Stuck? Try These Three Steps To Get Moving
The past semester, I changed my introductory statistics course as a result of making a more explicit study of how to teach quantitative and formal reasoning skills. In the course of those changes, I...
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Great or Not Such Great Expectations: Weight Loss Goals
Even though most researchers assert that a weight loss of 5% to 10% of body weight can lead to substantially beneficial health effects, most patients set expectations for themselves of far more...
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Erotic Fantasies: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
By Max Belkin, Ph.D.A vibrant erotic life requires synergy and tensions among our good, bad, and ugly fantasies and desires. Our sexual fantasies provide a window into our inner lives: who we want to...
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Holding On and Letting Go
What though the radiance which was once so brightBe now for ever taken from my sight, Though nothing can bring back the hourOf splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower; We will...
View ArticleMemorial Day: Parades, Picnics, and the Meaning of Life
Memorial Day officially kicks off the summer vacation season, when we bask at the beach, or read books by the pool, or hike in the mountains, or explore new destinations. A vacation, if we take the...
View ArticleThe Romance of College Graduation
I am a professor at Middlebury College. That means that on this cold and rainy Sunday in Vermont, I sat through my tenth or so college graduation. Like all graduations, it felt both silly and weighty....
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Truth In Body Language
We all give ourselves away every minute of every day. That is, we broadcast our true intentions, feelings, and even thoughts without knowing it through our body language, tone, and facial expression....
View ArticleGoogle Glass is Going to Blind You: But Don't Worry
Two psychology professors have made the headlines with their claim in the New York Times that Google Glass could ‘… inadvertently disrupt a crucial cognitive capacity, with potentially dangerous...
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Body Symphony: My personal experience of aging
I had a bad report from my physician. Rather, it came from my blood test results delivered to my email, showing that my thyroid was mis-behaving. Hypothyroidism. I did what we all do...constantly...
View ArticleAre You Subtly Sabotaging Your Career?
Have you ever felt like real success was within reach at your job, but then you did something unintentionally to sabotage it?Employees can often hurt their own careers because they fear “failing at...
View ArticleThe Politics of Addiction
If the world were a perfect place, our efforts to understand ourselves would be based on reason, experience, and evidence, and free of the poisoning influence of politics. Alas, the world of addiction...
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Remembering Charles Darwin
It’s always seemed ironic that Darwin is consulted as an oracle so often. He was not, as is generally known, a religious man. He did study divinity at Cambridge, on the advice of his father; and he's...
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Unconnected, Just Alive
I don’t carry a cell phone or a web-connected device. I can’t stand the idea of having my attention taken away from who or what is immediately around me. I like to be where I am. Especially if I am...
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Is Background Music a Boost or a Bummer?
“Are you multitasking if you’re listening to background music?” This is one of the first questions I usually get after making my conquer cyberoverload presentations. As research consistently shows,...
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We are all becoming Demented
For the first time since 1984 there is a new clinical diagnostic criteria for Alzheimer's disease dementia. Published in April 19, 2011 in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The National Institute on Aging...
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Sexual Surrogates Help Many Who Suffer Alone
-- Reposted from the online magazine, "The Trauma & Mental Health Report"“Helen Hunt was nominated for an Oscar this year?” a man asked his companion as the bus jostled passengers side-to-side....
View ArticleHow to Talk to Kids About THEIR Hunger, Eating and Bodies
The topic of forcing young children to diet is in the news a lot lately because New York socialite Dara-Lynn Weiss told readers in Vogue magazine how she made Bea, her 7-year-old daughter, lose weight...
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Two Fallacies From Feminists
Being that it's summer, I've decided to pretend I'm going to kickback once more from working for a bit and write about a more leisurely subject. The last time I took a break for some philosophical...
View ArticleThe Trouble With Politicians Who Always Talk About Values
Last spring Paul Ryan spoke about the latest version of his budget, promising it "offers a better path, consistent with the timeless principles of our nation’s founding and, frankly, consistent with...
View ArticleDarwin's Thoughts for the Graduates
I get to teach undergraduate and graduate students, across pretty much any and all academic areas, about how Darwin’s Big Idea – the principles of evolution – can shed light on who we are and what we...
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