Psychologist Richard Weissbourd contends that parents who are obsessed with their children's happiness are ignoring other important values — like goodness, empathy, appreciation and caring — that are necessary to a well-rounded personality. Weissbourd is the author of The Parents We Mean to Be: How Well-Intentioned Adults Undermine Children's Moral and Emotional Development. A lecturer in education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Kennedy School of Government, Weissbourd has founded several interventions for at-risk children, including ReadBoston, WriteBoston and Project ASPIRE.

After a decade of earnest immersion in parenting, though, the times are ripe for a change. The first sign was the wave of confessionals — from anonymous Web sites like truumomconfessions​.com (where mothers admit to transgressions like feigning stomach cramps to steal quiet time hiding in the bathroom) to bylined blogs like the wildly popular dooce.com (where Heather B. Armstrong chronicled her postpartum depression and continues to write about her struggles as the mother of a charming but somewhat high-strung 5-year-old) to memoirs like Ayelet Waldman’s (in which she cops to such “sins” as using disposable diapers and loving her husband more than her children). But in the past few months, a second wave has taken hold — writers are moving past merely venting and are trying to gather the like-minded into a new movement. Carl Honoré is one. He calls it “slow parenting” — no more rushing around physically and metaphorically, no more racing kids from soccer to Suzuki. Lenore Skenazy is an

Eyetracking visualizations show that users often read Web pages in an F-shaped pattern: two horizontal stripes followed by a vertical stripe.

What do people see when they view a news website or multimedia feature? Is it what the site's designers expect? ... Perhaps not. The Eyetrack III study literally looked through the eyes of 46 people to learn how they see online news. In this overview article, we review the study's key findings.

According to new neuroscience studies, emotion has a strong influence on how the human brain makes decisions. Jonah Lehrer, the author of How We Decide, joins Fresh Air to discuss the latest research.

Neurofeedback is an emerging method that relaxes, enhances creativity and improves mental health.

Here is an excerpt from an article about Carol Dweck, a professor of psychology at Stanford University: Through more than three decades of systematic research, [Carol Dweck] has been figuring out answers to why some people achieve their potential while equally talented others don’t—why some become Muhammad Ali and others Mike Tyson. The key, she found, isn’t ability; it’s whether you look at ability as something inherent that needs to be demonstrated or as something that can be developed. To anyone who is into personal growth and self-improvement, this seems obvious. But clearly, it is not obvious to everybody: look at the this diagram by Nigel Holmes representing the two types of mindsets and I’ll sure you’ll recognize the attitudes of many people you know.

The Long Now Foundation was established in 01996* to develop the Clock and Library projects, as well as to become the seed of a very long term cultural institution. The Long Now Foundation hopes to provide counterpoint to today's "faster/cheaper" mind set and promote "slower/better" thinking. We hope to creatively foster responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years.

The Science of Getting a 'Yes' (broadcast Friday, August 22nd, 2008) Mothers tell children that 'please' is a 'magic word' -- but are there really key words, phrases, or behaviors that make it more likely someone will respond in a positive way to a request? What goes on at a psychological level as a person makes the transition from 'no' to 'maybe' to 'yes?' In this segment, Ira talks with a social psychologist about persuasion, and psychological tricks for helping you get what you want.

Do you know what to do when you are having a panic attack? By preparing for panic ahead of time, it's possible to learn to cope with your symptoms and even reduce the number of attacks you have in the long run.