Dan Gilbert on Social Psychology

by | Jul 1, 2008 | Uncategorized

Here is an excerpt from Dan Gilbert in Psychologist magazine discussing ‘revolutions’ in science and social psychology: Psychologists have a penchant for irrational exuberances, and whenever we discover something new we feel the need to discard everything...

Radical Acceptance

by | Jun 30, 2008 | Uncategorized

Linehan (1993) makes the following five fundamental points regarding “radical acceptance”: Acceptance is acknowledgment of what is. Acceptance is non-judgmental, not a matter of deeming something good or okay.Freedom from suffering requires accepting...

Cognition and Emotion Part 2

by | Jun 17, 2008 | Uncategorized

Here is more (part 1) related to Jon Haidt’s book on the analogy of the rider (cognition) and the horse (emotion):The point of these studies is that moral judgment is like aesthetic judgment. When you see a painting, you usually know instantly and automatically...

Cognition and Emotion

by | Jun 17, 2008 | Uncategorized

Below is an analogy Jon Haidt uses in his book The Happiness Hypothesis to describe the relationship between our higher order cognition (the rider in his analogy) and emotion (the horse). He goes on to discuss how we feel that we are in control of the horse (or our...

OCD, Thought-Action Fusion, and 9/11

by | Jun 17, 2008 | Uncategorized

Here is an excerpt describing a case study of a boy who thought that missing his ritual caused the 9/11 attacks. These ideas of thoughts causing catastrophic results is commonly known as thought action fusion.Researchers in London have documented the case of a...

Conspicuous Consumption

by | Jun 17, 2008 | Uncategorized

Here is an excerpt from the Mind Hacks blog discussing a recent article about differences in showing off wealth:The Atlantic magazine has an interesting article on how conspicuous consumption – the practice of showing off luxury goods – differs across...

Worry Helps Me Cope

by | Jun 12, 2008 | Uncategorized

Here is an excerpt from the Don’t Delay Blog:Three British psychologists …collected data from 179 students, measuring their procrastination (behavioral and decisional), worry, anxiety, depression and metacognition. … “Metacognition refers to...

Internet Surveys

by | Jun 12, 2008 | Uncategorized

Here is an excerpt from the ‘As you like it’ Blog. It describes a poor survey done on AOL. If Comedy Central were doing a skit on survey design, this would be it. If a slot machine were as rigged as this survey, the gaming commission would shut down the...

Experimenter’s Expectancies and Placebo

by | Jun 9, 2008 | Uncategorized

Here is an excerpt discussing how a physician’s expectancy can change how much the patient experiences the placebo effect:… it is possible to show that doctors are as important in producing the meaning response as patients. Gracely et al (1985) looked at...