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The kids will be all right
Science News: As I was getting Baby V into the car recently, she pointed to her arm and said, “Owie! Bit!” Sure enough, she had the angry red imprint of a snack-sized mouth on her arm. It turns out she had tangled with a little boy who used his teeth to make his point. I know that biting is a totally normal way for a frustrated kid to communicate. And I know that Baby V has probably gotten her fair share of licks in. In the grand scheme of things, this bite is really no big deal. But moments like these remind me of one of the most terrifying parts of being a parent: As much as I want to, I can’t always protect my kid from bad things.
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She Takes After You!
Slate: I vaguely remember my son’s first crawl, his first steps, and the first time he said “mama.” But I really remember the first time he swore. It was shortly after he had turned 3. He was playing with his toys in the other room, and I’m guessing he was getting frustrated because, for the zillionth time, his zoo animals weren’t fitting in his zoo truck. Suddenly I heard: “Fuck it chuck it!” I froze. My first thought was: Did I just hear what I think I heard? Then I wondered: Is it bad if I laugh? Because that was kind of hilarious.
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Airport Security; Attitudes to Psychosis; Walking Happy
BBC: Home Secretary Theresa May says the UK is facing a terror threat "perhaps greater than it has ever been", and this week's anti-terrorism bill includes tighter airport security. But two psychology professors say current screening methods used at airports, where security agents check the behaviour of passengers for "suspicious signs", need an urgent upgrade.
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How to Be a Better Writer: 6 Tips From Harvard’s Steven Pinker
Time: U want 2B a better writer? Good writing is often looked at as an art and, frankly, that can be intimidating. No need to worry. There are rules — even science — behind writing well. Our brain works a particular way; so what rules do we need to know to write the way the brain best understands? To find out the answer I gave Steven Pinker a call. Steven is a cognitive scientist and linguist at Harvard. He’s also on the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary. Read the whole story: Time
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Sons’ Intelligence Linked to Fathers’ Criminal History
Sons whose fathers have criminal records tend to have lower cognitive abilities than sons whose fathers have no criminal history, data from over 1 million Swedish men show. The research, conducted by scientists in Sweden and Finland, indicates that the link is not directly caused by fathers’ behavior but is instead explained by genetic factors that are shared by father and son. The study is published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
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Mothers and Lovers: From Parenting To Romance
Most of us would probably agree that our early childhood experiences influence who we become as adults. But this is actually a fairly provocative notion. And especially provocative is the idea that our upbringing—the quality of the parenting we get—has long-term implications for how we later interact with other adults, including our intimate partners. This is not an easy connection to study for a couple of reasons. It takes a lot of time and planning to study people from childhood into adulthood, and what’s more, neither parenting quality nor the quality of romantic relationships is easily and objectively analyzed.
