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Current Directions in Psychological Science
Current Directions in Psychological Science: Volume 24, Number 5 Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, publishes reviews by leading experts covering all of scientific psychology and its applications. (Baby)Talk to Me: The Social Context of Infant-Directed Speech and Its Effects on Early Language Acquisition Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, Dilara Deniz Can, Melanie Soderstrom, and Kathy Hirsh-Pasek Physiological Arousal and Its Dysregulation in Child Maladjustment Angela Scarpa Chimpanzee Cognitive Control Michael J. Beran Personality Traits in Childhood and Adolescence: Structure, Development, and Outcomes Christopher J.
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A Short History of Empathy
The Atlantic: In a column for The New York Times this past January, Nicholas Kristof lamented what he called the country’s “empathy gap,” imploring his readers to grasp the complex circumstances that could plunge someone into poverty. Meanwhile, the psychologist Paul Bloom has argued that a sense of empathy can actually be “parochial [and] bigoted,” making it so “the whole world cares more about a little girl stuck in a well than they do about the possible deaths of millions and millions due to climate change.” ... By mid-century, empathy’s definition began to shift as some psychologists turned their attention to the science of social relations.
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Waiting on an email? Why it takes some people SO long to respond
TODAY: It seems as if you sent that email to your boss forever ago (or precisely 53 minutes ago). Why won't she respond? Maybe she won't grant your vacation time. Maybe you shouldn't have made that joke. It could simply be a generational difference. A recent study finds that email response time varies greatly by age and the older a person is, the fewer emails she will answer. ... "We expect someone to acknowledge us," says Pamela Rutledge, direct of the Media Psychology Research Center, who was not involved in the study.
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No, Your Children Aren’t Becoming Digital Zombies
The Wall Street Journal: The other day, a newspaper writer joined the chorus of angry voices about the bad effects of new technology. “There can be no rational doubt that [it] has caused vast injury.” It is “superficial, sudden, unsifted, too fast for the truth.” The day was in 1858, and the quote was about the telegraph. Similarly, the telephone, radio and television have each in turn been seen as a source of doom. Mobile devices like smartphones are just the latest example. Parents fear that they will make teenagers more socially alienated and disconnected—worries echoed and encouraged by many journalists and writers.
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Beyond the Ivory Tower
On Being: When we talk about the relationship between colleges and the world, we tend to focus on economics. But what is the place of institutions of higher education in the communities they inhabit? How can and should they nurture students as citizens and leaders for the emerging 21st century world? Read the whole story: On Being
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Anorexia May Be Habit, Not Willpower, Study Finds
The New York Times: Women who suffer from anorexia are often thought of as having an extraordinary degree of self-control, even if that discipline is used self-destructively. But a new study suggests that the extreme dieting characteristic of anorexia may instead be well-entrenched habit — behavior governed by brain processes that, once set in motion, are inflexible and slow to change. The study’s findings may help explain why the eating disorder, which has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness, is so stubbornly difficult to treat.
