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Study: It’s Not Too Much Desire, But Too Little Self-Control That Gets Us Into Trouble
Forbes: Imagine a seesaw in your brain. On one side is your desire system, the network of brain areas related to seeking pleasure and reward. On the other side is your self-control system, the network of brain areas that throw up red flags before you engage in risky behavior. The tough questions facing scientific explorers of behavior are what makes the seesaw too heavy on either side, and why is it so difficult to achieve balance? A new study from University of Texas-Austin, Yale and UCLA researchers suggests that for many of us, the issue is not that we’re too heavy on desire, but rather that we’re too light on self-control. ...
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Toddlers love selfies: Parenting in an iPhone age
CBS: Every so often, Brandi Koskie finds dozens of photos of her 3-year-old daughter, Paisley, on her iPhone - but they aren't ones Koskie has taken. "There'll be 90 pictures, sideways, of the corner of her eye, her eyebrow," said Koskie, who lives in Wichita, Kan. "She's just tapping her way right into my phone." The hidden photos, all shot by Paisley, illustrate a phenomenon familiar to many parents in today's tech-savvy world: Toddlers love selfies. Observant entrepreneurs have caught on to these image-obsessed tots, marketing special apps that make taking photos super-easy for little fingers.
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Heart Disease Risk Linked With Spouses’ Social Support
Matters of the heart can influence actual heart health, according to new research. A study from researchers at the University of Utah shows that the ways in which your spouse is supportive -- and how you support your spouse -- can actually have significant bearing on your overall cardiovascular health. The findings reveal that when both partners perceive the support they get from each other as ambivalent -- that is, sometimes helpful and sometimes upsetting– each partner’s levels of coronary artery calcification (CAC) tend to be particularly high. These results are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
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An Antidote for Mindlessness
The New Yorker: In the mid-nineteen-seventies, the cognitive psychologist Ellen Langer noticed that elderly people who envisioned themselves as younger versions of themselves often began to feel, and even think, like they had actually become younger. Men with trouble walking quickly were playing touch football. Memories were improving and blood pressure was dropping. The mind, Langer realized, could have a strong effect on the body.
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Talking to Your Child After You Yell
The Wall Street Journal: Nearly every parent loses control and screams at the children now and then. But what if you do it repeatedly?Researchers suspect parents are yelling more. Parents have been conditioned to avoid spanking, so they vent their anger and frustration by shouting instead. Three out of four parents yell, scream or shout at their children or teens about once a month, on average, for misbehaving or making them angry, research shows. Increasingly, therapists and parenting experts are homing in on how it hurts a child, as well as how to stop it. Raising your voice isn't always bad.
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Political Map: Does Geography Shape Your Ideology?
NPR: The political map of America changes, but it doesn't change very quickly. Massachusetts was a reliably liberal state decades ago and still is. The South is still the South. This raises the question of why it is that certain areas come to be reliably liberal or conservative. ... Exactly, so that's the theory suggest that geography shapes your ideology. There's new research now that links the red state/blue state phenomenon with the fact that 40 to 50 million Americans move every year. So we are an increasingly mobile society. I spoke with psychologist Brian Nosek at the University of Virginia.
