psychology

#393 Paul Bloom: Moral Development, Empathy, Pleasure and/in Pain

Nov 19, 2020

Dr. Paul Bloom is the Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of psychology and cognitive science at Yale University. His research explores how children and adults understand the physical and social world, with special focus on language, morality, religion, fiction, and art. He is the author of books like How Children Learn the Meanings of Words (2000), How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like (2010), Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil (2013), and Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion (2016). More»
#392 Christopher Ferguson: Violent Media and Its Effects, and How Madness Shaped History

Nov 16, 2020

Dr. Christopher J. Ferguson is professor of psychology at Stetson University. He is interested in media violence and, in particular, video games. He has been invited to speak at Vice President Biden's task force and a 2013 Institute of Medicine/CDC panel on the subject and in summer 2018 testified at the School Safety Commission. His research has generally indicated that exposure to media violence has little effect on societal violence. Dr. Ferguson has emphasized the idea that media effects must be studied independently rather than taking a "one size fits all" approach. Thus, advertising may get us to switch from one product to another even if video games don't turn kids into mass killers. Dr. Ferguson is also interested in the sociology of media research itself...how political pressure, social moral panics and culture war can distort media effects research into "opinions with numbers.". He’s the author of How Madness Shaped History: An Eccentric Array of Maniacal Rulers, Raving Narcissists, and Psychotic Visionaries. More»
#387 Greg Eghigian: The History of Mental Illness and Psychiatry

Nov 5, 2020

Dr. Greg Eghigian is Professor of History at Pennsylvania State University. A historian of both the human sciences and modern Europe, he is particularly interested in how societies grapple with the questions and problems associated with modernity through the vehicles of science, technology, and medicine. His research has largely focused on the nature of power and the relationship between the state, science, and medicine in understanding and managing things such as disability, deviance, criminality, mental illness, and security. And he regularly writes articles and present papers on the general history of madness and psychiatry. In recent years, his interests have moved into studying the history of supernatural and paranormal phenomena. More»
#386 Shawn Smith: The APA Guidelines for Practice with Boys and Men

Nov 2, 2020

Dr. Shawn Smith is a clinical psychologist in Denver, Colorado and the author of five psychology books. He also writes a blog at docsmith.co. And he has a YouTube channel - Dr. Shawn T. Smith. More»
#385 Russell Warne - In the Know: Debunking 35 Myths about Human Intelligence

Oct 30, 2020

Dr. Russell T. Warne is Associate Professor of Psychology at Utah Valley University. His new book is In the Know: Debunking 35 Myths About Human Intelligence. More»
#384 Robert Sapolsky: Behavior, Self-control, Morality, Primates, Humans, and Religion

Oct 29, 2020

Dr. Robert Sapolsky is the John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Professor of Biology and Professor of Neurology and of Neurosurgery at Stanford University. Dr. Sapolsky is the author of several informative and comical books that present cutting edge psychoneurobiological knowledge in an enjoyable, easy to read format. He's also a renowned researcher and award-winning professor at Stanford University. He’s the author of books like Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, The Trouble with Testosterone: And Other Essays on the Biology of the Human Predicament, A Primate's Memoir, Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst. More»
#383 Daniel Kruger: Life History Theory, Time Perspective, and Health

Oct 26, 2020

Dr. Daniel Kruger is Research Investigator in the Population Studies Center at the University of Michigan. He applies evolutionary principles to advance the understanding of a wide range of human psychology and behavior. Much of his work is founded on Life History Theory, which provides a powerful framework for understanding individual variation. He pursues both basic research to advance theory as well as applied projects that leverage the most powerful theoretical framework in the life sciences to promote human well-being and sustainability. More»
#381 Virgil Zeigler-Hill: Self-Esteem, Narcissism, and Romantic Love Styles

Oct 22, 2020

Dr. Virgil Zeigler-Hill is Professor of Psychology and Director of Graduate Training at Oakland University. He is a social-personality psychologist with primary research interests in four interrelated areas: (1) self-esteem, (2) narcissism, (3) cognitive representations of the self, and (4) interpersonal relationships. His research concerning self-esteem has largely focused on the potential causes and consequences of fragile high self-esteem. More recently, his research in this area has led to the development of the status-signaling model of self-esteem. His research concerning narcissism has examined the feelings of self-worth possessed by individuals with narcissistic personality features. His work in the area of cognitive representations of the self has examined the association between features of the self-concept (i.e., content and structure) and psychological adjustment. Finally, in the area of interpersonal relationships, he examines how beliefs about the self and one’s partner influence intimacy, relationship satisfaction, and longevity in close relationships. More»
#380 Gordon Pennycook: Analytic Thinking, Reasoning, and Fake News

Oct 19, 2020

Dr. Gordon Pennycook is Assistant Professor of Behavioural Science at University of Regina’s Hill/Levene Schools of Business. He’s also an Associate Member of the Department of Psychology. He’s a member of the editorial board for Thinking & Reasoning and a consulting editor for Judgment and Decision Making. His research focus is on reasoning and decision-making, broadly defined. He investigates the distinction between intuitive processes (“gut feelings”) and more deliberative (“analytic”) reasoning processes and is principally interested in the causes (a) and consequences (b) of analytic thinking. Dr. Pennycook has published on religious belief, sleep paralysis, morality, creativity, smartphone use, health beliefs (e.g., homeopathy), language use among climate change deniers, pseudo-profound bullshit, delusional ideation, fake news (and disinformation more broadly), political ideology, and science beliefs. He’s also interested in the methodological and theoretical issues that pertain to the measurement of cognitive reflection and motivated reasoning. More»
#379 Paul Eastwick: Close Relationships and Evolutionary Psychology

Oct 16, 2020

Dr. Paul Eastwick is Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Eastwick’s research investigates how people initiate romantic relationships and the psychological mechanisms that help romantic partners to remain committed and attached. One of his research programs examines how the qualities that people say are critically important to them in a romantic partner—their ideal partner preferences—direct romantic partner selection and retention. He is also interested in exploring how close relationships research can inform evolutionary psychological approaches (and vice versa), especially with respect to the way that relationships grow and develop over time. More»