Description: Be honest, have you heard or think you heard from somewhere or someone that suicide rates jump up during the holiday season? It seems to make sense doesn’t it that people at risk for suicide might be more at risk during the time a year that focusses upon things like family connections (good or… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Death and Dying
Mushrooms in Palliative Care?
Description: Consider these two questions for a moment. 1. Who uses cannabis, psilocybin, or LSD? and 2. Who should (under a doctor’s supervision) use cannabis, psilocybin, or LSD? Unless your answer to the second question is “Anyone who wants to” the number of people, if any, that you have in your second list will likely… Read more »
Psychology and Covid-19: Talking to Kids
Description: How do you talk to a child about …. (enter name of issue/event here). How would you answer that question if the blank were filled in with Covid-19? If you have taken a course or course section on child psychology (or even if not) think about what should go into an answer to that… 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 »
Want a Positive Retirement? Find your ikigai!
Description: Are you looking forward to the, likely distant point in the future when you will retire? What will that be like? Having recently “retired” myself I can tell you that it is not (or it need not be) about sitting around and relaxing. In fact I have found myself telling people who ask me… Read more »
Social Impact of Facebook: Some of it is Quite Positive!
Description: Perhaps you have heard about concerns about ways in which Facebook and other social media sites can potentially contribute to social isolation (as they do not involve “real social face-to-face connections”). While there IS research supporting this concern can you think of situations and ways in which Facebook could, in fact, have exactly the… Read more »
Mental Health, Spirituality and Life’s BIG questions
Description: Off the top of your head what you think the relationship might be between spirituality and mental health? Certainly one possibility, for which there is research support, is that the involvement in a spiritual group provides a degree of social support which may be of assistance in coping with mental health issues. On the… Read more »
Psychology, Human Experience and Films
Description: In the past I blogged about articles discussing recent films that contain direct psychological content or themes that are relevant to psychology. In the article linked below there are brief discussions written by a number different people about not so recent films, but films nonetheless that have some fascinating psychological questions within them. Consideration… Read more »
Talking to Children About Terrorist Acts
Description: Given the number of terrorist incidents occurring worldwide it is not surprising that a common question that parents ask of child psychologists involves wondering how to talk to their children about these global events particularly given the detailed coverage they are receiving. The article linked below involves interviews of the number of child development… Read more »