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Communicating the Value of Research: A Two-Way Street
Seven months ago I found myself seated across the table from a dear friend at a small restaurant in Eugene, Oregon, mere weeks from the start of my graduate career. Over dinner and a few drinks, we got to talking about the enormity of this undertaking, exploring all of the parts associated with finally going…
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Odds Are: On the difference between odds, probability, and risk ratio.
Odds, Probability, Chance, Risks: Interchangeable?Not so much. What does it mean to say “smokers are X times more likely to get lung cancer than non-smokers?” What about when the weather channel says, “there is a 10% chance of rain?” The odds of 1 to 10 of winning? These words are often used in casual conversations as…
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Reinforcement vs Punishment: from Animal Training to Theology
Ever felt “positively punished” when your dog-trainer or psychologist inundate you with these lingo?
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Angela Duckworth and Long Term Goals
Here are a few of the mechanisms that help people be motivated
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Psychology Classics: Claude Steele’s Stereotype Threat Paradigm
In the late 1980s, a university committee at the University of Michigan called for psychology professor Dr. Claude Steele to tackle the problem of academic achievement among minority students at the university. His subsequent research resulted in the discovery and identification of one of the most far-reaching and influential phenomena in social psychology
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Engagement…in therapy!
Most people think of the word engagement and automatically start imagining a tiny box, a diamond ring, and someone down on one knee. I think of engagement and start thinking about therapy. Strange, huh? Well, if you think of what the word actually means, it’s not too strange. The noun engagement is “the act of…
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The Values in Sponge Bob Square Pants.
“Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?” Most people easily pick up on the importance of television programming like Sesame Street and other educational shows for young children. Shows like these embed lessons about letters, manners, multiculturalism and more into their content. For adults, the lessons seem obvious, so we feel good about allowing…
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Changing How We Look at Mental Illness and Changing Lives
One in five children in the US suffers from mental illness, but less than 25% of those children actually receive mental health services. That’s absolutely terrifying, especially if you consider all the kids who have other psychological struggles but don’t meet diagnostic criteria for a psychological disorder. How many children then aren’t getting the help…
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Muscles and the Mind — See for Yourself
One of the many reasons I like studying the brain is that its function is so directly tied to all the actions I do every day. As I go through the world it’s easy to forget that my brain is working hard coordinating my muscles and senses, so I like little demonstrative exercises using ones…