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Abandon Parenting, and Just Be a Parent
The Atlantic: Could a 4-year-old possess better instincts for scientific discovery than a college student? In one experiment, researchers showed preschoolers and undergraduates a variety of blocks, some of which made a machine light up and play music. The children turned out to be more open to the notion that unusual combinations of blocks could turn the machine on, whereas the college students got hung up on the most obvious solution—that the shape of individual blocks affected the machine—ignoring evidence that it was wrong.
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PRACTICE DOESN’T MAKE PERFECT
The New Yorker: Zach Hambrick has always been fascinated by exceptional performance, or what he calls “the extremes of human capabilities.” Growing up, he’d devour Guinness World Records, noting the feats it described and picturing himself proudly posing in its pages. By the time he reached college, though, he’d moved on to a new obsession: becoming a golf pro. “I was very serious about it,” he told me. “I practiced religiously. It was very deliberate practice.” Every day, for hours, he’d be out swinging and putting. He expected to find himself on his way to glory. Except it didn’t quite work out that way.
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New Research From Clinical Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Clinical Psychological Science: Attentional Bias Dynamics and Posttraumatic Stress in Survivors of Violent Conflict and Atrocities: New Directions in Clinical Psychological Science of Refugee Mental Health Kim Yuval, Ariel Zvielli, and Amit Bernstein Survivors of violent conflicts and forcibly displaced persons are at risk for experiencing posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms. The researchers investigated a promising target for treatment: attentional bias (AB). AB is often conceptualized as a static trait, but new research is suggesting that it may be better described as a dynamic process.
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A Harvard psychologist explains why forcing positive thinking won’t make you happy
The Washington Post: All people, at times, fill up with grief, spill over with joy, or tremble with anger. Most of us are taught early on to manage these emotions by sharing and reveling in the positive ones, while repressing or apologizing for the negative ones. Either way, we learn not to probe our feelings too deeply. In her new book, “Emotional Agility: Get Unstuck, Embrace Change and Thrive in Work and Life,” Harvard Medical School professor and psychologist Susan David explains and then challenges this reflexive ways of handling emotion. David argues that we should instead pay close, yet detached attention to our internal experiences.
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We’re All a Little Biased, Even if We Don’t Know It
The New York Times: One of the newest chew toys in the presidential campaign is “implicit bias,” a term Mike Pence repeatedly took exception to in the vice-presidential debate on Tuesday. Police officers hear all this badmouthing, said Mr. Pence, Donald J. Trump’s running mate, in response to a question about whether society demands too much of law enforcement. They hear politicians painting them with one broad brush, with disdain, with automatic cries of implicit bias. He criticized Hillary Clinton for saying, in the first presidential debate, that everyone experiences implicit bias. He suggested a black police officer who shoots a black civilian could not logically experience such bias.
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How to vote for president when you don’t like any of the candidates
The Washington Post: How do voters select a candidate when no one they like is on the ballot? Behavioral scientists have studied decision-making — including voting — for decades. However, researchers usually give respondents at least one appealing option to choose from. This led us to wonder: What do voters do when they consider all of the options bad? Do they fall back on party affiliation, or simply toss a coin? This question is especially appropriate in the current presidential election because the two front-runners have the lowest favorability ratings ever. Read the whole story: The Washington Post
