Expert Spotlight: Rick Weissbourd

Mark Twain once said, "When a child turns 12 you should put him in a barrel, nail the lid down and feed him through a knot hole. When he turns 16, plug the hole!" Anyone who has ever been a teenager, or raised teenagers, knows it's a difficult period of life for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to: whiteheads, raging hormones, an insatiable appetite, and occasionally, 'Teen Wolf'-esque body hair growth. But, according to Harvard's Dr. Richard Weissbourd, the challenges of adolescence are no excuse for parents to abandon their parental responsibilities when it comes to fostering a sense of right and wrong in their children. 

This week on You're the Expert, Dr. Weissbourd talks to us about Adolescent Moral Development, a field that explores the process of identity formation and the internalization of morals and values in children and young adults.  Through extensive interviews, focus groups, and surveys, Dr. Weissbourd has looked into how a sense of right and wrong develops within children. His research suggests that even very young children know right from wrong, but many struggle to manage negative emotions that can cause them to act in immoral ways.  

Dr. Weissbourd also researches how students think about love and romantic relationships. He's trying to push educators and parents to focus on children's development as a whole, rather than narrowly focusing on achievement and happiness. Our panelists loved hearing the way kids explained love to Dr. Weissbourd, particularly one interviewee who said you know you're in love when you feel a "pain in the stomach," not unlike an ulcer.  I think we've all been there.

Listen to the episode, "Adolescent Moral Development," and let us know what you think!

-Lee Stephenson, Production Associate

Further reading:
Dr. Weissbourd's official website for his new book "The Parents We Mean to Be": http://www.richardweissbourd.com/

Or, check out a letter for Harvard Education entitled "Learning about Love": http://hepg.org/hel/article/560

Finally, take a look at Dr. Weissbourd's New York Times article, "Teaching Children to Do Good": http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/11/teaching-children-to-do-good/?_r=0

Expert Spotlight: Dr. Ted Powers

Is your goal to become a black belt in karate? Want to beat the world record at the next Coney Island hot dog eating competition or replace Mick Jagger as lead singer of the Rolling Stones? 

This week on You're the Expert , Dr. Ted Powers (UMass Dartmouth) talks with us about setting and reaching goals. Dr. Powers studies "autonomous goal support," which basically means figuring out how best to help the people around you accomplish their goals. Dr. Powers' research suggests that giving someone directions on how to accomplish their goals doesn't help them achieve their goals (and may even undercut them). 

Even though, as Dr. Powers quipped, "my grandmother thinks all this is bunk," psychology theory points to the fundamental human need for autonomy. Dr. Powers has written many papers on autonomous goal support, and on related topics ranging from weight loss to perfectionism.

So the next time you think to yourself, "no matter how hard I work, I'll never be the next Mick Jagger," don't just bang your weathered leathery face against the ground in despair, just call Dr. Powers! (But...don't actually call him. Just read up on autonomous goal support). 

- Lee Stephenson, Production Associate

For More Info about "Autonomous Goal Support": 

Dr. Powers' official website is here.

Click here to read one of Dr. Power's academic papers: Autonomous Motivation, Controlled Motivation, and Goal Progress

Or here's an interesting related article in Psychology Today about the importance of autonomy. 

Expert Spotlight: Dr. Jessica Meir

It's not every day you meet an astronaut who scuba dives under the ice in Antarctica. Dr. Jessica Meir (featured in You're the Expert's "Comparative Physiologist" episode) is one of the most interesting guests we've had on the show. 

That's Dr. Meir training one of her bar-headed geese test subjects to fly. Bar-headed geese are able to fly at incredibly high altitudes (even over the peaks of the Himalayas). Dr. Meir had baby bar-headed geese imprint on her, then she raised them and taught them to be comfortable flying in a wind tunnel, where she could study their remarkable abilities up close.  

We talked about Dr. Meir's research on geese, her time in Antarctica, and her astronaut training. You can hear it all here. 

If you'd like to learn even more about Dr. Meir (and, really, who wouldn't?), here are some resources to check out: 

-A great profile of Dr. Meir in the Harvard Gazette 

-Dr. Meir on The Discovery Channel (video) 

-A brief overview of Dr. Meir's work by BBC Nature

For some deeper cuts, read Dr. Meir's papers in the Journal of Experimental Biology here.  

Also, check out this awesome slow motion video of one of Dr. Meir's geese flying in the wind tunnel. 

Super slow-motion video of UBC's Dr. Jessica Meir and bar-headed geese in high-altitude wind tunnel experiments.

On somewhat of a tangent: for more about life in Antarctica, you should watch Werner Herzog's documentary Encounters at the End of the World. It's amazing, beautiful and bizarrely hilarious, like everything Herzog does. This scene in particular, where Herzog fixates on a penguin's journey and turns it into a existential odyssey, kind of sums up everything amazing about his work.

An excerpt from "Encounters at the End of the World" by Werner Herzog, 2007.