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Children Face Unequal Treatment in the Classroom—With Devastating Consequences
As a university student studying psychology, I observed classrooms in a local elementary school to learn more about teacher feedback. On one occasion, an 11-year-old boy named Mark received a six out of 10 on a test he had taken a week earlier. In response to his disappointment, the boy’s teacher said, “It’s okay, Mark—not everyone has to be an Einstein.” The comment stuck with me. Unlike his classmates, Mark was from a lower socioeconomic background. His parents were struggling financially and were unable to help him with his homework. Mark shared his bedroom with his siblings, so he didn’t have a quiet place to study at home.
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Healing 2.0: Change Your Story, Change Your Life
We all tell stories about ourselves, often without realizing we’re doing so. How we frame those stories can profoundly shape our lives. In the kickoff episode to our monthlong series on healing, psychologist Jonathan Adler shares how to tell our stories in ways that enhance our wellbeing. ...
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Stressed Out? It Might Not Just Be In Your Head. How Your Muscles Affect Your Mood
A lot of us associate our neck and back pain with spending hours hunched over our devices. We also know that good posture and core strength can help prevent those aches and pains. But researchers say it can also help us feel less stress. It all comes down to the inner part of our adrenal glands—the adrenal medulla—which releases adrenaline into the body, says Peter Strick, a leading neuroscientist at the University of Pittsburgh. When we're stressed, the brain sends a signal to the adrenal medulla. That signal triggers the fight-or-flight response: increased heart rate, increased blood pressure, nausea, and other unpleasant symptoms. ...
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A New Way to Inspire People to Get a COVID Vaccine
Here we go again: respiratory virus season. For the first time this year, though, we have vaccines against our big three threats: flu, RSV and COVID. But vaccines in vials do not equal vaccinations in arms. Only 17 percent of Americans got last fall’s COVID vaccine. What do we do in a time of extreme fatigue, loss of trust, disinformation, politicization and lack of public health funds for education and outreach? There is a solution.
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How an ‘Effort-Reward Imbalance’ Can Make Work Miserable
Life isn’t fair. It’s a phrase so often repeated that it has become a cliché. But studies have shown that humans are hard-wired to want their fair share, as are other animals that have cooperative relationships, like monkeys, birds and wolves. In one famous experiment, researchers trained two capuchin monkeys to hand them tokens in exchange for a cucumber snack. At first, the animals were happy with this arrangement — that is, until one of the monkeys received grapes instead, which are considered far more delicious. The other monkey, who continued to receive cucumbers, looked enraged, shook the walls of her enclosure and hurled the cucumbers out of reach.
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What Does Watching Violence Do to Your Mind? ‘Nothing Good’: 5 Tips for Maintaining Your Mental Health While Following the News
The conflict in Israel and Gaza has dominated the news cycle for the last week. Turn on the TV or log on to any social media platform and you’ll be confronted with a barrage of horrific headlines. While staying informed is important, consuming an excess of graphic images and videos can negatively affect your mental health. Media exposure to mass violence can fuel a “cycle” where the viewer is highly distressed by the news and that causes them to consume even more of it, according to a recent study. “Nothing good” happens to your brain when you see violent images, says Iliyan Ivanov, a professor of psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. ...
