Speaking of Psychology

Latest Episodes:

The Decline of Empathy and the Rise of Narcissism with Sara Konrath, PhD Dec 04, 2019

Show notes

Concern and care for others’ feelings are virtues we seek to instill in our children, yet they are sorely lacking in many adult Americans today. There’s scientific research to back up the notion that Americans are caring less for others and more about themselves. Our guest is Sara Konrath, PhD, an associate professor of philanthropic studies at Indiana University and director of the Interdisciplinary Program on Empathy and Altruism Research. We’ll be exploring why empathy is declining and what we can do to create more kindness and caring in our communities.

Join us online August 6-8 for APA 2020 Virtual.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Veterans' Mental Health with Terri Tanielan, MA, and Rajeev Ramchand, PhD Nov 20, 2019

Show notes

To mark Veterans Day 2019, in this episode we are discussing the mental health challenges that many veterans deal with, some of the latest psychological research into their care and the complexities of modern warfare and its effect on veterans. Our guests are Rajeev Ramchand, PhD, a fellow at the Bob Woodruff Foundation, who researches the prevalence, prevention and treatment of mental health and substance use disorders in veterans and other populations, and Terri Tanielian, MA, a senior behavioral scientist at RAND Corp., who researches military and veterans health policy, military suicide and the psychological effects of combat and terrorism.

Join us online August 6-8 for APA 2020 Virtual.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bonus Episode: Using Virtual Reality to Train Law Enforcement Officers with Gregory Kratzig, PhD Nov 13, 2019

Show notes

Gregory Kratzig, PhD, is an adjunct professor of psychology at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan, Canada and a global expert in simulation-based training, particularly in the world of law enforcement. He has used virtual reality to train first responders to drive emergency vehicles and to help police officers make the best decisions when they're faced with choosing whether to use force.

Join us online August 6-8 for APA 2020 Virtual.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bonus Episode: Your Boss is Watching You. Is that OK? with Dave Tomczak Nov 11, 2019

Show notes

Do you ever get the feeling at work that you're being watched? To a certain degree you are and it's possible that you will soon be tracked even more closely by your employer whether that's through video surveillance, GPS location tracking or Internet monitoring. If that disturbs you, you're not alone.

Our guest for this episode is David Tomczak, a product solutions consultant for a global professional services firm and a PhD candidate at The George Washington University. He researches the influence of electronic performance monitoring on employee behaviors.

Join us online August 6-8 for APA 2020 Virtual.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Does Nostalgia Have a Psychological Purpose? with Krystine Batcho, PhD Nov 06, 2019

Show notes

What psychological purpose does nostalgia serve? Is it good or bad? Are we more nostalgic today in our hectic, connected world? Is there such a thing as the “good ‘ol days”? Here to help explain is Dr. Krystine Batcho, professor of psychology at LeMoyne College in Syracuse, New York. She’s an expert on nostalgia and developed the Nostalgia Inventory, a survey that assesses proneness to personal nostalgia.

Join us online August 6-8 for APA 2020 Virtual.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bonus Episode: How Virtual Reality Can Help Detect Racial Bias in Police Shootings with John Tawa, PhD Nov 04, 2019

Show notes

There's been a great deal of media attention focused on shootings in which a white police officer fired on a black or non-white suspect. Psychology has for years performed research to determine whether racial hostility plays a role in such shootings. These studies have usually entailed having participants sit in front of a computer screen and respond to images of suspects who pop up holding a gun or a benign object such as a wallet or a can of soda. These experiments are helpful. But is there a better way to study this phenomenon so we can curb these types of shootings? Our guest is John Tawa, PhD, of Mount Holyoke College who has developed a new and perhaps more realistic method for testing these responses.

Join us online August 6-8 for APA 2020 Virtual.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bonus Episode: How a Virtual Buffet Can Help Kids Learn to Eat Better with Susan Persky, PhD Oct 30, 2019

Show notes

Getting children to eat healthy meals is a challenge many parents face but what if virtual reality could help? Researchers at the National Institute of Health are using new technology to understand why parents feed their kids the foods they do and to help them make smarter food choices for the health of their children. Our guest for this episode is psychologist Susan Persky, PhD, head of the Immersive Virtual Environment Testing Unit where she applies virtual reality to biomedical research.

Join us online August 6-8 for APA 2020 Virtual.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bonus Episode: The Role of Body and Dash Cams in Policing with Nick Camp, PhD Oct 28, 2019

Show notes

Cameras are playing a greater and greater role in law enforcement, whether that means cameras placed on dashboards in police cruisers or cameras that officers wear as part of their uniforms. But how effective are cameras in police encounters? What do they tell us about police-citizen interactions and do cameras ever lie? Our guest for this episode is Nick Camp, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University. His primary research focus examines racial disparities in the everyday encounters between police officers and citizens.

Join us online August 6-8 for APA 2020 Virtual.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Psychology of Design (SOP92) Oct 23, 2019

Show notes

The spaces we are in every day influence our mood and well-being whether we are aware of it or not. Creating spaces to make us feel our best is a hot topic – in community planning, in the office and on HGTV. Sally Augustin, PhD, an environmental psychologist who is a principal at Design with Science, a design consultation firm, discusses how to design spaces to optimize well-being.

Join us online August 6-8 for APA 2020 Virtual.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bonus Episode: Driverless Cars and Body-less Therapy with Arnon Rolnick, PhD Oct 21, 2019

Show notes

Have you ever wondered why drivers don't get carsick? If you've ever been seasick, are you curious to know what causes it and what, if anything, can be done to stave it off? Dr. Arnon Rolnick is a clinical and experimental psychologist from Israel where he directs Rolnick's Institute for Advanced Psychotherapy and studies psychophysiology and the integration of technology and psychology.

Rolnick spent 20 years as a psychologist in the Israeli Navy developing various methods to improve sailors' performance and well-being under conditions intended to make them seasick. He is also working on a book exploring how virtual psychotherapy can open new ways to study the roles of the body and brain in therapy.

Join us online August 6-8 for APA 2020 Virtual.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices