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Anxiety is normal, but PTSD may simmer in children who’ve seen Boston Marathon bombing
CBS: The graphic nature of the attack at the Boston Marathon can be difficult for many to process, and that includes young people. Whether or not they were physically there at the bombing, children can be profoundly affected by what they hear and see. It can be normal to notice some anxiety and fear after an event like the marathon bombing, Dr. Alan Hilfer, director of psychology at Maimonides Medical Center in New York, explained to CBSNews.com.The most important thing is that someone will be there for them -- because they'll be turning to the adults in their life and their peer for answers and support. ...
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The Teenage Brain: How Do We Measure Maturity?
The Huffington Post: Holden Caulfield is the archetypal American teenager. Or at least he was, way back in the 20th century. His misadventures, narrated in J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, may seem quaint by today's standards, yet the 17-year-old reveals many of the worrisome traits that we still associate with adolescence. He acts and speaks impulsively, then regrets his actions. He is unfocused, a poor student who gets himself expelled from school. He gets into fights, drinks way too much, solicits a prostitute and gets beat up by her pimp in his seedy hotel room. The best life plan he can come up with is moving west to live as a deaf-mute.
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Boston Marathon’s Heroes And The Science Behind Compassion
Nature World News: The acts of heroism seen even within seconds of the detonation of the bombs at Boston Marathon included people who seemed to utterly forget fear for their own wellbeing in order to protect that of others. However, Tuesday's events were not first time the world's seen such selflessness before: firefighters and policemen and women during the 9-11 attacks, for example, come to mind for many. Emma Seppala, the associate director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE) at Stanford University, is just one of several pioneers in this relatively new field of study.
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A New Way to Curb Drinking? Planting False (Bad) Memories of a Bender
TIME: Researchers are exploring the possibility that convincing drinkers they had a bad experience with liquor — even if they didn’t — could lead them to drink less. As surprising as it sounds, dozens of studies now show that it is relatively easy to create false childhood memories. By using suggestive techniques such as presenting apparently personal information or having family members claim that false memories are true, up to 40% of people can be convinced that they experienced events that did not occur. ... But if traumatic experiences could be falsely planted, then researchers began wondering if they could seed false memories to trigger helpful, rather than harmful responses.
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Ground down
The Economist: FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE’S widely cited maxim—“that which does not kill him makes him stronger”—is often taken as truth. Yet as sensible as it might seem, the saying has rarely been tested. Psychologists have little idea whether unpleasant experiences really do increase resilience. A study just published in Psychological Science suggests they do exactly the opposite. In 1995 David Almeida, a psychologist at Pennsylvania State University, began an experiment involving 1,483 people. He asked them to take two tests.
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Seeing Happiness In Facial Expressions, Instead Of Anger, Can Lessen Aggression
The Huffington Post: How you perceive emotions in others can have a real impact on how you feel yourself, according to a new study. The new research, published in the journal Psychological Science, shows that training people to be biased to recognize happiness instead of anger in a facial expression can help to lower their own feelings of aggression and anger. "Our results provide strong evidence that emotion processing plays a causal role in anger and the maintenance of aggressive behavior," study researcher Marcus Munafo, a professor at the university, said in a statement.
