Psychology

The kids are angry. "I've never seen such rage," said Sue, the mother of a 15-year-old boy. "I remember being mad at my parents, thinking I hated them, but not every day, not every minute." The parents are fed up. "He calls our house a hellhole and says he can't wait to get out," Sue went on. "Some days I can't wait for him to get out, either." For teenagers and the adults they live with, these are confusing--even critical--times, and they are receiving precious little help getting through it.

Mitt Romney on the stump, singles at the bar, car salesmen on the lot: All sorts of people are practicing the art of persuasion, with varying degrees of success. We like to think that we make our own decisions, that we're in control. But we're all open to persuasion by others, says Robert Cialdini, professor emeritus of psychology at Arizona State University and author of "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. " Humans have been testing their own trial-and-error persuasion techniques forever, Cialdini says.

Andrea Angott has a doctorate in psychology and is a postdoctoral associate in the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. She generally spends her days studying how consumers make decisions about their healthcare. But last year she detoured into the curious world of home staging. Staging, for those of you who have never flicked on the HGTV cable channel, is the process of decluttering, rearranging and otherwise dressing up your home to make it appeal to a broad array of potential buyers.

Looking ahead Oklahoma City at Clippers Monday at 7:30 p.m. PDT. TV: Prime, NBA TV The Clippers have been dismissed in some precincts as a cute little story that will come to an abrupt end in the playoffs. Try telling that to Oklahoma City, which has lost two of three meetings this season between franchises enjoying a swift ascent in the Western Conference. Chris Paul has been particularly bothersome to the Thunder, collecting 26 points and 14 assists on Jan. 30 during a 112-100 Clippers victory and scoring nine of the Clippers' final 11 points Wednesday during a 100-98 triumph in Oklahoma City.

The echoes ring with a haunting similarity: A 21-year-old Cypress man with everything to live for who grew so troubled when he broke up with his girlfriend that he committed himself to a psychiatric hospital. A 33-year-old Anaheim man who could not cope when his girlfriend told him goodby. A 41-year-old Huntington Beach man, despondent over recent split with his girlfriend. In each case, love became an obsession. In each, that obsession turned violent.

It is a safe bet that few women ever wanted to mother Clint Eastwood. The steely, narrowed eyes. The rugged jawline. The thin-lipped sneer. This is the face of a man to save the homestead from marauding Indians, to stare down an outlaw in a saloon. But not to cuddle. Now, take Paul McCartney--he of the doe eyes, chipmunk cheeks and teddy bear chin. Ten thousand teeny-boppers can't be wrong. The man is adorable.

There's so much to praise in the blissful Broadway revival of "Follies," which opened Wednesday at the Ahmanson Theatre on the heels of its numerous Tony nominations, but let's pay homage first to the sheer sophistication of the show itself. After experiencing "Follies" again - an adult entertainment if ever there was one - I flat-out refuse to accept any more jukebox substitutes. One doesn't often talk about architecture when writing about musicals, but the most impressive thing about "Follies," beyond Stephen Sondheim's bejeweled score, is the ingenious way it is constructed.

Was Michael Jordan born to be a great pressure player? Is there something in his genetic blueprint that makes him more dependable in times of duress? Are athletes predisposed to success or failure? Can you test your 10-year-old Jimmy to see if he is cut out to be a relief pitcher? More important, does Laker phenom Kobe Bryant have what it takes between the ears to become the next Jordan? The answers, according to Jonathan P. Niednagel, are yes, yes, yes, yes and, um, no.

Is it OK for ministers to hug their parishioners? It depends on the kind of hugs, a counselor told some 170 clergy who attended a sexual-abuse awareness workshop here recently. It was sponsored by the St. Paul Area Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

The interview begins on a cheerful note. USC law professor Thomas Lyon asks a 4-year-old to tell him about her last birthday. She says she took ice cream, chocolate and cake, "mixed it up and ate it. " Then she shared some with her brothers. Lyon gently turns to the tragic matter at hand. "Tell me why you came to talk to me; tell me what happened," he asks the child, the only eyewitness to a homicide. At first she mumbles "hmm" a few times and rocks in her chair as Lyon repeats the question.

During Nirbhay Singh's eight years as lead consultant for California's psychiatric hospitals, state officials hired his relatives, then urged the facilities to use a little-known therapy and psychological questionnaire they had devised, state records and interviews show. To fill out Singh's consulting team, the Department of Mental Health in 2006 hired his wife, Judy Singh, whose background is in reading comprehension and adult literacy. Over 41/2 years, she earned more than $340,000, primarily training staff members in a therapy she helped develop, state records show.

Nets guard Deron Williams figures to be the blue chip free agent this summer. "People get traded all the time," he told Yahoo. "[Teams] don't get backlash as an organization. If [players] leave, we are not loyal, we are ungrateful.... On Twitter … they are out there bashing me, saying to me I'm a traitor. I didn't ask to be here. I got traded. " Wizards guard Jordan Crawford scored 28 points in a recent loss to Indiana, but on a fastbreak, he uncorked a bad lob pass that was grabbed by Pacers guard Paul George . The official scorer put it down as a blocked shot.

The interview begins on a cheerful note. USC law professor Thomas Lyon asks a 4-year-old to tell him about her last birthday. She says she took ice cream, chocolate and cake, "mixed it up and ate it. " Then she shared some with her brothers. Lyon gently turns to the tragic matter at hand. "Tell me why you came to talk to me; tell me what happened," he asks the child, the only eyewitness to a homicide. At first she mumbles "hmm" a few times and rocks in her chair as Lyon repeats the question.

Drone crews protect U.S. ground troops by watching over them 24 hours a day from high above. Sitting before video screens thousands of miles from their remote-controlled aircraft, the crews scan for enemy ambushes and possible roadside bombs, while also monitoring what the military calls "patterns of life. " Only rarely do drone crews fire on the enemy. The rest of the time, they sit and watch. For hours on end. Day after day. It can get monotonous and, yes, boring. It can also be gut-wrenching.

U.S. stocks rallied amid more evidence of a U.S. economic recovery and hopes of a new Greek bailout, sending the Dow Jones industrial average to one of its best days this year. The Dow rose to within 100 points of the psychologically important mark of 13,000, a level last reached in May 2008. Economic data released Thursday showed that the number of people filing for unemployment claims fell last week, while the number of homes under construction rose. The reports helped paint a more upbeat picture about the economy that put Wall Street in a buying mood.

It's suddenly fashionable to be a Clippers fan, while Lakers fans lick their wounds or, as is often the case with Lakers fans, hire someone to lick their wounds for them. So go ahead, climb aboard that Clippers bandwagon. Just try not to honk a hamstring while you fight for a seat. And no, you can't "borrow" my Heineken. New Clippers followers should also be aware that when you adopt a new team you adopt a new worldview. After all, Yankees fans are as different from Cubs fans as Brewers fans are from Baptists.

Writer-director Guy Ritchie is as well known for his cockney-accented crime capers as he is for being Mr. Madonna. But for the last four years, he's been immersed in the esoteric mechanics of the human mind, attempting to shoehorn heady concepts about the ego -- what modern psychiatrists call "the conceptualized self" -- and its often malevolent influence into his latest crime drama, "Revolver."

If you're still smarting from some hurtful exchange with--or deafening silence from--a sibling over the holidays, a book out this week might help you make sense of your strained relationship with a sister or brother. The book, "Cain's Legacy ," may not prompt you to patch things up with a sibling who's angry, jealous, entitled, bossy or makes you feel like a monster or an idiot (its author gamely acknowledges that sometimes, that's just not worth it). But by rooting around inside the baggage of one of life's earliest relationships, it might make your emotional burden a little easier to bear.

Proficiency in organic chemistry may still be a necessary condition for getting into medical school. But starting in 2015, it will no longer be sufficient. In an effort to create a cadre of future physicians with improved bedside manners, the Assn. of American Medical Colleges has announced changes to the Medical College Admission Test ( MCATs ) that would plumb applicants' knowledge of psychology, sociology and biology, as well as their ethical and scientific reasoning skills.