Speaking of Psychology

By American Psychological Association

Society & Culture

What's Speaking of Psychology about?

"Speaking of Psychology" is an audio podcast series highlighting some of the latest, most important and relevant psychological research being conducted today. Produced by the American Psychological Association, these podcasts will help listeners apply the science of psychology to their everyday lives.

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How to Choose Effective, Sc...

09.23.2020

Among the thousands of apps that aim to help people with everything from stress to anxiety to PTSD to sleep problems, how many are based on solid scientific research? How many live up to what they promise? And how can ...

Speaking of Psychology episodes:

09.23.2020 How to Choose Effective, Science-based Mental Health Apps, with Stephen Schueller, PhD Among the thousands of apps that aim to help people with everything from stress to anxiety to PTSD to sleep problems, how many are based on solid scientific research? How many live up to what they promise? And how can ...
09.09.2020 The Challenges Faced by Women in Leadership with Alice Eagly, PhD With U.S. Senator Kamala Harris as the Democrats’ choice for vice presidential nominee, the challenges faced by female political candidates are back in the news again. This year is the 100th anniversary of women winning the right to vote in ...
08.26.2020 How to Have Meaningful Dialogues Despite Political Differences with Tania Israel, PhD As the 2020 election cycle heats up, so will conversations among family, friends and acquaintances on opposite ends of the political spectrum. The United States may be more politically polarized than ever, but political disagreements don’t have to devolve into ...
08.12.2020 Survival of the Friendliest with Brian Hare, PhD Compared with other animals, dogs are brilliant in one important way: They can understand and communicate with us, their human companions. Brian Hare, PhD, of Duke University, talks about what we know about canine cognition and how studying dogs’ evolutionary ...
07.29.2020 Reopening Schools in a Pandemic with Heidi Schweingruber, PhD With the start of the 2020-2021 school year, politicians, parents, health officials, school officials, teachers’ unions and other groups are debating whether it’s safe for students to return to physical classrooms. Heidi Schweingruber, PhD, a developmental psychologist and dir. of ...
07.15.2020 Psychedelic Therapy with Roland Griffiths, PhD Psilocybin, LSD and other psychedelic drugs were once considered promising treatments for depression, anxiety and other mental health ailments. Now, after a decades-long lull, researchers are once again looking into the therapeutic potential of these drugs. Roland Griffiths, PhD, a ...
07.01.2020 The Invisibility of White Privilege with Brian Lowery, PhD The protests against racial injustice over the past month may be prompting some white Americans to consider—perhaps for the first time--the advantages they've benefited from all their lives. Brian Lowery, PhD, a senior associate dean at Stanford University's Graduate School ...
06.17.2020 The Challenge of Telework During COVID-19 with Kristen Shockley, PhD Over the past several months, millions of newly remote workers have found themselves juggling work and family responsibilities from hastily improvised home offices. Kristen Shockley, PhD, a professor of psychology at the University of Georgia, discusses her research on how ...
06.10.2020 The Psychology of Protest and Activism with Lauren Duncan, PhD For more than a week, protestors have filled the streets of cities and towns across the United States and even around the world, demanding an end to racial injustice and police brutality in the wake of the murder of George ...
05.27.2020 How the Social and Behavioral Sciences Explain Our Reactions to COVID-19 with Jay Van Bavel, PhD Why are some people more susceptible to conspiracy theories than others? Do people actually panic during disasters, like the pandemic? And are the brains of liberals and conservatives physiologically different? Dr. Jay Van Bavel, who directs NYU’s Social Perception and ...
05.20.2020 Parenting Through the Pandemic with Erlanger Turner, PhD As we enter month three of living under quarentine, parents and their kids may be getting on each other’s nerves. Parents working from home may be battling with their children – and each other - for computer access. As youngsters ...
05.13.2020 Bonus Episode: How to Obtain Teletherapy During the Pandemic with Jared Skillings, PhD With most of us still following shelter-in-place rules, getting mental health care for people who need it can be a challenge. Fortunately, many psychological practitioners have been offering telemental health services for years, using electronic and telecommunications technologies to engage ...
05.06.2020 COVID-19 and the Loss of Rituals, Formation of New Ones with Michael Norton, PhD The coronavirus is keeping us from experiencing some of the deepest and most meaningful rituals of our lives, from graduations to weddings to funerals. What is this doing to us psychologically? How important are rituals to our mental health and ...
04.29.2020 Bonus Episode: How Students and Academia Are Navigating COVID-19 with Sian Beilock, PhD College students around the country are dealing with distance learning as their campuses have been closed during COVID-19. Dr. Sian Beilock, a psychologist and president of Barnard College in New York, explains how her school is helping students finish the ...
04.22.2020 The Role of Resilience in the Face of COVID-19 with Ann Masten, PhD The COVID-19 pandemic is putting new and unforeseen pressures on all of us. Whether it’s trying to telework while the kids are screaming in another room or dealing with the loss of a job, this new normal is taxing our ...
04.17.2020 Bonus Episode: Why is COVID-19 Disproportionately Affecting Black and Latino Americans with Brian Smedley, PhD While we do not have a complete national picture, data from a few states and cities are showing that COVID-19 is disproportionately infecting African Americans and Latinos. Why is this so? And what can we do to alleviate these skewed ...
04.15.2020 Bonus Episode: The Most Boring Podcast Ever (Or, What to Do With Yourself During COVID-19) with Erin Westgate, PhD The first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the U.S. was identified in January. By March, most of us had been confined to our homes. Since many of our regular activities and pastimes are now off-limits, what are we doing to ...
04.08.2020 Coping with Financial Anxiety During COVID-19 with Bradley T. Klontz, PsyD, CFP Are you worried about your financial future in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic? Even before the coronavirus struck, many of us were prone to do unwise things with our money. What, if anything, is the pandemic doing to that ...
04.02.2020 Bonus Episode: Coronavirus Anxiety (Part 2) with Baruch Fischhoff, PhD Turn on any kind of media these days and there’s virtually nothing but COVID-19 coverage. To discuss what we should be doing as we learn more about the virus, we have invited back Dr. Baruch Fischhoff. He talks about what ...
03.30.2020 Bonus Episode: Managing Your Mental Health during COVID 19 with Lynn Bufka, PhD The coronavirus has upended our lives, compelling us to stay in our homes, keep our social distance and be wary of everything we touch. Some are teleworking but others have lost jobs. This global pandemic touches everyone and it is ...
03.25.2020 Inner Monologues with Ethan Kross, PhD You may have heard about the debate on inner monologues. It started from a tweet that said that some people have an internal narrative, and some don’t. What ensued were thousands of comments, retweets and news stories on the topic. ...
03.11.2020 Psychologically Sound Tips for Better Sleep with Robin Haight, PsyD Do you remember the last time you woke up during the work week without an alarm clock? When you didn’t need caffeine to get going? If you can’t, you’re certainly not alone. Most of us fall short of the recommended ...
02.26.2020 Sober Curious? with Katie Witkiewitz, PhD Drinking is ubiquitous in American culture today, but there is a burgeoning movement in the opposite direction: Sobriety is having a moment in the spotlight. For the sober-curious crowd, this can mean taking a break from alcohol for a set ...
02.12.2020 What to Do When You've Been Ghosted with Jennice Vilhauer, PhD Ghosting is a heartbreaking fact in the modern dating world. It’s when a friend or someone you’ve been dating disappears from contact with no explanation. Ghosting can shatter self-esteem and hurt just as much as physical pain. Our guest is ...
02.10.2020 Bonus Episode - Coronavirus Anxiety with Baruch Fischhoff, PhD Fear about the coronavirus has gripped the world. Why are we so afraid of this novel coronavirus when we are much more likely to catch the flu? Our guest, Baruch Fischhoff, PhD, explains why we worry about new risks more ...
01.29.2020 How to Know if You Have Seasonal Affective Disorder with Kelly Rohan, PhD Even though winter can be a bear, most of us just bundle up, get through it or embrace it and find ways to get outside and stay active. But as many as six out of every 100 people in the ...
01.15.2020 Why People Hoard with Julie Pike, PhD While television shows about hoarding are quite popular and the term has now been embedded into our general lexicon, there is still a lot about hoarding disorder that is not well understood. Hoarding disorder is complex, difficult to treat and ...
01.01.2020 How to Keep Your New Year's Resolutions (SOP97) Lose 20 pounds. Begin a meditation practice. Save $1,000 a month. 2020 is here and many people are fired up about their New Year’s resolutions. No matter how jazzed people are about their resolutions at the start of the new ...
12.24.2019 Bonus Episode: Psychologists Address Climate Change This special episode features a report by APA’s Kim Mills, who attended the first-ever International Summit on Psychology’s Contributions to Global Health in Lisbon, Portugal, in November. The summit – sponsored by APA and the Association of Portuguese Psychologists -- ...
12.18.2019 Transformation After Trauma (SOP96) Experiencing positive transformation after trauma is known as post-traumatic growth. People may develop a new appreciation of life, newfound personal strength, see an improvement in their relationships, see new possibilities in life and undergo spiritual changes. Why do some people ...
12.04.2019 The Decline of Empathy and the Rise of Narcissism with Sara Konrath, PhD Concern and care for others’ feelings are virtues we seek to instill in our children, yet they are sorely lacking in many adult Americans today. There’s scientific research to back up the notion that Americans are caring less for others ...
11.20.2019 Veterans' Mental Health with Terri Tanielan, MA, and Rajeev Ramchand, PhD To mark Veterans Day 2019, we are discussing the mental health challenges that many veterans deal with, some of the latest psychological research into their care and the complexities of modern warfare and its effect on veterans. Our guests are ...
11.13.2019 Bonus Episode: Using Virtual Reality to Train Law Enforcement Officers with Gregory Kratzig, PhD Gregory Kratzig, PhD, is an adjunct professor of psychology at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan, Canada and a global expert in simulation-based training, particularly in the world of law enforcement. He has used virtual reality to train first responders ...
11.11.2019 Bonus Episode: Your Boss is Watching You. Is that OK? with Dave Tomczak Do you ever get the feeling at work that you're being watched? To a certain degree you are and it's possible that you will soon be tracked even more closely whether that's through video surveillance, GPS location tracking or Internet ...
11.06.2019 Does Nostalgia Have a Psychological Purpose? with Krystine Batcho, PhD What purpose does nostalgia serve? Is it good or bad? Are we more nostalgic today in our hectic, connected world? Is there such a thing as the “good ‘ol days”? Here to help explain is Dr. Krystine Batcho, professor of ...
11.04.2019 Bonus Episode: How Virtual Reality Can Help Detect Racial Bias in Police Shootings with John Tawa, PhD There's been a great deal of media attention focused on police shootings in recent years. Psychology has long performed research to determine whether racial hostility plays a role in such shootings. Our guest for this episode is John Tawa, PhD, ...
10.30.2019 Bonus Episode: How a Virtual Buffet Can Help Kids Learn to Eat Better with Susan Persky, PhD Getting children to eat healthy meals is a challenge many parents face but what if virtual reality could help? Researchers at the National Institute of Health are using new technology to help parents make smarter food choices for their children. ...
10.28.2019 Bonus Episode: The Role of Body and Dash Cams in Policing with Nick Camp, PhD Cameras are playing a greater role in law enforcement. But how effective are cameras in police encounters? What do they tell us about police-citizen interactions, and do cameras ever lie? Our guest for this episode is Dr. Nick Camp, a ...
10.23.2019 The Psychology of Design (SOP92) The spaces we are in every day influence our mood and well-being whether we are aware of it or not. Creating spaces to make us feel our best is a hot topic – in community planning, in the office and ...
10.21.2019 Bonus Episode: Driverless Cars and Body-less Therapy with Arnon Rolnick, PhD Have you ever wondered why drivers don't get carsick? If you've ever been seasick, are you curious to know what causes it and what, if anything, can be done to stave it off? Dr. Arnon Rolnick spent 20 years as ...
10.16.2019 Bonus Episode: The Psychology of Esports with Kaitlyn Roose and Shawn Doherty, PhD Russell Shilling, PhD, guest host for Speaking of Psychology and Chief Scientific Officer for the American Psychological Association, sits down at APA2019 to talk with Kaitlyn Roose and Shawn Doherty, PhD, to discuss the psychology of esports, the benefits of ...
10.09.2019 How Memory Can Be Manipulated (SOP91) Our memories may not be as reliable as we think. There is the potential for memories to be altered or for completely false memories to be planted, according to Elizabeth Loftus, PhD. Loftus, a distinguished professor at the University of ...
10.02.2019 Bonus Episode: Human Trafficking with Kalyani Gopal, PhD, HSPP Human Trafficking occurs when individuals are exploited through force, fraud or sex. It is estimated that almost 25 million people are robbed of their freedom and human dignity through trafficking. Understanding what trafficking is and how to respond is critical. ...
09.25.2019 Future of Work (SOP90) From automation, to artificial intelligence to employee surveillance, technology is rapidly changing the way we work. It’s raising ethical questions and blurring the lines between personal and professional. Tara Behrend, PhD, director of the Workplaces and Virtual Environments lab at ...
09.11.2019 Understanding Racial Inequities in School Discipline (SOP89) Discipline in pre-K - 12 schools is not doled out equally, as black students, boys and students with disabilities are suspended and expelled at much higher rates than other students, according to a report released by the GAO. Guests Amanda ...
09.04.2019 Bonus Episode: Debunking Myths About Fertility with Angela Lawson, PhD About 6% of U.S. women ages 15 to 44 experience infertility, with many of those reporting that infertility is the most upsetting experience of their lives. Dr. Angela Lawson helps us separate fact from fiction when it comes to infertility, ...
08.28.2019 What Guides Our Buying Behaviors (SOP88) Why do some people buy so much, while others shun that lifestyle for simplicity or to save? How do brands reach into our psyches to get us to pull out our wallets? What are some of the motivations behind companies ...
08.21.2019 Bonus Episode: Fake News with Chrysalis Wright, PhD Fake news, 2017’s word of the year and recent edition to the Oxford English Dictionary, has become a widespread problem. This episode of Speaking of Psychology discusses how this phenomenon of intentionally spreading fabricated content and presenting it as factual ...
08.14.2019 Why Popularity Matters (SOP87) Some of us recall high school as being filled with fun parties, football games and flirting while others think back to that time with a shudder and are just glad it’s over. But is it really over? Our guest is ...
07.31.2019 Why We Like the Foods We Like (SOP86) Why do some people scarf down anchovies by the pound while others recoil at the thought of a tuna fish sandwich? Not only is taste a biologically complex experience, it is quite psychological. Our guest is psychologist Linda Bartoshuk, PhD, ...

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