Psychology in Everyday Life: The Psych Files

Ep 246: Why Replications Sometimes Don’t Agree with the Original Study

What’s the connection between life on Mars and the need to properly replicate scientific studies? Well, replicating a study one time and not finding the results the original researchers find is NOT proof that the original study was a fraud. Let’s...

Episode 106: Your Sexual Orientation - How Did It Develop?

How did you get to be heterosexual? Homosexual? Bisexual? Was it nature or nurture (or both?). Were you born with a sexual orientation or did it develop as you grew? What role did your parents play? In this episode I present the most recent scientific...

Episode 25: The Brains Behind Erikson Part 3

We finish off this series looking at your brain as you develop by examining what is happening in your brain as you age from adolescence to older adulthood. Also: an impersonated celebrity endorsement…

Episode 24: The Brains Behind Erikson Part 2

What is happening in your brain as you progress through life? In this episode we take a look at some of the changes that occur in your brain from birth to age 12. Be sure to listen to part 3 of this series, which is episode 25.

Episode 103: Raising Children - Interview with Author Jamie Raser

Having trouble raising your children? Join the crowd. There are lots of parenting books, but here's one you should know about: "Raising Children You Can Live With" by Jamie Raser. He has an approach to parenting that is not about "picking your...

Episode 57: Expectancy Theory, Goal Setting and Getting in Shape

Confused about expectancy theory? I’ll clear things up in this episode. It can be a little complicated but I’ll use the familiar example of losing weight to nail this idea down. I’ll also talk about goal setting. What’s the psychology behind...

Episode 94: How Do You Learn to Act Like a Woman or like a Man?

How do we learn to act in what are called gender appropriate ways? How did you learn to act like a girl and then a woman? Or like a boy and then like a man? Did you experience either penis envy or womb envy? Did this happen as a result of what Freud...

Episode 107: Freud, Projective Tests and .... Poetry

How do the Rorschach, the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) and the House, Tree Person tests work? Do you reveal something about yourself when you tell stories about pictures or tell what you see in an inkblot or even when you do something as seemingly...

How To Make Learning Fun Again Part 1 – Piaget

Can we make learning as fun as it was when you were a child? We can. Listen to Dr. Eugene Geist as he explains the cognitive development theories of Jean Piaget and you'll understand why we are all geared to learn. We actively seek out learning...

Beauty and the Beast: Psychological Themes

Ep 309: College Teaching Needs To Change

College teaching needs to change. This doesn't mean using a new fad technique. It doesn't mean dumbing anything down to get "today's students". It does mean that professors need to adopt more of the approaches to teaching that Ken Bain identified in...

Episode 90: The Learning Styles Myth: An Interview with Daniel Willingham

Guess what? There's no such thing as "learning style" (the theory that each of us has a preferred way to learn new ideas. There are many supposed kinds of learning styles, such as a visual learning style, an auditory style, kinesthetic, etc.). Don't...

What Was Life Like in an Asylum?

Have you ever wondered what it was like to be a patient in an "insane asylum"? "Asylums" changed names over the years (including "State Hospital" and "Psychiatric Center") and so did the treatment of the mentally ill. Hear from Dr. Jennifer Bazar how...

Do Those i-Statements Actually Work and Did Koko the Gorilla Really Use Language as We Do?

Remember those "i-statements" you're supposed to use when you get mad at someone? "I feel ____ when you ____ because ____". Does that actually work? Does talking in this way resolve problems better and not get the other person defensive? We're going...

Erikson's Eight Stages of Life

This week on The Psych Files we take a stroll through the various phases of life: from childhood, to adolescence, into mid-life and then we listen to two interesting voices of men nearing the end of their lives. Some great examples to help you better...

Why Do Certain Songs Become Popular?

Music researchers analyzed over 700 top Billboard songs (which included examining over 80,000 chords) and they determined that the "Ob-La-Di-Ob-La-Da" is the most appealing song ever written. How in the world, you might ask, did they choose that...

Ep 269: How To Get People To Be Creative

Do "Blue Sky" brainstorming sessions actually produce anything creative? If you've ever sat around with a group of people and tried to "just come up with something creative" you probably found that it's pretty hard. We actually don't think that...

Singletary - Disillsionment Phase

Ep 336: Why is it Usually Men Who Commit Violent Acts?

Another violent act in America. Another man who committed it. Why do men in our society seem to always be the ones who carry out violent acts? Is it how we bring up boys? Or is there another influence - genes. I was lucky enough to get professor Steve...

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