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Heat wave psychology: Long past, greener future?
I live in Maryland, where we have been suffering through an unrelenting heat wave all summer, and I confess I have cranked up the AC on the worst days. But I always feel guilty about it when I do, and I turn it off whenever the air dips back into the tolerable range. So I’m no saint, but I am mindful. I am motivated by thoughts of the future generations, my kids and their kids and all of the people who will have to inhabit this overheating planet. We all make more or less responsible choices like this every day. We drive hybrids or guzzlers, recycle or don’t, protest or endorse the Keystone XL pipeline.
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How an Introvert Can Be Happier: Act Like an Extrovert
The Wall Street Journal: Extroverts, those outgoing, gregarious types who wear their personalities on their sleeve, are generally happier, studies show. Some research also has found that introverts, who are more withdrawn in nature, will feel a greater sense of happiness if they act extroverted. Experts aren't entirely sure why behaving like an extrovert makes people feel better. One theory is that being talkative and engaging influences how people respond to you, especially if that response is positive. Others speculate that people get more satisfaction when they express their core self and opinions.
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How to Help Kids Eat Their Vegetables
Parents Magazine: What parents don’t want their kids to eat their vegetables? In shades of green, red, orange, and even white, vegetables boast many virtues. With little fat and relatively few calories, vegetables pack in dietary fiber to fill kids up. They also promote healthy bowel function, and can reduce constipation. They also boast important vitamins and minerals including vitamins A and C, folate, and potassium. Studies suggest that eating a produce-rich diet is linked with lower body weight and reduced chronic disease risk—and it may even help kids do better in school. ...
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Teens’ Self-Consciousness Has Biological Basis, Study Says
US News & World Report: Many teens are concerned about what other kids think of them, and this self-consciousness is linked with specific body and brain responses that appear to begin and peak in adolescence, a new study finds. Researchers put 69 volunteers, aged 8 to 23, in a situation in which they believed they were being observed by another person their own age and monitored the participants' emotional, body and brain responses. The goal was to determine if just being looked at might trigger more intense body and brain responses in teens than in children and adults. That turned out to be the case, the researchers reported recently in the journal Psychological Science.
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The Psychological Challenge of Being a Prince
The Huffington Post: Amidst the celebrations of the birth of a British prince, it is worth thinking about what this may mean psychologically for a youngster who will turn 18 in 2031. A look back at his forebears gives a hint of the psychological challenges he will face. His great-great-great-great grandfather Edward VII was a disappointment to his parents and lived a fairly dissolute life and only found a properly adult role when he became King at the age of 60. George V had an easier time because he was only 44 when his father died in 1910, but he did not make things easy for his son Edward VIII, saying about him: "After I am dead, the boy will ruin himself in twelve months".
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What’s in a Royal Name? Psychological Researchers Explain the Significance
The royal baby has been named — George Alexander Louis. And that handle will have a significant bearing on the child's future, psychological researchers say. As Jason Goldman of the University of Southern California describes in The Guardian, children born in European nations are more likely to have popular, traditional names than children born in countries colonized by European explorers. Those findings were reported in a 2011 study published in Psychological Science. And it appears the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge followed this naming norm, in effect safeguarding the child's future public image.
