AI Summary
5 min readPatience, according to Dr. Sarah Schnitker, has a revealing Latin root: it means “to suffer.” That suffering is the feeling of wanting to move forward toward a goal and being blocked. Schnitker, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor University, defines patience as the ability to remain calm in the face of frustration, adversity, or suffering. She argues that while impatience may have evolved to push us toward our goals, modern life has turned that evolutionary signal into a chronic stressor. In a conversation with Kim Mills on Speaking of Psychology, Schnitker explains that patience is not about passivity—it is a skill that gives you enough space to decide whether to wait or to act.
Three kinds of patience
Continue reading the full summary in the app — free to try.
Read Full Summary →Free • No credit card required
Never miss an episode of Speaking of Psychology
Get every new episode summarized in your inbox — free, ~5 minutes to read.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
What you'll learn
- 1 (02:00) **Defining Patience** - Schnitker explains the psychological definition: the ability to remain calm in the face of frustration, adversity, or suffering, noting the Latin root means "to suffer."
- 2 (03:04) **Why Patience Is Hard** - Impatience may have evolved to push us toward goals, but modern life triggers it for non-life-threatening delays.
- 3 (04:43) **When We Learn Patience** - Infants experience waiting, but the capacity to intentionally cultivate patience matures in adolescence and young adulthood.
- 4 (07:05) **Three Types of Patience** - Schnitker distinguishes interpersonal, daily hassles, and life hardship patience.
- 5 (09:24) **Can You Be Patient in One Domain but Not Others?** - The three types correlate on average, but people show significant variability across specific goals and contexts.
- 6 (11:31) **Is Patience Always a Virtue?** - The capacity to wait calmly is always a virtue, but exercising it in a given moment requires wisdom to know when to wait and when to act with courage.
- 7 (14:27) **What Impatience Does to the Body** - Chronic impatience likely taxes the system like other negative emotions (anger, irritability), leading to cardiovascular and other health problems.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Guests on this episode
Show Notes
Life is full of situations -- and people -- that try our patience, from a standstill traffic jam to an obstinate preschooler who won’t put on her shoes. Sarah Schnitker, PhD, talks about why patience can be so hard to come by; whether modern life and modern technology have made us less patient; the difference between patience and passivity; and cognitive strategies to build up your ability to be patient.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
More from this podcast
Speaking of Psychology →