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Children’s Genetic Potentials Are Subdued by Poverty
Children from poorer families do worse in school, are less likely to graduate from high school, and are less likely to go to college. A new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that these differences appear surprisingly early: by the age of 2. It's not a genetic difference. Instead, something about the poorer children's environment is keeping them from realizing their genetic potentials. Past research has found that a gap between poor children and children from wealthier families opens up early in life, even before children enter formal education.
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The Myth of Joyful Parenthood
Raising children is hard, and any parent who says differently is lying. Parenting is emotionally and intellectually draining, and it often requires professional sacrifice and serious financial hardship. Kids are needy and demanding from the moment of their birth to... well, forever. Don't get me wrong. I love my children dearly, and can't imagine my life without them. But let's face the facts: Study after study has shown that parents, compared to adults without kids, experience lower emotional well-being -- fewer positive feelings and more negative ones -- and have unhappier marriages and suffer more from depression.
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Weighing the Costs of Disaster: Consequences, Risks, and Resilience in Individuals, Families, and Communities
A scientific review shows that a psychological intervention commonly employed to help victims who have just experienced a disaster lacks evidence supporting its effectiveness and may actually be harmful.
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Centuries of Sailors Weren’t Wrong: Looking at the Horizon Stabilizes Posture
Everybody who has been aboard a ship has heard the advice: if you feel unsteady, look at the horizon. For a study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, researchers measured how much people sway on land and at sea and found there's truth in that advice; people aboard a ship are steadier if they fix their eyes on the horizon. Thomas A. Stoffregen of the University of Minnesota has been studying "body sway" for decades—how much people rock back and forth in different situations, and what this has to do with motion sickness.
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The ‘flagellation effect’: Can pain compensate for immorality?
Many religious traditions have pain rituals, and some of them are grotesque. Some Shia Muslims whip themselves with zangirs, whips made of knife blades, until their backs are red with blood. In the Hindu ritual of kavadi, believers use meat hooks and skewers to pierce their legs, face and tongue. In Christianity, “mortification of the flesh” dates back to the original teachings, and practices range from wearing hair shirts and chains to various forms of self-flagellation, even self-castration. Pain purifies. It atones for sin and cleanses the soul. Or at least that’s the idea. But is there any psychological truth to this notion?
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The Language of Young Love: The Ways Couples Talk Can Predict Relationship Success
We know that people tend to be attracted to, date, and marry other people who resemble themselves in terms of personality, values, and physical appearance. However, these features only skim the surface of what makes a relationship work. The ways that people talk are also important. A new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that people who speak in similar styles are more compatible. The study focused on words called "function words." These aren't nouns and verbs; they're the words that show how those words relate.
