What is love? - Brad Troeger. “Love” is a word we easily twist around to fit our own purposes.
If we can learn to distinguish love from emotional dependence and put this distinction into practice, then we make life more beautiful not only for us, but for everyone we meet. Here's a guide to making the distinction. To learn more about what Brad Troeger is up to, check out his website and his blog. Why perfect grades don't matter. References To learn more about the role of standardized testing in education, see W.
The language of lying - Noah Zandan. Detection deception experts such as Pamela Meyer, in her popular book Liespotting argue that there are behavior cues everyday people can use to spot lying.
Hear Pam discuss her book and ideas at this NPR link on the TED Radio Hour and listen to: Can You Spot A Liar? Scroll down at this site and check out the related story links. Click here and see some of the common clues that a lying person might give away that would allow you to detect that they are deceiving you. But a host of reputable scientists, like John Fuerdy of the University of Toronto, question the efficacy of lie detectors: "Studies have long shown that polygraphs are remarkably unreliable, particularly for screening job applicants.
As early as 1965, a congressional committee concluded that there was no evidence to support the polygraph's validity; a 1997 survey in the Journal of Applied Psychology put the test's accuracy rate at only 61 percent. Psychologist Dr. Watch an interview with Dr. How sugar affects the brain - Nicole Avena. Dr.
Avena’s website has links to new research and articles about the effects of sugar on the brain and behavior, and how this can influence body weight.Want to learn more about the adverse effects of sugar? Read Food Junkie, Dr. Avena’s blog on Psychology Today. Here is one post that is particularly relevant: Sugar Cravings: How sugar cravings sabotage your health, hormone balance & weight loss, by Dr. Nicole Avena and Dr. How To Be Confident. How miscommunication happens (and how to avoid it) - At the heart of human communication is the question of how we create meaning.
A basic consideration of this process asks what message is being communicated to whom. The transactional model helps us to visualize the many moving parts that comprise human interaction. This model demonstrates that communication is an ongoing process. We co-construct meaning together as we use feedback to exchange ideas. The psychology of narcissism - W. Keith Campbell. Interested in learning more on narcissism?
Here are the abstracts for two good papers: Narcissism at the crossroads: Phenotypic description of pathological narcissism across clinical theory, social/personality psychology, and psychiatric diagnosis and Grandiose and vulnerable narcissism: A nomological network analysis. These papers describing vulnerable and grandiose narcissism can be found on Google scholar or at your local university library. The clinical description of narcissistic personality can be found in the . But, for a quick overview, there are web resources like those found at the Mayo Clinic website or at this Medscape link. There are also some wonderful books on the topic of narcissism.
Interested in narcissism and culture? Are You A Good Listener? Being a good listener is an essential skill that all people could probably work on.
Need some more ideas about how to improve your own listening skills? Start with: 9 Things Good Listeners Do Differently. Learn how to be an active listener here! Interested in building resilience? Start with some good listening skills like "echoing. " What is the science behind actually hearing something? 5 theories about why we love (in TED-Ed GIFs) Ah, romantic love; beautiful and intoxicating, heart-breaking and soul-crushing… often all at the same time!
Why do we choose to put ourselves though its emotional wringer? What is bipolar disorder? - Helen M. Farrell. Bipolar disorder is a major mental illness characterized by a significant disruption in mood.
There are many ways that this illness can manifest in individuals. The Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance offers education about the illness, its course and treatment options. At one end of the spectrum, mania consists of an abnormally and persistently elevated, expansive or irritable mood, lasting for at least one week. There are several associated symptoms. Distractibility, inflated self-esteem, increased goal-directed activity, decreased need for sleep, racing thoughts, pressured speech, or excessive involvement in high-risk activities (for example, spending sprees or sexual indiscretions). How false news can spread - Noah Tavlin. The term “circular reporting” likely originated in the government and military intelligence community, where ascertaining the validity of information is absolutely critical when there is misinformation intentionally being spread and leaked by one’s opposition.
This paper goes into greater detail about how the military intelligence community deals with circular reporting. Sometimes, false information can spread so widely that it becomes accepted as true. For example, the Coati, a relative of the raccoon, native to Brazil, has become alternatively known as “the Brazilian Aardvark.” This blog post details ten of the biggest Wikipedia hoaxes to date.
The left brain vs. right brain myth - Elizabeth Waters. Want a better understanding of how your body is connected to your brain? Test the touch sensitivity of different body parts and then visualize how much of your brain is used for that part of the body with the homunculus mapper. Visit this site to “map your brain!” How did the brain become the brain? Evolution of the cortex led to humans and other animals having more complex behaviors.
This article: Evolution of the human brain: when bigger is better will give your more insight into how the brain evolved. How does money laundering work? - Delena D. Spann. Want to find out more about how money laundering works? This link will provide some answers. Now, watch this video summary: Money Laundering Explained. Why should you read "Macbeth"? - Brendan Pelsue. For a good edition of Macbeth, consider either the Arden or Folger editions of the play. Both have great introductions and annotations that make the plays easier to understand. Here is a list of films inspired by Macbeth: This Video Will Make You Angry. How do drugs affect the brain? - Sara Garofalo. A drug can be defined as any substance able to produce a change to our body. Drugs able to produce a known effect on the nervous system are referred to as psychoactive drugs, for their ability to influence cognitive and behavioral abilities regulated by the brain’s interconnected network of neurons and to overcome the blood–brain barrier (BBB).
The BBB has been only quickly covered in this lesson, but it is a very interesting topic that you can learn more about here and here. Why do people join cults? - Janja Lalich. Cults did not fade away after the 1960s and ’70s, when they were first recognized for their growing presence and sometimes controversial practices and activities. Today, cult groups and relationships are thriving.
If there is less overt stranger recruitment today, it is because many cults now use professional associations, campus organizations, self-help seminars, and the Internet as their main recruiting ground. Why are we so attached to our things? - Christian Jarrett. Would winning the lottery make you happier? - Raj Raghunathan. How did Hitler rise to power? - Alex Gendler and Anthony.
There were several key dates in Hitler’s political rise to power. First and foremost, the way World War I ended had a huge influence on these events. How to spot a fad diet - Mia Nacamulli. Are spotty fruits and vegetables safe to eat? - Elizabeth. The world's English mania - Jay Walker. Where do superstitions come from? - Stuart Vyse. Should we eat bugs? - Emma Bryce. You may or may not have heard about it before this video, but entomophagy is a recognized way of eating for people all around the world. This report, written by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), contains the most information on the subject, including everything from the history of entomophagy to how we might farm insects sustainably in the future. The FAO report talks in detail about the business of industrial-scale insect farming for food but also for conversion into products like animal feed for use on livestock farms. Chapter 9 includes some case studies of businesses that have successfully farmed bugs for animal feed.
Chapter 11 and 12 take a look at how insect farming can uplift countries and communities that are food insecure, by providing nutrition, by encouraging small-scale insect farming, called ‘micro-livestock’, and trade in insects as a way to boost economies. Ed.ted. While interesting to explore in his plays, the idea of Shakespeare as a poet isn’t new. Beware of nominalizations (AKA zombie nouns) Iain McGilchrist: The divided brain.