Category: Articles

  • People v. Problems

    From Wired:  Alcohol can increase longevity…but why? In recent years, sociologists and epidemiologists have begun studying the long-term effects of loneliness. It turns out to be really dangerous. We are social primates, and when we’re cut off from the social network, we are more likely to die from just about everything (but especially heart disease). At…

    Read more: People v. Problems
  • Debt v. Romance

    NYT:  How Debt Can Destroy a Budding Relationship. Nobody likes unpleasant surprises, but when Allison Brooke Eastman’s fiancé found out four months ago just how high her student loan debt was, he had a particularly strong reaction: he broke off the engagement within three days…

    Read more: Debt v. Romance
  • Preschool Depression?

    NYT Magazine: Can Preschoolers Be Depressed? One established [treatment] method is called Parent-Child Interaction Therapy, or P.C.I.T. Originally developed in the 1970s to treat disruptive disorders — which typically include violent or aggressive behavior in preschoolers — P.C.I.T. is generally a short-term program, usually 10 to 16 weeks under the supervision of a trained therapist,…

    Read more: Preschool Depression?
  • Life Without Downtime

    Another NYT “Your Brain on Computers” dispatch:  Digital Devices Deprive Brain of Needed Downtime “Almost certainly, downtime lets the brain go over experiences it’s had, solidify them and turn them into permanent long-term memories,” said Loren Frank, assistant professor in the department of physiology at the university, where he specializes in learning and memory. He…

    Read more: Life Without Downtime
  • New Maslow Pyramid

    Some ASU psychologists have taken it upon themselves to update the Maslow hierarchy of needs. Maslow’s pyramid describes human motivations from the most basic to the most advanced. According to experts, Maslow’s time-tested pyramid, first proposed in the 1940s, needed to be updated to reflect the last 50 years of research…The bottom four levels of…

    Read more: New Maslow Pyramid