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Risks of Obesity: Financial Cost/Benefit Analysis

By Pattie Thomas, Ph.D. on February 22, 2012 in I Take Up Space

Cost/benefit analyses are estimates, not scientific studies. “Studies have shown" are magic words conferring truth on any words that end the sentence. Objections to cost risks of obesity can be raised both on data quality grounds and on ethical grounds. At the heart of most moral panics lies profit-motives and prejudice, but not much science. Read More

Oscars and Emmys and Globes, Oh My!

By Dennis Palumbo on February 22, 2012 in Hollywood on the Couch

As a psychotherapist who works with people in the Hollywood community, I'm aware of the external pressures that affect my patients. Things happen, like a writers or actors strike, from which some creative careers never recover. Read More

Politicians and Their Dogs: The Good, the Bad, and the Media

By Stanley Coren, Ph.D., F.R.S.C. on February 22, 2012 in Canine Corner

Mitt Romney is just one of a long line of politicians who have learned that their relationship to their family dogs can affect their reputation with the press and the public. Read More

Do You Need to "Feel" It? Acting Theory and "My Week with Marilyn"

By Thalia R. Goldstein, Ph.D. on February 21, 2012 in The Mind On Stage

"My Week With Marilyn" provides two examples of competing acting theory and its importance for the portrayal of characters. Read More

What’s on Oscar’s Mind?

By Dana Klisanin, Ph.D. on February 21, 2012 in Digital Altruism

What do this year's Oscar nominated Feature films tell us about ourselves? About our individual and collective fears? Our collective psyche? Read More

Whitney Houston: The Song, the Movie, the Death

By Stuart Fischoff, Ph.D. on February 21, 2012 in The Media Zone

But, wait a minute! Maybe what I just wrote is simply pietistic, feel good, nice, nice bullshit? Maybe it just absolves our pop culture gods of their really bad choices, immersing themselves in really bad relationships and listening to really bad counsel. Read More

Hooking Up Smart — and Nasty

By Bella DePaulo, Ph.D. on February 21, 2012 in Living Single

The writer of a popular blog claims that women who choose to live single are not really happy, but are just deluded cat ladies “hamsterwheeling” in a futile attempt to escape their “nagging sense of disappointment.” Read More

Princesses Won't Become Presidents

By Paula Davis-Laack, JD, MAPP on February 20, 2012 in Pressure Proof

"We need our boys to be as ambitious to contribute in the home, and we need our girls to be as ambitious to achieve in the workforce." This was Sheryl Sandberg's message at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The Facebook COO, an ambitious, high-achieving woman in her own right, spoke of an "ambition gap" in the way we are raising young girls and boys. Read More

Mad Men, a Show for Armchair Psychologists

By Stephanie Newman, Ph.D. on February 20, 2012 in Apologies To Freud

Mad Men chronicles life in the 1960s, and has captured the imagination of millions of viewers with its glamour and intricate story lines. But beyond that, it's the richly drawn characters stumbling through their lives that get under our skin and keep us invested. Read More

"Powder Dreams": How a Psychological Novel Gets Written

By David Weiss on February 19, 2012 in Mr. Analysand

Emerging novelist David Ward-Nanney explains his creative process. Read More

Why Wireless Children Are More Successful in School

By Gina Barreca, Ph.D. on February 19, 2012 in Snow White Doesn't Live Here Anymore

These are kids for whom it is not unusual to make a quick leap from the first awakening of sexual awareness to the first consummation of sexual experience. They haven't had to wait for anything else; why wait for that? Read More

Whitney Houston: Celebrate Now, Look for Answers Later

By Pamela Brown Rutledge, Ph.D., M.B.A. on February 18, 2012 in Positively Media

The loss of Houston is not just a private event. It is a public event; a shared cultural and emotional experience because her work was a meaningful part of our experiences. Music, like no other art, is part of our lives and we come to own it. So, today we celebrate Whitney Houston. Tomorrow is soon enough to look for answers. Read More

A Dangerous Film?

By David Van Nuys, Ph.D. on February 18, 2012 in The Happiness Dispatch

Clearly, my title is a thinly veiled reference to David Cronenberg's recently-released movie, "A Dangerous Method." Read More

What’s the Big Deal About Single People?

By Bella DePaulo, Ph.D. on February 17, 2012 in Living Single

Single people are the big media stars of the year 2012. Not celebrity singles, but ordinary people, who in ever growing numbers, are living single. Why all the fuss? Why now? Read More

Medical Jargon Part 2

By Naveed Saleh, M.D., M.S. on February 16, 2012 in The Red-Light District

Defining the terms addiction and dependence; case, patient and person; and subject and participant. Read More

Whitney Houston: The Greatest Loss of All

By Dr. Jane Greer on February 16, 2012 in Shrink Wrap

Even though we watched Whitney Houston deal with her personal struggles over the years which included an unhealthy, abusive marriage to Bobby Brown and alcohol and drug addiction, the news of her death this week was shocking to many of us. Read More

Characters Unite to End Prejudice

By Goal Auzeen Saedi on February 15, 2012 in Millennial Media

USA Network's "Characters Unite" campaign to end intolerance, hatred, and discrimination takes a new approach to an age old issue. As America stands more divided than ever before, a media-based social justice effort is made to bring us closer, and to address issues affecting under-represented and marginalized groups. Read More

Shooting Your Kid’s Laptop Is No Solution to Media Literacy

By Pamela Brown Rutledge, Ph.D., M.B.A. on February 14, 2012 in Positively Media

The dad who shot his daughter’s laptop over a Facebook post shows the critical need for media literacy. His YouTube video response, showing the laptop’s demise at the hands of his 45 revolver, underscores the fallacy of publishing things you really want to stay private in what is fundamentally not just public, but permanent and searchable. Read More

What’s On Your Mind?

By Elana Premack Sandler, L.C.S.W., M.P.H on February 14, 2012 in Promoting Hope, Preventing Suicide

The Pew Internet & American Life Project recently released a study on the social and emotional life of adults on social networking sites. What were some of the findings? Read More

What People Believe Is True Is Frequently Wrong

By Ronald E. Riggio, Ph.D. on February 14, 2012 in Cutting-Edge Leadership

The title is one of my favorite Peter Drucker quotes. What he is referring to is the fact that common wisdom (what the majority believes is true) is often false. Take for example, that the majority of Americans believe in paranormal phenomena... Read More

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