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Extraordinary Altruism: Who Gives a Kidney to a Stranger?
The Huffington Post: I have a colleague who would not be alive today if it were not for a complete stranger, who volunteered to give her a kidney. Her kidneys were failing, and she would not have survived for long. Now she is healthy, and has been for some years. So I understand in a personal way that living kidney donation is an extraordinary gift, a far-too-rare act of pure altruism. Yet I have not offered to make the same gift of my kidney. I have a friend who did, who donated one of her kidneys to a stranger, just out of the goodness of her heart. I admired her, but it made me nervous when she did it, for the same reason that it makes me nervous now. What if something goes wrong?
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The British amateur who debunked the mathematics of happiness
The Guardian: Nick Brown does not look like your average student. He's 53 for a start and at 6ft 4in with a bushy moustache and an expression that jackknifes between sceptical and alarmed, he is reminiscent of a mid-period John Cleese. He can even sound a bit like the great comedian when he embarks on an extended sardonic riff, which he is prone to do if the subject rouses his intellectual suspicion. A couple of years ago that suspicion began to grow while he sat in a lecture at the University of East London, where he was taking a postgraduate course in applied positive psychology.
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For Infants, Stress May be Caught, Not Taught
Babies not only pick up on their mother’s stress, they also show corresponding physiological changes, research shows.
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Super Bowl and Super Fans: Why We Care So Much
TIME: We’re not talking about the casual fan who watches the Super Bowl every year because he just really likes chicken wings, and all his friends are doing it. And we’re not talking about the fan who occasionally goes to a game if the opportunity presents itself, but doesn’t know the names of all the players. We’re talking about the real fans who never miss a game and know every player’s stats without consulting their smartphones. ...
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How do we know what/when young kids are ready to learn?
The Washington Post: How do we really know when young children are ready to learn specific material? Here to explain is cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham, professor and director of graduate studies in psychology at the University of Virginia and author of “Why Don’t Students Like School?” His latest book is “When Can You Trust The Experts? How to tell good science from bad in education.” This appeared on his Science and Education blog. ... In truth, it’s a bad question because the answer depends on the type of abstraction.
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For Kids With Low Self-Esteem, Excessive Praise Has Unintended Consequences
Pacific Standard: When we sense a child is feeling insecure, our tendency is often to shower him or her with effusive praise. It’s a lovely, compassionate impulse, but it’s also one you may want to resist. Newly published research suggests that, for the kids most likely to receive it, exaggerated acclaim may do more harm than good. “Inflated praise, although well-intended, may cause children with low self-esteem to avoid crucial learning experiences,” writes a research team led by Utrecht University psychologist Eddie Brummelman.
