Pre-Occupied

Zenon and Maddy are back in Ann Arbor talking to Dr. Thad Polk, a cognitive neuroscientist and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor at the University of Michigan. His interdisciplinary research combines tactics from neuroimaging and computational modeling to better understand cognitive architecture. Dr. Polk and his team use innovative methods in cognitive neuroscience to create detailed, holistic mental maps to capture the complexity of one’s neural structures. We also discuss aging, technology, and the mysterious process of IRB approval. Dr. Polk’s stories (and North Carolinian twang) will leave you hanging on every word!

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Maddy and Zenon interview Dr. Laura Richardson of Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Richardson is an authentic, compassionate, and deeply insightful outpatient therapist. In this interview, we discuss the evolution of patient-therapist relationships, elaborate on the applications of attachment theory, and think critically about the importance of our connections with others.

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Maddy and Zenon talk to Scott Greenspan, a candidate in the University of Massachusetts-Amherst's PhD program in School Psychology and doctoral intern at Harvard Medical School-Affiliate Judge Baker Children's Center. Scott reveals what it's like to be a doctoral student balancing research, employment, self-care, and his personal life. We also discuss the intersection of physical exercise, LBTQ+ issues, and implementation of research in education.

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We got the opportunity to talk with Dr. Michelle Stein of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, a practicing psychologist and professor of psychiatry. The interview focused on what it's like to work as a psychologist in a hospital setting, her work on the SCORS-G, and the use of projective tests in clinical assessment. 

Here is the SCORS-G manual from which we read the TAT interpretations.

If you're curious, here's card 1 of the TAT, which we discuss in the episode.

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Maddy, Zenon, and Dr. John Porcerelli discuss defense mechanisms—what they look like, how we use them, and why we use them. Dr. Porcerelli is an engaging, sharp, and incredibly knowledgeable professor of psychology at The University of Detroit Mercy, where he directs the psychology clinic. He shares his winding path from apathetic high school student to pro boxer to accomplished researcher, professor, and therapist! He enlightens us about the integral role of defense mechanisms in clinical treatment and in our everyday lives.

In the interview, Dr. Porcerelli mentions this 1894 paper in which Freud introduces the idea of defenses, titled The Neuropsychoses of Defense. In our discussion, we talk about some of the many defense mechanisms that people employ to handle emotional stressors. This PDF, a 7-page excerpt from the DSM-IV, contains the Defense Mechanism Rating Scale and list of 33 defenses that Dr. Porcerelli mentions during the interview. You can find all of Dr. Porcerelli's research on defenses at his ResearchGate page.

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We got to interview Dr. Jim Sexton, who holds Ph.D.s in Clinical and Social Psychology. He's currently a professor at George Washington University's Psy.D. program and a practicing clinician. His answers lent insight into a wide range of topics within the fields of both his Ph.D.s, such as building rapport with clients, identifying subconscious biases in oneself as a clinician, and the hidden history of social psychology. 

In our intro, we talked about mirror neurons. Here's a video of Dr. Giacomo Rizzolatti, one of the researchers who discovered the function of these neurons, talking about that discovery and how it came about. Here's an interesting TED Talk from Dr. Amy Cuddy about what body language we use to express feelings of power and how that can affect ourselves and those around us.

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This is the second half of our interview with Ms. Andrea Broadwater, a therapist from Ann Arbor, Michigan with experience in clinical research, crisis care, and independent practice. In this episode, Ms. Broadwater talks about setting boundaries in therapy, giving back, tele-mental health, and the future of therapy.

In the discussion, we talk about transference and countertransference, the subtle differences between "patient" and "client," and our own thoughts on teletherapy. After sifting through several YouTube videos, we determined that this one is the best explanation of transference and countertransference on the Internet. Enjoy the episode!

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This is the first half of our interview with Ms. Andrea Broadwater, a therapist from Ann Arbor, Michigan with experience in clinical research, crisis care, and independent practice. In this episode, Ms. Broadwater talks about her background, her current clinical work, self-care, and her theoretical orientation. 

In our discussion, we talk about what therapy is, how change occurs in therapy, different theoretical models, and the research of two psychologists that Ms. Broadwater mentions during the interview. The definition of therapy we use comes from this book by Dr. Jerome Frank. Our discussion of behavioral change in therapy is based on this article by Dr. James Prochaska and Dr. Carlo DiClemente, with some added insight from a certain professor and some other online resources. If you want to learn more about Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy or other theoretical orientations, check out this module from the Noba Project.

If you want to learn more about the research of Kristen Neff and Brené Brown, check out these resources:

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We talked with Dr. Caleb Siefert, a professor at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, personality researcher, practicing clinician, and former neuromarketing consultant. We got to ask him about the life of a consulting psychologist, how psychology informs marketing, and how his current roles as a professor, researcher, and clinician inform and benefit each other. 

In our discussion, we gave a basic overview of persuasion theory and discussed some cool research. This article explains the studies on credit card logos as subliminal cues. The original articles can be found here and here. Here's the article about the halo effect. If you want to learn more about persuasion, check out this module from the Noba Project.

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We got to talk to Dr. Daniel Weissman of the University of Michigan about a wide variety of topics, including choosing a career path, research with dolphins, computational modeling, and much more. We also got to hear about Dr. Weissman's own research on attention and the methods he uses to measure attention. 

If you want to learn more about attention, check out this module from the Noba Project. It does a great job of explaining the theory that attention research is based on, and most of the research we discussed in this episode can be found there. 

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