Interesting Psychology/Sociology Articles

[stigmatica]

Social Experience Drives Empathetic, Pro-Social Behavior in Rats

The findings suggest that social experiences, not genetics or kin selection, determine whether an individual will help strangers out of empathy. The importance of social experience extends even to rats of the same strain -- a rat fostered and raised with a strain different than itself will not help strangers of its own kind.
"Pro-social behavior appears to be determined only by social experience," said Inbal Bartal, PhD, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Chicago and lead author of the study "It takes diverse social interactions during development or adulthood to expand helping behavior to more groups of unfamiliar individuals. Even in humans, studies have shown that exposure to diverse environments reduces social bias and increases pro-social behavior."

[jyng1]

TED talk on 'The moral roots of conservatives and liberals'. http://www.ted.com/talks/jonathan_ha...oral_mind.html

[Lilith]

TED talk on 'The moral roots of conservatives and liberals'. http://www.ted.com/talks/jonathan_ha...oral_mind.html

One good talk. I think it's interesting that his conclusion suggests moral humility as the answer to our moral righteousness. The inclusion of Yin and Yang as a sample between the balance of good and evil forces seems a little hanging though. Circular reasoning? Oh well.

I came across a morality test designed after Haidt's 5 Moral Universal Values. If anyone's interested, it's at yourmorals.org.

[ACow]

http://youarenotsosmart.com/2013/05/...ivorship-bias/

PS. The ted guy is stretching a bit...to put it mildly.

[jigglypuff]

Harsh Nazi Parenting Guidelines May Still Affect German Children of Today

The Nazi regime urged German mothers to ignore their toddlers’ emotional needs—the better to raise hardened soldiers and followers. Attachment researchers say that the harmful effects of that teaching may be affecting later generations

suppressing the wtf to say "fascinating"

[TeresaJ]

^Taking it a step back, look at Victorian parenting norms. The early 20th century generations themselves were pretty effed up. I think there's a reason all that early childhood research came about when it did.

[Makers]

Harsh Nazi Parenting Guidelines May Still Affect German Children of Today

Was the desired effect achieved? Hardened soldiers...I like the sound of that.

[jigglypuff]

Was the desired effect achieved? Hardened soldiers...I like the sound of that.

no... the article suggests it created insecurely attached followers.

[Makers]

no... the article suggests it created insecurely attached followers.

In that case, I guess I'll keep not neglecting my child.

[jigglypuff]

In that case, I guess I'll keep not neglecting my child.

that's good, cuz you're not supposed to do that. common knowledge, hah

a lot of child trauma literature i've read talks about ages 0 - 2 being a critical period in setting up a child to be healthier, more secure and resilient for the rest of their lives. babies don't have the capacity to self-soothe, so you don't want to let a baby cry and cry. i can't explain the science (forgive me) but a stressed out baby basically becomes wired to be an easily stressed adult. (it doesn't mean they're fucked for life, they're just going to have a harder time than everybody else.) it has to do with a human's physiological development.

^Taking it a step back, look at Victorian parenting norms. The early 20th century generations themselves were pretty effed up. I think there's a reason all that early childhood research came about when it did.

i don't know anything about victorian parenting norms, but this is just a fascinating rabbit hole to go down... it says a lot about culture and society.

something related: i'm reading this book right now that begins by giving an overview of the history of trauma studies and yeah, in the western world it starts in the late 19th century with increased interest in women's "hysteria." listening to women tell their stories uncovered a LOT of sexual abuse and several physicians—including, most famously, freud—determined that the hysteria symptoms were the effects of trauma/ptsd (not called that back then). this wasn't politically correct though, i guess, and freud had to let go of that trauma theory cuz it made respectable men and fathers of the bourgeoisie look bad.