Social and Behavioural
Explore Social and Behavioural
Prof. Toine Pieters | The Depression Spiral: Rethinking an Illness That Refuses to Stand Still
What if depression is best understood as a process that gathers momentum, rather than a fixed illness that simply appears once enough symptoms have accumulated? A difficult week becomes persistent stress. Persistent stress demands more coping. Coping becomes exhausting. Sleep, appetite, activity and relationships begin to change. Those changes can then create fresh stress, pushing a person further down a self-reinforcing spiral.
Dr. Howie Wu | When Support Disappears: Rethinking a Good Adult Life for Autistic Young People
Turning eighteen is often presented as a doorway to independence. For many autistic young people, however, it can feel more like reaching the edge of a map. Supports available through childhood may suddenly shrink or disappear just as adult life becomes more complicated. Education, employment, relationships, independent living and healthcare can all demand new forms of navigation at once. This abrupt loss of support is sometimes described as a “services cliff”, and it helps explain why the transition into adulthood deserves far more attention than it has traditionally received.
Dr. Michael Medina | When Belonging Becomes a Lifeline at School
A high school can contain hundreds of students sharing the same hallways, classrooms, and lunch tables, yet those students may experience very different versions of the same place. For one teenager, diversity may feel woven naturally into school life, with teachers encouraging friendships across ethnic groups and the school visibly respecting different cultures. For another, the same school may feel divided or unwelcoming. Those perceptions are important because adolescence is a time when young people are working out where they fit, who they are, and whether the people around them value their presence.
Prof. Grant Farred | When a Question Reveals a World: Race, Memory, and the Work of Thinking
A man is raking leaves outside his own home on a crisp November afternoon in Ithaca, New York. The task is ordinary, even pleasurable: repetitive physical work in an affluent, leafy neighborhood. Then a white couple stop their car. The woman calls the man over and asks whether he would like another job. In a few seconds, an everyday scene becomes something much larger. The man is not a gardener looking for work. He is Grant Farred, a professor at Cornell University, and the garden is his own. Yet the woman’s question carries an assumption about who he is, what kind of work he does, and where a Black man apparently belongs in the social order. Farred’s account of this encounter becomes the starting point for a remarkable exploration of race, memory, language, and thinking.
Dr. Yi Ding | When AI Polishes Our Words, Does It Polish Away Our Feelings?
Every day, millions of people turn to artificial intelligence for help finding the right words. A rough email can become smoother, while a quick product review becomes polished and articulate with a minimum of effort. The changes can seem harmless, and often appear very helpful in clarifying our intended message. But what if polishing our language also quietly changes the emotional signals we had originally intended to convey?
Prof. Dr. Winnie-Karen Giera | Learning to Argue: How Debate, Planning and Strategy Can Build Better Writers
What happens between having an opinion and writing a convincing argument? For many teenagers, the distance is surprisingly large. A student may argue energetically with friends, spot weaknesses in someone else’s reasoning, and explain why a rule seems unfair, yet struggle when asked to turn those abilities into a formal essay. On the page, there is no opponent waiting to respond and no immediate question demanding clarification. The writer has to create that dialogue alone.
Dr. Kendra Pugh | Mapping the Hidden Geography of Gambling Risk
A lottery ticket is small enough to slip into a pocket, but the forces that shape gambling behavior can stretch across families, neighborhoods, shopping districts, and entire communities. A Massachusetts study led by Dr. Kendra Pugh asks an important but deceptively simple question: when gambling becomes risky or problematic, how much depends on the person, and how much depends on the place?
Prof. Yu Du | The Age of Judgment: What Sentencing Reveals About Youth, Maturity, and Mercy
Imagine two people standing before a judge. One is nineteen, old enough to vote and be tried as an adult, but still developing the mental machinery needed for restraint and long-range planning. The other is sixty-eight, with decades of life experience but perhaps declining health, reduced mobility, and little likelihood of committing another crime. The law calls both adults. Yet common sense suggests that age matters, and not always in the same way.
Prof. Dr. Daniel Gredig | Protection Is a Conversation: How Modern HIV Prevention Is Changing Intimacy and Trust
The story of HIV prevention has changed dramatically over the past four decades. What was once dominated by fear and limited options has become a field shaped by scientific breakthroughs, greater understanding, and a growing appreciation of personal choice. Yet while medicine has transformed the ways people can protect themselves, one element remains as important as ever. Prevention depends on communication. Every intimate encounter involves two people, each bringing their own experiences, expectations, and preferences. Reaching a shared understanding is rarely as simple as it appears.
Dr Marie McGregor | Why Gifted Students Need More Than Ability to Thrive in Science
Walk into any classroom, and some students immediately attract attention. They ask thoughtful questions, solve complex problems quickly and display an enthusiasm that inspires those around them. Some may describe these students as gifted. However, others with equally advanced potential may be less visible: they may sit quietly, avoid drawing attention to themselves, rarely volunteer answers or appear disengaged. As a result, their abilities may go unnoticed. While ability and achievement are important, they do not tell the whole story and do not guarantee confidence, resilience, or lasting motivation.
Prof. Vibeke Vågenes – Cecilie Grevstad | When a Monthly Cycle Becomes a Barrier: Why Menstrual Health Matters for Girls’ Education in Tanzania
For millions of girls around the world, education represents hope. It offers the possibility of independence, financial security, improved health, and the chance to shape a different future from previous generations. Yet for many girls, the path to education is filled with obstacles that receive little attention. Some are obvious, such as poverty or long journeys to school. Others are far less visible, hidden behind silence, embarrassment and social expectations. One of the most overlooked is menstruation.
Dr. Gary Blau – Dr. Kyle Stephens | The Hidden Costs of the Digital Workplace: Why Employee Deviant Work Behaviour Needs an Additional Lens
The work of Dr. Gary Blau and Dr. Kyle Stephens of Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA asks an important question that is becoming increasingly relevant around the world. If the workplace has fundamentally changed, shouldn’t the way we measure employee deviant work behaviour change too? Their research argues the answer is yes because the consequences reach far beyond academic debate. Traditional work behaviour deviance examples include: someone deliberately arrives late, spending long coffee breaks chatting with colleagues, or working more slowly than usual. Others are spreading rumours, bullying coworkers, or damaging company property. These are the kinds of in-person, on-site deviant behaviours researchers have investigated, that is, why employees sometimes act against the interests of employing organisations.