Psychology in Everyday Life: The Psych Files

Are you familiar with Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish‘s classic book “How To Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk“? You should be. It’s not just for parents. The ideas in this book and in their other books should be required reading for all of us, but especially for parents, therapists and anyone interested in what we can do to better communicate with each other. I think you will be as charmed as I was listening to Adele and I encourage you to listen to part 2 of this interview.

Why does conflict emerge as it did in Baltimore among the police and the African-American community? Is it caused by poor parenting? Poverty? Joblessness? I provide a psychological perspective on the situation. I look at how stereotypes develop and conflict among groups develops. The solution is complex but the theories on these two issues give us some insight into what has to happen to resolve the problems.

Interested in Music Therapy? Music therapy, which is often used with children with autism, can also be used in the classroom to help children learn patterns. In this interview music therapist Kamile Geist talks about types and techniques of music therapy along with her research in this fascinating field. On the website Kamile talks about courses and programs that will prepare you to be a music therapist, as well as how insurance programs deal with this type of therapy.

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.

Have you used Siri, Hey Google, or Alexa? These voice-enabled digital assistants are pretty cool and getting smarter, but why do some of them sound more like a "person" than others? What is it about your voice that makes people believe that there is a thinking human being behind it? In this episode I take a look at a research study called "Mistaking Minds: How Speech Affects Dehumanization and Anthropomorphism" to uncover what it is about a voice that makes it more likely that you'll anthropomorphize it into a real human being?

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.

Why does it seem that males in many cultures have to prove their manhood? Do women have to prove their womanhood? Why is this and what happens when men feel like they are less than a man? In this review of a recent research article entitled, "Precarious Manhood", we take a look at this intriguing issue.

What do you reveal about yourself in the way you use the smallest and seemingly most insignificant words you use every minute? That's the focus of Dr. James Pennebaker's fascinating book and one of the most interesting psychology books of 2011: The Secret Life of Pronouns. If you're fascinated by language then you'll find this episode especially interesting.

What can we learn from an old, dusty book I found in the basement? Well, if that book is about gender role stereotypes then there's a lot of things to uncover that explain why boys and girls act the way they do. In this episode we get an example of qualitative research by really diving into the book called "Those We Love". How do books shape who we think we are and how we act as adults?

This is part 2 of my interview with Michael Pipich, author of the book, Owning Bipolar. In this part of the interview Michael discusses his therapeutic approach to treating Bipolar Disorder. If you have been diagnosed with bipolar or know someone who has, this episode is for you. Michael Pipich brings his 30 years of experience together in his book, Owning Bipolar.

What do psychologists really think about your dreams – do they have meaning? In this episode I talk about what psychologists think today about dreams. You probably know that Freud thought that dreams had a manifest content (the people and things that happened in the dream that you remember) and a latent content (the unconscious meaning of the dream). Do we still think this? Also: can you look up in a book or online to find out what your dreams meant? If you dream about a cat for example – what does this mean? In this episode I explore these questions with author and psychoanalyst Kerry Malawista. She and her colleagues discuss this topic in their book, Wearing My Tutu To Analysis. I’ll talk to her and include my own thoughts about whether or not dreams have meaning and whether you should be taking the time to analyze them.

Alright, let’s all admit it – we talk to our pets in that funny pet voice. “Who’s a good dog?” Well, there’s been a lot of research on your use of this voice to talk to your dog as well how you talk to babies. What exactly are you doing with your voice? And most importantly, does your dog know what the heck you’re saying? Does it help to talk this way? Let’s find out.

If you’re suffering from the effects of a trauma in your life or know someone who is, then listen to Dr. Matt Jaremko talk about his new book with Beth Fehlbaum called Trauma Recovery: Sessions With Dr. Matt. Dr. Jaremko’s approach to therapy with trauma victims is straightforward and respectful. It’s about helping survivors get their confidence back and move forward. Individuals suffering from PTSD of many kinds will find this episode especially helpful. Students of psychology will also see how the ideas of Albert Bandura and Arnold Lazarus come together in a fascinating therapeutic technique.

Did you see the movie A Quiet Place? How about Mission Impossible? It’s always fun to analyze movies from a psychological perspective and that’s what I do in this episode. A Quiet Place has a lot of family dynamics issues going on but Mission Impossible? You’d be surprised. We’ll look at such things as family therapy, the identified patient, sexism and even correlational statistics. Let’s have some fun.

Hopefully you've watched the TV show Columbo. Curious about what this character has to do with psychology? You'd be surprised. In this episode I analyze Columbo in terms of the psychological technique called motivational interviewing. I also take a look at the criminal lineup scene in the Jennifer Garner movie, "Peppermint". I also explain why you remember how to ride a bike but can't remember where you put your cell phone. Along the way we learn about Semantic vs. Procedural memory.

Have you ever seen something so cute you just want to squeeze it - to death? Or a child so cute you want to pinch it's cheeks really hard? Why do we have these odd, powerful, opposite feelings? It's called "cute aggression" and we'll try to explain it in this episode. 

Do you have your own little “tricks”? That is, ways of doing things that are faster than how you used to do them? Well, congratulations, you’re something of an efficiency expert. And if you can picture an assembly line of people putting products together, then you’ve seen one way of increasing productivity. But some of us are really, really obsessed with efficiency and often those people are computer programmers. Some of them, as you’ll hear from Clive Thompson (author of Coders: The Making of a New Tribe and the Remaking of the World) have even developed ways to make their love lives more efficient! Sounds impossible but I think you’ll enjoy hearing what some coders are up to. Why are they obsessed with efficiency? Do they score highly on Conscientiousness in the Big Five personality score? Would Frederick Taylor – founder of scientific management – feel a kindred spirit in them? Let’s find out.