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Most people probably think of epidemiologists as simply doctors who specialize in contagious illness, but that would be only part of the story. Indeed, rather than studying and finding cures for diseases, arguably the most important component of the field is increasingly being viewed as something else entirely - the molding of public behavior. This explains why so many who go into epidemiology hold undergraduate degrees in public health, which focuses on the social and behavioral sciences, instead of the more hard-core sciency stuff studied by their medical doctor peers, like biology or biochemistry.

Records Show Obama Hired Behavioral Experts to Expand Use of Govt. Programs - Judicial Watch http://www.judicialwatch.org/the-blog/records-show-obama-hired-behavioral-experts-expand-use-govt-programs/ Records Show Obama Hired Behavioral Experts to Expand Use of Govt. Programs SEPTEMBER 08, 2016 The Obama administration quietly hired 20 social and behavioral research experts to help expand the use of government programs at dozens of agencies by, among other things, simplifying federal forms, according to records obtained by Judicial Watch. The controversial group of experts is collectively known as the Social and Behavioral Sciences Team (SBST) and it functions under the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). In 2015...

Children Who Have An Active Father Figure Have Fewer Psychological And Behavioral Problems ScienceDaily (Feb. 15, 2008) — Active father figures have a key role to play in reducing behaviour problems in boys and psychological problems in young women, according to a review published in the February issue of Acta Paediatrica. Erikson's stages of psychosocial development Swedish researchers also found that regular positive contact reduces criminal behaviour among children in low-income families and enhances cognitive skills like intelligence, reasoning and language development. Children who lived with both a mother and father figure also had less behavioural problems than those who...

The dismembered, mangled remains of three suitcase locks, carefully taped onto printed notices, have to me become emblematic of the state of America's internal security and by extension, unfortunately, that of the entire free world. And it's nothing to instill cheer in worried hearts. But let me not get ahead of myself. I recently returned with my daughter from a visit to the US. Our trip home started uneventfully in Denver. We were bound for Toronto, where, so our travel agent imperiously decreed, we'd connect to a direct flight to Israel. Prior to that last leg of the journey, we...

Michelle Malkin is a syndicated columnist and author of two books, of which her latest is In Defense of Internment (New York: Regnery Publishing, 2004). In it, she provides a defense of "threat profiling" already taken or contemplated since September 11. Ms. Malkin's earlier book was Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists, Criminals, and Other Foreign Menaces to Our Shores (New York: Regnery Publishing, 2002). Her syndicated column appears in nearly 200 papers nationwide. Ms. Malkin addressed the Middle East Forum in Philadelphia, on December 2, 2004. Millions of American schoolchildren have been taught that there was no evidence...

CHICAGO (AP) Americans are not just getting fatter, they are ballooning to extremely obese proportions at an alarming rate. The number of extremely obese American adults - those who are at least 100 pounds overweight - has quadrupled since the 1980s to about 4 million. That works out to about 1 in every 50 adults. Extreme obesity once was thought to be a rare, distinct condition whose prevalence remained relatively steady over time. The new study contradicts that thinking and suggests that it is at least partly due to the same kinds of behavior - overeating and under-activity - that...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The House voted Wednesday to prohibit schools from making children with behavioral or mental problems take medication in order to attend class. Under the bill, passed 425-1, states receiving federal education money must make sure schools do not coerce parents into medicating their children. "School personnel may have good intentions, but parents should never be required to decide between their child's education and keeping them off potentially harmful drugs," said Rep. Max Burns, R-Ga., who sponsored the legislation. In recent decades, more children have been diagnosed with attention deficit or hyperactivity disorders and prescribed drugs such as...