Description: Consider this quote from John Watson, one of the founders of Behaviorism: “Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select — doctor, lawyer, artist,… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Development of the Self
Digital Fentanyl? Hmmmm….
Description: You cannot have missed the increasing level of discussion and concern regarding the possible impacts of social media use on the mental health of teens and youth in recent years. The available new coverage of this topic ranges widely from articles that seek out and dive into recent, population level research on social media… Read more »
Enter ChatGPT: HAL 9000 Is In The Building!
Description: I have encountered several articles in the past couple of weeks that report on, ponder, and worry about what seems like a recent advancement in Artificial Intelligence (AI), that has likely been in the works for a very long time. The articles were looking at things like ChatGPT which are forms of artificial intelligence… Read more »
Looking Beyond Political Affiliation to Predict Engagement With Conspiracy Theories
Description: Maybe you are not interested in having another look at the question of why it might be that some people are more receptive to the conspiracy theories proffered by the QAnon bunch but, despite their seeming aversion to it, science can help us understand them a bit better. So, take a moment and consider… Read more »
Overconfidence: Where is the Line Between Enough and Too Much?
Description: Are you a confident person? It is not really a simple yes or no question is it, as how you answer it will depend on the task you are considering or the situation you are in. However, what if there is a trait of confidence? You likely know people or have read about people,… Read more »
Old Episodic Memories and Dealing with Old Shames
Description: Once in a while I find that a memory from an earlier point in my life will pop up. Sometimes it is just a passing thing with no obvious connection to my current experience. Sometimes it is clear to me that something I am doing right now reminded me of a previous time when… Read more »
Fear of the Unknown? Challenge Your Uncertainties!
Description: Some of the most challenging parts of the tasks involved in career planning involve uncertainties and unknowns. Many of these simply involve things we do noy know yet like which organizations will be hiring, what will they want to know about us and which of our skills and experiences we should highlight in our… Read more »
Teens as Developmental Mine Canaries
Description: It has been theorized that the ancient historic wholesale movements of people out of Africa, into Europe and over land bridges to North America were initiated not by group elders but by adolescents who decided that their futures were better pursued in places other than where they were. The thought is that others followed,… Read more »
Is Parenting Universal?
Description: Imagine (if it is not the case for you already) that you are about to become a parent for the first time and you are trying to figure out how you are going to approach the challenges and, hopefully, joys, of being a parent. Boil it down to one or two questions by starting… Read more »
Self-Narratives and Mental Illness
Description: Are you the same person today that you were 5 years ago? How about 10 years ago? A quick answer is, “of course, yes!” but as time, personal and developmental mount up the question becomes more challenging. Typically starting in the adolescent and emerging adult years it can become harder, and perhaps even impossible… Read more »
Books for Success!
