THE Centre for Confidence and Well-being was launched eight years ago with the intention of tackling Scotland's "cannae do" attitude.
It aims to change Scottish culture and encourage positive attitudes, individuality, creativity and innovation.
At the launch, founder and chief executive Dr Carol Craig warned that lacking confidence had implications for economic growth and enterprise, as well as physical and mental health.
But she also said the centre would strive to avoid creating a nation of "self-obsessed Pollyannas".
Craig's think-tank was founded after widespread acclaim for her first book, The Scots' Crisis Of Confidence, which explored the nation's attitude and predilection for negativity. Two years ago she published the The Tears That Made The Clyde, in which she argued that Glasgow's health and social problems are not only due to factors such as poverty and unemployment, but a deep-seated macho culture.
Craig has previously spoken of the impact that Scotland's lack of confidence has on the nation's health, saying some studies had shown feelings of pessimism could reduce life expectancy by as much as eight years.
She also recommends children should be taught how to overcome their Scottish pessimism. However in 2009, she warned teachers "obsessed with praising" were creating a generation of egotistical pupils, criticising a "fashionable" self-esteem agenda which had gone too far. According to the centre's website – www.centreforconfidence.co.uk – it receives a small amount of core funding from the Scottish Government.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article