Psychology in Everyday Life: The Psych Files

What if you could swap bodies with someone else? What would it be like to be someone of the opposite sex? A different race?  We're getting darn close to being able to do that with new techniques like the Rubber Hand Illusion, the Enfacement illusion, and now the Full body illusion.  You can now virtually switch bodies with someone else and thanks to our mirror neurons and other brain systems, you can have a very different sense of body ownership.  Come listen to me talk about the latest research on this topic and some potential intriguing applications to problems like bullying.

A small number of men cross dress and many movies and broadway shows feature cross dressers (transvestites), so obviously many people find it fascinating and those who cross dress typically enjoy it. Why?  What does it mean about the people who do it?  I was recently cast as Albin/ZaZa in the musical version of the movie "La Cage Aux Folles" so I've been doing a lot it recently.  I decided to take a closer look at cross dressing and see what psychologists think about it.  Along the way, I'll also look at some of the ways we determine how or if a behavior, thought or feeling is "abnormal"

Do "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation" or are we actually pretty happy most of the time?  As it turns out humans are far more resilient than you think.  Ever heard of the term "affective forecasting"?  It's something we do every day and very often we make mistakes doing it.  In this episode you'll learn more about positive psychology from the authors of a new book called Pollyanna's Revenge.  Another myth put to rest: "depressive realism" - the idea that there's an advantage to being depressed - that depressed people are more realistic about the world than non-depressed people.  That's not so either and I think you'll find a lot of interesting information in this episode about what affects your own level of happiness.  Join me for a fascinating discussion about how we really react to the ups and downs of life.

Most performers "mark" when they're tired during rehearsals.  Are they "not giving it their all" or are they getting quite a benefit from doing this?  You'd be surprised at how beneficial marking can be.     If you're not familiar with marking, here's a definition from the authors of a recent study on how marking benefits dancers: "Marking involves enacting the sequence of movements with curtailed size and energy by diminishing the size of steps, height of jumps and leaps, and extension of limbs. The dancer often does not leave the floor and may even substitute hand gestures for certain steps."