Speaking Of Psychology

For thousands of years, people have turned to religion to answer questions about how to lead a happy, moral and fulfilling life. David DeSteno, PhD, a psychology professor at Northeastern University and author of the book “How God Works,” discusses how the structures and traditions of religion contribute to people’s well-being, what behavioral scientists can learn from studying religion, and how those lessons can be applied outside the context of religious belief. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The vast majority of U.S. teens have access to a smartphone and at least one social media account, and recent headlines seem to confirm parents’ worst fears about the effects of all that time spent online. But psychologists’ research suggests that there are nuanced answers to the question of how social media affects teens’ mental health and well-being. Linda Charmaraman, PhD, director of the Youth, Media and Wellbeing Research Lab at the Wellesley Centers for Women, discusses how teens use social media today, its impact on their mental health, and what parents, educators and others can do to maximize its benefits and minimize its potential harms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Close relationships are essential to our happiness and well-being and are also an important predictor of physical health. Richard Slatcher, PhD, of the University of Georgia, talks about why the support we receive from our partners, family and friends is so important, how we develop these deep ties to each other, and the key ingredients of good and supportive relationships. He also discusses how technology like smartphones and social media is affecting close relationships and his study on “Love in the time of COVID-19.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Just in time for Halloween, we talk about the psychology of strange stuff – including ghostly visitations, alien abductions, ESP, and more – with Chris French, PhD, head of the anomalistic psychology unit at Goldsmiths, University of London. Dr. French discusses how psychological explanations such as sleep paralysis and inattentional blindness could underlie many people’s paranormal experiences, and the role of skepticism and science in testing and evaluating paranormal claims.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is there anything more agonizing than being in limbo? Time may seem to slow to a crawl when you’re waiting for high-stakes news like a hiring decision, a biopsy result – or the end of a pandemic. Kate Sweeny, PhD, of the University of California, Riverside, discusses what makes waiting so stressful, how the stress of waiting differs from other types of stress, the relationship between waiting and worrying, and strategies people can use to lessen anxiety and make waiting easier. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stoic. Self-reliant. Unemotional. For many men, these watchwords of traditional masculinity still hold powerful sway. Men are less likely than women to seek help for mental health issues, they die by suicide more often, and they commit and are the victims of more homicides. Ronald F. Levant, EdD, discusses how cultural expectations of masculinity affect men’s mental and physical health, how our ideas of masculinity have changed over time and what psychologists have learned about how to reach out to men. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For many people, the stereotypical image of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is an 8-year-old boy who can’t sit still in class. But in recent decades, scientists have gained a more sophisticated understanding of the causes and lifelong consequences of the disorder. Margaret Sibley, PhD, of Seattle Children’s Hospital, talks about the biological underpinnings of ADHD, what researchers have learned about how it manifests in childhood, adolescence and adulthood, treatment options, and why the pandemic may have caused an uptick in ADHD diagnoses. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On hot-button topics such as climate change, vaccines and genetically modified foods, science denial is rampant – and it crosses party and ideological lines. What are the psychological forces that lead people to disbelieve scientific consensus?  Is science denial worse than it’s ever been? How have the internet and social media changed the landscape of science skepticism? Psychologists Barbara Hofer of Middlebury College and Gale Sinatra of the University of Southern California, authors of the book “Science Denial: Why it Happens and What to Do About it,” discuss these and other questions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What can you learn from the science of behavior change that can help you make the changes you want to see in your life? Katy Milkman, PhD, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and author of the book “How to Change,” discusses the importance of accurately identifying the behavioral roadblocks standing in your way, how specific strategies such as “temptation bundling” and creating fresh starts can help you achieve your goals, how to turn laziness to your advantage by setting the right defaults, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Human memory is imperfect – we all misplace our keys, forget acquaintances’ names and misremember the details of our own past. Daniel Schacter, PhD, a professor of psychology at Harvard University, discusses why memory is so fallible, the causes and consequences of the most common memory errors, how memory changes as we age, and how memory is tied to our ability to plan for the future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week marks 20 years since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Researchers call this kind of shared disaster a “collective trauma.” Roxane Cohen Silver, PhD, of the University of California Irvine, who studies collective trauma and led a multi-year study on the mental and physical health effects of 9/11, discusses that research and how what we learned in the aftermath of 9/11 can inform our response to the COVID-19 pandemic, hurricanes, wildfires and the other large-scale disasters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What is power? Why do people seek it and how do they get it? Is it human nature to abuse power? And how might power – or powerlessness – affect our health and wellbeing? Dacher Keltner, PhD, psychology professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of the book “The Power Paradox: How We Gain and Lose Influence,” discusses these and other questions. Links Greater Good Science Center The Power Paradox: How We Gain and Lose Influence Speaking of Psychology Listener Survey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The mental health of athletes has been in the news a lot this year, thanks to Olympians Naomi Osaka and Simone Biles. The attention may be new, but the field of sport psychology is not. How do sport psychologists work with athletes? How might athletes’ mental health affect the public perception of mental health? As a mental performance consultant for the U.S. Paralympic team and a former competitive gymnast, Dr. Jamie Shapiro understands the challenges athletes face.   Speaking of Psychology - Listener Survey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Eureka moments” have led to some of humanity’s greatest achievements in science, medicine, mathematics and the arts. But they’re not always that dramatic -- we’ve nearly all had the experience of solving a nagging problem in a flash of insight when we’re least expecting it. John Kounios, PhD, a professor of psychology at Drexel University, discusses how does this type of creative insight differs from more analytical thinking, where creative insight comes from in the brain, and how can you encourage more creativity in yourself and set yourself up to experience more of these “aha moments.” Listener Survey - https://www.apa.org/podcastsurvey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Just in time for Friday the 13th, we discuss the psychology of superstition with Stuart Vyse, PhD, author of the book “Believing in Magic: The Psychology of Superstition.” Vyse discusses the origins of some popular superstitions, the psychological purposes superstition serves, and whether or not it’s possible that your lucky charm or pre-game ritual might actually help you perform better. Listener Survey - https://www.apa.org/podcastsurvey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaking of Psychology is taking a one-week summer break, so we’re revisiting one of our favorite episodes from the past year. In February, we talked to University of California, Berkeley psychologist Alison Gopnik about how children’s brains are optimized to explore the world and the implications that this has for human evolution, how we think about the purpose of childhood, how we raise and educate our children, the role of grandparents in teaching the next generation, and even how we might develop artificial intelligence systems inspired by children’s remarkable learning abilities. Listener Survey - https://www.apa.org/podcastsurvey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The word “burnout” has become ubiquitous -- it seems to sum up the stress and exhaustion and disaffection that many of us are feeling this year. But are workers really more burned out than ever? And what does the term burnout actually mean? How does burnout differ from fatigue or stress? How do you know if you’re burned out? And what can individuals, employers and society do to combat workplace burnout? Dr. Christina Maslach answers these and other questions.  Listener Survey - https://www.apa.org/podcastsurvey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More than 4% of people have some form of synesthesia, a neurological condition that causes senses to link and merge. People with synesthesia may taste words, hear colors, or see calendar dates arrayed in physical space. Dr. Julia Simner, a professor of neuropsychology at the University of Sussex in the U.K., discusses the many forms of synesthesia, how synesthetes experience the world, and what scientists have learned from brain imaging studies about synesthesia. She also discusses her research on other sensory differences such as misophonia, an extreme aversion to specific sounds. Listener Survey - https://www.apa.org/podcastsurvey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

These days, many companies use assessments such as personality tests as part of the hiring process or in career development programs. Fred Oswald, PhD, director of the Organization and Workforce Laboratory at Rice University, discusses why companies use these tests, what employers and workers can learn from them, and how new technologies, including artificial intelligence, are changing workplace assessments. Listener Survey - https://www.apa.org/podcastsurvey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do you ever feel like a phony? Like you’re not really qualified for the job you’re doing, despite your achievements? Those are signs of the impostor phenomenon, also called impostor syndrome. Dr. Lisa Orbé-Austin, a counseling psychologist and career coach in New York City, and Dr. Kevin Cokley, a University of Texas at Austin psychology professor who studies the impostor phenomenon among ethnic minority students, discuss where impostor feelings come from, the repercussions they can have in people’s lives, and what you can do to address imposter feelings. Listener Survey - https://www.apa.org/podcastsurvey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices