We’re all familiar with midlife crisis from Gail Sheehy’s bestselling book Passages, and all the references made to it in cartoons, self-help books, movies, ads, and jokes. We’ve become so accustomed to thinking about midlife crisis, that many people cringe when they approach the age of 35 or 40, worried that they’re going to be...Read More
Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences (MI theory) has revolutionized the field of education. But it also has important implications for developmental psychology. Gardner’s theory says that there are at least eight different intelligences: linguistic (word smart), logical-mathematical (numbers and reasoning smart), spatial (picture smart), musical (music smart), bodily-kinesthetic (body smart)), interpersonal (people smart), intrapersonal...Read More
A curious developmental phenomenon is occurring in Japan as a result of the stagnant economic conditions that have been present there since the early 1990’s: the emergence of a new group of young adults, mostly men, who have given up going to school or working at a job and have instead chosen to spend virtually...Read More
Fast food chains, snack food companies, and beverage manufacturers that target young people are creating a health crisis that is like a ticking time bomb waiting to explode sometime in the next few decades. Through promotional tie-ins, two-for-one deals, free beverage refills, and access to public schools and other places where kids congregate, corporate pushers...Read More
On January 22, 2007, the American Library Association awarded The Newbery Medal (the most prestigious book award for children’s literature) to Susan Patron for her book “The Higher Power of Lucky.” The book is about a ten year old girl named Lucky living in a tiny town in the California desert who fears being abandoned...Read More
The Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is the name of a group of viruses that includes more than 100 different strains or types. It is sexually transmitted and can lead in some cases to cervical cancer. Cervical cancer can lead to loss of fertility, ongoing health problems, and even death (4000 women a year die from cervical...Read More
Because of soaring costs in home health care for the elderly, some relatives of individuals in late adulthood are tapping a “hidden” market: the so-called “gray market” in elderly home health care. This consists of a network of generally untrained, unscreened, unsupervised, women who are willing to work for less than the fees charged by...Read More
Eighty years ago, Austrian psychoanalyst Otto Rank theorized that when we are born, we experience a “birth trauma” that affects us for the rest of our lives. More recently, psychiatrist Stanislav Grof has created a model for understanding in greater depth the kinds of effects that birth can have upon our later lives. He writes that...Read More
Thomas Edison was one of the greatest inventors who ever lived. He patented the incandescent light bulb, the carbon microphone, the phonograph, the motion picture projector, and a thousand other inventions. But few people know that Edison also was working on a machine that would be able to communicate with the dead. In an article...Read More
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