Human Potential Lab

“How can we use these peak experiences to help people create community that is healthy and to be better human beings?” -- Katherine MacLean

Katherine MacLean, PhD is a research scientist, teacher and meditator. In her academic research (2004-2013) at UC Davis and Johns Hopkins University, she studied how psychedelics and mindfulness meditation can promote beneficial, long-lasting changes in personality, well-being and brain function. In the fall of 2015, she co-founded and began directing the Psychedelic Education & Continuing Care Program in New York (www.psychedelicprogram.com), where she has facilitated monthly integration groups for psychedelic users and training workshops for both clinicians and the public. She currently lives on an organic farm and is preparing to be a study therapist on the upcoming Phase 3 trial of MDMA for post-traumatic stress disorder. Learn more: katherinemaclean.org

In this wide-ranging discussion, we cover the following topics:

- What happened after Katherine “died” in 2012

- Discovery oriented research vs. practical research on psychedelics

- Effects of psychedelics on “existential distress”

- Potential benefits of psychedelics on end-of-life care and terminal cancer patients

- Potential benefits of MDMA for PTSD

- The existence of “enlightened assholes”

- Skepticism about brain research on psychedelics

- The role of the default network in "ego dissolution"

- Misrepresentation of the default network in the psychedelic and meditation literatures

- Benefits of psychedelics and meditation in combination

- Psychedelics and openness to experience

- From anxiety attack to “beauty attack”

- The potential for healthy psychedelic integration and increased community

Links

"Open Wide and Saw Awe" | Katherine MacLean | TEDxOrcasIsland

A Systematic Review of Personality Trait Change Through Intervention

Psilocybin-occasioned mystical-type experience in combination with meditation and other spiritual practices produces enduring positive changes in psychological functioning and in trait measures of prosocial attitudes and behaviors

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-psychology-podcast/support

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today we have Dr. Ellen Hendriksen on the podcast. Dr. Hendriksen is a clinical psychologist who helps millions calm their anxiety and be there authentic selves through her award-winning Savvy Psychologist podcast, which has been downloaded over 5 million times, and at Boston University’s Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders. Her latest book is called “How to Be Yourself: Quiet Your Inner Critic and Rise Above Social Anxiety.”

What is your real self?

What is social anxiety?

What is the opposite of social anxiety?

What’s the goal of therapy to treat social anxiety?

How to be comfortable when you are “caught being yourself”

The importance of self-compassion

The difference between introversion and social anxiety

Techniques to overcome social anxiety

The Orchid-Dandelion Hypothesis

The relationship between the highly sensitive person and openness to experience

The importance of going out and living your life first, and letting your confidence catch up

The importance of turning attention “inside out”

How perfectionism holds us back

The importance of “daring to be average”

The myth of “hope in a bottle”

Gender differences in the manifestation of social anxiety

Thanks!!

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-psychology-podcast/support

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today we have Dr. Amy Wrzesniewski on the podcast. Dr. Wrzesniewski is a professor of organizational behavior at the Yale School of Management. Her research focuses on how people make meaning of their work in difficult contexts, such as stigmatized occupations, virtual work, or absence of work, and the experience of work as a job, career, or calling. Her current research involves studying how employees shape their interactions and relationships with others in the workplace to change both their work identity and the meaning of the job.

Topics incude:

- The definition of meaning

- The four main sources of meaning

- Spirituality as a potential source of meaning at work

- The way work allows us to transcend the self

- The definition of calling

- How to find your most meaningful calling

- The importance of “self-resonance”

- The difference between consequences and motives

- What is job crafting and how can it help you increase your calling?

- Is job crafting contagious?

- The benefit of collective, team-level job crafting

- The impact of virtual work on job crafting

- How does meaning shape job transitions?

- The effects of occupational regret on people’s lives

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-psychology-podcast/support

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

“Nature doesn’t care about our desire to have these clean political categories for legal purposes.” — Alice Dreger

Today I’m really excited to have Dr. Alice Dreger on the podcast. Dr. Dreger is a historian, bioethicist, author, and former professor of clinical medical humanities and bioethics at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University. Dreger is widely known for her academic work and activism in support of people at the edge of anatomy, such as conjoined twins and those with atypical sex characteristics. In her observations, it’s often a fuzzy line between “male” and “female”, among other anatomical distinctions. A key question guiding a lot of Dr. Dreger’s work (and which was the topic of her TEDx talk) is “Why do we let our anatomy determine our fate?” Dr. Dreger is the author of multiple books, including “One of Us: Conjoined Twins and the Future of Normal” and “Galieleo’s Middle Finger Heretics, Activists, and the Search for Justice in Science.”

In this episode, we discuss a wide range of topics, including:

• How Dr. Dreger got involved in the “Intersex Rights Movement” in the mid-90s
• The difference between anatomy and gender identity
• The relationship between our bodies and our personal and social identities and the role of science and medicine in determining this relationship
• Who gets to tell your body what it means
• How the mind isn’t the only place where identity exists, and how our identities also exist in the minds of others
• The future of gender pronouns
• How we should treat those who do not fit traditional notions of sex, such as the fascinating cases of “androgen sensitivity syndrome” and “congenital adrenal hyperplasia”
• How we can see more value in variation in anatomy
• The need for a more reality-based government
• Why the phrase “identity politics” is distracting and only part of a larger problem
• The benefits and disadvantages of the “Intellectual Dark Web”
• The increasing difficulty of being able to tell what is true and what is false in the media
• Why we spend so much of our energy on tribal politics and avoid the real humanitarian problems in the world
• Why tribal life is so compelling
• The need to balance male and female ways of being
• What an “Intellectual Light Web” might look like

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-psychology-podcast/support

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today it’s an honor to have Dr. William Damon on the podcast. Dr. Damon is Director of the Stanford Center on Adolescence and Professor of Education at Stanford University. Damon’s current research explores how young people develop purpose in their civic, work, family, and community relationships. He examines how people learn to approach their vocational and civic lives with a focus on purpose, imagination, and high standards of excellence. Damon also has written widely about how to educate for moral and ethical understanding. Dr. Damon’s most recent books include The Power of Ideals, Failing Liberty 101, and The Path to Purpose: Helping Our Children Find Their Calling in Life.

In this wide-ranging discussion, we cover the following topics:

- The definition of purpose

- The role of values in purpose

- The difference between purpose and meaning

- Vicktor Frankl’s “will to meaning”

- How purpose is a late developing capacity

- The difference between purpose and resiliency

- The paths to purpose among young people

- Methods for developing purpose

- Moral commitment among moral exemplars

- Purpose among leaders

- The importance of taking "ultimate responsibility" in life

- How we are leaving young people unprepared in a civic society

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-psychology-podcast/support

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

“The happiest person is the person doing good stuff for good reasons.”

— Kennon Sheldon

Dr. Kennon Sheldon is a psychologist at the University of Missouri who studies motivation, goals, and well-being, from both a self-determination theory and a positive psychology perspective. He has authored or co-authored multiple books, including “Optimal human being: An integrated multi-level perspective”. Dr. Sheldon has been cited more than 30,000 times, and in 2010, he was named one of the 20 most cited social psychologists.

In this wide-ranging episode we discuss:

• How Ken went from aspiring musician to leading research on goals
• Whether the pursuit of happiness is worth it
• Is happiness in your genes?
• The link between goals and happiness
• The what and why of motivated goal pursuit
• The basic needs of self-determination theory
• Deprivation vs. growth needs
• Self-concordance theory
• The link between values and happiness
• How much can we use science as a guide to values?
• Are there some ways of being more conducive to happiness than others?
• How to get in touch with your OVP (organismic valuing process)
• Marrying positive psychology and humanistic psychology
• The relationship between personal goals and personal projects
• How to know when to change your goals
• The good life: well-being or well-doing?

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-psychology-podcast/support

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today I’m delighted to speak with Patricia Stokes, an adjunct professor at Barnard College who studies problem solving and creativity/innovation. Stokes is author of the book Creativity from Constraints: The Psychology of Breakthrough, which was informed by her psychological research as well as her background in art and advertising.

In this episode, we cover:

– How Patricia went from art and advertising to creativity researcher

– The importance of constraints and variability for creativity

– How constraints can promote or preclude creativity

– Using constraints to solve the “creativity problem”

– How “the solution path defines the goal state”

– The four major constraints on creativity

– How teachers and parents should praise children for optimal creativity

– How to reward the courage to be novel

– The importance of constraints in fashion and literature

– How to explain Lady Gaga’s creativity

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-psychology-podcast/support

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It’s great to have Dr. Robert Leahy on the podcast today. Dr. Leahy completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School under the direction of Dr. Aaron Beck, the founder of cognitive therapy. Dr. Leahy is the past president of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, past president of the International Association of Cognitive Psychotherapy, past president of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy, director of the American Institute for Cognitive Therapy (NYC), and a clinical professor of psychology in psychiatry at Weill-Cornell University Medical School.

Dr. Leahy has received the Aaron T. Beck award for outstanding contributions in cognitive therapy, and he is author and editor of 25 books, including The Worry Cure, which received critical praise from the New York Times and has been selected by Self Magazine as one of the top eight self-help books of all time. His latest book is The Jealousy Cure: Learn to Trust, Overcome Possessiveness, and Save Your Relationship.

Topics:

• Why Dr. Lahey wrote The Anxiety Cure

The new science of jealousy

How jealousy differs from envy

Why jealousy evolved

What is the downside of intense jealousy?

Why we don’t want to get rid of jealousy

Are men and women equally jealous?

The relationship between attachment style and jealousy

What if there really is a reason to be jealous?

What are some practical techniques that people can use to cope with their jealousy?

https://anchor.fm/the-psychology-podcast/support

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today I’m really excited to have Colin DeYoung on the podcast. Dr. DeYoung is associate professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota. He specializes in personality psychology but is especially interested in personality neuroscience. Besides being a prolific academic and researcher, I am also honored to count him as a dear friend and collaborator.

In this episode we discussed wide-range of topics relating to personality, including:

• The modern day personality hierarchy
• The “Big Two”: Stability and Plasticity
• How Carl Jung developed his theory of introversion
• The latest science of introversion
• The scientific validity of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
• Dopamine as the “neuromodulator of exploration”
• The two major dopamingeric pathways
• Why personality variation evolved
• The neuroscience of conscientiousness
• The link between compassion and imagination
• The neuroscience of anxiety
• The cybernetics of personality
• Rethinking psychopathology
• The effects of therapy on personality change

Links

Cybernetic Big Five Theory

The neuromodulator of exploration: A unifying theory of the role of dopamine in personality

Personality neuroscience and the biology of traits

Opening up openness to experience: A four-factor model and relations to creative achievement in the arts and sciences

The neuroscience of anxiety

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-psychology-podcast/support

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today we have Dr. Jordan Peterson on the podcast. Dr. Peterson has taught mythology to lawyers, doctors and business people, consulted for the UN Secretary General, helped his clinical clients manage depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety, and schizophrenia, served as an adviser to senior partners of major Canadian law firms, and lectured extensively in North America and Europe. With his students and colleagues at Harvard and the University of Toronto, Dr. Peterson has published over a hundred scientific papers. Dr. Peterson is also author of two books: Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief and 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, which is a #1 bestseller.

In this wide-ranging conversation we discuss the following topics:

– Why “learned irrelevance” is incredibly important

– Why creativity requires keeping a childlike wonder

– How hallucinogens clear the “doors of perception”

– The “shared vulnerability” model of the creativity-mental illness connection

– The neuroscience of openness to experience

– The personality of personal correctness

– The practical implications of gender differences

– The function of the state in helping to make sure there is equality of individual expression

– How agreeableness and conscientiousness orient us differently in the social world

– The difference between pathological altruism and genuine compassion

– The link between pathological altruism and vulnerable narcissism

– The difference between responsibility and culpability

– How to help people take responsibility and make their lives better

Links

12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos

Jordan Peterson- What the State is For

Jordan Peterson- Future Authoring Program

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-psychology-podcast/support

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.