Description: Ok, here is a challenging question. Imagine you are a parent, and your child is 4 years old, and you need some butter for a recipe you are working on for a large family dinner, but you have several things in the oven and on the stove and you cannot leave (Covid inspired delivery… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Early Social and Emotional development
Disgust: A VERY Powerful Social Tool
Description: OK, quick! Think of an example of something that is disgusting. That did not take long, did it? Theorize for a minute about what \makes something disgusting. Add to your theory a component having to do with possible values of disgust, that is, about what possibly positive roles it might play in our lives… Read more »
Predicting Early Onset Psychiatric Issues: How Many Factors?
Description: If you wanted to try and predict which individuals in a group of children would later develop one of a number of early onset psychiatric problems such as depression, anxiety, addictions, dyslexia, bulimia, or ADHD what would you include in your list of predictors? How long would you list be? How accurately would your… Read more »
The Concept of Adult Attachment Has Legs!
Description: The self-help book literature and on-line jungle is HUGE. The supply of and demand for “how to live better” advice seem insatiable, but you will not be at all surprised to hear that a lot of it does not actually work very well. You can find out about some of this by reading what… Read more »
Psychology of Covid-19: Masks and Emotions – The Kids May Be All Right!
Description: We are all wearing masks these days (or should be). I have posted previously about research suggesting that adults experience functional prosopagnosia (the lack of the ability to recognize people when one see’s them) when others are wearing masks covering their mouth and nose. A related, important question concerns how children manage socially when… Read more »
Psychology of Covid-19: Stunting Children’s Social Growth?
Description: Have you heard of social referencing? Even very young infants do this. Basically, it involves looking at and reading another person’s face (facial expression) in order to find out what something that is around you means. Imagine a toddler sitting in a stroller beside a park bench that one of their parents is sitting… Read more »
Baby’s Heart Rate and Mother’s Mental Health
Description: If you have even a passing interest in infant development you have likely previously run across concerns about post-partum depression. If so (or if not) consider this question. What is it about material anxiety and depression that potentially results in negative developmental outcomes for the infants of those mothers? Yes, of course it likely… Read more »
The Psychology of Covid-19: Anxieties and Uncertainties, What You Can DO About Them
Description: I have posted previously about the stress associated with the high degrees of uncertainty associated with our immediate and longer-term futures in relation to the coronavirus. It is important to keep in mind that while many of the factors contributing to our uncertainty and the related stresses that accompany them are obvious; our health… Read more »
Of Marshmallows and Development: Social Implications
Description: You know about the Marshmallow Test, don’t you? A preschool child is seated in a small room at a table on which is a plate and single marshmallow. The child is told that the adult researchers is going to leave the room for a time (usually 10 to 15 minutes) and that the child… Read more »
Human Emotions: What is Universal and What is Not?
Description: If you have taken an introductory Psychology course you have certainly seen some version of the picture below showing facial expressions of emotion and you likely saw the picture in the context of a part of a lecture on the universality (across cultures) of basic human emotions such as those showing on the faces… Read more »
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