Speaking of Psychology

Dozens of states are poised to outlaw or dramatically restrict abortion if the Supreme Court overturns its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Antonia Biggs, PhD, a social psychologist at the University of California San Francisco, talks about the results of the Turnaway Study, which examined how receiving an abortion – or being denied one – affects mental health and well-being, the effects of laws that limit access to abortion, and what a post-Roe future might look like. Links Antonia Biggs, PhD The Turnaway Study Speaking of Psychology Home Page Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We all keep secrets – on average, people have about 13 secrets at any one time, five of which they have never told another person. Psychologist Michael Slepian, PhD, of Columbia Business School, talks about what types of secrets people keep, why keeping a secret bottled up inside can harm us, how keeping secrets -- or sharing them -- affects people’s relationships with each other, how we decide whom we can trust with our secrets, and whether other people can tell when we’re holding something back. Links Michael Slepian, PhD The Secret Life of Secrets Speaking of Psychology Homepage Sponsor Newport Healthcare Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Digital interventions that promise to help you achieve your health and fitness goals are everywhere. But do these apps work and are they a useful public health tool? Gary Bennett, PhD, director of the Duke University Global Digital Health Science Center, discusses how digital interventions can help address obesity and other public health challenges, how to find apps that are effective and backed by research, the challenge of weight stigma, and more. Links Gary Bennett, PhD Speaking of Psychology Homepage Sponsors Newport Healthcare Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The past two years have taken a heavy toll on the health, mental health and well-being of people of color, who have suffered disproportionately from the COVID-19 pandemic while also facing what some call a second pandemic of racism. Riana Elyse Anderson, PhD, a clinical psychologist and professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, discusses why racism is like a virus and what can be done to help people deal with race-based traumatic stress and to protect children against its harmful effects. Links Riana Elyse Anderson, PhD Speaking of Psychology Homepage Sponsor Newport Healthcare Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dissociative identity disorder – which many people recognize by its former name, multiple personality disorder – is one of Hollywood’s favorite psychology-related topics, with a decades-long history of movie and TV portrayals, most recently in this spring’s “Moon Knight.” But in real life, DID does not look like it does on the screen. Bethany Brand, PhD, of Towson University, discusses why it is more subtle than TV and movie portrayals would lead viewers to believe, what is happening in the brains of patients who experience it and what treatments are available. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic scrambled our social connections, Americans were worried about an epidemic of loneliness. Louise Hawkley, PhD, principal research scientist at NORC at the University of Chicago, talks about the difference between being alone and being lonely, how loneliness can harm our health, whether we really are lonelier than ever these days, and how to identify and address the root causes of loneliness. Links Louise Hawkley, PhD Speaking of Psychology Homepage Sponsor Newport Healthcare Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the past couple of decades, our devices have become our constant companions. More and more, we live in a digital, virtual world. Dr. Sherry Turkle, MIT professor and founding director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self, discusses how digital communication has affected our ability to talk to each other, how conversation itself changed in the digital age, why she thinks social media is an “anti-empathy machine” and her advice on how to reclaim space for conversation in our lives. Links Sherry Turkle, PhD Speaking of Psychology Homepage Sponsor Newport Healthcare Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Art is universal – there has never been a human society without it. But we don’t always agree on what makes for good art, or even what makes something art at all. Ellen Winner, PhD, of Boston College, talks about how psychology can help answer the question “What is art?” why even non-experts can tell the difference between a child’s painting and an abstract masterpiece, why art forgeries bother us so much, the purpose of arts education, and more. Links: Ellen Winner, PhD Speaking of Psychology Homepage Sponsor: Newport Healthcare Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Most people realize that being sedentary is bad for your physical health. But exercise – or the lack of it – can affect our cognitive health as well. Jenny Etnier, PhD, of the University of North Carolina Greensboro, discusses how exercise improves memory, the cognitive benefits of physical activity, the importance of youth sports and the downside of hyper-competitive youth sports culture. Links: Jenny Entier, PhD Speaking of Psychology Homepage Sponsor: Newport Healthcare Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, more than 4 million Ukrainians have had to flee the country as refugees, more than 6 million others have been internally displaced, and tens of millions more have lived through shelling and other traumas. Laura Murray, PhD, of the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, talks about mental health care during war and other disasters, what providers in Ukraine are experiencing on the ground, and what we know about the mental health effects of living through war. Links: Laura Murray, PhD Speaking of Psychology Homepage Sponsor: Newport Healthcare Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices