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Schoolyard Picks: How People Evaluate Friend Potential in Others
We all use a variety of clues to figure out whether a person we’re interacting with is going to like us. After all, being rejected hurts, and we typically would rather not pursue a friendship with someone who might reject us. To determine whether we’re likely to be rejected by a potential friend, we might…
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APA Resolution Supporting Marriage Equality
Yesterday the American Psychological Association passed a resolution supporting full marriage equality for same-sex couples by a unanimous vote of 157-0. Although the full text of the resolution is not yet available, the APA has supported same-sex marriage for several years, always citing peer-reviewed research to support their views. This quote from The Examiner is…
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I WANT MY FAME TV: VALUES ON TV FOR CHILDREN 1967-2007
It’s an age-old refrain — adults claim that kids today are completely different from when they were growing up, usually for the worse. And that claim often extends to the TV shows that kids are exposed to – more sex, less depth, endless shows about celebrities and reality TV show stars. But hasn’t Hollywood always…
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Sexting: Should adolescents be expelled?
This post was first published on parenting in the digital age. Phones are being used by teens for sexual exploration via the exchange of sexually suggestive content (sexting). Sexting includes explicit text, and nude or semi-nude personal pictures or videos captured on a cell phone or digital camera and sent via personal texts, emails, and…
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Children with ADHD have greater likelihood of trying substances and developing substance use disorders.
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most commonly diagnosed disorders in childhood. In fact, estimates of the rates of ADHD had found that between 5-10 percent of all children meet diagnostic criteria for the disorder. Children with and without ADHD, at a group level, show several differences, including poorer school performance, more…
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Is Racism Really Cool? What we Know about Who Makes Cross-Ethnic Friends
From the time kids are in preschool, they tend to make and keep more friends of their own ethnicity than of others. In many schools, children form entirely separate peer groups, with European-American (white), African-American, Latino and Asian-American children sitting at separate tables in the cafeteria, participating in different clubs, and attending different social events.…
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Competence vs. Performance
The field of developmental psychology is fraught with some very popularized but misunderstood dichotomies. Nature versus is nurture is probably the most well known, but another important distinction is that between competence and performance. Jeff mentioned a little bit about this distinction a few months ago in his post about desirable difficulties in the classroom…
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What are the Areas of Study within Psychology?
The field of psychology had its modern origin just over 100 years ago, and yet interest in the field has grown rapidly. Researchers with broad and varied interests have expanded the field, and as a result there are many different subdisciplines. Highlighted here are several key areas of psychology. Biological psychologists apply biological principles to…
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Society For Research in Child Development – Day 2
Up to the minute reporting. This was first posted on the Society for Research in Adolescence’ website. So much interesting research to report on. Today was the day I presented at a symposium I organized that Brad Brown chaired called From Texting to Social Networking Sites to Virtual Worlds: Examining Youth Media Practices. Many of…
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Research about teen texting from Society for Research on Child Development
This was first posted on Society for Research on Adolescence’s blog… here is link if you want to read more about news from conference from other bloggers as well. SRCD in Montreal, Day 1! One of the first symposiums I attended, bright and early this morning at 8AM, was about a topic that I am…