Description: Imagine you are going to hire someone to work for you. What information would you want to gather before making a hiring decision? Would you want to interview the applicants who looked good on paper? How much weight would the interview have in your decision about who to hire? How about if you were… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Social Psychology
Politics These Days: Tips from Clinicians Who Treat Psychotic People
Description: Decades ago, psychiatrists used the term Schizophrenogenic Mothers to describe the mothers of individuals with schizophrenia and to then go on to talk about how the patient’s mother’s emotional ambivalence and related paradoxical behavior contributed to and perhaps even cause their offspring’s schizophrenia. Reflecting gender biased and even misogynistic attitudes, such hypotheses could simply… Read more »
Bystander Effects in the Age of Social Media
Description: If you have taken an introductory psychology course that included a section on social psychology you have likely heard about the Kitty Genovese case. It occurred in 1964 when Ms. Genovese was stabbed to death by an attacker in the Queens borough of New York in the very early morning hours. Accounts of the… Read more »
Impulsivity: What Does It Predict?
Description: Given a choice would you rather have $40 right now or $80 next month? Seriously, which would you likely pick? Picking $40 now may seem like a small thing but it may reflect a fairly broad reaching underlying cognitive style of impulsivity. What sorts of day to day behaviors do you think would be… Read more »
Young Male Development and Extreme Behavior: Understanding → Prevention
Description: Mass shootings are terrifying both in their consequences and in the challenges they pose when trying to figure out why they happened, if they could have been prevented and what steps may be taken to reduce the likelihood of anything like them happening again. I am not talking here about acts of terrorism planned… Read more »
The Social Psychology of Parking Fine Payment
Description: It may not seem like a big deal or much of a surprise to hear that a lot of people do not pay the parking tickets they are given. Why should we care about this? Well in terms of direct self-interest and no matter how you feel about it, tickets are a revenue stream… Read more »
Toxic Bosses: Find Out About the Dark Side of Personality
Description: Having a boss who is “certifiable” is clearly not going to be good for one’s wellbeing and mental health but what collections of boss personality traits are the most toxic? Well what comes to mind in relation to the term “dark triad of personality traits?” Darth Vader? … not far off the mark actually…. Read more »
Neuroethics and Moral Bioenhancement: Remember what the door-mouse said… Feed your head.
Description: One pill makes you larger and one pill makes you small and the one that mother gave you doesn’t do anything at all. …… feed your head….. These (like the latter bit of the title of this post) are lyrics from a 1967 song called ‘White Rabbit’ by Jefferson Airplane. They reflect the huge… Read more »
The Perfect Gift? or Iffy Science
Description: What makes for a perfect present? Cost? Uniqueness? Thoughtfulness? Surprise value? Wouldn’t it be helpful if there was some psychosocial research done on this seasonally vital question? Wait no longer! Before reading the article linked below think a bit about what made some of the best presents you have given or received so great…. Read more »
Road Rage: You Be The Psychologist
Description: Ok you be the psychologist here! My home town, Calgary, has experienced an astonishing and worrying number of road rage incidents over the last week or so (described in the article linked below). So, what is going on? Additional data? A police spokesman say he has never seen this much road rage in his… Read more »
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