The Psych Files - Michael Britt

Latest Episodes:

Borderline Personality: What is it? Could Your Cell Phone Help Deal With It? Episode 146 May 12, 2011

Show notes

Borderline Personality Disorder is a difficult disorder to understand and treat. Briefly, people who suffer from BPD tend to have a heightened sensitivity to rejection. When they feel that they are being rejected they can react with strong feelings of anger. Their emotions can be very intense and vary widely during the day. This can also make their relationships very unstable. They can also be very impulsive. However, a recent fascinating piece of research used a mobile device and what's called an "experience sampling" technique to gain further insight into what it is like to have BPD. In this episode I discuss that research and then wonder what else we might be able to learn as our mobile devices become even more powerful.

Why a Tiger Mom Approach to Parenting Does NOT Work: Episode 145 Apr 12, 2011

Show notes

Feeling guilty about not being a "Tiger Mom" (or Dad)? Let me give you 3 reasons why you don't have to feel that way. Get yourself ready for the next time that someone says that you (or parents in general) have to be tougher on our kids.

You've probably heard about the authoritarian parenting style advocated by Amy Chua in her Tiger Mom book. Lots of Americans think she has good point that the problems with American kids is that they are being raised with too much leeway, and that we're not being tough enough on them. The reason, they say, that our Math scores are too low is that we're not strict enough and we don't have high expectations for our children. Are they right? Or are there other ways that our children are being successful that we don't take into account? If you're feeling discouraged about parenting let me raise your spirits.

Episode 144: The Drowsy Chaperone Holds the Key to Life! Mar 25, 2011

Show notes

Americans spend billions of dollars on self-help products each year, but does someone else hold the answers to your questions about what your life is all about? Join me as I discuss a fascinating book called If You Meet The Buddha On The Road, Kill Him!. We also see how a wonderful recent broadway musical, The Drowsy Chaperone has some very intriguing things to say about life. Could it be that there is some existentialism in that musical? Listen to this episode to find out.

Episode 143: EMDR - An Interview with Founder Francine Shapiro Mar 19, 2011

Show notes

Curious about EMDR? Listen to this interview with the founder of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, Dr. Francine Shapiro talk about EMDR and how it is different from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). This is an intriguing and unique type of therapy and if you want to learn more about it you've come to the right place.

Episode 142: How To Make Jobs More Satisfying and Motivating Mar 06, 2011

Show notes

Do you have a dull job? Wonder how it can be made more motivating? That's the challenge - how can we make jobs that are typically not much fun (like an assembly line job) more interesting to do? This is one of the challenges facing I/O psychologists and in this episode I discuss the Job Characteristics theory by Hackman and Oldham and apply it to assembly line jobs in China where your iPhone is made and where a record number of suicides have occurred over the past few years. Can we use job redesign to make such jobs more tolerable?

Episode 141: Psychology Gets Smart: A New Kind of Lie Detector? Feb 27, 2011

Show notes

Join me as I describe a psychological study that tested a new kind of lie detector. The study involved Agents, Missions, an Interception, and a mysterious package. This is psychology? You better believe it.

Episode 140: Psychoanalyzing Jack Lalanne Feb 06, 2011

Show notes

In this episode I put Jack Lalanne on the couch. I take selections from several of his vidoes and see what they reveal about his personality. He was clearly passionate about exercise, but what drove this passion? What was his underlying motivation? I suggest that his relationship with his father was crucial to his passion for exercise and fitness. Join me as I do a little armchair psychoanalysis of Jack Lalanne.

Episode 139: Blaming the Victim in Reverse - the Justice Motive Jan 23, 2011

Show notes

I'll bet you've heard of the expression, "Whatever doesn't kill you...", or "Suffering is good for the soul". Could these expression represent another way that we deal with our own anxiety after we hear about someone else's tragedy?

Episode 138: Zombies - 6 Reasons Why We Are So Fascinated By Them Dec 23, 2010

Show notes

Have you watched the TV show Walking Dead or ever seen a movie about Zombies (perhaps Zombieland or Dawn of the Dead? What is so fascinating about the undead? Why do many of us get a strange pleasure out of seeing a zombie get killed? In this episode I explore that strange part of ourselves which for some reason seems to enjoy watching the undead get really dead.

Episode 137: Objectivity and the Scientific Impotence Excuse Dec 13, 2010

Show notes

Can science study love? Are we able to scientifically determine what romance is all about? There seem to be times, particularly when people hold strong beliefs, that we just don't want to hear what scientists have to say. We talk a lot these days about the importance of objectivity, but are people - even scientists - capable of being objective? In this episode I'll talk about the scientific impotence excuse. Another interesting cognitive bias we seem to carry around with us.

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