have poorer health outcomes relative to both other writers and to the population at large. The obvious question for a researcher would be: what are the most important differences between poets and narrative writers? Are they differences in education level, in level of intelligence? Is the outcome of the research due to the design of the research?

I erred (2)

I erred once again. I said there was light in the houses of writers, but I meant in their heads (brains) if that is the house of the mind. Does it matter whether we call mind 'soul' or 'intelligence' or 'spirit' or 'consciousness'? Does it matter more when we are verbalist?