Psychology in Everyday Life: The Psych Files

The trial of accused child murdered Casey Anthony is over and Casey was found not guilty.  Most people are extremely upset because she appeared to be guilty for many reasons.  I give you 5 reasons why Casey Anthony might not be guilty.  None of these are based on evidence, but instead on what might be going on inside your mind that made you think she was guilty.  Caution: open mindedness required!

What is the REAL reason why you either support or oppose gay marriage?  We may give logical reasons for our opinions, but the roots behind your opinion lies - where else? - in your past.  So let's dive into your mind as we always do here in the Psych Files and learn how our attitudes develop over time and how strong attitudes especially come to be held.

How does Behavior Modification work? Find out in this episode as I interview Scott Milford, author of the Behavior and Motivation website.  If you're about how to apply Psychology to everyday life then this is the guy to show you how he does it.  In this episode we talk about how to get kids to practice the piano, but you'll quickly see how this approach could be applied to all kinds of other life challenges.  Scott developed his approach over many years of working with young people both at the piano and with at-risk adolescents in school.  See how Psychology can be put to work! 

We all take shortcuts when we are making decisions.  And in those shortcuts often lie our mistakes.  In this episode find out the difference between the availability and representativeness heuristics, as well as the "Take the Best", Hindsight, and the Base Rate Neglect (Fallacy) heuristics.  Lots of examples of these heuristics at work are included.  Let's face it - we all have lazy minds!  Either that or we're all too busy to try to weed through complicated statistics and probabilities.  Heuristics help us make decisions fast.  But are they the right ones?

Piaget's concept of object permanence is essential to understand.  But how did they study this idea among 1 year olds?  Obviously children can't tell you that they believe that something no longer exists when they can't see it, so how do we know what is going on inside a child's mind?  How about this challenge: do animals also understand object permanence?  If you've ever seen your cat or dog look under or around objects for a lost toy then yes - you've seen that they do understand object permanence.How can you study object permanence - or a related idea called "expectancy violation" - in animals?  Let's take a look in this 150 episode of The Psych Files.

Piaget's concept of object permanence is essential to understand.  But how did they study this idea among 1 year olds?  Obviously children can't tell you that they believe that something no longer exists when they can't see it, so how do we know what is going on inside a child's mind?  How about this challenge: do animals also understand object permanence?  If you've ever seen your cat or dog look under or around objects for a lost toy then yes - you've seen that they do understand object permanence.How can you study object permanence - or a related idea called "expectancy violation" - in animals?  Let's take a look in this 150 episode of The Psych Files.

You've probably heard of many times when people knew that someone was hurt or might be hurt and they did not help.  How can we prevent that from happening?  You may have learned about bystander apathy and the concept of diffusion of responsibility.  But now what do we DO with what we know?  How can we put that knowledge into action?  Meet Vicky Banyard and see what she and her colleagues at the University of New Hampshire are doing with a program called Bring in the Bystander. Bringing in the Bystander program at the University of New Hampshire. There's an interesting checklist on the Know Your Power website.  It's called the Checklist for Bystander Action.  Also take a look at the Bystander Store where you can order the poster's Dr. Banyard talked about in this episode.

What can we do to end bullying against gays?  There is a shocking increase in the number of young homosexuals who are commit suicide.  Many anti-bullying programs don't work and in this episode I talk to Dr. Elizabeth J. Meyer of Concordia University about what can be done.  No one should be bullied and we all need to care about those who are bullied to the point of considering suicide.  Find out more in this episode. 

In this first "Psych Files Brief" episode, we look at whether swearing actually reduces your sensation of pain (ever stub your toe?), whether or not vertical stripes actually do make you look thinner (no surprise - the answer is no), whether you're more likely to run up that credit card when you're feeling low, and why is it (and when is it) that yawns become contagious?

Borderline Personality Disorder is a difficult disorder to understand and treat.  Briefly, people who suffer from BPD tend to have a heightened sensitivity to rejection.  When they feel that they are being rejected they can react with strong feelings of anger.  Their emotions can be very intense and vary widely during the day.  This can also make their relationships very unstable.  They can also be very impulsive.  However, a recent fascinating piece of research used a mobile device and what's called an "experience sampling" technique to gain further insight into what it is like to have BPD.  In this episode I discuss that research and then wonder what else we might be able to learn as our mobile devices become even more powerful. Resources on Borderline Personality Disorder The Fight Within Us   ESP: The Experience Sampling Program   Just Helping People