Speaking of Psychology

By American Psychological Association

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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The secret to being a “Supe...

12.08.2021

For most people lucky enough to live a long life, aging comes with some cognitive decline. But memory loss isn’t inevitable. Some people -- “SuperAgers” -- have memory abilities that remain intact into their 80s, 90s and even beyond. Emily ...

Speaking of Psychology episodes:

12.08.2021 The secret to being a “SuperAger,” with Emily Rogalski, PhD For most people lucky enough to live a long life, aging comes with some cognitive decline. But memory loss isn’t inevitable. Some people -- “SuperAgers” -- have memory abilities that remain intact into their 80s, 90s and even beyond. Emily ...
12.01.2021 Tightwads and spendthrifts: How emotions drive our shopping behavior, with Scott Rick, PhD Does shopping bring you joy? Or do you feel a bit of pain and regret every time you have to make a purchase? Many of us will be shopping for gifts in the upcoming weeks -- whether we enjoy it ...
11.24.2021 Exploring the human-animal bond, with Maggie O’Haire, PhD The role that animals can play in improving people’s mental health has garnered increased attention in recent years -- from service dogs for PTSD to emotional support animals on planes to therapy dogs in offices. Dr. Maggie O’Haire discusses animal-assisted ...
11.17.2021 What can science teach us about the benefits of religion? With David DeSteno, PhD For thousands of years, people have turned to religion to answer questions about how to lead a happy, moral and fulfilling life. David DeSteno, PhD, a psychology professor at Northeastern University and author of the book “How God Works,” discusses ...
11.10.2021 How social media affects teens’ mental health and well-being, with Linda Charmaraman, PhD Recent headlines seem to confirm parents’ worst fears about the effects of all the time that teens spend online. But psychologists’ research suggests that there are nuanced answers to the question of how social media affects teens’ mental health and ...
11.03.2021 How close relationships keep us healthy and happy, with Richard Slatcher, PhD Close relationships are essential to our health, happiness and well-being. Richard Slatcher, PhD, of the University of Georgia, talks about why the support we receive from our partners, family and friends is so important, how we develop these deep ties ...
10.27.2021 Ghosts, Ouija boards and ESP: psychology and the paranormal, with Chris French, PhD Just in time for Halloween, we talk about the psychology of strange stuff – including ghostly visitations, alien abductions, ESP, and more – with Chris French, PhD, head of the anomalistic psychology unit at Goldsmiths, University of London. Dr. French ...
10.20.2021 Waiting, worrying and dealing with uncertainty, with Kate Sweeny, PhD Is there anything more agonizing than being in limbo? Time may seem to slow to a crawl when you’re waiting for high-stakes news like a hiring decision, a biopsy result – or the end of a pandemic. Kate Sweeny, PhD, ...
10.13.2021 Men, masculinity and mental health, with Ronald F. Levant, EdD Stoic. Self-reliant. Unemotional. For many men, these watchwords of traditional masculinity still hold powerful sway. Men are less likely than women to seek help for mental health issues, they die by suicide more often, and they commit and are the ...
10.06.2021 ADHD among children and adults, with Margaret Sibley, PhD For many people, the stereotype of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is an 8-year-old boy who can’t sit still. But in recent decades, scientists have gained a more sophisticated understanding of the causes and lifelong consequences of the disorder. Margaret Sibley, ...
09.29.2021 The psychology of science denial, doubt and disbelief, with Gale Sinatra, PhD, and Barbara Hofer, PhD On hot-button topics such as climate change, vaccines and genetically modified foods, science denial is rampant – and it crosses party and ideological lines. What are the psychological forces that lead people to disbelieve science? Is science denial worse than ...
09.22.2021 How science can help you change your behavior for the better with Katy Milkman, PhD What can you learn from the science of behavior change that can help you make the changes you want to see in your life? Katy Milkman, PhD, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and author of the book “How ...
09.15.2021 The seven sins of memory, with Daniel Schacter, PhD Human memory is imperfect – we all misplace our keys, forget acquaintances’ names and misremember the details of our own past. Daniel Schacter, PhD, a professor of psychology at Harvard University, discusses why memory is so fallible, the causes and ...
09.08.2021 Twenty years after 9/11, what have we learned about collective trauma? With Roxane Cohen Silver, PhD This week marks 20 years since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Researchers call this kind of shared disaster a “collective trauma.” Roxane Cohen Silver, PhD, who studies collective trauma and led ...
09.01.2021 Power: How you get it, how it can change you, with Dacher Keltner, PhD What is power? Why do people seek it and how do they get it? Is it human nature to abuse power? And how might power – or powerlessness – affect our health and wellbeing? Dacher Keltner, PhD, psychology professor at ...
08.25.2021 Sport psychology, peak performance and athletes’ mental health, with Jamie Shapiro, PhD The mental health of athletes has been in the news a lot recently, thanks to Olympians Naomi Osaka and Simone Biles. The attention may be new, but sport psychology is not. How do sport psychologists work with athletes? How might ...
08.18.2021 Creativity, insight and “eureka moments,” with John Kounios, PhD “Eureka moments” have led to some of humanity’s greatest achievements. But they’re not always that dramatic. John Kounios, PhD, a professor of psychology at Drexel University, discusses how does this type of creative insight differs from more analytical thinking, where ...
08.11.2021 The psychology of superstition, with Stuart Vyse, PhD Just in time for Friday the 13th, we discuss the psychology of superstition with Stuart Vyse, PhD, author of the book “Believing in Magic: The Psychology of Superstition.” Vyse discusses the origins of some popular superstitions, the psychological purposes superstition ...
08.04.2021 Encore: How children’s amazing brains shaped humanity, with Alison Gopnik, PhD Speaking of Psychology is taking a one-week summer break, so we’re revisiting one of our favorite episodes from the past year. In which we talked to University of California, Berkeley psychologist Alison Gopnik about how children’s brains are optimized to ...
07.28.2021 Why we’re burned out and what to do about it, with Christina Maslach, PhD The word “burnout” has become ubiquitous -- it seems to sum up the stress, exhaustion and disaffection that many of us are feeling this year. But are workers really more burned out than ever? What does the term burnout actually ...
07.21.2021 Tasty words, colorful sounds: How people with synesthesia experience the world, with Julia Simner, PhD More than 4% of people have some form of synesthesia, a neurological condition that causes senses to link and merge. People with synesthesia may taste words, hear colors, or see calendar dates arrayed in physical space. Dr. Julia Simner, University ...
07.14.2021 Can a personality test determine if you’re a good fit for a job? With Fred Oswald, PhD These days, many companies use assessments such as personality tests as part of the hiring process or in career development programs. Fred Oswald, PhD, director of the Organization and Workforce Laboratory at Rice University, discusses why companies use these tests, ...
07.07.2021 How to overcome feeling like an impostor, with Lisa Orbé-Austin, PhD, and Kevin Cokley, PhD Do you ever feel like a phony? Like you’re not really qualified for the job you’re doing, despite your achievements? Those are signs of the impostor phenomenon, also called impostor syndrome. Dr. Lisa Orbé-Austin and Dr. Kevin Cokley discuss where ...
06.30.2021 Back to the office? The future of remote and hybrid work, with Tsedal Neeley, PhD Many Americans are headed back to the office this summer, but fault lines are emerging between some companies’ expectations for in-person work and their employees’ desire to continue working remotely. Tsedal Neeley, PhD, a professor at Harvard Business School, discusses ...
06.23.2021 The history of LGBTQ psychology from Stonewall to now, with Peter Hegarty, PhD Over the past decades, the focus of LGBTQ activism has shifted and evolved, from the AIDS crisis in the 1980s to the fight for marriage equality to the focus on transgender rights today. Peter Hegarty, PhD, discusses how research has ...
06.16.2021 How ‘open science’ is changing psychological research, with Brian Nosek, PhD Is psychology research in a crisis or a renaissance? Over the past decade, scientists have realized that many published research results, including some classic findings in psychology, don’t always hold up to repeat trials. Brian Nosek, PhD, of the Center ...
06.09.2021 What do we know about preventing gun violence? With Susan Sorenson, PhD Guns killed nearly 44,000 Americans in 2020, a higher number than in any other year in the past two decades. Meanwhile, a mass shootings in the spring brought gun violence to the forefront of the national conversation. Susan Sorenson, PhD, ...
06.02.2021 COVID 19, Insomnia, and the Importance of Sleep, with Jennifer Martin, PhD Is your sleep schedule a mess? The stress and disrupted routines of the past year have taken a toll on our sleep. Jennifer Martin, PhD, a professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and spokesperson for the ...
05.26.2021 The future of policing one year after George Floyd's death, with Cedric Alexander, PsyD One year ago this week, George Floyd was murdered on camera by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. To mark the anniversary of Floyd’s death, we talked to Cedric Alexander, PsyD, a clinical psychologist and former police chief, about community policing, ...
05.19.2021 Technology is changing how we talk to each other, with Jeff Hancock, PhD This past year, technology has sometimes felt like the glue that’s kept many of our relationships alive. Jeff Hancock, PhD, discusses how this is affecting human communication, including whether people are more likely to lie online, whether the versions of ...
05.12.2021 Can a “growth mindset” help students achieve their potential? With David Yeager, PhD Research on the power of growth mindset has made the leap from the lab to popular culture. Growth mindset is the belief that a person’s intelligence and abilities can grow with practice, and researchers have found that growth mindset exercises ...
05.05.2021 What is it like to remember every day of your life? With Michael Yassa, PhD, and Markie Pasternak For people with Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory every day is memorable. Markie Pasternak, one of the youngest people identified with HSAM, and Michael Yassa, PhD, talk about what it’s like to have this ability, what we know about how the ...
04.28.2021 Your Brain Is Not What You Think It Is, with Lisa Feldman Barrett, PhD What if the way you think about your brain and how and why it functions is just plain wrong? Lisa Feldman Barrett, PhD, author of the book “7 ½ Lessons About the Brain,” discusses myths about the brain and her ...
04.21.2021 How to cope with climate anxiety, with Thomas Doherty, PsyD, and Ashlee Cunsolo, PhD Climate change has moved from an abstract idea to reality in many Americans’ lives. An American Psychological Association survey found that two-thirds of American adults said that they felt at least a little “eco-anxiety,” defined as anxiety or worry about ...
04.14.2021 Why you should talk to strangers, with Gillian Sandstrom, PhD, and Jon Levy What have we been missing out on this past year as COVID-19 has restricted social interactions? And how can we become better at talking to strangers? We discuss these questions with Gillian Sandstrom, PhD, who studies what she calls “minimal ...
04.07.2021 Suicide Prevention, with Jill Harkavy-Friedman, PhD It’s too soon to know what effect the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the suicide rate in the US, but before the pandemic, that rate had been increasing, particularly among young people. Dr. Jill Harkavy-Friedman, PhD, from the American Foundation ...
03.31.2021 What Makes Things Funny? With Peter McGraw, PhD What is it about puns that tickles our funny bone? Or dad jokes? How about a person slipping on a banana peel? What could possibly tie all these very different things together under the heading “humor”? Just in time for ...
03.24.2021 How the threat of disease has shaped human behavior, with Mark Schaller, PhD COVID-19 is a grim reminder that diseases have been a danger throughout human history. Disgust, wariness of strangers, norms around food and cleanliness may have evolved to keep us safe from disease. Researchers call these protective measures the behavioral immune ...
03.17.2021 What COVID-19 is teaching us about the importance of smell, with Pamela Dalton, PhD Many people have lost their sense of smell due to COVID-19. Before the pandemic, scientists had already begun to gain a deeper understanding of how sophisticated our sense of smell is and how it is intertwined with our mental and ...
03.10.2021 How We’re Coping One Year into the Pandemic, with Vaile Wright, PhD When the world shut down in March, few people imagined how different things would still be one year later. APA’s Stress in America survey has been tracking the mental health toll as Americans have dealt with lost jobs, shuttered schools, ...
03.03.2021 How meditation can help you live a flourishing life, with Richard Davidson, PhD Meditation practices date back thousands of years and are a part of nearly every major religion. But it’s only in the past couple of decades that researchers have begun to use the tools of modern science to explore what is ...
02.24.2021 What studying twins can teach us about ourselves, with Nancy Segal, PhD From movie plots to viral videos, if they feature twins, they grab our attention. But it’s not only the public who are fascinated with twins. Over many decades, twins have garnered attention from psychologists and other researchers because of what ...
02.17.2021 How children's amazing brains shaped humanity, with Alison Gopnik, PhD Why do we have such a long childhood? What’s in it for us as a species? According to Alison Gopnik, PhD, the answer is that kids are the "R&D division of humanity." Gopnik discusses her research and its implications for ...
02.10.2021 The science of relationships, with Gary Lewandowski, PhD For psychologists, romance, attraction and love are not just the stuff of poetry – they’re also a subject for research. What are the qualities of a successful relationship? Why do some relationships endure while others fail? What do we gain ...
02.03.2021 Can “brain training” games sharpen your mental skills? With Aaron Seitz, PhD Who among us wouldn’t want to improve his or her brain? To see better, to hear better or to improve one's memory? The field of brain training has attracted controversy as commercial companies have heavily marketed brain training products that ...
01.27.2021 What is it like to be face blind? With Joe DeGutis, PhD, and Sadie Dingfelder After a lifetime of thinking that she was just a little bit bad at remembering people, Sadie Dingfelder learned she had prosopagnosia, a disorder more colloquially known as face blindness. Harvard psychologist Joe DeGutis, PhD, who runs the research study ...
01.20.2021 Positive Psychology in a Pandemic, with Martin Seligman, PhD Over the past 20 years, the field of positive psychology has grown from a fledgling idea to a worldwide movement. Positive psychology is the study of the strengths that enable individuals and communities to thrive. Martin Seligman, PhD, a professor ...
01.13.2021 Why people believe in conspiracy theories, with Karen Douglas, PhD This past year, COVID-19 and the U.S. elections have provided fertile ground for conspiracy theories—with sometimes disastrous consequences. Karen Douglas, PhD, of the University of Kent in the United Kingdom, discusses psychological research on how conspiracy theories start, why they ...
01.06.2021 How the Science of Habits Can Help Us Keep Our New Year’s Resolutions, with Wendy Wood, PhD Many of us are brimming with good intentions, determined to eat more healthily, get organized or fulfill our other New Year’s resolutions. But by February we’ll have reverted back to our old ways. Why is it so difficult to make ...
12.30.2020 Encore: Why boredom is surprisingly interesting, with Erin Westgate, PhD We’re taking a holiday break, so we’re revisiting one of our favorite episodes from this past year. Back in the spring we talked to University of Florida psychologist Erin Westgate about the surprisingly fascinating topic of boredom. What is boredom? ...

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