Life News (Social & Behavioral Sciences)

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The University of Chicago has received a $5 million endowment gift from Irving B. Harris to establish the Center for Human Potential and Public Policy.

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In contrast to research saying that parents are not important in determining teens' behavior,a new study shows a strong connection between teens' relationship with their parents and how they interact with peers. Teens who do not feel close to their parents do not respond to firm discipline, the study also shows.

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A little change in attitude can calm the butterflies in your stomach before a job interview or business presentation, says a Purdue communications professor.

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A series of experiments that a professor of psychology at the University of Connecticut, has conducted suggest that very often first impressions have a surprising degree of validity.

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Temple University has a number of faculty experts who are available to comment on the developing crisis in the Middle East.

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The aggressive marketing and promotion of infant formula in this country and worldwide violate a basic human right of mothers and babies to give and receive breastmilk, and endangers health of infants worldwide, says Michael Latham, M.D., MPH, professor of nutritional sciences at Cornell University. He called for legislation to curb industry marketing practices to promote formula and to institute warning labels outlining the major hazards related to not breastfeeding.

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The brutal murders of a gay man in Wyoming and an African-American man in Texas earlier this year are forcing many states to expand or add anti-hate crimes laws, says a Ball State University educator.

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The woman who arranged Oscar Schindler's emigration to Argentina and who herself was intimately involved in some of the earliest efforts to aid victims of the Nazis has written a history of what she considers to be the greatest communal humanitarian effort in the history of Anglo-Jewry. Marked by heroism, generosity and grinding hard work, the effort "resulted in the saving of thousands of lives," writes Amy Zahl Gottlieb.

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Convited sexual offenders who are in their 40s, married and who earn at least $11 per hour are most likely to make it through half-way house treatment programs.

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A recent study of 400 divorcing couples contains a number of surprising findings about divorce, among them the conclusion that there is little difference in how fathers and mothers fare economically after divorce, contradicting earlier studies. A new book, Divorced Dads: Shattering the Myths claims to correct past data errors.

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Middle and high school students who participate in sports express less hostility toward their classmates and are more likely to graduate from high school and go on to college, according to the preliminary results of an ongoing national study.

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American children spend 1.3 hours a week reading, 1.7 hours studying, and 12 hours a week---one- quarter of their free time---watching television, according to a University of Michigan study that provides the first look since 1981 at how U.S. children spend their time.

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People who feel as if their hearts are beating louder than thunder with every severe storm watch and warning may have help in dealing with their fear of severe weather, thanks to a unique project that teams a University of Iowa professor and a noted Iowa meteorologist.

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A University of Iowa law professor who filed a friends of the court brief supporting a Monroe, Iowa, man's claim that he was unreasonably searched by a Newton police officer in 1996, says the U.S. Supreme Court justices will likely rule in the man's favor.

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In a recent study appearing in the American Psychological Association's November issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology that as people get older, they become happier not sadder, psychologists from Fordham University and the University of Warsaw (Poland) report.

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Researchers at Wittenberg University and Case Western Reserve University reported in the November issue of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, on three studies to determine the effect of supportive audiences on skilled performance.

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We should be as concerned about where our teenagers work as we are about their schools because youth employment can have either profoundly positive or disastrous effects on the nation's teen work force. Potential youth workplaces should obtain "seals of approval" before adolescents ever work in them, says Stephen Hamilton of Cornell University, who worked on the National Research Council Institute of Medicine report, "Protecting Youth at Work."

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If you're in an emergency situation, the chances of you receiving help from witnesses may depend on your skin color and the number of bystanders. So says John Dovidio, professor of psychology at Colgate University in Hamilton, NY.

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Non-computer buffs may think of the Internet as a whole other world. According to a Texas A&M University professor, they're right. Its a real world where where everyone is part of a community so real it can even be mapped.

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As Minnesota prepares for a pro wrestler governor, a Northwestern University mathematician says voting system is un-democratic in a three-way race.

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Two University of Arizona psychologists have experimental data to show that things that were never experienced are easier to "remember" than things that were.

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Cult activity on college campuses will involve more students in the next five years so residence hall leaders need to be prepared. That's according to a new study by the associate director of residence life at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.

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Children's perceptions of God's distance depend on their parents' involvement in their lives, if the children desire a nurturing figure and if God is seen as their own gender. That's according to a new study by researchers at Hope College in Holland, Michigan.

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International conflicts often appear as simmering disputes that suddenly erupt into full-scale war, taking the world by surprise. In reality, says a Southern Methodist University political scientist, war is at least as predictable as the economy. All it takes is listening to a countryís mass media.

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"Going to the polls" takes on a whole new meaning when you're hospitalized. Volunteers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center make sure that all eligible voters who want to, can vote on election day -- right from their hospital bed.

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The impact wives have on their husbands' career choices depends not just on financial considerations, but also on the attitudes of both spouses, new research at Ohio State suggests.

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A new study uses an unusual source -- proverbs -- to reveal cultural differences in how Chinese and American citizens view risks and risk-taking.

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Contrary to popular belief, new research at Ohio State suggests that low self-esteem in adolescents does not lead to later delinquent behavior. Moreover, involvement in delinquent behavior actually lowers later self-esteem in teens, according to the study.

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The National Science Foundation has awarded a group of Cornell University economists and engineers a multidisciplinary grant to study the effects of competitive markets on the reliable operation of the electricity supply system.

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In less than ten years, many employees will no longer have only health insurance but, also a medical savings accounts from their employers. Whatever's not spent will be saved for retirement, predict two Cornell University heath care management professors.

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Conference at Northwestern University School of Law Nov. 13-15 will feature many of the 74 people freed from death row since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, as well as who's who of experts, celebrities.

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The upcoming election is an opportunity for Vice President Gore to build momentum for a run for the presidency in 2000. Vanderbilt experts can analyze the impact of the mid-term election on Gore and other key political issues.

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Northwestern University researchers find that women are at a distinct disadvantage in the mating game, they published in the October issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

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IOWA CITY, Iowa -- The future of affirmative action policies and how they will continue affect universities and workplaces nationwide is the topic of "A Conference on the Future of Affirmative Action" set to take place at the University of Iowa Oct. 30-31.

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The elderly can largely compensate for their loss of function with grab bars and other helping devices, a good diet and, surprisingly, several drinks a day, according to Cornell University health economist Nandinee Kutty.

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In an effort to improve quality of services, increase the use of adult day centers, and assist in the development of start-up ventures, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has awarded Wake Forest University School of Medicine a $1.9 million grant to launch a national technical assistance program to help move the field of adult day services forward.

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What Transforms Ordinary Citizens -- Farmers and Housewives, Teachers and Soccer Moms -- Into Environmental Crusaders? New Book Profiles Scores of Activists Who Made The Leap From Victims to Leaders, Defying Conventional Notions of What Makes a Hero.

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Cornell Cooperative Extension has published a 68-page manual, Prevention of Youth Violence, intended as a resource guide for youth-development and family-life professionals and volunteers. It identifies risk factors, summarizes major prevention programs and offers a variety of resources.

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Despite fears that President Clinton's personal scandal would demoralize Democratic voters in the upcoming mid-term elections, the 1998 Heartland Poll from the University of Iowa shows that Democratic voters in the Midwest are more highly energized than their Republican counterparts. The Heartland Poll, is conducted in election years at the Iowa Social Science Institute at the UI.

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Students from disadvantaged backgrounds may earn lower scores on standardized tests because they fear that academic success will alienate them from friends or family members and arouse suspicion among teachers, a University of Iowa study has found.

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"In studying influential people, researchers are seeing that persons who enjoy thinking have added impact," says a psychology professor at Purdue University.

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University of Kansas communications researcher says John Glenn's space flight at age 77 pushes the stereotype envelope for older adults. "One stereotype of older people is that they can't learn new things. Glenn is saying it is not as easy as it was at age 30, but 'I can do it and I'm enjoying it."

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Grandparents are primary caregivers for more than 5 percent of U.S. children. A CWRU nursing professor examined health, stress, coping, and social support for grandmothers who are their grandchildren's primary caregiver, versus grandmothers who live with grandchildren but are not responsible for raising them.

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Uneven progress of African Americans identified in a new report on race in America.

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A series of lectures, colloquia, performances and film screenings, all focused on the black West, will be sponsored this year by University of California, San Diego's African and African-American Studies Research Project, culminating in a two-day symposium to be held in April.

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The new book, "The Grand Resort Hotels of the White Mountains, A Vanishing Architectural Legacy," is the first to fully explore the architectural, economic and cultural history of these resorts, once situated in one of the nation's most popular locales.

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When a woman has a baby she doesn't want, the child's self-esteem is likely to suffer more than two decades later.

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Television star joins prominent health experts to address the changing landscape of the ""top smoking" environment and announce her plans to "commit to quit" for the American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout

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With less than 30 days until election day, the time is ripe to ponder, once again, the arguably sorry state of American Citizenship. In 1996, less than half of all eligible Americans bothered to vote. Each year, fewer and fewer Americans take the time to stay abreast of governmental and public affairs issues.

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Richard Pillsbury's No Foreign Food is part historical cookbook, part foodwise travelogue, and arguably the most clear-eyed, in-depth view of the American diet available in academia or anywhere else -- Pillsbury also offers a fresh take on Thanksgiving.