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Learning on the Job: Myth vs Science
I am delighted to introduce Annie Murphy Paul, who today makes her debut appearance as a guest writer for the "We’re Only Human" blog. Annie Murphy Paul is one of the most highly regarded science writers working today, and one of our keenest interpreters of psychological science. Many of you already know her as a contributing writer at Time magazine, a weekly columnist at Time.com and MindShift, and as the author of two popular and well-received books: Origins, an exploration of the crucial nine months before birth, and The Cult of Personality, a cultural history and scientific critique of personality testing. Her latest book, in the works, is on the science of learning.
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Is Feeling Bad a Luxury Problem?
In Judith Viorst’s classic children’s book, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, Alexander wakes up with chewing gum in his hair—and everything goes downhill from there. He trips on his skateboard, and drops his sweater in the sink. He doesn’t get a window seat in the car, and the dentist tells him he has a cavity. His mother makes him get white sneakers, instead of the blue and red-striped ones he coveted. He’s forced to eat lima beans for dinner, and there’s kissing on TV. To top it all, his nightlight burns out just as he’s getting ready for bed. Alexander's plight resonates not just for kids, but also for any adult who has ever whined about a luxury problem.
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Embattled Childhood: The Real Trauma in PTSD
In 2009, a regiment of Danish soldiers, the Guard Hussars, was deployed for a six-month tour in Afghanistan’s arid Helmand Province, a Taliban stronghold. They were stationed along with British soldiers—270 in all—at a forward operating base called Armadillo. Although none of the Guard Hussars was killed during the tour of duty, they nevertheless experienced many horrors of battle. A commander was seriously injured by a roadside bomb, and a night patrol ended in a firefight that killed and dismembered several Taliban combatants.
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The Healthy Poor: Demystifying John Henry
John Henry is one of the big men of American folklore, a former slave and “steel drivin’ man” who helped pioneer the American frontier in the 19th century. According to legend, John Henry was a man of extraordinary physical prowess who wielded a sledge hammer to clear the way for the nation’s expanding railroads. He was also a man of extraordinary determination. When the railroad owner threatened to replace men and their muscles with a new steam-driven hammer, John Henry challenged owner and machine to a contest of strength. He won, but lost, dying of exhaustion. That’s the John Henry story most Americans know.
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God’s Flipside: Religion Without Kindness
I recently watched one of the most brutal and upsetting films I’ve ever seen, called The Stoning of Soraya M. I suppose the title of this 2008 film should have warned me away, but I really don’t believe that anything could prepare viewers for the graphic, bloody and excruciatingly prolonged scene that gives the film its name. It’s the story of a 35-year-old mother, falsely accused of adultery by her bullying husband and local mullah, who is convicted under Islamic law and executed by the men of a rural Iranian village. The stoning, based on a true story, took place in 1986, but the small-mindedness and hate-filled religiosity are medieval. The Stoning of Soraya M.
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Cycles of Dread: The Terror in Terrorism
Almost 3000 people died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. That includes the victims in or near the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and all the passengers in the four commandeered jets, including the flight that went down in rural Pennsylvania. But it does not include the many hidden victims of lingering terror—an additional 1500 whose dread of another attack led, indirectly and much later, to their deaths. This is the gist of the so-called “dread risk effect”—first hypothesized in 2004. The idea is that terrorist acts indeed create terror.
