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Educated Americans Paved the Way for Divorce—Then Embraced Marriage
The countercultural revolution of the 1960s and 1970s threw the American family into chaos. Young adults—educated liberals especially—revolted against the constraints of 1950s family life, engaging seriously with formerly fringe ideas like open marriage and full-time employment for mothers. The old rules were in tatters, and nobody really knew what the new rules were. The likelihood that a given marriage would end in divorce doubled, to 50 percent, between 1965 and 1980. Academics and pundits of the era generally assumed that the retreat from marriage would continue apace.
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New Research From Psychological Science
A sample of research exploring how infants learn to categorize words and the fidelity of different memory types.
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What’s behind the confidence of the incompetent? This suddenly popular psychological phenomenon.
You may have witnessed this scene at work, while socializing with friends or over a holiday dinner with extended family: Someone who has very little knowledge in a subject claims to know a lot. That person might even boast about being an expert. This phenomenon has a name: the Dunning-Kruger effect. It’s not a disease, syndrome or mental illness; it is present in everybody to some extent, and it’s been around as long as human cognition, though only recently has it been studied and documented in social psychology.
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Eleanor Maccoby, Pathbreaker on How Boys and Girls Differ, Dies at 101
Eleanor Emmons Maccoby, a distinguished psychologist and a pioneer in the field of gender studies who was the first woman to head the Stanford University psychology department, died on Dec. 11 in Palo Alto, Calif. She was 101. Her death, at a retirement community, was confirmed by her son, Mark, who said the cause was pneumonia. Dr. Maccoby, whom the American Psychological Association listed among the 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th century, conducted pathbreaking research in child development and gender studies. She explored a wide range of topics, including interactions between parent and child and the effect of divorce on children.
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Context Shapes Choice of Healthy Foods
When choosing between indulgent and healthy foods, your pick may depend on what other foods sit nearby on the grocery shelf.
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How Digital Driving Advice Can Help Motorists Go Green
No one likes a backseat driver, but motorists may be more amenable to suggestions when support systems take the time to explain recommendations.