Dr. David Klonsky is a clinical psychology professor who conducts research on suicidal behavior, personality, emotion, and assessment. He developed the three-step theory, which is an important and parsimonious theory of suicidal behavior. David also conducted foundational work on the functions of nonsuicidal self-injury. After discussing suicidal behavior research, we shifted the conversation to open science and criticism of National Institute of Mental Health grant funding priorities. Then, we talked about mixed martial arts – both our own experiences and David’s work consulting with athletes competing in combat sports. We concluded with thoughts about why Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Star Wars are so good. This episode was SO much fun to make, and we hope you enjoy listening to it!

Show Notes

Suicide Research

You can follow Dr. David Klonsky on Twitter and check out his lab’s research on Google Scholar. For example, I recommend:

Ideation-to-Action Theories of Suicide: A Conceptual and Empirical Update

The Role of Theory for Understanding and Preventing Suicide (But Not Predicting It): A Commentary on Hjelmeland and Knizek

On the episode, I mentioned that I wrote a blog post about the three-step theory and how I believe it can advance public discussion about suicide.

Mixed Martial Arts Media Appearances

You can also follow David’s MMA Twitter account.

5 Rounds: Psychology of MMA, Mark Bocek on Bendo vs. Thomson and More – Fight Network

Ronda Rousey’s Return at UFC 207 – Fight Network

Connor McGregor’s Winning Ways; Mentally Breaking Opponents – Fight Network

Suicide prevention information and resources are available here and you can learn more about nonsuicidal self-injury here.

Jesse Singal is a journalist who writes about a range of fascinating topics, including psychology and behavioral science. Journalism plays an important role in communicating research findings to the public, and Jesse shared his insight about how that process works. We also talked about his concerns about current directions in journalism, college mental health, the book he’s writing, his newsletter, his podcast, Twitter, Flip McVicker, and more! We hope you enjoy this episode – thanks so much for listening!

Show Notes

Jesse is a contributing writer and former staffer at New York Magazine, where he edited Science of Us and was a writer-at-large. You can read his articles here.

He also has a book coming out about why half-baked behavioral-science ideas go viral. You can follow him on Twitter for updates about his book, links to his new articles, and pizza commentary.

Definitely check out Jesse’s newsletter and podcast, which focus on clashes between science and social justice advocacy and other interesting subjects.

We discussed Jesse’s articles, The Myth of the Ever-More-Fragile College Student and Psychology’s Favorite Tool for Measuring Racism Isn’t Up to The Job. If the implicit association test and implicit bias interest you, I recommend listening to Jesse’s podcast episode with Patrick Forscher. We also talked about his podcast episode, What It’s Like In “The Bad Part of Town” with Chris Arnade, which was really moving. I was also on Jesse’s podcast to talk about Suicide Research, The Campus Culture Wars, and Florida’s Endearing Weirdness.

If you like what you hear, please tell a friend, rate and review us on iTunes, and follow us on Twitter. Thank you!

Note: This episode was co-created and produced by Randolph Brickey.

Randolph Brickey is a trial attorney, writer, and former public defender who joined us to talk about the movie, Primal Fear. First, we gave an overview of the plot and characters in the movie. Then, Randolph explained legal terms, such as not guilty by reason of insanity and competency to stand trial. We also talked about how accurate the film was from legal and psychological perspectives. This included discussion of dissociative identity disorder, psychopathy, and malingering, as well as typical outcomes for people found not guilty by reason of insanity. A theme throughout the episode was that certain types of mental health problems tend to evoke more sympathy from judges and juries than others. We enjoyed making this episode a lot, and we hope you enjoy listening to it!

If you like what you hear, please tell a friend, rate and review us on iTunes, and follow us on Twitter. Thanks so much for listening!

Show Notes

Follow Randolph on Twitter and read his writing in places like Ordinary Times, where he once wrote about The Definition of Insanity. You can also hear him on the podcast, This Week in Atrocity. For example, you can find the episode Our Precious Judicial Resources here. Randolph also previously appeared on Jedi Counsel to talk about the Morality of Batman, which was inspired by this Batman article he wrote for Ordinary Times.

Here are links that provide further information about topics from the episode:

-More information about dissociative identity disorder is available here, and in 3 previous episodes of Jedi Counsel here, here, and here.

-A paper called Adapting Dialectical Behavior Therapy for the Treatment of Dissociative Identity Disorder by Foote & Van Orden (2016) is available here.

–A New York Times video about dissociative identity disorder

–Kenneth Bianchi, one of the Hillside Stranglers,

Dr. Chris Martin is a sociologist who does fascinating research on a range of topics that include culture, mental health, and well-being. He joined us to talk about a college course he teaches on happiness, his stand-up comedy experiences, and the podcast he hosts, Half Hour of Heterodoxy. First, we talked about how Chris got into positive psychology and his pathway to a Ph.D. in sociology. Then, we discussed the definitions and differences between hedonic and eudaimonic types of happiness. Chris told us what the science says on links between life satisfaction and relationships, money, and meaning. We concluded with descriptions of therapy-informed approaches to happiness before learning about Chris’ academic approach to stand-up comedy and the premise of his podcast.

If you like what you hear, please tell a friend, rate and review us on iTunes, and follow us on Twitter. Thanks so much for listening!

Show Notes

Follow Chris on Twitter, check out his research via Google Scholar, and read his Medium blog. You can see some of his stand-up comedy here (though he warns that it involves political and religious humor that some might find offensive).

Chris is a founding member of the Heterodox Academy and currently serves on their academic advisory board.

This episode includes discussion of mindfulness, The Happiness Trap, and David Burns’ Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy book.

Chris hosts the Heterodox Academy podcast, Half Hour of Heterodoxy. Here are some of the episodes he recommends:

***Clinical Psychology and Mental Health

Katie Gordon – Can Offensive Political Speech Cause Trauma?

Ellen Hendricksen – Maintaining Your Sanity in Academia

Scott Lilienfeld – Microaggressions and the Goldwater Rule (note: the audio quality on this episode isn’t as good as later episodes)

Greg Lukianoff & Jonathan Haidt – The Coddling of the American Mind

***Politics and Social Psychology

Christopher Federico – The Psychology of Political Behavior

Michael Sargent is a social psychology professor and the host of Tatter, an excellent podcast about politics, policy, and many other interesting topics. We invited Michael on Jedi Counsel to talk about his pathway to becoming a social psychologist, including his research on need for cognition and punitive responses to crime. Then, Michael told us about his favorite Tatter episodes, including ones about implicit bias, incarceration in the U.S., diversity in the craft beer industry, and AR-15s. Next, we discussed the controversial American Psychological Association Guidelines for Practice with Boys and Men and what we viewed as strengths and weaknesses of the document. Michael connected the guidelines to concepts explored in Why Honor Matters, a book by Tamler Sommers, which he highly recommends. (Side note: Sommers co-hosts a podcast that had an outstanding episode on suicide with Matt Nock). We concluded with a discussion of different representations of masculinity in Pulp Fiction ranging from Brett to Butch.

Definitely check out Tatter and follow Michael on Twitter!

If you like what you hear, please tell a friend, rate and review us on iTunes, and follow us on Twitter. Thanks so much for listening!

This episode is an interview with Dr. Emily Pisetsky, an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and licensed psychologist. First, Dr. Pisetsky shared how she became interested in clinical psychology and the pathway she took toward studying and treating eating disorders. Next, we talked about research on body image and eating disorders during pregnancy and the postpartum period. Dr. Pisetsky shared useful tips for curating social media feeds to maximize mental health. In addition, Dr. Pisetsky discussed prevention and treatment approaches for mental health concerns during and after pregnancy (including the importance of social support). Dr. Pisetsky has made important contributions to the field of eating disorders through both research and clinical work, and I highly recommend keeping up with her through her Google Scholar and Twitter accounts! You can also check out Dr. Pisetsky’s faculty webpage and her recent article on emerging psychological treatments in eating disorders.

Resources for Mental Health During & After Pregnancy

National Eating Disorder Association

Postpartum Support International

Antenatal and Postnatal Psychopathology among Women with Current and Past Eating Disorders: Longitudinal Patterns

Eating Disorders and Pregnancy

You can follow Jedi Counsel on Twitter and like us on Facebook. If you like what you hear, please rate and review us on iTunes and tell your friends! Thank you!

https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/buksyi/Pisetsky_episode.mp3

This episode is an interview with Dr. Mun Yee Kwan, an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology. First, Dr. Kwan shared how she became interested in clinical psychology and the journey she took toward becoming an eating disorder researcher. Next, we talked about the ways that social factors both increase risk, and are negatively impacted by, eating disorders. Dr. Kwan then talked about her hypotheses about the role of emotion regulation in eating disorder symptoms. We concluded with Dr. Kwan talking about her research on fashion photoshop warning labels and whether they are effective at reducing eating disorder-related symptoms. Dr. Kwan’s scientific approach to eating disorders is important for advancing the field, and I hope you enjoyed learning about it!

Check out Dr. Kwan’s faculty webpage and recent eating disorder research articles on warning labels on fashion images, social support and stress perception, and interpersonal functioning.

You can follow Jedi Counsel on Twitter and like us on Facebook. If you like what you hear, please rate and review us on iTunes and tell your friends! Thank you!

Hey Jedi Counsel friends! This week we are checking back in with three-peat guest-host, Dr. Keith Donohue! You might remember him from past episodes on myths around substance use as well as the fictional character James Bond. In this episode, we expanded our episode on Black Mirror: Bandersnatch by talking about “Choose Your Own Adventures” across multiple formats! Listen in as Dr. Donohue shares some of his background with this form of entertainment, the overall history of the genre, and how choosing your own adventure today can mean lots of things from playing Dungeons and Dragons, watching Bandersnatch, or catching up on classic Fighting Fantasy gamebooks!

Let us know about your background with choosing your own adventure, no matter what format you used!

For a comprehensive list of gamebooks, check out gamebooks.org which was referenced in the episode!

You can follow Jedi Counsel on Twitter and like us on Facebook. If you like what you hear, please rate and review us on iTunes and tell your friends! Thank you!

This episode is an interview with Dr. April Smith, an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology. First, Dr. Smith shared how she became interested in her current research areas. Next, we talked about potential explanations for elevated suicidal behavior rates among people with eating disorders. Dr. Smith shared how her lab has investigated underlying factors through the lens of the interpersonal theory of suicide. In addition, Dr. Smith is conducting intriguing research on interoception (a person’s ability to sense what’s going on in their body) and its connections to these mental health issues. Dr. Smith’s innovative, scientific approach was fascinating to hear about, and we hope you enjoy learning about it!

You can follow Jedi Counsel on Twitter and like us on Facebook. If you like what you hear, please rate and review us on iTunes and tell your friends! Thank you!

For more information:

Check out Dr. Smith’s faculty webpage and lab website. You can also follow her lab on Facebook and Twitter.

Recent articles from Dr. Smith and collaborators include: a meta-analysis on disordered eating and suicidal behavior, an examination of shared risk factors, and a review of research on eating disorders and suicidality.

You can read about her grant on interoceptive deficits and suicidality here.

Here is the Fox et al. (2019) paper that compares self-harm intentions underlying eating disorder and nonsuicidal self-injury behaviors, and here is the paper testing the four-function model of self-harm with binge eating and purging.

You can learn more about eating disorders here and suicide prevention here.

Hey, Jedi Counsel fans! This week we decided to finally catch up with the world and check out Black Mirror: Bandersnatch! We know, we are a bit behind everyone else, but we were excited to talk about it anyways! Listen in as we both go through our individual choices and discuss some of the psychological themes that are depicted on the various paths. Throughout the different paths, there are depictions of therapy, taking psychiatric medications, dealing with guilt/trauma, engaging in substance use, suicide (maybe?), and our least favorite of all, depictions of an individual struggling from mental health concerns engaging in violent behavior towards others. We break down all of these themes and more. Have you tried Bandersnatch? How did your experience compare to ours? What were your overall thoughts?

If you like our podcast, please rate and review us on iTunes, check out our website, and follow us on Twitter. Thank you so much!