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Self-Reflection is Critical for Wellness
MD Health Guide: As each day passes, the pace of life seems to accelerate – demands on productivity continue ever upward and there is hardly ever a moment when we aren’t, in some way, in touch with our family, friends, or coworkers. While moments for reflection may be hard to come by, a new article suggests that the long-lost art of introspection —even daydreaming — may be an increasingly valuable part of life.
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Parents can play active role in making teens interested in math and science
Asia News International: Experts in research and policy have examined different ways to enhance and promote STEM education - science, technology, engineering and math - among students, but most of these efforts are focused within the four walls of the classroom. A new study goes beyond the classroom to examine the unique role that parents can play in promoting students' STEM motivation. "Our focus for this project was different from our previous work. In classes, we try to promote students' motivation and performance in that class, but with families, our goal is to promote choices about which courses to take," said lead author Judith Harackiewicz, of the University of Wisconsin.
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Tall, dark and stable
The Economist: CLEARLY, a person’s decisions are determined by circumstances. Just how closely they are determined, however, has only recently become apparent. Experiments conducted over the past few years have revealed that giving someone an icy drink at a party leads him to believe he is getting the cold shoulder from fellow guests, that handing over a warm drink gives people a sense of warmth from others, and—most astonishingly—that putting potential voters in chairs which lean slightly to the left causes them to become more agreeable towards policies associated with the left of the political spectrum. The latest of these studies also looks at the effect of furniture.
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Exposure to Sexual Content in Popular Movies Predicts Sexual Behavior in Adolescence
Intuitively it simply makes sense: exposure to sexual content in movies at an early age probably influences adolescents' sexual behavior. And yet, even though a great deal of research has shown that adolescents who watch more risky behaviors in popular movies, like drinking or smoking, are more likely to drink and smoke themselves, surprisingly little research has examined whether movies influence adolescents' sexual behaviors. Until now. Over six years, psychological scientists examined whether or not seeing sex on the big screen translates into sex in the real world for adolescents.
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How Stereotypes Can Drive Women To Quit Science
NPR: Walk into any tech company or university math department, and you'll likely see a gender disparity: Fewer women than men seem to go into fields involving science, engineering, technology and mathematics. Over the years, educators, recruiters and government authorities have bemoaned the gender gap and warned that it can have dire consequences for American competitiveness and continued technological dominance. It isn't just that fewer women choose to go into these fields. Even when they go into these fields and are successful, women are more likely than men to quit.
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Extra Credit: Teach your children well about STEM
Wisconsin State Journal: Parents can play a key role in swelling the ranks of students pursuing careers in science, math, engineering and technology (STEM) fields, according to a new UW study published in Psychological Science. Increasing interest in STEM fields is crucial to developing a strong 21st century U.S. workforce, but interest in science and math begins to wane in high school when students choose not to take advanced courses in those subjects, according to the study. While most efforts to change that have focused on things schools can do to increase student interest in STEM classes, researchers at UW demonstrated the influence parents can have.
