Bonus Episode: How to Obtain Teletherapy During the Pandemic with Jared Skillings, PhD

From roaring leaf blowers to screeching trains, the world is full of unwelcome noise – and researchers have found that noisy environments can take a real toll on people’s mental and physical health. Arline Bronzaft, PhD, talks about how noise affects health and well-being, how it can harm kids’ learning, why it’s not just a problem in big cities, and the most unusual noise complaints she’s heard in her five decades of advocacy combating noise pollution.

Last year -- 2023 -- was the world’s warmest on record, and 2024 could bring another record-shattering summer. Psychologist Kim Meidenbauer, PhD, and public health researcher Amruta Nori-Sarma, PhD, discuss how heat affects people’s mental health, emotions and even cognitive abilities; the link between heat, violence and aggression; who is most vulnerable to the effects of extreme heat; and what policy makers could be doing to mitigate its effects.

Why can’t I get myself to run that 5K? Why isn’t my child getting better grades? We all have things that we struggle to accomplish – or that we struggle to get someone else to accomplish. Frank Worrell, PhD, and Wendy Grolnick, PhD, co-authors of “Motivation Myth Busters: Science-based Strategies to Boost Motivation in Yourself and Others,” discuss how our misconceptions about motivation get in the way of reaching our goals, why there’s no such thing as an “unmotivated” person, and the merits and drawbacks of strategies like rewards, competition and praise.

The average American adult spends up to one-third of their waking hours alone. Psychologists are exploring how those hours spent on our own affect us – including the potential benefits, as well as the challenges, of solitude. Thuy-vy Nguyen, PhD, and Netta Weinstein, PhD, discuss the difference between solitude and loneliness, how solitude affects our emotions and stress levels, why some people crave solitude more than others, and why the stigma against solitude can make us uncomfortable with being alone.

The 2024 World Happiness Report, which ranks the happiness levels of countries around the world, found that young Americans are less happy than their peers in many other countries. Psychology professor Lara Aknin, PhD, an editor of the report, talks about how the report defines happiness, why young people’s happiness levels may have dropped in the U.S, what drives happiness, and why being generous makes people happy – even when they don’t have much to spare.

A growing number of adults in the U.S. are choosing not to have children. Jenna Watling Neal, PhD, of Michigan State University, talks about her research that’s found 1 in 5 adults are child free, why people are choosing not to have kids, the stigma child-free adults face, whether people who decide not to have kids early in life usually stick with that choice, and how the prevalence of child-free adults in the U.S. compares with other countries.

If the thought of the upcoming election sends your stress level through the roof, you’re not alone. Psychologist Brett Q. Ford, PhD, and political scientist Kevin Smith, PhD, talk about how political stress affects people’s well-being; what high levels of political stress mean for people’s lives, for the U.S. and for democracy; and how to stay politically engaged while still maintaining your mental health.

For transcripts, links and more information, please visit the Speaking of Psychology Homepage.

Sesame Street has entertained and educated generations of children. Developmental psychologist Rosemarie Truglio, PhD, Sesame Workshop’s senior vice president of curriculum and content, talks about why the show has a new focus on young children’s emotional well-being; how Sesame Street translates complicated concepts into stories that young kids can connect with; the research that underpins all of the content on Sesame Street; and why the Sesame Street characters still resonate with so many adults.

For transcripts, links and more information, please visit the Speaking of Psychology Homepage.

The eerie sensation of “déjà vu” -- feeling a strong sense of familiarity in a new place or situation -- is one of memory’s strangest tricks. Researcher Chris Moulin, PhD, of Grenoble Alpes University, talks about why déjà vu happens; why both déjà vu and its lesser-known opposite, jamais vu, may actually be signs of a healthy memory at work; why young people are more prone to déjà vu; how he and others study déjà vu and jamais vu in the lab; and what these experiences can teach us about memory more broadly.

For transcripts, links and more information, please visit the Speaking of Psychology Homepage.

Are you a sports “superfan”? Or do you wonder what’s driving the superfans in your life? Daniel Wann, PhD, of Murray State University, talks about why being a fan is usually good for people’s mental health, how they choose the teams they root for, why some are fair-weather fans while others love to cheer for the underdog, how fandom is changing among younger people, and whether a crowd of supportive fans can affect the outcome of a game.

For transcripts, links and more information, please visit the Speaking of Psychology Homepage.

Kate Wilber is the Mary Pickford Chair in Gerontology and director of the Secure Old Age Lab at the USC Leonard Davis School. She's also the co-director of the National Center on Elder Abuse, which is housed at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. She recently spoke to George Shannon about her research, including her work exploring ways to provide long-term care services and supports that allow older adults to be as independent as possible and the challenges and opportunities that technology provides in this area.

Quotes from this episode

On building on lessons learned during the pandemic
“I think a lot of what we saw were challenges that we already knew were there - how fragmented services are, how older adults can be at risk of isolation, how important the home community-based services and programs and opportunities to interact are for everybody. And I think showing the importance of community, which we didn't have during the pandemic, except a bit on social media and phone calls and maybe people getting together outside. So the key question is, how do we take the learning and the recognition of what we already knew into the future to build on these important lessons, to do better with our aging service delivery? I was going to say our aging service delivery system, but that's a huge problem. There isn't a system; there's just a lot of different components of a system.”

On innovations in long-term care and supports

“We have to prepare for an aging population. And until recently I felt like we didn't do that great a job preparing, but I see a lot of exciting innovations, which to some extent may have been jump-started a little bit because of the challenges of the pandemic. We have a variety of models of senior living and I think we're going to see more innovation there or the innovations that have been developed take off because they did better in the pandemic too. So if we look at what kind of care was best for older adults who maybe were isolated or need long term services and supports during the pandemic, how do we build on that? And how do we make sure that we translate what we know into reasonable programs and policies.”

On barriers to implementing technology solutions

“People not only need to have some kind of device. They need to have broadband, it needs to work. And we've seen that in some parts of the country, especially in rural areas, broadband it's not available. All the things we take for granted, electricity, water, et cetera, how much is this an essential service that we’ll do a better job providing across the nation in areas where it doesn't exist very effectively now. And then as I said, how do we help people learn? And what are the particular cultural competencies required for trainers? What are the different uses that people want? This gets back to being person-centered and engaging the people that will be the end-user users and understanding what's most effective for them.

There are still a fairly large proportion of older adults who don't have access to any sort of computer; some have smartphones. And there is this notion, I guess, if we build it, they will come. Or if we give it to them, they'll use it, it would be the way of talking about that. But there's a variety of barriers. And if you hand somebody a box with a computer in it and say, ‘There you go, you're now going to go on the other side, the right side of the digital divide.’ They're not. So what can we learn about how to help people use technology in a way that is useful for them effective, meaningful?”

On telehealth

“So this will be a time saver. I think that's pretty clear, but the nursing facilities have to invest in it. The staff have to invest in it. They have to learn how to do it. And one of the things we're seeing is they thought the residents would be the most resistant and they're not. They're like, ’Okay, if I can see my doctor this way, fine.’ But I think the question is, how is it used, where is it most effective and where is it not a good replacement for a physician coming to the facility? So, there's a fair amount of literature developing on this, but I think there's so many exciting innovations that are rolling out and we need to build on what we're learning and make them better and be more effective in the next generation of telehealth and facilities and helping people on the digital divide connect. So all these things are really exciting opportunities to learn how to connect.”

On person-centered care

“So the idea behind person-centered care is that people have different needs. Of course, they also have different preferences, different preferences for care and for services and for supports and for contributing and giving back and primarily and mostly as with all of us, for controlling their lives and the decisions that are made. So person-centered care recognizes that the power should live with the individual in terms of the ability to make decisions about care informed decisions. But I think sometimes, we, as professionals can see, oh, this would be best for this person. And professionals are extremely busy also. And so it kind of overlooks sometimes the person's needs and preferences and working in areas like elder mistreatment and elder self-neglect. A lot of times people have legitimate reasons for wanting things that we don't necessarily think would be the best choice, but person-centered care asks us to really get in touch with what's behind those preferences. And to what extent can we ethically honor them and this is something I see the field doing a much better job thinking about and working on and great things have been written. And the American Geriatric Society a few years ago had an expert panel come together and develop a definition and sort of protocols for this. And I think that's really moving the field.

One more thing I'll say is that ageism contributes here. So we make assumptions about older people that they can't express their preferences adequately. And providers talk to the caregiver, not the older person. Or they say this is what needs to be done. So I think there's also a culture change of recognizing that it's about the older person. And we start with the older person, and that's not to say that there aren't age-related increased likelihoods, but not inevitabilities of memory issues and things of that kind. And so we need to be clear that the person has the capacity to express their preferences, but we start with person-centered. The elder is the person who whatever is happening is happening on behalf of, or for, or with. And that's where we start.”

On students

“That's our future. … Our legacy is you see the students that go through our program and they're very excited about learning and they bring innovation and enthusiasm, and then they go out and do wonderful things and they become the leaders of the field. And you could see that across the board in so many areas.”

As some schools are returning to in-person learning this fall, science teachers will need to address virus mitigation both in the traditional classroom and in lab environments. To discuss safety considerations while teaching science in the pandemic, the Lab Out Loud podcast welcomes Dr. Ken Roy back to the show. With health and safety always as the priority, Ken joins co-hosts Brian Bartel and Dale Basler to discuss important safety aspects such as checking for clean water pipes and functioning gas lines, using and cleaning safety goggles, when to use classroom and lab ventilation, and addressing safety for at-home investigations.

Show notes at:
https://laboutloud.com/2020/08/episode-229-pandemic-lab-safety/

As our students continue their science instruction online and at home, we wanted to take some time to share some free resources from NSTA and beyond. We also get a chance to talk to  Fred Ende's kids - referred to as "6" and "9" - as they share their experiences in science education and connecting with people online.

Show notes at:

https://laboutloud.com/2020/03/episode-223-learning-at-home/