Debunks brain/education myths. The term "brain-based education" is redundant; learning is the brain's function. More brain cell connections do not equal more learning. There is no "critical period" for developing human brain capacity. All learning is emotional, and learning never ends. Tips for high-school teachers are…

Presents evidence to support the validity of Genia's (1997) spiritual maturity typology. Participants (N=256) were categorized as spiritually growth-oriented, transitional, dogmatic, or undeveloped. Results indicate that those in the undeveloped and dogmatic groups were more emotionally distressed than those in the growth-oriented group. Also…

This article examines how developmental bibliotherapy featuring young adult literature can be an effective strategy to address emotional issues of gifted teenagers. It describes how one high school English class responded to the novel, "The Mosquito Test," in a bibliotherapeutic fashion. Also provided is an annotated bibliography of current young…

Temperament characteristics of Chinese adolescents in Taiwan were explored using a Chinese Adolescent Temperament self-rating questionnaire which had been previously standardized. Stepwise multiple regression with backward elimination disclosed five significant temperament factors including age, gender, sibling order, and parental education…

Emotion concepts might be represented as distributed around a circumplex defined on bipolar dimensions of pleasure and arousal. Using an analog of categorical perception methodology, this study demonstrated a number of category boundaries that mark out discrete segments of the circumplex. Discriminability of emotion concepts was relatively weak…

Videotaped four- and five-year-olds playing to investigate conflict emotions during peer disputes. Found that initiators', recipients', and observers' emotions differed in the conflict and postconflict periods. Conflict initiators almost exclusively expressed happiness, whereas conflict recipients expressed mostly sadness and anger. Conflict…

Three studies investigated toddlers' judgments and communications about how desires, perceptions, and emotions connect in people's lives and minds. Findings indicated that in appropriate circumstances, young children realized that a person's perception of desirable or undesirable objects leads to related emotional experiences. Children's…

Study examines attachment organization and dimensions of commitment in 101 females and 30 males with the use of an attachment questionnaire and the Commitment Inventory. Persons in a relationship who endorsed a secure or preoccupied attachment prototype reported stronger personal dedication than those endorsing a fearful-avoidant or…

This article proposes a model that continuously calibrates happiness and considers its application with people who have mental retardation. The model suggests that the affective system is continuously recalibrated as a result of either positive or negative affect in a particular domain. Thus, as objective circumstances vary, the person still…

Discussion of Williams syndrome, a genetic disorder with a variety of medical and developmental features, focuses on frequent outward expression of happiness. Analysis of the unique expression of happiness in individuals with Williams syndrome is followed by discussion of this happiness in the context of other dimensions of the syndrome,…

Presents information on prenatal brain development, detailing the functions controlled by the medulla, pons, and midbrain, and the implications for cognitive development. Concludes that fetal cognitive motor activity, including auditory discrimination, orienting, the wake-sleep cycle, fetal heart rate accelerations, and defensive reactions,…

Assessed behavior and emotion regulation strategies of developmentally delayed and nondelayed young boys. Compared to nondelayed children, delayed children were equally able to understand others' play themes but were more intrusive in their entry attempts; appeared to have less effective emotion regulation strategies for coping with entry failure;…

Examined the prevalence of depressive mood in 12,000 Norwegian adolescents, ages 12-20. Found that from age 14 on, girls scored above boys in depressed mood, though no gender difference was found at age 12. The difference was partially explained by increased developmental challenges for girls, including puberty, weight and body dissatisfaction,…

Discusses problems with computer use by young children, including activation of neural pathways that hinder learning and a drop in emotional competence. Argues that instead of television and computer time, children need open-ended play time, concrete materials such as board games and building toys, and interaction with caring adults. (JPB)

Connecting the debates in social theory with examples from recent advertising that draw on meanings and images of children, this chapter shows how some recent representations of childhood that engage explicitly with new information technologies are forms of economically invested socialization, precisely through their subscription to changing…