1. What Makes a Perfect Parent? and Missed Opportunities

2. Choice & Happiness Choice and Control are key to happiness no choice and no control = misery and “learned helplessness” But similar to the law of diminishing marginal utility (p. 68) and the candy-bar experiment, too many choices and too much control often fosters both a: (1) paradoxical paralysis and (2) increasing rates of depression/unhappiness 1966: 9% of people felt left out of things around them and 36% agreed that what they thought mattered… 1986: the figures were 37% and 60%, respectively, and growing... - rates of depression have increased by a factor of ten since 1900 - since 1960 the divorce rate has doubled and the prison population has quintupled - percentage of babies born to unmarried parents has sextupled - “this is clearly not a mark of improved well-being, despite huge growth in GDP.” Time is the ultimate scarce resource and too many choices and too much control make too many demands on our increasingly limited amount of time! They take away from time spent with close friends and family members, which has been demonstrated to promote the most personal happiness.

3. Restricting Choices for the Public Good? Another form of crime control and justice: DNA dragnets: -savvy policing or invasion of privacy? In 1996, police discovered the body of Juli Busken, a student at the University of Oklahoma. She was raped and murdered. (Photo: CBS)

4. Missed Opportunities tradeoffs have psychological consequences = “opportunity costs” The cost of any option involves passing up the opportunities that a different option would have afforded. e.g., food courts, hiring UR professors = The “cost” of any decision is whatever you pay for it, plus the passed up opportunity of doing something else.

5. Cost Structures are Essentially Incentive Structures Opportunity costs = foregone alternatives Fixed costs = refer to the costs associated with a product, that are fixed over a number of units. Thus, regardless of the number of units produced and sold, the fixed costs remain the same (e.g., farming & a tractor). Marginal costs = the cost of the additional inputs needed to produce an additional unit of output (e.g., farming & seeds). Sunk costs = non-recoverable costs (e.g., R&D for digital products or pharmaceuticals). Example: an extra MRI vs. an extra house UR example: taking 20 Tulane students for a semester

6. The Psychology of Tradeoffs & Avoiding Decisions More choices means more tradeoffs and, thus, more opportunity costs, which frustrates people; risk assessment: swimming pools vs. handguns & pop-quizzes vs. take-home exams Scenario(s): (1.) 4 tests (25% each), or 1 final exam (100%) (2.) 4 tests (25% each), or 1 final exam (100%), or 4 pop-quizzes (20% each) and 1 take-home (20%) (3.)1 final exam (100%), or 4 quizzes (20% each) and 1 take-home (20%), or 2 pop-quizzes (20% each), 1 final exam (40%), and 1 take home (20%), or 1 mid-term (25%), 4 quizzes (10% each), 1 pop quiz (10%), and 1 take home (25%) (4.) 1 final exam (100%), or 4 quizzes (20% each) and 1 final exam (20%), or 3 quizzes (10% each), 1 pop quiz (10%), 1 mid-term (30%) and 1 take home (30%), or 10 quizzes (5% each), 10 pop quizzes (5% each)

7. What Makes a Perfect Parent? Roughly 50% of a child’s personality and abilities are determined by their genes What seems to matter in terms of “academic performance/progress” (things parents are): - The child has highly educated parents. - The child’s parents have high socioeconomic status. - The child’s mother was 30 or older at the time of her first birth. - The child has low birth-weight. - The child’s parents speak English in the home. - The child is adopted. - The child’s parents are involved in the PTA. - The child has many books in the home. What does not seem to matter in terms of “academic performance/progress” (things parents do): - The child’s family is intact. - The child’s parents recently moved into a better neighborhood. - The child’s mother didn’t work between birth and kindergarten. - The child attended Head Start. - The child’s parents regularly take him to museums. - The child is regularly spanked - The child frequently watches television. - The child’s parents read to him every day.