Speaking Of Psychology

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.  

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.  

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.

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.  

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.

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.  

Russell Shilling, PhD, guest host for Speaking of Psychology and Chief Scientific Officer for the American Psychological Association, sits down at APA2019 to talk with Kaitlyn Roose and Shawn Doherty, PhD, to discuss the psychology of esports, the benefits of gaming on higher level cognition, and the culture of video games. Join us online August 6-8 for APA 2020 Virtual.  

Our memories may not be as reliable as we think. Once we experience an event, most of us likely assume that those memories stays intact forever. But there is the potential for memories to be altered or for completely false memories to be planted, according to Elizabeth Loftus, PhD. Loftus, a distinguished professor at the University of California, Irvine, is an expert on human memory and she discusses how our recollections of events and experiences may be subject to manipulation. Join us online August 6-8 for APA 2020 Virtual.  

Human Trafficking occurs when individuals are economically exploited through force, fraud or coercion for labor or commercial sex. Worldwide, it is estimated that almost 25 million people are robbed of their freedom and human dignity through trafficking- trafficking is akin to slavery. It is difficult to determine how many people are trafficked in the US but it occurs here and includes both citizens and foreign nationals. Women, children, the economically vulnerable, persons with disabilities and runaway youth are disproportionately impacted. Understanding what trafficking is and how to respond is critical. Our guest for this episode is psychologist Kalyani Gopal, PhD, a clinical psychologist and Executive Director of SAFE (Sex Trafficking Awareness, Freedom and Empowerment). Join us online August 6-8 for APA 2020 Virtual.

From automation, to artificial intelligence to employee surveillance, technology is rapidly changing the way we work. It’s raising ethical questions, concerns about the future of the job market and blurring the lines between the personal and professional. Tara Behrend, PhD, associate professor of industrial-organizational psychology and director of the Workplaces and Virtual Environments lab at The George Washington University, explains what the future of work will look like. Join us online August 6-8 for APA 2020 Virtual.

Discipline in pre-K through 12 schools is not doled out equally, as black students, boys and students with disabilities are suspended and expelled at much higher rates than other students, according to a report released last year by the Government Accountability Office. These types of harsh discipline can have dire consequences on a child’s future, including putting him or her at a higher risk of falling into the school-to-prison pipeline. Guests Amanda Sullivan, PhD, associate professor of educational psychology at the University of Minnesota, and Ivory Toldson, PhD, professor of counseling psychology at Howard University, are experts on discipline disparities in pre-K to 12 schools. Join us online August 6-8 for APA 2020 Virtual.

About 6% of U.S. women ages 15 to 44 experience infertility, with many of those reporting that infertility is the most upsetting experience of their lives. Dr. Angela Lawson helps us separate fact from fiction when it comes to infertility, a complicated and often uncomfortable topic that people don’t always talk about. Join us online August 6-8 for APA 2020 Virtual.  

Why do some people buy so much, while others shun that lifestyle for simplicity or to save? How do brands reach into our psyches to get us to pull out our wallets and credit cards? What are some of the motivations behind companies that try to appeal to our sense of social responsibility to get us to spend? Our guest is psychologist Kit Yarrow, PhD, an expert on consumer behavior and professor emerita at Golden Gate University in San Francisco. She studies why and how people shop and buy and how companies can best meet consumer needs. APA is currently seeking proposals for APA 2020 sessions, learn more at http://convention.apa.org/proposals

Fake news, 2017’s word of the year and recent edition to the Oxford English Dictionary, has become a widespread problem. This episode of Speaking of Psychology discusses how this phenomenon of intentionally spreading fabricated content and presenting it as factual is impacting our views of the world and why that matters. Recorded live at APA 2019 in Chicago with Vaile Wright, PhD, as guest host.

Some of us recall high school as being filled with fun parties, football games and flirting while others think back to that time with a shudder and are just glad it’s over. But is it really over? Does our social status as teens follow us for the rest of our lives? Can we raise today’s children and teens differently in our ever-status-obsessed culture? Our guest is Mitch Prinstein, PhD, distinguished professor of psychology and neuroscience and director of clinical psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who wrote "Popular: Finding Happiness and Success in a World That Cares Too Much About the Wrong Kinds of Relationships.” APA is currently seeking proposals for APA 2020 sessions, learn more at http://convention.apa.org/proposals

Why do some people scarf down anchovies by the pound while others recoil at the thought of a tuna fish sandwich? Why do the textures of certain foods, like mushrooms, turn people off? Not only is taste a biologically complex experience, it is quite psychological. Our guest is psychologist Linda Bartoshuk, PhD, an international leader in taste research, who is the Bushnell professor of food science and human nutrition at the University of Florida and director for psychophysical research at the university’s Center for Smell and Taste. APA is currently seeking proposals for APA 2020 sessions, learn more at http://convention.apa.org/proposals