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We Can Help Shape How Our Children Remember the Pandemic — and Foster Their Future Happiness
APS Member/Author: Daniel Willingham My kids won’t be in school full-time this fall, so, like most parents, I will be thinking about how to keep them occupied and content. But I’m also a memory researcher, and that makes me wonder how they will recall these odd times decades from now. Naturally, I hope those memories will be more pleasant than miserable. That goal sounds uncomplicated — happy kids should grow into adults with happy memories. But reminiscences aren’t a simple averaging of experience. I’m not out to manipulate my kids, but knowing how memory works helps me shape what my children will recall of 2020. What’s a desirable “normal” of the pandemic?
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Laughter May Be Effective Medicine for These Trying Times
Some enlightened doctors, nurses and therapists have a prescription for helping all of us to get through this seemingly never-ending pandemic: Try a little laughter. Humor is not just a distraction from the grim reality of the crisis, said Dr. Michael Miller, a cardiologist at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. It’s a winning strategy to stay healthy in the face of it. “Heightened stress magnifies the risk of cardiovascular events, including heart attacks and strokes,” Dr. Miller said.
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The Debate On Power Posing Continues: Here’s Where We Stand
Power posing or postural feedback is a technique that suggests how you hold your body influences how you feel and how you behave. Over the last decade, naysayers labeled power posing a pseudoscience, and the intense debate over the validity of power posing research culminated in death threats and bullying. Now, more research has confirmed the effects are real, and a new generation of researchers is honing in on exactly how our posture and stance impacts our thoughts and behavior.
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The Best Live Animal Feeds From Around the World
If you spend hours scrolling through cat videos online, there’s a scientific explanation for why that’s a hard habit to kick: A new study has found that watching footage of cute animals can reduce your anxiety, blood pressure and heart rate.
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Laurie Santos Says Self-Care Doesn’t Have to Be Selfish
Laurie Santos, a psychology professor at Yale University and host of The Happiness Lab podcast, is a leading expert in positive psychology, a relatively young field. Since she began teaching “The Science of Well-Being” in 2018, it has become the most popular course in Yale’s history, with nearly a quarter of students enrolling. The class, now online for free, applies what Dr. Santos calls a “preventative medicine approach” to mental health — harnessing science and evidence to help people lead more fulfilling lives.
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Who Will Benefit From Psychedelic Medicine?
n a sweaty Sunday morning in August of last year, Jamilah George was on the 16th floor of the historic Brown Hotel in Louisville, leading a spiritual service of sorts. George, a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology at the University of Connecticut who also holds a master’s degree in divinity from Yale University, asked the audience to shout out the names of ancestors or people they admired. With each name, George performed a libation ritual, pouring water into a leafy green plant, stationed at the front of the podium, as a gesture of thanks. “Maya Angelou,” called out one audience member. “Mama Lola,” called another. The names kept coming: Toni Morrison. Audre Lorde.
