Description: You have most certainly heard more than a few concerns offered or even alarms raised regarding the potentially negative effects arising from social media use particularly among teams. Many have arisen from population level observations of correlations between rates of social media use and anxiety or depression or other negative outcomes, but such studies… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Development of the Self
Indigenous Psychology and Psychological Ethics
Description: How does (or just Does) Psychology deal with culture? How does (or just Does) Psychology deal with historical trauma? How universal are Psychology theories and applications? How these questions are understood and how they are addressed are important for how Psychology comes to terms with its past, present and future engagements with indigenous persons…. Read more »
Screen Time, Social Media, Depression and Development: LOTS of Research Needed
Description: The media storm of concern over the ways in which screen time might be related to levels of depression and anxiety among teens and emerging adults has been heating up in recent months. As has been the case before with other global technological innovations (TV) good research on the questions being raised is hard… Read more »
Teen Dating and Development: Normative?
Description: Often when we are looking at what is going on at certain points in human developmental trajectories, we make assumptions. We assume that something that most individuals at that particular age or stage are doing is normative. Normative technically just means most frequent but additional meaning is usually included with term. We frequently assume… Read more »
Genes and Sexual Orientation: It is VERY complex
Description: What does it mean to say that some human trait or behavior is partially genetically linked? Does saying that change or influence how we think about the trait? Looked at another way what would the socio-cultural (and perhaps political) implications be of a trait or behavioral tendency being partially genetically linked? Would your answers… Read more »
School Recess is Not Just a Break, It is Very Important
Description: Think back to when you were in elementary school. What did you do during recess? Did you ever think of recess as an important component of your educational day or just as a cherished break away from the demands of the classroom? From a developmental psychological perspective how should we look at, think about… Read more »
Is Tech Dangerous or Should We Be Asking Different Questions?
Description: Here is a research-based claim you may have heard about recently. Jean Twenge, based on data she drew from several huge population (big sample) surveys, suggests that 5 or more hours of daily involvement with social media is having negative impacts on teenagers these days. Now, rather than thinking about whether you agree or… Read more »
FOMO versus JOMO: Things to think about right NOW!
Description: You have probably heard about FOMO or the fear of missing out which is often discussed as a serious hazard of involvement in social media. The idea is that postings on social media sites (like Instagram) are typically created and posted with the purpose of showing that the poster is having a great time,… Read more »
Life Purpose and Goal Setting: Just Do It!
Description: I have posted a number of times on a related cluster of topics including: Identity Development, Life Planning, and Emerging Adulthood (you can search these terms on this site to see the posts). The topics in this cluster reflect the developmental task or moment that is at play through that life phase — figuring… Read more »
Psychology and Socialization: The Individual and (versus) the Social
Description: Psychology has a recurrent problem. Well, perhaps, it may be better to say that western (North American) Psychology, despite its commitment to empiricism and scientific objectivity, is a product of its culture. Try this thought on for size: Western Psychology strongly prefers to see the individual (singular person) as its unit of analysis. One… Read more »
Books for Success!
