A world opens

Here, a baby, hearing his mother's voice for the first time after a cochlear implant is activated, smiles in response. It will make your heart explode is very cute.

Educational Opportunities

Anyone interested in medicine?  Oregon Health and Science University has a summer internship program for undergraduate students in the Center for Research in Occupational and Environmental Toxicology.  Work at OHSU for the summer, receive a stipend, and gain valuable experience to make your graduate/medical school application more competitive.  Plus, as you will be required to take mass transportation to work every day, you might get to ride this on a daily basis. 

Capstone anyone?  Finish up your required Capstone course in 2 weeks outside in the beautiful summertime Portland weather helping children and adults with physical and developmental disabilities enjoy summer camp.  Information here. By the way, all students I have talked to who have completed this Capstone have said really good things about it.  I highly recommend it. 

Or, if you prefer, put up with me for another quarter by taking my Early Childhood Education Capstone course. I'm teaching a small course in which students will be placed in local daycare centers to work with young children (ages 3 months to 5 years).  We'll meet to discuss application of developmental principles into applied settings, and you will be asked to complete a final project to present to your daycare center at the conclusion of the quarter.  See me for more information, and relatively soon, as class size is limited.

Healthy body, healthy life, healthy mind.  We all know the health benefits of exercise.  Let PSU and a little competition help you out here with the 20.20.20 mini-triathlon at the Academic and Student Recreation Center on February 20.  20 minute lap swim, 20 minute stationary bike, and 20 minute run.  

Five Quick Takes

1.  Often, I get asked about sleeping issues with young children, and whether or not sleep training techniques such as cry-it-out (CIO) are damaging to young children.  Well, research suggests not, and that while consistency in technique used is the key variable of influence, CIO works most effectively.  However, using it is like ripping your heart out in pieces and throwing it down on a crowded subway somewhat difficult for most parents, and many simply can't do it.

I was pleased, by the way, to see this addressed in one of my new favorite shows, Modern Family.



2.  I used to have a crazy dog.  She not once, but TWICE jumped out of second stories windows for no apparent reason.  She was also very obsessive and would focus on one thing (like a tennis ball or a patch of light) and have a difficult time pulling away from it.  Well, as it turns out, she may have had a recently discovered gene associated with compulsive behaviors.  How does this apply to psychology?  Well, a similar gene may be responsible for these behaviors in both humans and dogs.  Either way, it kind of sucked as her owner as she was really quite neurotic.

She WAS pretty cute though.

3.  Sometimes humans can be pretty nasty.  We can be aggressive and selfish and mean.  But humans can also at times demonstrate an amazing amount of altruism and be moved to give and help others in truly significant, beautiful ways.  Well, there are some suggestions that some of this may be innate, start early, and presumably be a consequence of our hypersocial nature, as demonstrated in the linked clips to the PBS show, The Human Spark.  Check them out - they're cute and pretty cool to boot.

4.  An interesting article here on the liberal bias in academia.  What these scholars suggest is that the question is not so much why academia has a liberal bias, but why so many liberals want to be professors.  The answer, apparently, has a little to do with history, a little with our desire to fit in, and quite a bit with what could be termed a stereotype of what professors are like.

5.  You may have realized that even with the copious amounts of coffee I drink, my memory still sometimes leaves something to be desired.  Perhaps you might have experienced the same thing?  Well - here - some information on how to keep the aging mind agile.