Episode 9: How Do You Really Raise Self-Esteem?
How do you really raise self esteem? This week we take a look at all the talk about young people, narcissism and the self esteem movement. Then we answer the question: how do you raise self esteem?
Episode 8: Cognitive Dissonance Theory: Why Contradictions Bother Us So Much
Every since Leon Festinger gave us the term cognitive dissonance, we’ve been asking questions about contradictions in human behavior. For example, can you be pro choice and against the death penalty, or vice versa?
Episode 7: Blaming the Victim and other Attribution Biases
Blaming the victim – why do we do it? Are rape victims responsible for what happens to them? Are victims of car crashes or other accidents responsible for what happened to them?
Episode 6: The Negative Side of Positive Thinking
What could possibly be wrong with thinking positively? As it turns out, there could be a lot wrong with it. Consider this: have you ever felt badly because you haven’t been thinking positively lately? There’s almost a certain amount of guilt to it. Join me in this episode of The Psych Files where we look […]
Episode 6: The Negative Side of Positive Thinking
Most of us believe that we should “think positively”, but there is a negative side to doing so. In this episode of The Psych Files we find out what that dark side is.
Episode #5: In Defense of Defense Mechanisms
Too many people dismiss Freud because he had a few controversial ideas, but as I try to point out in this podcast, many of Freud’s ideas were very influential and can, with a little attention, be seen in everyday life.
Episode #4: On Birds Flocking and Opposites Attracting: the data on Love
Do Birds of a Feather Flock together or do Opposites Attract? Find out which proverb is correct in this episode.
Episode 2: Rewards and Punishments
Do you believe in spanking children to get to them to behave? There is a lot of controversy, discussion and research on this topic. The research points to one strong conclusion: spanking does NOT work. In this episode I discuss the various kinds of rewards and punishments we use to modify our children’s behavior. I […]
Episode 3: Predictions, Predictions
Have you ever heard of someone who says they can predict the future? Perhaps you’ve seen magazine articles in which someone claims to have predicted some famous event. The so-called Mayan calendar predicted the ed of the world in 2012, and Nostradamus comes to mind as someone who made a lot of predictions. What makes […]
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This site supports ThePsychFiles podcast. The site is not course, instructor, or textbook specific. The information contained here and in the podcasts is intended to be of interest to anyone who is either a psychology major in college or to those who are interested in how psychological theories apply to everyday life.