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The Liberation of Growing Old
The New York Times: LONDON — WHY do we have such punitive attitudes toward old people? Granted, the ancients did hideous things to elders who were unable to work but still needed food and care, but in more recent times, that had changed: In 18th-century New England, it was common for people to make themselves seem older by adding years to their real age, rather than subtracting them. Once upon a time, “senile” just meant old, without being pejorative. Even “geriatric” was originally a value-free term, rather than part of the lexicon of contempt toward old people. Yet today, the language used to describe the changing age composition of the population is little short of apocalyptic.
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New Research From Clinical Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Clinical Psychological Science: Pretraumatic Stress Reactions in Soldiers Deployed to Afghanistan Dorthe Berntsen and David C. Rubin Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) arises from anxiety connected to past events, but anxiety and apprehension about future events are seen in many types of anxiety disorders. This brings up the question of whether people can display pretraumatic stress reactions. The authors of this study created a pretraumatic stress reaction checklist (PreCL) and had Danish soldiers complete it before, during, and after a 6-month deployment to Afghanistan.
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Why Guilt-Prone People Aren’t ‘Team Players’
New York Magazine: A lot of us know someone who is a bit more guilt-prone than they should be, liable to nose-dive into a shame spiral over seemingly minor incidents. A new study hints at some of the effects this trait could have in the workplace or the classroom: Guilt-prone people may be less likely to want to team up on projects out of fear they will disappoint their colleagues.
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Making Language Immersion Fun for the Kids
The New York Times: It was summer in Tuscany. The rolling hills were adorned with their famous haystacks. The cypress trees were majestically verdant against the golden backdrop. We were in the picturesque Renaissance town Pienza, its spire shooting up into a cloudless sky. I watched as my children boarded a scuolabus with 15 Italian kids they’d never met before. The bus pulled away, heading to a local terra-cotta museum. I looked at the faces of my children — crying, hysterical, their tiny hands banging on the windows. And I was filled with joy. I should explain. What brought me to this pocket of Italy for a month, and inspired me to take a leave of absence from work and my husband?
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It Pays to Have an Eye for Emotions
From Gordon Gekko in Wall Street to Miranda Priestly in the Devil Wears Prada, successful people in the workplace are often shown as tough and single-minded, with little concern for the feelings of others. In most fields, intrapersonal “soft skills” are rarely given the same weight as more technical qualifications. But a new study finds that an eye for emotions can really pay off.
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Bad habits are like potato chips, you can’t break just one
Chicago Tribune: I'm walking around with natural fingertips for the first time in years. No red stain from Flamin' Hot Cheetos. No orange hue from Nacho Cheese Doritos. No trace of purple from Takis Fuego. Just flesh, hopefully without preservatives. Try not to judge me a bad person, but I've eaten a bag of chips nearly every day since I was a teenager. (I'm only exaggerating a little.) We were poor, and it was a cheap snack growing up. I'm a stress eater, and it's comfort food. That's how I came to rely on the processed potato. I've cut back in recent years but have often kept a bag or two hidden around the apartment in case of emergency. Read the whole story: Chicago Tribune
