Even though loneliness affects so many of us, it has gotten scant research attention compared to related conditions like depression or anxiety.
Elderly parents tend to think their relationship with their middle-aged children is smoother than the children do. Adult grandchildren, who have little stake in pulling away from their grandparents, tend to describe that relationship as less rose-colored than do Gram and Gramps.
Alright, alright, I admit it: my husband is the quiet, kind, accepting parent, and I'm the one who wants so much to be part of our two daughters' lives than I can't even let them finish a story without interrupting.
To me, it's always interesting to see what people end up regretting, as a way maybe to avoid such regrets in your own life.
The music that was popular in your youth seems to be the music you recall most vividly - and most nostalgically - for the rest of your life. But so is the music that was popular in your parents' youth.
The tenuousness of modern life can make anyone feel overwrought.
In the modern world, the anxious temperament does offer certain benefits: caution, introspection, the capacity to work alone. These can be adaptive qualities.
Beliefs about how lying looks are plentiful and often contradictory: depending on whom you choose to believe, liars can be detected because they fidget a lot, hold very still, cross their legs, cross their arms, look up, look down, make eye contact or fail to make eye contact.
There's very little about being in a functional-M.R.I. scanner that is natural: you are flat on your back, absolutely still, with your head immobilized by pillows and straps. The scanner makes a dreadful din, which headphones barely muffle.
When a trait is universal, evolutionary biologists look for a genetic explanation and wonder how that gene or genes might enhance survival or reproductive success.
Hardships of early human life favored the evolution of certain cognitive tools, among them the ability to infer the presence of organisms that might do harm, to come up with causal narratives for natural events and to recognize that other people have minds of their own with their own beliefs, desires and intentions.
Parents bobble between a nostalgia-infused yearning for their children to play and fear that time spent playing is time lost to more practical pursuits.
Scientists who study play, in animals and humans alike, are developing a consensus view that play is something more than a way for restless kids to work off steam; more than a way for chubby kids to burn off calories; more than a frivolous luxury.
For humans and animals alike, truly vigorous, wholehearted, spontaneous play is something of a biological frill.
The essence of play is that the sequence of actions is fluid and scattered.
Biology sets the context, and that is critical, but obesity still boils down to whether a person eats too much or exercises enough.
Many of us are tethered to bodies that sabotage us in our struggle to keep from getting fat, or to slim down when we do.
If you're satisfied with your social life, according to psychologists, you tend to be satisfied with life in general.
The real thing young people should fear is missing out on those few, true, long-term friendships that make for a richer, happier life.
I'm always made a little uncomfortable by studies that assert that Millennials are the most narcissistic generation in history. To me, being young has always meant being self-absorbed; in many ways, that's what youth is for.
