One of our most popular books for anyone who wants to read up on the secrets of happy relationships is called The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work by psychologist John Gottman and Nan Silver, published in 2000. Gottman revolutionized the study of marriage by using rigorous scientific procedures to observe the habits of married couples […]
Nature vs. Nurture: What Parents Should Know About Their Child’s Temperament
“Genes and family may determine the foundation of the house, but time and place determine its form.” -Jerome Kagan The debate about just how much of our behavior and personality is genetic vs. environmental, or nature vs. nurture, has raged on for the last hundred years. Twenty or thirty years ago, in an ongoing effort to […]
The Beauty of Diversity
“If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse human gift will find a fitting place.” -Margaret […]
Kids from Happy Families Adjust Better to School
A three year longitudinal study confirmed what family therapists have observed clinically for decades–namely that patterns of family interaction have profound effects on children–both for better and for worse. Melissa Sturge-Apple, a researcher from the University of Rochester, studied 234 families with 6 year-old children, and followed the adjustment of the kids in their first […]
How to Balance Closeness and Distance in Relationship
“The point of marriage is not to create a quick commonality by tearing down all boundaries; on the contrary, a good marriage is one in which each partner appoints the other to be the guardian of his solitude, and thus they show each other the greatest possible trust. A merging of two people is an […]
Helping Your Teens Argue– And Listen
It may be hard to believe but recent research has found that teens who learn how to argue effectively by practicing on their parents are far more likely to be able to resist peer pressure down the line. So now we know that at least all the arguing is good for something since it drives most […]
