I dunno, I skinned my knees all the time when I was young and I'm still a wimp now.

Quoted: Behold the wholly sanitized childhood, without skinned knees or the occasional C in history. "Kids need to feel badly sometimes," says child psychologist David Elkind, professor at Tufts University. "We learn through experience and we learn through bad experiences. Through failure we learn how to cope."

Quoted: "Life is planned out for us," says Elise Kramer, a Cornell University junior. "But we don't know what to want." As Elkind puts it, "Parents and schools are no longer geared toward child development, they're geared to academic achievement."

(nikki to her mirror)
My future will be bright... my future will be bright... my future will be bright... if only I stopped writing like Pamela Anderson... hey, ellipsis is soo hot right now.... my future will be bright...

Quoted: Lucky people are certain that the future will be bright. Over time, that expectation becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because it helps lucky people persist in the face of failure and positively shapes their interactions with other people.

Quoted: If you like good literature, you'll love this book. If you like psychology, you'll love this book. If you want to seem pretentious, you need this book. Mostly, however, this is a book for people who love words. Burton may have seemed like a raving madman to some, but he was a man obsessed with a love for the English language...and it shows.

This is so right on.

Quoted: Psychologists and others who study teenagers say the digital self-portraiture is an extension of behavior typical of the young, like trying on different identities, which earlier generations might have expressed through clothing and hairstyles. "Most of what I've been seeing is taking place in the bedroom," said Kathryn C. Montgomery, a professor of communication at American University, referring to teenage self-portraits. Dr. Montgomery studies the relation of teenagers to the digital media. "It's a locus of teen life where they are forming their identities, and now it's also a private studio where they can develop who they are.

"What better tool could they have than one that allows them to take pictures of themselves and manipulate them like never before?"

...

"Self-branding is a big deal for kids, and self-produced entertainment is a big deal," Mr. Taylor said. In their pictures, ordinary young women metamorphose into glamour queens or pinup girls, thanks to a few well-rehearsed come-hither poses and mood lighting reminiscent of an old Hollywood studio portrait. Average boys turn themselves into brooding antiheroes by gazing intently into their camera lens in a darkened room, face half buried in shadow.

Too bad... I was gonna read one of her books. If I didn't read her book because I disagree with her views, does that make me closed minded?

Quoted: "Dr" Laura is not a psychologist nor a psychiatrist. Her doctorate is in Physiology only. She is also a licensed MFCC (Marriage, Family, Child Counselor) but not a psychologist. This has been a great misconception of Laura Schlessinger which she has in many ways been willing to perpetuate and exploit. Even in her TV listings she is being called a Psychotherapist, which is totally inaccurate.

Oh, the battle between me, myself and I: the greatest battle I'll ever know.

Quoted: If this all sounds a bit like a psychology class, that's no accident. Involving our brains and intellect into our New Year's resolutions can make the difference in 2006. The odds are stacked against us, so every neuron helps.

Sumit, thanks! I had totally forgotten about the Stanley Milgram studies until you triggered my memory of my first quarter, freshman year in Psych 101. For some reason, after remembering that, I can absorb and understand the Stanford Prison Experiment a lot better. :)

Ross - thanks for dotting this. It reminds me of a book I read called "Transactional Analysis", which is a branch of psychology that focuses on what's right, not what's wrong with people.