Category: Psychology

So, let me get this straight–you just treat your kids like ordinary human beings who require logical justification for the rules of behavior that would otherwise just seem arbitrary? And they decide for themselves to accept the logic, which leads to healthy eating? Revolutionary!

Getting Kids to Eat Their Veggies: A New Approach to an Age-Old Problem – Association for Psychological Science

Every parent has a different strategy for trying to get his or her kid to eat more vegetables, from growing vegetables together as a family to banning treats until the dinner plate is clean. New research suggests that teaching young children an overarching, conceptual framework for nutrition may do the trick.

We all know first hand that mental anguish exists and that at least a hug or an hour of someone listening to you offers relief. Beyond that, knowledge in the field is clouded by entrenched interest groups each preaching the solutions they find most profitable. Rigorously applying the scientific method is the only way forward.

Medicine’s big new battleground: does mental illness really exist? | Society | The Observer

The latest edition of DSM, the influential American dictionary of psychiatry, says that shyness in children, depression after bereavement, even internet addiction can be classified as mental disorders. It has provoked a professional backlash, with some questioning the alleged role of vested interests in diagnosis.

This rings true.

Thinking hard and its effect on appetite

This looks like an interesting study:

Thinking hard makes you hungry…..so you eat more.  Yet thinking hard doesn’t burn calories.  So if you are going to think hard then eat, well you better do something to burn the calories that you are going to add.