Description: A big part of the current opioid crisis that does not perhaps get the level of attention it deserves is that many people caught up in it got there through their experiences and issues with pain management. Pain experience and pain management is a very complex area of psychological and medical research and a… Read more »
Posts By: Mike Boyes
Consciousness: Time to Think About It!
Description: When I was in graduate school (back in the stone age) I took a seminar course in cognitive psychology that was run by Daniel Kahneman (who would later receive the Nobel Prize in economics for his work on human decision making and cognitive biases) and his wife Anne Treisman (also a noted cognitive psychology… Read more »
We Need a Big Picture Understanding of Screen Time (and Who is Sox?)
Description: You cannot have missed at least some of the range of stories regarding the amount of screen time children are spending and the concerns being raised about its possible impact on their development. We should be concerned but we should also be cautious about treating screen time like this month’s Tickle me Elmo, Furby,… Read more »
Self-Driving Vehicle Learning Curves: Have Some Empathy
Description: How do you feel about self-driving cars? Would you trust your safety if they started driving though your neighbourhood (perhaps delivering packages or food)? What is a major challenge to computers (AI) learning to drive and to drive safely? Well, recognizing what they “see” so they can respond appropriately. A common position is that… Read more »
Orchids and Dandelions: A Very Useful Developmental Dichotomy
Description: Think of all the different ways in which you can think about and talk about developing children: shy – outgoing, independent – dependent, leaders—followers and on and on. All such dichotomies tend to focus on a part or aspect of children or child development and do not scale up well, into big pictures of… Read more »
Anger and Self-Regulation: Learn From the Inuit
Description: A huge part of growing up (well of developing and being “raised”) is learning how to self-regulate. Think of what small children do from time to time – they may have a tantrum when they do not get their way, they may eat all the cookies on the counter, they may be distracted by… Read more »
SES and Depression: See the Big Picture
Description: Perhaps hearing or reading that there is a strong relationship between rates of depression and socio-economic status (SES) would not be a surprise to you. While it may lead you to start to ponder what the connections between poverty and depression might involve it is worth stepping back from that important line of potential… Read more »
Getting Into the Heads of Actors When They Are In Character
Description: If you watched Heath Ledger’s version of the Joker in The Dark Knight (Batman) film you saw an amazing piece of acting – of method acting. Ledger was a method actor meaning that he got into his character by essentially becoming the Joker and, it is said, stayed there on and off set throughout… Read more »
Animals and Emotions: How Do You Feel About THAT?
Description: OK, quick, without any reflection, answer these questions: Do animals have emotions? Or do they have the same emotional range and depth that we do? If you are like most people you probably hesitated a bit even if you decided to answer yes to either of those questions. Why hesitate? Well, maybe your feelings… Read more »
Is Evil Born or Made or What?
Description: I have posted about the Dark Triad (Machiavellianism, Narcissism and Psychopathy) before which suggests how some poor or bad behavior in others might be accounted for, but what about large-scale evil? An ongoing question has been to wonder what array of circumstances, conditions, and characteristics come together to produce truly evil people such a… Read more »
Books for Success!
