Speaking Of Psychology

Even though winter can be a bear, most of us just bundle up, get through it or embrace it and find ways to get outside and stay active. But as many as six out of every 100 people in the U.S. experience Seasonal Affective Disorder, known as SAD. It’s more than just the winter blues – it can be very difficult for people who suffer from it and this stretch of winter, January and February, tends to be the most brutal. Our guest is Kelly Rohan, PhD, a Seasonal Affective Disorder expert who is leading a five-year study on people who suffer from SAD at the University of Vermont. Join us online August 6-8 for APA 2020 Virtual.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

While television shows about hoarding are quite popular and the term has now been embedded into our general lexicon, there is still a lot about hoarding disorder that is not well understood. Hoarding disorder is complex, difficult to treat and causes a lot of pain and suffering for people who have it and their loved ones. Our guest is Julie Pike, PhD, a clinical psychologist in private practice who treats people with hoarding disorder. She has appeared on the Discovery/TLC show, “Hoarding: Buried Alive.” She helps explain more about hoarding disorder, what treatment options are available and how people can take the first steps to clearing the clutter. Join us online August 6-8 for APA 2020 Virtual.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lose 20 pounds. Begin a meditation practice. Save $1,000 a month. 2020 is here and many people are fired up about their New Year’s resolutions. No matter how jazzed people are about their resolutions at the start of the new year, most are doomed to fail soon after the New Year afterglow wears off. There are people, however, who make resolutions, stick with them and succeed. How do they do it? Our guest for this episode is Pauline Wallin, PhD, a psychologist in private practice in Pennsylvania and an expert on New Year's resolutions. Join us online August 6-8 for APA 2020 Virtual. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This special episode features a report by APA’s Kim Mills, who attended the first-ever International Summit on Psychology’s Contributions to Global Health in Lisbon, Portugal, in November. The summit – sponsored by APA and the Association of Portuguese Psychologists -- brought together leaders of psychological associations from more than 40 nations on five continents to explore ways of applying psychological science to the global problem of climate change. Watch the video - https://youtu.be/UHD1tWC4I-k Join us online August 6-8 for APA 2020 Virtual.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Experiencing positive transformation after trauma is known as post-traumatic growth. People who experience post-traumatic growth may develop a new appreciation of life, newfound personal strength, see an improvement in their relationships, see new possibilities in life and undergo spiritual changes. Why do some people experience such profound positive changes after enduring something terrible and others don’t? Our guest for this episode is Richard Tedeschi, PhD, who developed the academic theory of post-traumatic growth with Lawrence Calhoun, PhD. Dr. Tedeschi is the distinguished chair at the Boulder Crest Institute for Posttraumatic Growth, a nonprofit organization focused on military members, veterans and their families. Join us online August 6-8 for APA 2020 Virtual. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Concern and care for others’ feelings are virtues we seek to instill in our children, yet they are sorely lacking in many adult Americans today. There’s scientific research to back up the notion that Americans are caring less for others and more about themselves. Our guest is Sara Konrath, PhD, an associate professor of philanthropic studies at Indiana University and director of the Interdisciplinary Program on Empathy and Altruism Research. We’ll be exploring why empathy is declining and what we can do to create more kindness and caring in our communities. Join us online August 6-8 for APA 2020 Virtual.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To mark Veterans Day 2019, in this episode we are discussing the mental health challenges that many veterans deal with, some of the latest psychological research into their care and the complexities of modern warfare and its effect on veterans. Our guests are Rajeev Ramchand, PhD, a fellow at the Bob Woodruff Foundation, who researches the prevalence, prevention and treatment of mental health and substance use disorders in veterans and other populations, and Terri Tanielian, MA, a senior behavioral scientist at RAND Corp., who researches military and veterans health policy, military suicide and the psychological effects of combat and terrorism. Join us online August 6-8 for APA 2020 Virtual. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gregory Kratzig, PhD, is an adjunct professor of psychology at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan, Canada and a global expert in simulation-based training, particularly in the world of law enforcement. He has used virtual reality to train first responders to drive emergency vehicles and to help police officers make the best decisions when they're faced with choosing whether to use force.  Join us online August 6-8 for APA 2020 Virtual. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do you ever get the feeling at work that you're being watched? To a certain degree you are and it's possible that you will soon be tracked even more closely by your employer whether that's through video surveillance, GPS location tracking or Internet monitoring. If that disturbs you, you're not alone. Our guest for this episode is David Tomczak, a product solutions consultant for a global professional services firm and a PhD candidate at The George Washington University. He researches the influence of electronic performance monitoring on employee behaviors. Join us online August 6-8 for APA 2020 Virtual. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What psychological purpose does nostalgia serve? Is it good or bad? Are we more nostalgic today in our hectic, connected world? Is there such a thing as the “good ‘ol days”? Here to help explain is Dr. Krystine Batcho, professor of psychology at LeMoyne College in Syracuse, New York. She’s an expert on nostalgia and developed the Nostalgia Inventory, a survey that assesses proneness to personal nostalgia. Join us online August 6-8 for APA 2020 Virtual. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There's been a great deal of media attention focused on shootings in which a white police officer fired on a black or non-white suspect. Psychology has for years performed research to determine whether racial hostility plays a role in such shootings. These studies have usually entailed having participants sit in front of a computer screen and respond to images of suspects who pop up holding a gun or a benign object such as a wallet or a can of soda. These experiments are helpful. But is there a better way to study this phenomenon so we can curb these types of shootings? Our guest is John Tawa, PhD, of Mount Holyoke College who has developed a new and perhaps more realistic method for testing these responses. Join us online August 6-8 for APA 2020 Virtual.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Getting children to eat healthy meals is a challenge many parents face but what if virtual reality could help? Researchers at the National Institute of Health are using new technology to understand why parents feed their kids the foods they do and to help them make smarter food choices for the health of their children. Our guest for this episode is psychologist Susan Persky, PhD, head of the Immersive Virtual Environment Testing Unit where she applies virtual reality to biomedical research. Join us online August 6-8 for APA 2020 Virtual. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cameras are playing a greater and greater role in law enforcement, whether that means cameras placed on dashboards in police cruisers or cameras that officers wear as part of their uniforms. But how effective are cameras in police encounters? What do they tell us about police-citizen interactions and do cameras ever lie? Our guest for this episode is Nick Camp, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University. His primary research focus examines racial disparities in the everyday encounters between police officers and citizens. Join us online August 6-8 for APA 2020 Virtual.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The spaces we are in every day influence our mood and well-being whether we are aware of it or not. Creating spaces to make us feel our best is a hot topic – in community planning, in the office and on HGTV. Sally Augustin, PhD, an environmental psychologist who is a principal at Design with Science, a design consultation firm, discusses how to design spaces to optimize well-being. Join us online August 6-8 for APA 2020 Virtual. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever wondered why drivers don't get carsick? If you've ever been seasick, are you curious to know what causes it and what, if anything, can be done to stave it off? Dr. Arnon Rolnick is a clinical and experimental psychologist from Israel where he directs Rolnick's Institute for Advanced Psychotherapy and studies psychophysiology and the integration of technology and psychology. Rolnick spent 20 years as a psychologist in the Israeli Navy developing various methods to improve sailors' performance and well-being under conditions intended to make them seasick. He is also working on a book exploring how virtual psychotherapy can open new ways to study the roles of the body and brain in therapy. Join us online August 6-8 for APA 2020 Virtual.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Russell Shilling, PhD, guest host for Speaking of Psychology and Chief Scientific Officer for the American Psychological Association, sits down at APA2019 to talk with Kaitlyn Roose and Shawn Doherty, PhD, to discuss the psychology of esports, the benefits of gaming on higher level cognition, and the culture of video games. Join us online August 6-8 for APA 2020 Virtual.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our memories may not be as reliable as we think. Once we experience an event, most of us likely assume that those memories stays intact forever. But there is the potential for memories to be altered or for completely false memories to be planted, according to Elizabeth Loftus, PhD. Loftus, a distinguished professor at the University of California, Irvine, is an expert on human memory and she discusses how our recollections of events and experiences may be subject to manipulation. Join us online August 6-8 for APA 2020 Virtual.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Human Trafficking occurs when individuals are economically exploited through force, fraud or coercion for labor or commercial sex. Worldwide, it is estimated that almost 25 million people are robbed of their freedom and human dignity through trafficking- trafficking is akin to slavery. It is difficult to determine how many people are trafficked in the US but it occurs here and includes both citizens and foreign nationals. Women, children, the economically vulnerable, persons with disabilities and runaway youth are disproportionately impacted. Understanding what trafficking is and how to respond is critical. Our guest for this episode is psychologist Kalyani Gopal, PhD, a clinical psychologist and Executive Director of SAFE (Sex Trafficking Awareness, Freedom and Empowerment). Join us online August 6-8 for APA 2020 Virtual. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From automation, to artificial intelligence to employee surveillance, technology is rapidly changing the way we work. It’s raising ethical questions, concerns about the future of the job market and blurring the lines between the personal and professional. Tara Behrend, PhD, associate professor of industrial-organizational psychology and director of the Workplaces and Virtual Environments lab at The George Washington University, explains what the future of work will look like. Join us online August 6-8 for APA 2020 Virtual. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Discipline in pre-K through 12 schools is not doled out equally, as black students, boys and students with disabilities are suspended and expelled at much higher rates than other students, according to a report released last year by the Government Accountability Office. These types of harsh discipline can have dire consequences on a child’s future, including putting him or her at a higher risk of falling into the school-to-prison pipeline. Guests Amanda Sullivan, PhD, associate professor of educational psychology at the University of Minnesota, and Ivory Toldson, PhD, professor of counseling psychology at Howard University, are experts on discipline disparities in pre-K to 12 schools. Join us online August 6-8 for APA 2020 Virtual. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices