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Life without struggles is no life at all and what accompanies these struggles is ambiguity, uncertainty, and disruptions. Coping under these tenuous conditions means deciphering new goals, weighing options, and being future-forward while responding with adaptive mental and emotional flexibility; all made possible by one’s evolving Executive Function. However, individuals who have experienced adverse childhood experiences develop a lifelong style of being mistrustful which poses its unique challenges, raising issues in the domain of personal health and interpersonal cooperation. 

On this episode, award-winning psychologist and elected fellow of the US National Academy of Medicine, British Academy, UK Academy of Medical Sciences, and Association of Psychological Science, Professor Terrie E. Moffitt, discusses how activating strong Executive Function to think clearly and systematically under highly stressful conditions is truly hard and it affects all types of decision making including the decisions to vaccinate. By improving Executive Function such as self-control, emotional agility, and perspective taking, individuals can approach complex decision making in interesting and fruitful ways.

About Professor Terrie E Moffitt
Terrie E. Moffitt’s expertise is in the areas of lifelong aging, mental health, and longitudinal research. She is the associate director of the Dunedin Longitudinal Study, which follows a 1972 birth cohort in New Zealand. She also founded the Environmental Risk Longitudinal Twin Study (E-Risk), which follows a 1994 birth cohort in Britain. Moffitt is a licensed clinical psychologist.

She is an elected fellow of the US National Academy of Medicine, British Academy, UK Academy of Medical Sciences, and Association of Psychological Science.

Moffitt is recipient of the Stockholm Prize, the Klaus Jacobs Prize, the NARSAD Ruane Prize, and the 2022 Grawemeyer Prize for her work on mental health, and the Maltilda White Riley Award from the NIH for her recent work on aging processes in midlife adults.

Dr. Moffitt received her PhD in psychology at the University of Southern California, and completed her postdoctoral training at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute. She enjoys working on her poison-ivy farm in North Carolina. 

Book:

• The Origins of You

Research:

• Vaccine resistance has its roots in negative childhood experiences, a major study finds
• Deep-seated psychological histories of COVID-19 vaccine hesitance and resistance

Website:

• www.moffittcaspi.com

About Host, Sucheta Kamath
Sucheta Kamath, is an award-winning speech-language pathologist, a TEDx speaker, a celebrated community leader, and the founder and CEO of ExQ®. As an EdTech entrepreneur, Sucheta has designed ExQ's personalized digital learning curriculum/tool that empowers middle and high school students to develop self-awareness and strategic thinking skills through the mastery of Executive Function and social-emotional competence.

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