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White fear of demographic change is a powerful psychological force
VOX: In August 2008, the Census Bureau released a report that predicted a seismic shift in American demographics: By 2050, minorities would make up more than 50 percent of the population and become the majority. When Yale psychologist Jennifer Richeson heard about the report on NPR, she remembers thinking, “This is probably freaking somebody out.” By “somebody,” she means white people. Richeson’s studies on interracial interactions had taught her that when people are in the majority, the sense of their race is dormant. But the prospect of being in the minority can suddenly make white identity — and all the historical privilege that comes with it — salient.
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Does Corruption Happen Slowly, or All at Once?
The Atlantic: If someone’s about to go into a cold swimming pool, they’ll probably use one of two tactics. They might dip a toe in, wade in to the ankles, and slowly, slowly inch their body into the water until they’re completely submerged. Or they’ll just cannonball in, and get it over with. If it’s not a cold swimming pool someone is entering, but rather the icy waters of corruption, which of these two strategies will they choose? Many would say the first; corruption is often characterized as a “slippery slope,” something into which a person or organization slowly descends as more and more small immoral acts add up.
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Why parenting tweenage children is more stressful than the terrible twos
Independent: The exhausted, sleep-deprived mothers of babies and toddlers may appear to be grappling with the most stressful period of their child's lives, but experts believe it is in fact the 'perfect storm' of the tween years that cause the most grief. US researchers recently studied over 2,200 mothers who were parenting children ranging from infants to adults. The team investigated factors including the mothers’ personal wellbeing, parenting style and perceptions of their children. Read the whole story: Independent
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New Research From Clinical Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Clinical Psychological Science: Do Measures of Posttrauma Factors Better Explain PTSD Severity Than Pretrauma Factors? An Empirical Reply to Ogle et al. Peter G. van der Velden and Leontien M. van der Knaap In a 2016 study, Ogle, Rubin, and Siegler examined how pre- and posttrauma factors contribute to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology. They concluded that posttrauma factors accounted for severity of PTSD symptoms better than pretrauma factors. van der Velden and van der Knaap argue that content overlap between the predictor and outcome variables was not properly accounted for in this study.
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What Your Relationship With Music Says About You
U.S. News & World Report: Ode to Joy" is a universally recognizable – and beloved – piece of symphonic music. But you might be surprised to learn it's based on the same simple scale you may have practiced as a child. What differentiates Beethoven's masterpiece from your practice drill is, of course, the artistic genius of its maker – who knew the secret sauce of real music as having a combination of familiarity and repetition (as in basing a piece on the scale), along with unpredictability.
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Young Girls Are Less Apt To Think That Women Are Really, Really Smart
NPR: Girls in the first few years of elementary school are less likely than boys to say that their own gender is "really, really smart," and less likely to opt into a game described as being for super-smart kids, research finds. The study, which appears Thursday in Science, comes amid a push to figure out why women are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, fields. One line of research involves stereotypes, and how they might influence academic and career choices. Read the whole story: NPR
