Parenting advice is often black or white: Be firm and unwavering. Be loving and supportive. But new research shows that a one-size-fits-all approach may not be the best way to handle things. Rather than consistency, a parent’s …
Psychology
Kids Who Use Facebook Do Worse in School
That Facebook is hugely distracting is hardly stop-the-presses kind of news, but parents might be dismayed to learn that the social-media site can hobble learning and make kids less healthy and more depressed.
Q&A: Why ‘Expert’ Predictions in the Media Are So Often Wrong
With the gyrations of the stock market and unsettling political and financial climates causing jitters around the world, writer Dan Gardner offers timely insight in his new book Future Babble: Why Expert Predictions Are Next to …
The Healthland Podcast: Borderline Personality Disorder, Colon Health and Child Sexuality
This week we discuss the news that an NFL player suffers from the poorly understood psychiatric illness called borderline personality disorder. Also, should you have your colon cleaned? And we talk about the controversy over …
‘Magic Mushrooms’ Can Improve Psychological Health Long Term
The psychedelic drug in magic mushrooms may have lasting medical and spiritual benefits, according to new research from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
The Psychology of Real Estate: Why North Is Better Than South
So you’re searching online for a new place to live. You stumble across an affordable house in a nearby city that you’ve never visited. The house is in a neighborhood called North Town. A few minutes later, you find a similar …
More Americans Are Praying About Their Health
More Americans are praying about health issues — both for themselves and for the health of others — according to a new study [PDF] published in the journal Psychology of Religion and Spirituality.
The Psychology of Dictatorship: Why Gaddafi Clings to Power
Muammar Gaddafi continues to hold tightly to power even as NATO bombs rain down on Tripoli.
Why Happiness Isn’t Always Good: Asians vs. Americans
Among journalists — and less so among psychologists — the subset of mental-health research called “positive psychology” has become powerfully influential. Positive psychology, which was more or less founded by a …
Belonging Matters: How Researchers Can Halve the Race Gap in GPA
The racial gap in achievement between African American and white college students has been stubbornly persistent, but an hour-long intervention conducted during students’ freshman year can halve the GPA lag by graduation time …
Tending to Japan’s Psychological Scars: What Hurts, What Helps
Even seen on tiny screens from thousands of miles away, the images of destruction in Japan are devastating. The emotional aftermath seems unimaginable, and yet once the immediate crisis is over, the survivors will certainly be …
Do We Really Need Psychiatrists to Do Therapy?
In a front page story headlined “Talk Doesn’t Pay, So Psychiatry Turns Instead to Drug Therapy,” the New York Times Saturday bemoaned the fact that most psychiatrists now focus on prescribing medications, not practicing psychotherapy.
Kid Crazy: Why We Exaggerate the Joys of Parenthood
All parents know that having kids is a blessing — except when it’s a nightmare of screaming fits, diapers, runny noses, wars over bedtimes and homework and clothes. To say nothing of bills too numerous to list.