Description: Can you tell when someone is lying to you? If you do a You Tube search on lie detection you will find a great many postings showing versions of the classic lie detection game where someone tells you several things about themselves one of which is a lie and you have to figure out… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Social Psychology
The Winter Olympics and You: Reflections on Identity
Description: There is an increasing large research literature on Sports Psychology in generally and on Olympic performance in particular. I have posted about parts of this research work previously in this blog (http://wileypsychologyupdates.ca/?s=Olympics). The British Psychological Society has suggested in the posting linked below that it would be interesting to consider what the winter Olympics… Read more »
Is There a Useful Psychology of Mass Shooters?
Description: As I contemplated whether to choose to blog on this particular topic I ran across the article linked below and while reading through it, for a number of associative reasons (I suspect), I was reminded of a song by Canadian Blues artist Lest Quitzau called Home on the Range. It contains the line “Welcome… Read more »
Retirement Planning: Its not all finances and it is not just for people getting close to retirement age
Description: When you read the words “retirement planning” what is the first thing that comes to mind? Well, probably money and pension (and even at an early age you SHOULD be thinking about this) but what else should folks be thinking about as they approach and enter their retirement? I have written in an earlier… Read more »
Loneliness: What Kind of Problems and What Sorts of Solutions?
Description: Consider these questions. Is loneliness a problem for healthy human functioning and for basic health? If so, what is the current rate of (prevalence of) loneliness in the population? Does the rate of loneliness vary by age? Does it vary by other factors? What, if anything, should be do about this? From a psychological… Read more »
Can Courage be Develped, Trained, Encouraged, and/or Facillitated?
Description: Are you a courageous person? Do you know anyone who you would describe as courageous? Where do we need courage in our day-to-day lives? If courage is associated with dragon slaying and other sorts of battles, then perhaps we do not need it much these days. However, if courage is part of what it… Read more »
Is Civic Engagement Good For You? Maybe …. It Depends on What Type!
Description: A key theme in the recently identified life stage of emerging adulthood is engagement. While often not well defined, engagement can range form self-engagement (digging into figuring out what you are going to do and how you are going to do it in life and in the development of a sense of personal identity)… Read more »
Bragging, Humblebragging, or Social Honesty: Which Tactic is Best?
Description: What do you think about people who brag? What about people to sneak their bragging into the conversation either by complaining (People give me such a hard time because I make them look bad) or by hardly masking it with humble statements (Why am I always asked to work on the most important assignments?)…. Read more »
Cranky, Crabble People: Maybe Surgical Brain Tuning Possible?
Description: You have very likely heard the story of Phineas Gage, a tale often told in introductory psychology classes to introduce a discussion of functions related to various portions of the brain and to the executive control functions related to the frontal lobes in particular (if not there is a section in the linked article… Read more »
Researcher Bias, Facillitated Communication and Ouija Boards: Quite a Combination
Description: This could be a Criminal Minds script. A physician sees 2 infants from the same family in his sleep laboratory. Both showed signs of sleep apnea and shortly after discharge from the lab they each die of what is certified as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, part of which may be linked to prolonged apnea… Read more »
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