Bill Clinton on Government’s Role in Meeting Future Challenges

 ChumForThought, Common-Destiny, Political Commentary, Politics, USA 2012 Elections  No Responses »
Dec 292011
 

Source: Back to Work: Why We Need Smart Government for a Strong Economy by Bill Clinton
Abstracted from pages 12-14

We live in the most interdependent age in history. People are increasingly likely to be affected by actions beyond their borders, and their borders are increasingly open to both positive and negative crossings: travelers, immigrants, money, goods, services, information, communication, and culture; disease, trafficking in drugs, weapons, and people, and acts of terrorism and violent crime.

People everywhere face severe challenges, most of which can be grouped into three categories.

· The modern world is too unequal in incomes and in access to jobs, health, and education.

· It is too unstable, as evidenced by the rapid spreading of the financial crisis, economic insecurity, political upheavals, and our shared vulnerability to terrorism.

· And the world’s growth pattern is unsustainable, because the way we produce in use energy and deplete natural resources is causing climate change and other environmental problems.

Because the world is still organized around nations, the decisions national leaders make and citizen support today determine tomorrow’s possibilities. For poor countries, that means building systems that give more people a chance to have decent jobs and send their kids to school. For rich countries, it means reforming systems that once worked well but no longer do, so people can keep moving forward in an increasingly complex and competitive environment.

That’s what America has to do. We have to get back in the future business. Over the last three decades, whenever we’ve given in to the temptation to blame the government for all our problems, we’ve lost our commitment to shared prosperity, balanced growth, financial responsibility, and investment in the future. That’s really what got us into trouble.

Being True to the Best of What You Are

 Short Stories  No Responses »
Sep 202010
 

Being True to the Best of What You Are: An integral fable of personal development and transformation

A farmer was out walking with a guest, who was a hunter. A beautiful eagle soared gracefully above them, just keeping an eye on things below. Suddenly, without giving any word, the hunter raised his gun, sighted on the bird and shot it dead. It flapped to the ground and landed with a sad “whump.” The hunter walked over to the bird and nudged it with his boot. Yep, it was very dead. The farmer didn’t say anything. He didn’t approve but the hunter was his guest and killing animals is what hunters do.

Knowing that the eagle had its nest in a nearby tree, the farmer climbed up, swaying in breeze, reached into the nest and put the two small eagles in the large pockets of his baggy pants. Protecting living things and helping them to grow is what farmers do. When they got back to the house, the farmer put the eagles with his chickens. They learned to eat bugs and seeds and they grew up strutting around the yard just like their chicken brothers.

But, one of the young eagles was not happy. “I’m different,” she told her brother, “I just don’t feel like I belong on the ground walking around pecking at bugs and seeds.” Her brother was quite content, however, and said, “Don’t make trouble. The farmer is good to us chickens. He throws us enough corn that we don’t starve and we get to hang out all day with our friends.” The first eagle wasn’t convinced. She pointed out, “I like to stretch my wings and feel the breeze. I can see clearly the trees on the far hill and I wonder what is there.” Her brother said, “Your eyes are good enough to find bugs. Bugs don’t move fast and they don’t take any trouble to swallow.” His sister replied, “My claws are long and curved; I wish I could wrap them around things instead of just standing in the dirt. My beak is stronger and more curved than my chicken brothers; I think that I am better suited for other work.” Her brother said, “Just relax. Your claws and beak are fine. They scratch deeper and peck harder. Frankly, our lot in life stinks but you and I are big and strong so we can tell the other chickens what to do and push our way to the best eating spots.”

An owl had been listening to the conversation from a nearby tree. He spoke only to the eagle that was ready and said: “I can help you. You are right that you are different. You are an eagle and you are different from your chicken brothers. You are also different from your eagle brother because he is content with his situation while you want to discover the best of what you are.” The eagle replied, “That sounds interesting, but will it be frightening?” The owl laughed, hooted “Of course,” swooped down, grabbed her and soared up into the air. Higher and higher the owl carried her. “You are Eagle; your wings are for soaring; your keen eyes see the smallest movement in the distance; your sharp claws and beak are for the hunt. This is what eagles do.” And with that, the owl let go of the young eagle.

Oh yes, it was frightening. But, the young eagle caught the air with her wings and it propelled her forward; she shifted her tail and discovered control. She screamed an eagle’s scream: not in terror but with the thrill of discovery and the joy of being and doing. Below, all the field mice and rabbits and chickens and even her brother scurried for the shadows. Above, the eagle caught the rising breeze and thought about what had just happened.

Over and over, starting with the struggle to hatch out of her shell, she had had to make changes. There always came a problem that was too important to ignore. Sometimes she had to solve the problem herself and sometimes someone else, like the owl, helped her. It was frightening and frustrating and always uncertain and very hard work, but the change was worth the effort. Like hatching, each solved problem led to a new stage of life and a new understanding. She knew things now that she couldn’t have even guessed at before. She wondered about what change and growth might come next. But one thing was for certain – she was looking forward to it.

Thoughtful questions for students:

(“Before I ask some questions about the story, would you like to hear it again?”)

  • Why wasn’t the unhappy eagle just being a grumpy and complaining chicken?
  • Is being unhappy always bad?
    (If we are unhappy with our present situation, then we may decide to work to make our situation better.)
  • Who can you go to for help with a problem?
  • Why is it frightening to try something new? Is it okay to be worried?
  • Why does it take hard work to make a major change or learn something new?
  • Do you think that the eagle left behind will ever be truly happy as a chicken?
  • What changes do children make as they grow up?
  • Do you think that adults ever stop growing and changing?
    (Yes, some get stuck and stop trying, but life-long-learners have better lives.)

[A similar story is known as “Fly, Eagle, Fly” and is taught in elementary schools as an African Folk Tale. A story like this was told by Patty Grant Long on August 25, 2005 during a workshop–program on “Healing the Soul Wound” (Multi-generational Trauma). Ms. Long is a therapist (alcohol and drug abuse counselor) with Analenisgi, in Cherokee, North Carolina. It is adapted here from memory by David Satterlee.]

Copyright 2005, David Satterlee

Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License, which essentially says that you are free to share the work under the conditions that you attribute it fully, do not use it for commercial purposes, and do not alter it.

Positive and Negative Emotions in Balance

 Positive Psychology, Psychology  No Responses »
Jan 262010
 

Source: “Authentic Happiness,” Martin E. P. Seligman, Ph.D., Chapter 3

In 2000, Barbara Fredrickson won the $100,000 Templeton Positive Psychology Prize. Her winning paper, “claims that positive emotions have a grand purpose into evolution. The bride and are abiding intellectual, physical, and social resources, building up reserves we can draw upon when a threat or opportunity presents itself.”

In one experiment, the subject is given gifts, amused, and exposed to positive words. The subject is more likely to respond creatively. In another experiment, the subject is asked to identify related words. The subject is more likely to respond quickly if they have been “jollied up.” In another experiment of four year olds, the happiness environment improved their ability to learn.

Earlier psychological experimenters such as C. S. Pierce, equated cheerfulness with a lack of trouble or lack cognitive capacity to acknowledge and address troubles. In another experiment, depressed people were “sadder but wiser” in their ability to judge their level of control.

Depressed vs. Happy Thinking Skills

There’s also experimental evidence that depressed people are more realistic and accurate judges of their abilities. Less-happy people have more accurate memories of both good and bad events; they are “evenhanded in assessing success and failure.”

All of this evidence might seem to make a case for the benefits of depression. However, Lisa Aspenwell demonstrated situations in which happy people had an edge over more-unhappy individuals in certain types of life situations. An integrated conclusion is: “a positive mood jolts us into an entirely different way of thinking from a negative mood.

Less happy people tend to be more skeptical and able to respond with critical thinking. Their benefit it is the ability to “focus on what is wrong and then eliminate it.”

It seems reasonable to conclude that happy people tend to rely on positive past experiences and maybe better act repeating their previous behavior. Less distracted by a defensive stance, they are better able to be creative, tolerant, constructed, generous, and defensive, and lateral.”

Building Physical Resources

Positive emotions promote play, which is important to creative processes such as the building of physical resources such as increased muscle and cardiovascular capacity. People with predominantly positive emotions can to enjoy better health and greater longevity.

Happiness is associated with increased productivity and worker income. (This may reflect their ability to interact better with others.)(one might ask if a less-happy affect facilitates concentration problem solving.)

In some experiments, happier people are better able to tolerate adversity such as holding their hands in ice water. Also, a happier general disposition makes it easier for people to overcome the effects of temporary fear or sadness.

Building Social Resources

Strong bonds of affection and attachment between people are facilitated by a positive disposition. They are better able to express their positive feelings and others are more likely to respond positively to them. The happiest of the happy are much more likely to have a “rich and fulfilling social life” and spend the least time alone. They are also more likely to display empathy and be altruistic.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line seems obvious: extroverts are more likely to form relationships outside of themselves, attracting friends. A happy disposition is of special benefit in win-win situations where creativity may win the day. It is about growth. The less-happy disposition is of special benefit in win-lose situations where grim determination may win the day. It is about slaying dragons.

Personal Growth Initiative Scale (PGIS)

 Positive Psychology, Psychology  No Responses »
Jan 152010
 

Source: “Pursuing Human Strengths,” Martin Bolt, Introduction

The Personal Growth Initiative Scale was published in 1998 by Christine Robitschek. The PGIS incorporates choice, change, control, and clear direction. She believes that personal growth must be a deliberate undertaking. A high score reflects a person who: “recognizes and capitalizes on opportunities for personal change. They search out and create situations that will foster their growth. In contrast, people with low scores actively avoid situations that challenge them to grow.”

“PGIS scores seemed to be strongly positive way related to psychological well-being and negatively related to psychological distress.” “PGIS spores or positively linked to assertiveness, internal locus of control, an instrumentality (knowing how to reach an important goals).” According to Bert Hodges, “Values provide distant but real guides that help us to find our way, that help us in the journey of life. Values provide not only place but perspective; they indicate where we have come from and where we’re going.”

Values will vary according to a person’s world view and life goals. Mihal Csikszentmilalyi says that a meaningful, productive life involves both differentiation and integration. Differentiation results from taking proactive responsibility for personal development. Integration results from also accepting responsibility for our relationships with others in our social networks. While it is healthful to be able to function atonymously, we also need to feel connected and have a sense of belonging. For instance, adolescents need to grow up, but do better if they retain strong connections with their parents.

Personal Growth Initiative Scale (PGIS) Exercise

Original source: Robitschek, 1998.

Using the scale, indicate the extent to which you agree or disagree with each statement.

1 = definitely disagree
2 = mostly disagree
3 = somewhat disagree
4 = somewhat agree
5 = mostly agree
6 = definitely agree

1. _____ I know how to change specific things that I want a change in my life.

2. _____ I have a good sense of where I’m headed in my life.

3. _____ If I want to change something in my life, I know how to initiate the transition process.

4. _____ I can choose the role I want to have in a group.

5. _____ I know what I need to do to get started toward reaching my goals.

6. _____ I have a specific action plan to help me reach my goals.

7. _____ I take charge of my life.

8. _____ I know what my unique contribution to the world might be.

9. _____ I have a plan for making my life more balanced.

_____TOTAL SCORE

To score your responses, simply add the numbers you checked to obtain a total score. PGIS scores range from 9 to 54. People who score higher (31.5 is the midpoint) recognize and capitalize on opportunities for personal change. More than that, they search out and create situations that will Foster their growth. In contrast, people with low scores actively avoid situations that challenge them to grow.

Joanne Hunt, MA, MCC

 Uncategorized  No Responses »
Nov 302009
 

Source: Integral Institute – Scholars

Joanne Hunt, MA, MCC, is the Co-Founder of Integral Coaching Canada Inc. (Ottawa, Canada), the coaching partner of the Integral Institute and Integral Life. She is a Master Certified Coach with the International Coach Federation and has a Masters Degree in Management Studies. She co-developed the highly respected application of Integral Theory in the field of professional coaching. She is a Senior Teacher who trains, certifies and licenses Integral Coaching® professionals.

Source: Integral+Life

image Joanne is the Vice President of Integral Coaching and Development for Integral Life and the Co-Founder of Integral Coaching Canada.  She is a lead instructor for Integral Coaching Canada’s advanced programs, and students describe her as an expert coach, a playful human being and a passionate, skilled teacher. Rooted in her own commitment to living with personal integrity and authenticity, Joanne brings this dedication to how she teaches, how she guides faculty and how she coaches clients. Joanne brings fifteen years of direct experience in corporate leadership positions to her work with clients, and she is is known for her clear, direct and skillful attention to what people truly need as they build the competencies necessary to more fully manifest their lives.

Working for fifteen years in senior leadership positions in three multi-national corporations, it was Joanne’s exceptional ability to get to the ‘heart of the matter’ that enabled her to powerfully influence and lead change initiatives that ranged in scale from small groups to large-scale corporate programs. Not only able to envision and create, Joanne also has a unique capacity to cultivate deep commitment across diverse groups with ‘competing’ values and perspectives such that phenomenal results are attained. Coaching skills were always a part of her skill set as a corporate leader and Joanne produced significant results in improving business & individual effectiveness, leadership & change management implementation, strategic planning, and organizational restructuring while also nurturing the development of her teams.

Joanne holds a Masters Degree in Management Studies specializing in research and human resource development. Over the last two decades she has studied extensively with a variety of training institutes in fields such as coaching, systemic change, leadership development, and adult human development. Joanne has been working in the coaching profession for almost ten years and within this discipline has achieved the highest designation of Master Certified Coach by the International Coach Federation (ICF) while developing and co-founding the School of Integral Coaching® with her partner, Laura. She completed the Integral Institute’s inaugural offering of Integral Life Practice in 2004, attended the Integral Leadership Seminar in 2006 and is a long-time student of Integral Theory. Joanne is the Vice President of Integral Coaching and Development for Integral Life.

Joanne’s work also includes being a ‘Researcher & Writer’ for Integral Coaching Canada Inc. This role enables Joanne to pursue two passions that fuel her coaching work: R & D (especially on all things AQAL) and writing (articles, songs, poetry, Integral Coaching® material). These domains continue to support Integral Coaching Canada’s new curriculum designs, resource development and methodological advances which bring clarity and ongoing design innovation to the delivery and leading edge nature of the Integral Coaching® training programs.

Joanne is a lead instructor for Integral Coaching Canada’s advanced programs and students describe her as an expert coach, a playful human being and a passionate, skilled teacher. Rooted in her own commitment to living with personal integrity and authenticity, Joanne brings this dedication to how she teaches, how she guides faculty and how she coaches clients. Joanne is known for her clear, direct and skillful attention to what people truly need as they build the competencies necessary to more fully manifest their lives.

Deeply exploring various modalities for approaching change, Joanne also works with professional coaches to further enable the integration of their development through writing and meditative practice. Approaching writing from an AQAL perspective continues to support her development and the growth of those who work with her; she has a balanced set of Integral Life Practices that have supported her for many years. Last of all, Joanne has a unique and piercing way of bringing Integral Theory and practice to what’s real, what’s necessary and what’s relevant in the practical and messy day-to-day-ness of the fully-lived life of a coach or client.

See also: Integral Coaching Canada

Media Contributions

Integral Coaching The Flavors of Presence

Contributors: Joanne Hunt, Laura Divine and Ken Wilber

Integral Coaching The Many Ways We Grow

Contributors: Joanne Hunt, Laura Divine and Ken Wilber

 Integral Coaching

Contributors: Joanne Hunt, Laura Divine and Ken Wilber

 Integral Coaching Communicating Across Worlds

Contributors: Joanne Hunt, Laura Divine and Ken Wilber

 Integral Coaching: An Intimate Conversation

Contributors: Joanne Hunt and Huy Lam

 Integral Coaching Orientations

Contributors: Joanne Hunt, Laura Divine and Ken Wilber

Susan R. Cook-Greuter

 Authorities  No Responses »
Nov 172009
 

Source: Integral Institute – Scholars

Susan R. Cook-GreuterSusan
R. Cook-Greuter, EdD, is an internationally known authority on Mature Adult
Development and Developmental Text Analysis. She is a contributor to the
Integral Psychology studies at Integral Institute and the Integral Business
Practice group. Her Harvard thesis, Postautonomous ego development: Its
nature and its measurement, is a landmark empirical study in the
characteristics and assessment of Second-Tier meaning making.

Source: iEvolve

Susanne Cook-Greuter is internationally known as the leading expert in mature
ego development and self-actualization. You may have noticed her name alongside
those of Robert Kegan, Clare Graves, and Jane Loevinger in Ken Wilber’s book,
Integral Spirituality. Her sentence completion tests are sophisticated
enough to tease out the subtle differences between Teal, Turquoise, Indigo, and
Violet altitudes of development. She does ongoing research and development on
the Sentence Completion Test. She leads trainings in the Leadership Development
Framework and introductions and certification training for SCT-scorers. She
collaborates with other consultant in bringing the developmental perspective
into corporations and executive teams.

Cook-Greuter & Associates

Cook-Greuter and Associates is a consulting company dedicated to supporting life-long learning towards greater personal and professional effectiveness, integration and wisdom. Research shows that the level of personal maturity and self-awareness are positively correlated to the kind of life one creates with others at home, at work, and in the community.

Papers and Resources

This book is one of the very first to concentrate upon positive
growth and development in the more advanced years of life. Incorporating
both traditional Western paths of development and Eastern, meditative
approaches, and both theoretical and empirical material, the
contributors explore the many paths to postformal and postconventional
development. They challenge the field of psychology to reconsider some
of its most fundamental premises concerning how people change and
develop over the course of their lives, including many of its
conventional metaphysical and ontological assumptions; and they
challenge the reader to actively continue his or her own growth process.
This collection of papers has been developed by an interdisciplinary
group of contributors. They present a variety of new perspectives on
creativity, spirituality, and transcendence as experienced in adulthood.
The discussions in this volume address the interplay of variables from
theoretical, experimental, and clinical vantage points. This book is
written for academic and clinical audiences, as well as for those who
are interested in—and wrestle with—unexpressed aspects of their own
creativity and spiritual yearnings. Unlike the current cognitive trend
in creativity research that seeks rational and biological explanations
for human phenomena, these essays give consideration to the power of
extraordinary sources of inspiration. The research and theoretically
based articles presented make a captivating collection that challenges
our thinking about what it means to be a creative adult striving toward
personal integrity and wisdom at the dawn of the 21st
century.

Allan Combs, PhD

 Authorities  No Responses »
Nov 172009
 

Source: Integral Institute – Scholars

Allan Combs, PhD, is a contributor to the Integral Consciousness Studies at
Integral Institute. He is a consciousness researcher, neuropsychologist, and
systems theorist.

Source:
Center for
Yoga and Health

Allan is a Professor of Transformative Studies at the California
Institute of Integral Studies and director of the Integral Concentration of the
doctoral program. His background is in consciousness studies, neuropsychology,
and systems science.

Allan also holds appointments at the Saybrook Graduate School and the
Assisi Conferences, and is Professor Emeritus at the University of North
Carolina-Asheville. He is Co-Director of the Integral Studies program leading to
an MA in Conscious Evolution at the Graduate Institute of Connecticut.

Allan is author of over 100 articles, chapters, and books on
consciousness and the brain, including The Radiance of Being (2ed):
Understanding the Grand Integral Vision; Living the Integral Life, winner of the
best-book award of the Scientific and Medical Network of the UK, with a foreword
by Ken Wilber; Changing Visions: Human Cognitive Maps Past, Present, and Future,
with Ervin Laszlo, Vilmos Csanyi, and Robert Artigiani; Chaos Theory in
Psychology and the Life Sciences, edited with Robin Robertson; Nonlinear
Dynamics in Human Behavior, edited with William Sulis; Synchronicity: Through
the Eyes of Science, Myth, and the Trickster with Mark Holland; and Mind in
Time: The Dynamics of Thought, Reality, and Consciousness, with Mark Germine and
Ben Geortzel.

Allan is a co-founder of the Integral Foundation and The Society for
Chaos Theory in Psychology and the Life Sciences. He is a member of The General
Evolution Research Group, the Integral Institute, the Forge Guild and the
one-hundred member Club of Budapest. He is Co-Editor of the Journal of Conscious
Evolution, Associate Editor of Dynamical Psychology, and serves on the Editorial
Board of Science & Consciousness Review. Allan was the winner of the 2002-2003
National Teaching Award of the Association of Graduate Liberal Studies Programs,
and in the same year the held the UNCA Honorary Ruth and Leon Feldman
Professorship.

Allan is a student of Swami Rama and Pandit Rajmani Tigunait at the
Himalayan Institute and served as Chair of the Board of a public five county
mental health center in the Midwest. His personal website is:

http://www.sourceintegralis.org

This title offers a thorough and insightful exploration of human
consciousness in all its forms. "Consciousness Explained Better" offers
readers an insightful, down-to-earth, and above all, easy-to-understand
exploration of consciousness in its many facets and forms. Grounded in
the author’s thorough understanding of the various aspects and
development of consciousness, this superbly written volume examines
human consciousness from a wide range of view-points – its historical
evolution, its growth in the individual, its mystical dimensions, and
the meaning of enlightenment – giving readers a greater understanding of
how these aspects of consciousness combine to create the kaleidoscopic
yet lucid experience that is the essence of humanity.
Here is a very exciting book, reflecting a very exciting time in the
exploration of consciousness and evolution. With the possible exception
of the rise of the great Idealist movements two centuries ago, today is
the most gripping period of research in consciousness that we have ever
seen. For the first time in history we have access to almost all
accumulated information about human consciousness and its potential. Zen
Buddhism, shamanism, body/mind disciplines, the great contemplative
traditions, mysticism, and many more have given us an extraordinary map
of human consciousness based on direct meditative experience, right up
to contemporary marvels of scientific research, giving the enquiring
mind an all-inclusive model of human consciousness and its unfolding.
Carl Jung coined the term "synchronicity" to describe meaningful
coincidences that conventional notions of time and causality cannot
explain. Working with the great quantum physicist Wolfgang Pauli, Jung
sought to reveal these coincidences as phenomena that involve mind and
matter, science and spirit, thus providing rational explanations for
parapsychological events like telepathy, precognition, and intuition.
Synchronicity examines the work of Jung and Pauli, as well as noted
scientists Werner Heisenberg and David Bohm; identifies the phenomena in
ancient and modern mythologies, particularly the Greek legend of Hermes
the Trickster; and illustrates it with engaging anecdotes from everyday
life and literature.
In this clear, engaging book, Robin Robertson draws parallels
between alchemy and chaos theory and shows how to apply them to our
inner development. He is not proposing they replace traditional
spiritual paths, but rather that they reflect deep structures in the
psyche that any inner journey awakens. The model they provide
necessarily underlies all paths of spiritual transformation and
describes a framework for the stages through which any seeker goes. No
matter what your particular calling, these insights enrich understanding
of the transformative process, whether outside in the world, or within
your life.
In an increasingly interdependent world where once antagonistic
societies and economies now exist within a global network, the need to
foster and maintain cooperation has never been more vital. Cooperation
explores an extraordinary growing awareness of the centrality of
cooperation from the perspectives of a variety of disciplines, including
biology, ecoscience, psychology, political science, business and
economics. The essays question the age-old maxim that our existence is
dependent on, and even prospers via competition, and offer keen insight
into the far-reaching challenges of this fascinating, uncharted period
in world history.
The four authors of this book recognize that no one on the common
human journey to the 21st century can pick the best route without
consulting a "map"–that is to say, an interconnected set of
understandings about what in a given situation is important, what
demands action and attention, and what does not. The problem, they
contend, is that the picture of the world we each carry in our mind may
not be a true mapping of the reality that surrounds us. This picture,
the cognitive map, could always be sharper. The authors prompt us to
become more conscious of our own cognitive map, and explain how it can
be adapted to the exigencies of our changing world so that it can be
better-used to guide our steps toward the 21st century.
This volume presents a collection of essays that all share a
common concern with time, process and consciousness. The chapters
represent a variety of different perspectives and the authors span the
disciplines of psychology, mathematics, physics and psychiatry.

Quotes

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Action
Effortless effort
Excellence
Act
Acting
Anxiety
Appreciation
Athletes
Attitude
Audacity
Audio
Authentic
Autobiography
Balance
Belief
Blame
Breathe
Buddhism
Business
Careers
Challenges
Change
Character
Chess
Commitment
Common opinion
Communication
Confidence
Courage
Creativity
Creator
Criticize
Critics
Death
Decide
Depression
Desire
Divine Within
Drama
Dream (aspirations)
Dreams (sleep)
Eastern
Emotion
Emotional Intelligence
Energy
Enthusiasm
Excellence
Exercise
Experience
Failing
Failure
Fear
Flexibility
Flow
Friendship
Forgiveness
Future
General
Genius
Goals
God
Gratitude
Greatness
Growth
Habit
Happiness
Health
Honesty
Horizon
Humility
Humor
Impreccability
Individuality
Insanity
Inspiration
Intent
Intention
Intelligence
Interconnectedness
Intimacy
Iq
Jobs
Judgment
Kind
Laugh
Leadership
Learn
Learning
Live
Love
Luck
Management
Meditation
Million Dollars
Muscles
Mystery
Non-attachment
Overachievement
Patience
Perception
Perfection
Permanence
Perseverance
Persona
Philosopher
Prayer
Projections
Psychology
Purpose
Questions
Reflection
Responsibility
Risk
Secret
Self-awareness
Self concept
Self-mastery
Simplicity
Sin
Smile
Solution
Stoicism
Stop
Stress
Struggle
Success
Sweat
Teach
Temperance
Tension
Think
Thinking
Thoughts
Time Management
Truth
Vice
Vision
Visualization
War
Water
Wisdom
Worry
Yin
Zen

Single Parents and Neural Development

 Biology, Parenting  No Responses »
Oct 272009
 

SmartPlanet.com reports on a Wall Street Journal report research by German biologist Anna Katharina Braun and others.

"Braun focuses on degus, small rodents tied to guinea pigs and chinchillas. The mother and father raise the degus in nature.

The Journal’s money quote:

When deprived of their father, the degu pups exhibit both short- and long-term changes in nerve-cell growth in different regions of the brain. Dr. Braun, director of the Institute of Biology at Otto von Guericke University in Magdeburg, and her colleagues are also looking at how these physical changes affect offspring behavior.

Bottom line: Degu pups without fathers are more aggressive and impulsive than others with two parents."

Source: Freebase

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