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Little Authoritarians: The Closing of Young Minds
John Dean, former Nixon crony, White House lawyer and Watergate co-conspirator, turned on the Republican Party a few years ago. The reason for his turnabout, he writes in his book Conservatives Without Conscience, is that
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For Kids With Low Self-Esteem, Excessive Praise Has Unintended Consequences
Pacific Standard: When we sense a child is feeling insecure, our tendency is often to shower him or her with effusive praise. It’s a lovely, compassionate impulse, but it’s also one you may want to
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Inside the Psychologist’s Studio: Eleanor Maccoby
Some of the first women to enter the field of psychological research sought to examine differences between the sexes, even as they suffered from gender discrimination themselves, APS William James Fellow Eleanor Maccoby recently said
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Parents: beware praise inflation
The Boston Globe: It’s natural for parents to want to heap praise on their children. But depending on the kid, it may not be as helpful as they might think. In a new study, researchers
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Why baby talk is good for your baby
The Washington Post: The more parents exaggerate vowels and raise the pitch of their voices when talking to babies, the more the babies babble, new research shows. Common advice to new parents is that the
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Lavishing Kids With Praise Can Make Them Feel Worse About Themselves
The Atlantic: “Hollywood dishes out too much praise for small things,” the great actor Jimmy Stewart once said. “I won’t let it get me, but too much praise can turn a fellow’s head if he