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| Becoming a Person: Foundations | |
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| The Identity Question: What Makes You You? | |
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| Current Health 2 , April/May 2002 | |
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| The development of self-identity is important | |
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| Identity determines who you are, your attitudes, your values, your ability to interact with others, and a multitude of other important psychological phenomena | |
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| How and why self-identity comes into being is the main thrust of this article | |
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| What Freud Got Right, Fred Guterl, Newsweek , November 11, 2002 | |
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| Modern researchers using brain imaging techniques are finding surprising support for Freudian concepts | |
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| Such research is showing that Freud’s concept of instincts (e.g., aggression), his notion that humans deceive themselves, and his ideas that dreams are important are finding backing from some of today’s scientists | |
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| Skepticism of Caricatures | |
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| Turns 100, Scott Gaynor, Skeptical Inquirer , January/February 2004 | |
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| Noted American behaviorist | |
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| His theory of human Behavior dominated psychology for decades | |
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| Today, there are many myths about what Skinner said and what his work really demonstrated | |
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| The author of this article deftly examines each myth and shatters it using Skinner’s own words | |
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| Past, Present, or Future? Which Type Are You? | |
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| Psychology Review , November 2002 | |
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| Another school of thought about human psychology is that people can be described by traits or categorized into types | |
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| Zimbardo’s concept of time-oriented personality types is reviewed | |
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| The three basic categories are past, present, and future types | |
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| A balance of each type is probably best | |
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| Determinants of Behavior: Motivation, Environment, and Physiology | |
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| What Makes You Who You Are, Matt Ridley, Time , June 2, 2003 | |
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| The debate about what shapes us most, environment or genes , is very old | |
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| After combing through the data, some scientists are certain that it is a combination of nature and nurture , not one or the other, that determines who we are and how we behave | |
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| The Tangled Skeins of Nature and Nurture in Human Evolution | |
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| The Chronicle of Higher Education , September 22, 2000 | |
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| Are we slaves to our genes or does culture modify our psyche and behaviors? | |
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| According to Paul Ehrlich, attributes of an organism are the product of the interaction between biology and culture or learning | |
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| Nature vs. Nurture: Two Brothers With Schizophrenia | |
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| Perspectives in Psychiatric Care , July/September 2001 The case of two brothers with schizophrenia is presented | |
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| Each brother was affected by multiple but sometimes different causal factors, leading the author to discuss various implications for the nature/nurture controversy | |
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| The Blank Slate, Steven Pinker, Discover , October 2002 | |
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| A few scientists come down heavily on the genetic explanation for human nature | |
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| That is, scientists such as Steven Pinker discredit the notion that parents mold their children | |
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| Instead, our inherited background plays a far greater role | |
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| Where We Come From, Nancy Shute, U.S. | |
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| News & World Report , January 29, 2001 | |
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| By studying DNA, some humans are now capable of tracing their various inherited or ancestral roots | |
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| The usefulness of such knowledge—good or bad—is not yet fully understood | |
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| The Mutable Brain, Marguerite Holloway, Scientific American , September 2003 | |
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| Can the brain change after we are born? | |
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| Is surgery or injury the only way to modify this vital organ? | |
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| The answer appears to be that different experiences can indeed alter the brain, according to this article | |
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| A certain behavior, a particular mental excercise, or some event can transform the brain as revealed in imaging studies | |
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| The Truth about Guys and Girls: Is It in Your Head? | |
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| Current Health 2 , January 2004 One of the most intriguing questions about the brain is whether it is “wired” differently in males and females | |
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| This article takes a close look at the science behind whether sex differences indeed exist | |
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| Besides brain imaging studies, certain skills and various brain disorders such as autism point to real neurological differences between the sexes | |
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| Resolved: No More Dumb Resolutions, Jennifer Huget, The Washington Post , January 2, 2002 | |
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| It is easier to start a new behavior than to give up an old behavior | |
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| How to motivate ourselves by using small steps and other techniques is revealed by Jennifer Huget in this insightful article on goals and how to achieve them | |
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| Stand and Deliver, Maia Szalavitz, Psychology Today , July/August 2003 Maintaining motivation takes work | |
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| Procrastination , which essentially is a gap between incentive and action, is a problem common to many people | |
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| Why procrastination is an everyday issue and how to overcome it is the focus of this article | |
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| Problems Influencing Personal Growth | |
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| The Biology of Aging, Geoffrey Cowley, Newsweek , Special Issue, Fall/Winter 2001 As people mature, they progress through a variety of age-related changes, some biological and some psychological | |
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| Geoffrey Cowley examines these changes and makes predictions about just how long we can live | |
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| Four Things You Need to Know About Raising Baby | |
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| Psychology Today , July/August 2000 | |
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| Modern research with infants is demonstrating that babies are not the passive receptacles we once thought they were | |
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| reveals four myths about infants and how science has altered our thinking about raising babies | |
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| Childhood Is for Children, Johann Christoph Arnold, USA Today Magazine , July 2001 | |
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| The pressure for children to achieve appears to be undermining childhood | |
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| Parents and schools are pressuring children to grow up too fast | |
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| suggests that we ought to let children be children | |
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| Parenting: The Lost Art | |
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| American Educator , Spring 2001 | |
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| Parents blame schools and schools blame parents for children’s misconduct and failure | |
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| Kay Hymowitz explores this complicated web of blame and helps the reader to better understand today’s parents and their relationship to their children | |
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| What American Schools Can Learn from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry | |
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