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Grief, Unedited
The New York Times: EVER since Joan Didion’s book “The Year of Magical Thinking” began its long run as a best seller in 2005, a number of first-person accounts of losing a husband have been published. Among them are Kate Braestrup’s “Here If You Need Me,” Anne Roiphe’s “Epilogue” and Kay Redfield Jamison’s “Nothing Was the Same.” This week, they are being joined by Joyce Carol Oates’s memoir “A Widow’s Story,” which recounts the death of her 77-year-old husband, Raymond Smith, from complications of pneumonia in 2008. While these memoirs are often moving, they are also highly subjective snapshots that don’t teach us much about how we typically grieve, nor more important, for how long.
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Web of Popularity, Achieved by Bullying
The New York Times: For many teenagers navigating the social challenges of high school, the ultimate goal is to become part of the “popular” crowd. But new research suggests that the road to high school popularity can be treacherous, and that students near the top of the social hierarchy are often both perpetrators and victims of aggressive behavior involving their peers. Read the whole story: The New York Times
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Does Social Anxiety Disorder Respond to Psychotherapy? Brain Study Says Yes
When psychotherapy is helping someone get better, what does that change look like in the brain? This was the question a team of Canadian psychological scientists set out to investigate in patients suffering from social anxiety disorder. Their findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association of Psychological Science. Social anxiety is a common disorder, marked by overwhelming fears of interacting with others and expectations of being harshly judged. Medication and psychotherapy both help people with the disorder. But research on the neurological effects of psychotherapy has lagged far behind that on medication-induced changes in the brain.
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Will Your Love Last? Your Brain Might Hold the Answer
ABC News: Sometime tonight between the roses, the Champagne and the chocolates, couples across the U.S. and elsewhere will sit down to an intimate Valentine's dinner, stare soulfully into each other's eyes and perhaps take a moment to ponder a perennial question: Can this mad, mad love last? Read the whole story: ABC News
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Playing Hard to Get May Get the Girl, Study Finds
MSN: With Valentine's Day here, men who are looking to make a love connection on Internet dating sites should initially keep women guessing about just how interested they are, a new study suggests. Researchers at the University of Virginia and Harvard found that when college women first viewed the Facebook profiles of four male undergrads, they were most attracted to the men when they weren't sure whether the men liked them a lot or just an average amount. Read the whole story: MSN
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For Kids, Self-Control Factors Into Future Success
NPR: Self-control keeps us from eating a whole bag of chips or from running up the credit card. A new study says that self-control makes the difference between getting a good job or going to jail — and we learn it in preschool. "Children who had the greatest self-control in primary school and preschool ages were most likely to have fewer health problems when they reached their 30s," says Terrie Moffitt , a professor of psychology at Duke University and King's College London. Read the whole story: NPR
