The best part of my job is that I’m always learning something new. Recently, I was employed by a health department inOntarioto do some lit reviews and one of the topics concerned “Low Germans”, more formally referred to as those who are Low-German-speaking. Of course I knew a bit about Mennonites and the Amish (the … Continue reading »
Nov
07
A relook at the Milgram obedience experiment: are we all capable of being Nazis?
If you ever took first year psychology – or read any popular psychology – then you’re probably familiar with the obedience studies conducted by Stanley Milgram at Yale in the early 1960s. Inspired in part by the horrors of the Holocaust, Milgram wanted to assess whether some nationalities are more willing than others to obey … Continue reading »
Oct
24
As Kenny Rogers said, you’ve got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ‘em
I’ve been writing a fair bit about motivation and different strategies that have been proposed for helping people stay on track. But there’s another side to the issue that is often overlooked: knowing when to give up. As Kenny Rogers sang, you’ve got to know when to hold ‘em and keep trying but you also … Continue reading »
Sep
26
Motivation – time to accept the new paradigm?
A number of books are now out there showing that the idea that positive reinforcement (e.g., a bonus or commission) is actually a bad idea. But unfortunately, as predicted in Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, it’s been hard to get rid of the old paradigm. Schools, businesses and families around the world continue … Continue reading »
Aug
07
On depression and “thinking positive”
Psychiatric genetics is an emerging and important area of research. As its name implies, it’s the study of how genetics contribute to psychiatric issues such as schizophrenia, autism, ADHD and depression. Not that it’s a simple relationship. For example, studies on twins in Swedenhave shown that genetics explain about 40% of a woman’s risk of … Continue reading »
Jul
03
Making assumptions about depression in heart disease and seniors
It’s been estimated that about a third of patients with heart failure are depressed or at least have depressive symptoms. Of course, you could argue that it’s surprising the proportion isn’t greater: heart failure is a miserable disease with symptoms as bad as, and a mortality rate worse than, many forms of cancer. With this … Continue reading »
Jun
14
Who are “health conscious” and how do we measure it?
One of my more recent reads was John Rossiter’s Measurement for the Social Sciences, The C-OAR-SE Method and Why It Must Replace Psychometrics (Springer 2011). Rossiter is an Australian professor in the Institute for Innovation in Business and Social Research and likes to portray himself as a rebel with a cause. His book is worth … Continue reading »
Jun
11
Is “learning style” an example of junk science?
OK, it’s a bit dorky but one of my favourite books has the unwieldy name of 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology, Shattering Widespread Misconceptions About Human Behavior (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010). The book is written by four established professors of psychology; four in the US (Scott Lilienfeld at Emory, Steven Lynn at the State University of … Continue reading »
May
30
Eat a salad and you eat alone – teens’ attitudes about healthy eating
We spend a lot of time and money on educating people – particularly youth – about what is healthy for them. And that’s okay, as education is a necessary first step in helping people lead healthier lives. For example, look at what education has achieved in changing the images of smoking (once advertised as cool, … Continue reading »
Apr
26
We could all use a little quirkology
During my last trip to England, I picked up Quirkology, The Curious Science of Everyday Lives by Richard Wiseman (Pan Books, 2007). Wiseman is described as a professor of Public Understanding of Psychology and is based at the University of Hertfordshire. His book looks both at scientific investigations into offbeat subjects as well as investigations … Continue reading »