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We Must Reduce the Trauma of Medical Diagnoses
APS Member/Author: Cindi May and Jaclyn Hennessey Ford At some point in your life, you will likely experience the anxiety of sitting in a hospital room, waiting for a serious medical diagnosis. Even those lucky enough to avoid that situation will likely accompany a loved one—a parent, grandparent or child—who is receiving the news. You might remember the stiffness of the chair, the pattern of the hospital gown or the doctor’s folded hands. Whatever the diagnosis—cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes or even COVID-19—the event is not one you will easily forget.
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Working Around the Distance
Six months into the COVID-19 pandemic, a new set of practices has begun to take shape in how psychological scientists teach and conduct research.
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Kids Can Learn to Love Learning, Even Over Zoom
APS Member/Author: Adam Grant “Can independently mute and unmute himself when requested to do so.” That’s praise we never expected to see a year ago on our son’s kindergarten report card. We’re so proud. As the new school year begins, many students are learning virtually, either by personal choice or requirement — and many parents and teachers are concerned that students will fall behind in their knowledge. But a greater risk to our students may be that they lose their curiosity. Whether students are in kindergarten or college, knowledge is always attainable. Teachers can and will catch kids up on their multiplication tables and periodic tables.
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How to Cope When Everything Is Changing
How do you make plans when it’s impossible to make plans? The ground beneath our feet is constantly shifting. Planning for anything more than a week out can feel futile — almost silly — since no one knows what the next week, much less the next month, will bring. A surge in coronavirus cases in your area? More lockdowns? Worrying about natural disasters? And concerns about health and financial well-being make matters even worse. “The questions are endless. And the answers are always changing,” said Nick Tasler, an organizational psychologist and the author of “Ricochet: What To Do When Change Happens To You.” “One day the W.H.O. recommends this, and the next day the C.D.C.
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Recalling Memories From A Distance Changes How Your Brain Works And Helps You Excel In Your Career
New research shows recalling memories from a third-person perspective changes how your brain processes them. When you take the third-person point of view, you are the narrator of job obstacles and career disappointments. The practice of self-distancing, however, gives you the view of an observer, widening your perspective and helping you see the bigger picture—the water you’re swimming in. And it reveals solutions to problems and possibilities to work obstacles so you can scale them and enjoy career success. ... Previous Studies On Self-Distancing Research shows silently referring to ourselves by name instead as “I,” gives us psychological distance from the primitive parts of our brain.
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As the Pandemic Erodes Grad Student Mental Health, Academics Sound the Alarm
As the academic year kicks into gear, Dagny Deutchman is navigating a new role. The second-year psychology graduate student is serving as one of Montana State University’s first department-level “graduate student wellness champions”—a position in which she hopes to foster dialogue about mental health issues. “Academic culture can in some ways be pretty toxic,” she says. “Change has to come from the top down, but it also has to come from within.” The new position comes at an opportune time, with mental health issues on the rise amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In a survey of roughly 4000 U.S.-based STEM Ph.D.
