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Has “Downton Abbey” Jumped the Shark?
“Jumping the shark” refers to the moment when a highly regarded television show begins to decline in quality. The origin of the phrase comes from the Happy Days episode where Fonzie jumps over a shark...
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For the second time this January, gusts are swirling around the polar vortex. The wind chill is below zero, and the snowdrift in front of my house is at least ten feet deep.It could be worse. It was...
View ArticleCurious Twin/Sib Pairs and School Separation
(I). Twin and Twin-like Sibships and (II). Separating Twins at SchoolI. Twins fascinate us, especially the varieties among both identical and fraternal twins. About 25% of identical twin pairs result...
View ArticleWithout the Wolf There Is No Dog
I watched a 1998 BBC documentary on YouTube a few days ago called The Wolfman—The Diary of Paul Balenovic. It recounts the eighteen years that Balenovic, a Croatian stuntman and banjo picker, spent...
View ArticleRemembering Who You Are Through Illness
To make a very long story a bit shorter, let's start with the fact that I've had four surgeries in the past eight months due to complications with Crohn's disease. Anyone that has had any kind of...
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Aggression Works Because People Feed It
I toured a farm recently and got to feed the pigs. I saw them bite each other over the crumbs of tortillas we were given to toss at them. The pigs were not actually hungry because the farmer already...
View ArticleA National Medal of Science Pedigree
The roots of the Theory of Cognitive Modes lie in a landmark report published in 1982 by cognitive neuroscientist Mortimer Mishkin and Leslie G. Ungerleider, of the National Institute of Mental Health....
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Are You Too Embarrassed to Exercise?
Anyone who tries to start an exercise program knows how difficult it is to stick with it for more than a few weeks. You may feel selfish for taking time out for yourself, or you're too busy or tired to...
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Healing From My Eating Disorder
Like many who suffer from body dissatisfaction, my journey into dieting began not with an active weight loss attempt, but with what we know as “food rules.” No eating after 7:00 pm. No red meat because...
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Mental Illness, Media, and the Health Care System
Mental illness has been in the press frequently over the past year. Media coverage have highlighted the struggle that many individuals and families face daily such as mass shooting (at schools and...
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Robinson Crusoe, Psychologist
Daniel Defoe published Robinson Crusoe in 1719. The work ranks as the first novel in the English language, and it has stood the test of time. It is a great piece of literary art. Why should we read...
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Gardening Can Improve a Child's Fitness and Well-Being
As part of the global ‘green’ movement to improve the environment, gardening is gaining popularity as an activity for people of all ages and physical abilities. A new study has found that gardening is...
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The Problems with the Love Hormone
When it comes to love and intimate relationships, one neurohormone gets more press than anything else. Its name is oxytocin, and it often gets called the “love hormone” (N.B. sometimes it acts like a...
View ArticleMirandize Your Supervisees
Beginning therapists think they should say something, anything, to disguise the fact that they don’t know what to say. It’s not a bad approach, since the therapist has to get used to the role of...
View ArticleIs God wearing a Peyton Manning or Russell Wilson jersey?
“God, please help my team win.”How many Broncos and Seahawks fans will utter these words or say this quiet prayer leading up to and during the Super Bowl this Sunday? My guess is a lot.I never believed...
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Denying Determinism
Last semester I taught a new seminar on the psychology of free will. The upshot of the class—and of a wealth of recent research on the subject—was that the evidence in favor of free will is weak. We...
View ArticleBut What KIND of Universal Pre-K?
Universal pre-kindergarten education finally seems to be gathering momentum. President Obama highlighted the issue in his 2013 State of the Union address (and then mentioned it again in this year’s)....
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There's More Than Two Ways to Look at a Problem
Matt’s parents divorced when he was four. His mother and two sisters raised him. His mother never remarried and the family struggled financially throughout Matt’s childhood. While growing up he...
View ArticleWhen Does Classifiable=Beautiful?
What makes a person appear beautiful? Several prominent theories - dating back to Galton (1879) - have suggested that there is “beauty in averageness”. That is, a person with a more diverse gene pool...
View ArticleObesity: What is the problem?
As I was reading yesterday’s New York Times article, “Obesity Is Found to Gain Its Hold in Earliest Years,” I marveled at how little has changed in the conversations over food and weight since I wrote...
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