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Depressed Moms’ Parenting Style Linked to Toddler Stress
LiveScience: Preschoolers whose parents are depressed get stressed out more easily than kids with healthy parents, but only if their mothers have a negative parenting style, according to a new study. The research, set to be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Psychological Science, measured the levels of the stress hormone cortisol in kids' saliva after mildly stressful experiences, such as interacting with a stranger. The researchers found that cortisol spikes were more extreme in kids whose parents had a history of depression and also exhibited a critical, easily frustrated parenting style.
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How a Helping Hand Can Slow You
It’s great to know your partner will help you pursue your goals, right? Maybe not. According to a new study published in Psychological Science, having a helpful partner can actually undermine your motivation to work towards those goals. This “self-regulatory outsourcing” phenomenon involves unconsciously relying on someone else to move your goals forward and, as a result, reducing your own efforts to reach those goals. In the authors’ first experiment, volunteers who focused on a way their partners helped them reach health and fitness goals planned to devote less effort to these goals than a control group.
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Tending to Japan’s Psychological Scars: What Hurts, What Helps
TIME: Even seen on tiny screens from thousands of miles away, the images of destruction in Japan are devastating. The emotional aftermath seems unimaginable, and yet once the immediate crisis is over, the survivors will certainly be faced with it. Experience with past disasters suggest that some types of psychological first aid may help those who have lived through them, but others can actually cause harm. Scott Lilienfeld, a professor of psychology at Emory University, has written and spoken about "critical incident stress debriefing," a technique often used by counselors who travel to disaster sites, such as Ground Zero and New Orleans.
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Experts adding to psychology articles on Wikipedia
NewsWorks: Wikipedia is the encyclopedia anybody can edit--but have you? That's the challenge the Association for Psychological Science is posing to its members. Wikipedia is home to more than 6000 articles related to psychology, but experts say many are written by lay people, and the quality is spotty. Read the whole story: NewsWorks
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Is Happiness Overrated?
The Wall Street Journal: The relentless pursuit of happiness may be doing us more harm than good. Some researchers say happiness as people usually think of it—the experience of pleasure or positive feelings—is far less important to physical health than the type of well-being that comes from engaging in meaningful activity. Researchers refer to this latter state as "eudaimonic well-being." Happiness research, a field known as "positive psychology," is exploding.
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2011 Summer Institute on Research Methodology, Oregon State University
July 12-13, 2011: Stata & Multilevel/Longitudinal Models Using Stata July 14-15, 2011: Mplus & Longitudinal Modeling Using Mplus The Oregon State University Summer Institute on Research Methodology is sponsored by the College of Health and Human Sciences Methodology Core and the Center for Healthy Aging Research. About the Summer Institute Introductory and advanced coursework using Mplus and Stata will be offered during the Institute. Participants in the Stata session are expected to be comfortable with multiple regression and participants in the Mplus session should also have some familiarity with factor analysis. No knowledge of Mplus or Stata is assumed.