Description: As a Psychologist I have to say that events south of our border over the past two years have a source of fascination, confusion and perplexity not to mention anxiety, fear and anger and that is just from considering the actions of the current president. This past week the confirmation hearings focusing on Brett… Read more »
Posts By: Mike Boyes
Texting Research: Way Beyond Good versus Evil
Description: Quick! Answer this question off the top of your head: Is texting good or bad? Well, assuming your mind did not leap to issues arising from presidential tweets your yes or no answer likely reflected your personal preferences regarding texts or perhaps the Psychological researcher in you suggested that the question was too simplistic… Read more »
The Myers-Briggs Type Inventory and I/O Psychology: Populism versus Science
Description: If you have spent more than one or two days in a workplace setting you have probably heard of and even completed the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory (MBTI). The MBTI is a personality inventory that, based on your responses, places you somewhere on each of 4 dimensions including Intuitive/Sensing, Introversion/Extroversion, Feeling/Thinking, Perceiving/Judging. If you took… Read more »
Walter Mischel’s Marshmallow Test: Get it Right!
Description: Do you know what the Marshmallow Test is? (No, it does not involve a campfire and smores). The test was set up by Walter Mischel who recently passed away at the age of 88. As described in the video embedded in the article linked below, the marshmallow test, I its simplest form, provides young… Read more »
What Can a One Word Turing Test Tell Us About What it Means to be Human (or Not)?
Description: You have likely heard about the Turing test that is intended as a means of testing whether the entity one is conversing with via typed messages is a human being or an artificial intelligence (a computer program). Alan Turing argued that if a program seemed to those corresponding with it to be “human” then… Read more »
Social Octopi on Ecstacy: The evolutionary base of social connection
Description: The octopus is not a particularly social animal. While that might sound like the start to a fairy tale or to a “Just So” story it is actually simply a scientific fact. Octopi typically avoid social contact entirely including avoiding other members of their species. They Do, however, have to engage socially with at… Read more »
I/O Psychology No Longer a Mindless Science
Description: I am teaching a course this term on I/O or Industrial Organizational Psychology and I was struck by a quote in one of the sources I was reading in preparation for class that suggested that I/O psychology is a “brainless” science. What might it mean for someone to say that? Well, they were pointing… Read more »
Young and Old: Who is happier?
Description: Simple question: who is happier a 30 year old or a 70 year old? What do you think? Must be the 30 year old if only for the existential issues, 70 years of age is WAY closer to death than 30 so, of course the 30 year old is happier right? Well, wrong, actually…. Read more »
Concussions in Hockey and Football and CTE: What do we know and what do we still need to find out?
Description: Ok, so what do you think we “know” about the long-term impact of concussions on athletes who play hockey or football? Let’s see, concussions and inappropriate responses to how such injuries are managed or followed up have lead to a serious issue that the sports of hockey and football are now only staring to… Read more »
Are Teenagers Losing Their Minds?
Description: Have you heard that teenagers these days are effectively having their brains rewired by their massive use of digital technologies? I did not ask if you were aware of this as a truth but just whether you had heard it stated as if it were true. Such ideas, that up-coming generations are being sculpted… Read more »
Books for Success!
