The best starting point for this chapter is found in Poincaré’s Méthodes Nouvelles. In Chapter I, § 13 he states the general problem of Dynamics. Let us formulate the problem in language consistent with that of this book.

The arts are undeniably emotionally evocative. This chapter focuses on our complex emotional entanglement with the arts and describes the range of emotional experiences that people have with the arts, as well as how those experiences can foster learning, curiosity, and growth. It argues that because of their ability to express and evoke emotionally complex experiences, the arts are a fertile ground for the development of a critical set of cognitive skills associated with emotional intelligence: perceiving, interpreting, regulating, and acting on emotions experienced by oneself and others. Empirical evidence is marshaled to show that the arts present us with novel opportunities to observe and examine how emotions are expressed in varied, nuanced, or even exaggerated ways, which offers insight into the emotional experience of others. Additionally, the chapter shows that feeling and actively reflecting on a host of emotions evoked during art making and art appreciation can help us to recognize and appropriately label our emotions, which is key to healthy self-regulation.

This chapter investigates the role of state-level bureaucrats in drafting and promoting legislation. In doing so, it challenges the conventional notion of separation-of-powers by showing that the executive branch often initiates statutory change. Drawing on original data from eleven states and a decades-long survey of administrators across all fifty states, the chapter demonstrates that bureaucrats are deeply involved in legislative affairs: authoring bills, collaborating with legislators, and influencing policy outcomes. Agency-initiated bills are common, pass at higher rates than other bills, and tend to attract bipartisan support. Their prevalence and success vary systematically across states, shaped by institutional capacity and partisan alignment: legislatures with fewer resources and unified partisan control are more likely to pass agency bills. At the individual level, legislators with greater power – such as committee chairs or those in the governor's party – are more likely to sponsor bureaucratic proposals. These findings put bureaucrats as strategic actors, valued by the legislature for expertise and policy-ready proposals. By focusing on the origination of legislation rather than just its implementation, this chapter provides new insight into the blurred boundaries between legislative and executive functions in US state politics and underscores the importance of studying bureaucratic influence at the earliest stages of the policymaking process.

Discrimination is a commonplace experience for ethnically and racially minoritized youth. In this chapter, we examine the links between ethnic and racial discrimination and adolescents’ mental health, physical health, health behaviors, academics, and civic engagement. In line with developmental theories that highlight not only the role of discrimination in young people’s development but also the factors that can attenuate the impacts of discriminatory experiences, we discuss the protective role of both interpersonal and internal resources for youth experiencing ethnic and racial discrimination. The chapter concludes with a discussion of intersectionality in adolescence and recommendations for future research, including the need to develop new measures of ethnic and racial discrimination, attend to the consequences of structural racism and the cumulative experiences of ethnic and racial discrimination, untangle the mediating and moderating mechanisms that link discrimination and adolescent well-being, and further explore the assets of ethnically and racially minoritized youth that promote well-being in the face of discrimination.

Racism compromises health across the life course, including early in development for children across racial groups. Fostering anti-racism early during this period when racial attitudes are more malleable holds promise to reduce victimization and the development of racial bias. This chapter synthesizes extant findings on the health implications of racism during this formative stage, delineates key mechanisms amenable to intervention, and proposes evidence-based elements of a ColorBRAVE framework for family-centered discussions to promote anti-racism in early childhood. ColorBRAVE conversations in these contexts include honest, equity-focused discussions with children about what race is, the historical origins of racial inequities, and racial discrimination and White privilege, including themes of accountability and agency. ColorBRAVE family-based interventions should be considered part of a comprehensive societal effort to promote racial justice and public health.

This chapter provides an overview of research on ethnic and racial discrimination (ERD) among young adults in higher education. We examine how the university context shapes experiences of ERD and how it moderates targets, downstream consequences, and coping responses. We do so from the vantage point of a structural-psychological perspective, which examines ERD not solely as a result of interpersonal actions but rather as a product of broader systemic inequities and historical legacies of oppression. The chapter describes which ethnic and racial groups and their intersections with other relevant social categories are most affected by ERD. It also describes the contexts and moderators of ERD and the downstream consequences of experiencing ERD. Finally, the chapter describes active and passive coping and resistance strategies that racialized students employ to deal with ERD and how effective they are for students’ academic and health adjustment.

It is argued that war, conquest, and slavery fueled northwestern Europe’s precocious economic growth. But that argument is wrong. Slaves and colonies were not necessary for growing cotton or for industrialization. Rather than being prerequisites for economic growth, slaves and colonies were the results of northwestern Europe’s rising economic and military might. They did certainly harm economies in Africa and the Americas and thereby contributed to the great divergence. As for warfare, it damaged economies, including in northwestern Europe. But it brought indirect benefits to Europe. It created strong states and representative institutions. It encouraged urbanization and agglomeration effects as businesses sought shelter from the fighting inside walled cities. It stimulated technical change in war-related industries, such as metalworking. And it helped keep western Europe politically fragmented. That kept new ideas circulating and made it harder to stamp them out. What else kept northwestern Europe fragmented? Western Christianity’s popes and northwestern Europe’s distance from the Eurasian steppe nomads, who might otherwise have conquered and unified all of Europe.