Getting and Giving More Feedback

Scarier than any Halloween frights is the fear of getting and giving feedback. 

In my PsychologyToday.com article today, I offer ways to make getting and giving feedback easier and more valid.

Open Letter from a 65-Year Old

One way that we older people try to make peace with our growing decrepitude is to pass on what we've learned to the next generation. 

So, for my PsychologyToday.com article today, I offer an open letter to people 20 to 50.

Workover: A Teacher Quits Teaching. Now What?

A caller to my radio show joined the 30-15 percent of public school teachers who leave the profession in the first few years. Now what? 

The transcript of our exchange is my PsychologyToday.com article today.

If You Only Had One Minute of Advice to Give to a Child

Imagine that you wanted to write a note to your child that offered as much good advice as you could in 250 words or less. What would you write?  

In my PsychologyToday.com article today, I say what I would write:

A Guilty Pleasure: Being With People from Your Own Background

Yesterday, someone stopped me and asked if I would take a picture of him and his family. It turned out that, like me, he was a New York Jew living in an area with few of them. 

We hit it off immediately. I know we're supposed to celebrate diversity but that experience reminded me of why, still, so many people marry a spouse from a similar background and why it's tempting to hire someone from a similar background. I guess that's why we need the EEOC watchdog. Or do we? 

I describe the experience and my thoughts in my PsychologyToday.com article today.

Top Apps for Your Mental Health

Apps may never replace a therapist...or maybe they will. Good efficacy data isn't yet available but it's unarguable that an app is available 24/7 instead of 50 minutes a week, is more patient than a human therapist, there's no stigma to using an app, and it's dramatically less expensive.

Of course, for some people, therapy will be a better choice. But, for cost and convenience alone, in my PsychologyToday.com article today, I describe seven apps and two YouTube channels that deserve a look for anyone dealing with anxiety, depression, addiction, OCD, making or breaking a habit, or suicide. They all incorporate well-established psychological principles and have high user ratings across many reviewers.

In Praise of the "Soft" Subjects

Looking back, do you think you benefited more  from your academic or non-academic pursuits in high school in college? Most people feel they gained more from the non-academic.  And in terms of pleasure derived, it's usually no contest.

In my PsychologyToday.com article today, I make the case that it's a mistake to replace courses like drama, music, art, and psychology, with yet more academic ones.