Description: If I asked you to ponder what it is like to be a Guinea Pig, I suspect you would not actually start to reflect on what it might be like to be small and furry. Rather, you would be more likely to contemplate what is would be like to be a participant in a… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Research Methods in SP
Psychology and Covid-19: It is a HUGE Psychology Experiment
Description: Occasionally during one of my lectures something unexpected would happen, nothing serious, but perhaps a construction crew renovating a neighboring classroom would start to use a jackhammer or power drill. In such situations I would typically comment that the event was NOT part of a Psychology experiment of the effects of annoying background noise… Read more »
Psychology and Covid-19: Research Ethics and Vaccine Development
Description: You cannot have missed media coverage of the current efforts underway to develop and produce a vaccine that will help people develop immunity to Covid-19. You may not have thought about the research ethics issues and questions that this multi-faceted development dash might involve. If you have had a Psychology course you know about… Read more »
Psychology and Covid-19: Breaking Psychological Research and Advice
Description: In recent weeks I have been blogging about and linking to articles about the Psychology of Covid-19. I will likely continue to do so as there is a lot of Psychology popping up in our current experience. As a teaching Psychologist and Psychology textbook author I believe strongly that paying attention to what Psychological… Read more »
Studying Mindfulness: The Operationalization Challenge
Description: You cannot have missed the multitude of posts, offers and claims out there regarding the value of Mindfulness. Learning how to be more present in our current moments has been suggested as a way of focusing attention, reducing anxiety, and avoiding stress. But what about the data? Does it support the claims? And more… Read more »
Screen Time and BIG Data: Just The Start
Description: I posted recently about a new welcome line of research that has started to look more closely at the issue of screen time and its potential negative (AND positive) effects of development, mental health and well-being. What was not clear in the post, or in the article it linked to, was why the large… Read more »
Precognition, Porn, and Psychology’s Replication Crisis
Description: What does ESP have to do with science? Well, the typical response to that question is to say that the more tightly controlled experimental tests of Extra Sensory Perception are, the less significant results we find supporting the existence of ESP. Then along came Darrell Bem, a social psychologist/researcher of powerful reputation, who ran… Read more »
Research on the Impacts of Screen Time: What should it look like?
Description: Even if you are barely paying attention you cannot have missed media accounts and speculations regarding the impacts of screen time on development in childhood and on wellbeing among adolescents. Before we push panic buttons and start to crusade against another new technology (like we did about television a few decades ago) we should… Read more »
Dreams and the Real World? Maybe an Evolutionary Tie-in!
Description: What have you heard about what Psychology has to say about dreams? Well, if you have had an introductory course from me you would have heard me say that theories like those of Freud, that our dreams contain deep life insights and meaning, are not supported by research, especially in terms of dream interpretation… Read more »
Is “Fake it ’til you make it” that simple?
Description: Quick! Who is happier, or who is more often happier, introverts of extroverts? Well, consistently research seems to show that extroverts are happier than introverts more of the time. Why do you think that might be? If it is the case that being extroverted or perhaps acting in an extroverted manner makes you happier… Read more »
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