Speaking of Psychology

Creating our own happiness can be stressful. But psychologist and clinician Pamela Hays, PhD, says implementing change in our lives doesn't have to be stressful. Author of the book, “Creating Well-Being: Four Steps to a Happier, Healthier Life,” Hays discusses those four steps in this episode, as well as how life’s daily demands can keep us from becoming our best selves. APA is currently seeking proposals for APA 2020, click here to learn more https://convention.apa.org/proposals Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can music make us healthier or even smarter? Can it change how we experience pain? In this episode, former rock musician and studio producer Daniel Levitin, PhD, talks about how music changes our brain’s chemistry and affects our health. APA is currently seeking proposals for APA 2020, click here to learn more https://convention.apa.org/proposals Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do you have to be intelligent to be creative? Can you learn to be more creative? In this episode, we speak with neuropsychologist Rex E. Jung, PhD, who studies intelligence, creativity and brain function. He discusses why – even if it sounds counterintuitive – intelligence and creativity may not have all that much in common. APA is currently seeking proposals for APA 2020, click here to learn more https://convention.apa.org/proposals Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the discussion over how to address climate change heats up this Earth Day, we’re taking a look at how people understand the risks of climate change and how they adapt. We talk with two psychologists in this episode about how psychological research can contribute to an understanding of global climate change. Psychology professor Janet Swim, PhD, and conservation psychologist John Fraser, PhD, discuss the psychology of communication, politics and behavior as well as how psychologists can encourage others to become more engaged in the environment. APA is currently seeking proposals for APA 2020, click here to learn more https://convention.apa.org/proposals Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Cyberheroes” are those who actively use the Internet and digital technologies to help others, animals and the environment, says psychologist Dana Klisanin, PhD. She researches how online interactions can promote compassion and altruism and is even designing a video game that could help young people tackle global challenges using their computers. In this episode, Dr. Klisanin discusses how social media and online interactions can be a force for good. APA is currently seeking proposals for APA 2020, click here to learn more https://convention.apa.org/proposals Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Norman B. Anderson, CEO of the American Psychological Association and director of the APA Center for Psychology and Health, champions integrating psychological and behavioral care into mainstream healthcare. He explores what integrated health teams look like. He discusses behaviors that drive disease, training psychologists for primary care, and the policy and financing needed to expand access.

Paul Zak, neuroscientist who studies oxytocin and moral behavior. He explains what oxytocin is and how it links to social connection. He describes experiments where oxytocin boosts trust and generosity. He covers everyday ways to raise oxytocin, how stress or psychopathy blunt its release, and even how social media can trigger it.

Sherry McKee, a behavioral pharmacology researcher and Yale psychiatry professor who studies gender differences in smoking. She discusses why women struggle more to quit, including stress, mood and menstrual factors. Talks about tailoring treatments, noradrenergic targets like guanfacine, and how nicotine reduction policies and sensory cues may affect men and women differently.

Lara Spiteri-Cornish, a marketing and advertising professor who studies how foods are marketed, warns that fortified and “functional” products can mislead health-conscious consumers. She discusses how marketers position these foods, why processed fortification is not a substitute for produce, and how diet foods and convenience culture can backfire on eating habits.

Figuring out what makes a terrorist tick is not easy, but law enforcement and counterterrorism officials have been turning to psychologists to try to do just that. Psychologist John Horgan, PhD, has spoken face-to-face with former members of violent extremist organizations in an effort to understand how and why people become involved in terrorism as well as why some eventually turn away from such extremism. APA is currently seeking proposals for APA 2020, click here to learn more https://convention.apa.org/proposals Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices