In the spirit of open-minded exploration I have been looking around at blogs outside psychology to see what’s going on.
In the spirit of open-minded exploration I have been looking around at blogs outside psychology to see what’s going on. As I mentioned earlier in the week I’m particularly interested in blogs on physics and sociology – two fine bedfellows! Nothing on sociology yet but here’s a couple of physics blogs and one where the professors ‘rate’ their students, letting out all that bottled up tension.
Continue reading “Accessible Science Blogging Outside Psychology”
It’s so hard to be rich nowadays that people need special help from ‘wealth psychologists’.
It’s so hard to be rich nowadays that people need special help from ‘wealth psychologists’. Apparently one of the problems frequently faced by the rich is guilt. Along with this there’s the question of how to raise kids responsibly when almost anything is affordable. Financial management firms are now hiring their own in-house psychologists to help those rolling in piles of filthy lucre.
The tone of an email is incredibly easy to misinterpret, explains emotional intelligence expert Daniel Goleman, writing in the New York Times.
The tone of an email is incredibly easy to misinterpret, explains emotional intelligence expert Daniel Goleman, writing in the New York Times. The main problem is there is no channel to convey our emotion – other than emoticons which are notoriously crude.
We’ve all done it: written something that’s meant to be a joke in an email and then received a cold response when the message is misunderstood. Or received an email we can’t make head nor tail of. Is this a joke or are they being serious?
Ig Nobel awards: prizes are awarded for research that makes you: “laugh and then think”.
Studies on the physics of wrinkled sheets and the side-effects of sword swallowing were amongst the winners at the 2007 Ig Nobel awards. Prizes are awarded for research that makes you: “laugh and then think”. Unfortunately (or fortunately) no wins this year for psychologists, but psychological research has produced pretty weird winners in previous years. Here’s the countdown of the ‘silliest’ research in psychology as judged by the Ig Nobel awards over the past 16 years.
While the greatest psychology experiment imaginable has never been done, it has been filmed.
I recently contributed to The BPS Research Digest for a series of articles on the best psychology experiment that’s never been done. My suggestion is the ‘Truman Show Experiment’.
While the greatest psychology experiment imaginable has never been done, it has been filmed. The film is The Truman Show in which the main character Truman Burbank, played by Jim Carrey, lives in an entirely manufactured world, and has done since birth. The island on which he lives is a stage, his wife is an actress along with all his friends, neighbours and acquaintances – indeed everyone on the island is playing a part.
On February 2, 2001 distinguished sleep and dream researcher Professor J. Allan Hobson had a stroke in his brain stem.
On February 2, 2001 distinguished sleep and dream researcher Professor J. Allan Hobson had a stroke in his brain stem. For 10 days Hobson could neither sleep nor dream. Then he realised the stroke was localised to the exact part of the brain he had been studying experimentally in his sleep research with cats. Call it poetic justice, or just sheer bad luck, either way Hobson approached the experience like a scientist and decided to document it, just as he had with the cats, but this time from the inside.
In 1938 Orson Wells spooked the American nation with his classic War of the Worlds broadcast.
In 1938 Orson Wells spooked the American nation with his classic War of the Worlds broadcast. A psychology study of the event makes me wonder if we could be hoodwinked again.
On October 28, 1938 many Americans believed they were being invaded by Martians. This was the result of a Halloween stunt orchestrated by Orson Wells in which he adapted H. G. Wells’ ‘War of the Worlds’ to the radio and broadcast the play as though it was actually happening.
It is estimated that of the 6 million people who heard the broadcast, fully 1.7 million thought it was the news, not a play, while a further 1.2 million were frightened. A few even bought train tickets or drove off in the opposite direction to New York, the supposed epicentre of the alien invasion.
In her new book, Elyn, R. Saks describes the monumental challenges she faced in her journey through madness.
In her new book, Elyn, R. Saks describes the monumental challenges she faced in her journey through madness, but this autobiography is profoundly hopeful. Highly recommended.
Do you know what it’s like to be crazy – not just angry, I mean psychotic? Do you know what it feels like to believe your very thoughts can kill, that your loved ones are imposters conspiring against you? Do you know what it feels like to be restrained with such force you can barely breath, to be pumped full of powerful, toxic drugs, to feel your own self splinter, recede, then disappear? In short, do you know what madness is?
Elyn R. Saks does, and she is determined her diagnosis will not be a death sentence. In her new book ‘The Center Cannot Hold‘, the Professor of Law, Psychology, and Psychiatry at the University of Southern California tells the story of her ongoing battle with schizophrenia. Considering the psychotic breaks she endures, it is incredible she’s managed to build a successful academic career. And yet she has, and this book is the story of her battle through madness, searching for some understanding of the illness she is both fighting and trying to accept as part of herself.
Battle. Fight. Struggle. These are all words Saks uses to describe her experience. Nothing sets off these battles more effectively than transition points. When she leaves home to go to university, when she returns home from university, when she begins her academic career, when she has to present a paper at a conference. Each time she’s forced through a period of change or stress, her illness gets worse. Again and again she retreats to the barricades of her mind, sometimes winning, sometimes losing and ending up in hospital.
The descriptions of madness produce some otherworldly writing. Saks recreates the so-called ‘word salad’ (schizophasia) that is often characteristic of those having psychotic breaks. At their first meeting one psychiatrist asks her name:
“My name is Elyn. They used to call me ‘Elyn, Elyn, watermelon.’ At school. Where I used to go. When I am now and having trouble.’
“What kind of trouble?” she asked.
“There’s trouble. Right here in River City. Home of the New Haveners. Where there is no heaven, new or old. I’m just looking for a haven. Can you give me a haven? Aren’t you too young? Why are you crying? I cry because the voices are at the end of time. Time is too old. I’ve killed lots of people.”
And later:
“There’s the killing fields,” I said. “Heads exploding. I didn’t do anything wrong. They just said ‘quake, fake, lake.’ I used to ski. Are you trying to kill me?”
Like many suffering from serious mental illness, Saks has a love-hate relationship with medication, which is both sworn enemy and occasional saviour. Anti-psychotics in hefty doses can work wonders for some people, clearing the fog of psychosis. But they also exact a price. Side-effects include rapid involuntary movements like lip smacking and rapid blinking, behaviours that can be permanent. The drugs can also cause impotence, lethargy, weight gain and…the list goes on.
Saks’ doctors tell her to keep taking the drugs, but she is scared the side-effects will become permanent. For Saks, the very fact that drugs are required is a sign of weakness; she is continually trying to wean herself off medication, but normally with disastrous consequences.
Saks is well aware of the stigma attached to schizophrenia, learning her lesson early that job offers do not come unless she is economical with the truth. She explains that people with schizophrenia are not psychotic all the time, they have ‘psychotic breaks’ which vary in frequency from one person to another. They are not dangerous to others – their behaviour and language might appear frightening but they pose the greatest threat to themselves.
Through her life she shows it is possible for people with schizophrenia to have a life, to work, to find love, although sadly Saks may be an exception to the general rule.
It is clear that her illness influenced Saks in her choice of academic discipline. Early in her career she worked for a charity championing the rights of those with psychiatric diagnoses. Later she explored the legal ramifications of multiple personality disorders. Now, as a professor at USC she is a leading expert in mental health law.
Although Saks describes many depressing things, ultimately this is not a depressing book. Yes, it is an honest portrayal of inner torture, but the book is also filled to the brim with determination. Here is a woman who will not give in to the vagaries of her body, who finds a way around, through or under the obstacles life throws at her. From this determination emerges hope. Hope for the future. For Saks, like all of us, nothing is more important than hope.
ยป Buy ‘The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness‘ at Amazon.com.
Most industries have long since adopted the mantra that increasing choice means increasing profits.
For this diverting TED talk Malcolm Gladwell of ‘The Tipping Point’
and ‘Blink’
fame, is asked to discuss the pursuit of happiness. So he talks about the development of spaghetti sauce, quite naturally. This pean is particularly interesting as it shows exactly why consumer markets are incentivised to offer us more choice. The polar opposite of what Barry Schwartz explains in his TED talk: why too much choice is bad for us. The best balance probably lies somewhere in between.
Continue reading “Malcolm Gladwell on Why More Choice Means More Profit”
Some of my favourite research in psychology finds that expressive writing can benefit both physical and mental health.
Here’s a puzzle. Some of my favourite research in psychology finds that expressive writing can benefit both physical and mental health. And yet research on the social sharing of negative experience tells us that it doesn’t change the original memory and fails to bring relief. How come benefits are seen from expressive writing – which is often about sharing negative experience – and yet social sharing of emotions doesn’t bring relief? Let’s take a closer look.
Continue reading “Expressing Negative Experience is Both Symptom and Cure”
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