The exploring psychology blog is the place where I highlight and explore the most fascinating and compelling psychology related news and research.
Whether you are new to psychology, currently studying or thinking about studying psychology, or consider yourself an expert in the field, I very much hope that you find the material featured on the exploring psychology blog interesting.
For over a hundred years the Gifford Lecture series has been one of the foremost academic forums dealing with religion, science and philosophy. In 2009 Neuroscientist and professor of psychology Michael Gazzaniga delivered 6 lectures under the series title: The Science of Mind Constraining Matter.
Lecture 1: What We Are?
Lecture 2: The Distributed Cerebral Networks of Mind.
Lecture 3: The Brain Divided: Discovering The "Interpreter."
Lecture 4: The Meaning of Being Free.
Lecture 5: The Social Brain.
Lecture 6: We Are The Law.
All of these outstanding lectures are now available as a playlist on the Psychology YouTube channel. See following link.
The Psychology of Fear is the latest addition to the psychology journal article collection. An initiative by the All About Psychology website to make important, insightful and engaging publications freely available.
If you would like to read The Psychology of Fear over at the All About Psychology website, you can do so via the following link.
Based on research by Professor Paul Ekman, a psychologist at the University of California, this online experiment hosted by the BBC is designed to test whether you can spot the difference between a fake smile and a real one.
The Tenth Level is a classic 1970's made for TV movie starring William Shatner A.K.A Star Trek legend Captain James T Kirk and is based on the in(famous) "Obedience Experiments," conducted by the late Stanley Milgram at Yale University.
If you would like to watch The Tenth Level in full you can do so via a playlist on The All About Psychology YouTube channel. See following link.
Cognitive Consequences of Forced Compliance is the latest addition to the psychology journal article collection. An initiative by the All About Psychology website to make important, insightful and engaging publications freely available.
This robust theory suggests that a motivational state of inner tension is triggered by logically inconsistent ways of thinking.
Cognitive Consequences of Forced Compliance by Leon Festinger & James Carlsmith was the first of numerous studies to corroborate the theory of cognitive dissonance. The premiss for this classic piece of research was to test what happens to a person's private opinion if he is forced to do or say something contrary to that opinion.
If you would like to read Cognitive Consequences of Forced Compliance over at the All About Psychology website, you can do so via the following link.
This (just for fun) literary guide for psychologists by Milton Hodge from the University of Georgia was originally published in 1962. Hodge explained the reason for the guide, along with a call to action as follows:
Recently, while visiting another science laboratory at my institution, I was given a glossary of phrases commonly used in scientific reports. Because I am sure that all psychologists who read and write research reports are interested in maximizing "communication," I cheerfully offer an abridged guide for use with psychological literature. Perhaps other psychologists can suggest additional definitions which will increase our enlightenment.
What Was Said
It has long been known that...
What Was Meant
I haven't bothered to look up the original reference but...
What Was Said
Of great theoretical and practical importance...
What Was Meant
Interesting to me.
What Was Said
While it has not been possible to provide definite answers to these questions...
What Was Meant
The experiement didn't work out, but I figured I could at least get a publication out of it.
What Was Said
The operant conditioning technique was chosen to study the problem...
What Was Meant
The fellow in the next lab already had the equipment set up.
What Was Said
Three of the subjects were chosen for detailed study...
What Was Meant
The results on the others didn't make sense.
What Was Said
Typical results are shown...
What Was Meant
The best results are shown...
What Was Said
It is suggested...It is believed that...It may be that...
What Was Meant
I think.
What Was Said
It is generally believed that...
What Was Meant
A couple of other people think so too.
What Was Said
It is clear that much additional work will be required before a complete understanding...
What Was Meant
I don't understand it.
What Was Said
Correct within an order of magnitude...
What Was Meant
Wrong.
What Was Said
Thanks are due to Joe Glotz for assistance with the experiments and to John Doe for valuable discussion.
What Was Meant
Glotz did the work and Joe explained what it meant.
Wonder if anybody can think of some more examples to add to the list?
Conditioned Emotional Reactions is the latest addition to the psychology journal article collection. An initiative by the All About Psychology website to make important, insightful and engaging publications freely available.
In 1920 John B. Watson ("Father of Behaviorism") and Rosalie Rayner attempted to show how fear could be induced in an infant through classical conditioning.
Watson and Rayner published the results of their research in the Journal of Experimental Psychology. Entitled Conditioned Emotional Reactions their research became one of the most (in)famous psychology studies ever conducted and was soon to be known forever as "The Case of Little Albert".
If you would like to read Conditioned Emotional Reactions over at the main website, you can do so via the following link.
Towards the end of Conditioned Emotional Reactions, Watson and Rayner included the following heading and text:
"Detachment" or removal of conditioned emotional responses.
Unfortunately Albert was taken from the hospital the day the above tests were made. Hence the opportunity of building up an experimental technique by means of which we could remove the conditioned emotional responses was denied us.
The fate of little Albert had remained a mystery for almost a century. Until Now.
If you visit The Sigmund Freud page on the All About Psychology Website you will be able to access detailed information and resources relating to the man who is widely considered as one of the most influential and controversial minds of the 20th century. Information categories include:
Get To Know Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud Theories
Quality Sigmund Freud Links
Recommended Sigmund Freud Reading
In addition you will be able to access free full text copies of some of Sigmund Freud's most important publications such as The Psychopathology of Everyday Life.
The Psychopathology of Everyday Life is one of Sigmund Freud's least technical and, therefore, most accessible publications. Drawing on personal anecdotes and real life examples, Freud explores the psychological mechanisms underpinning the forgetting of names and order of words, mistakes in speech and mistakes in reading and writing etc.
Originally published in 1901, this work by Sigmund Freud was first translated into English by A.A Brill in 1914, who in his introduction provides a clear and concise account of the thinking behind the Psychopathology of Everyday Life.
"Psychoanalysis always showed that they referred to some definite problem or conflict of the person concerned. It was while tracing back the abnormal to the normal state that Professor Freud found how faint the line of demarcation was between the normal and neurotic person, and that the psychopathologic mechanisms so glaringly observed in the psychoneuroses and psychoses could usually be demonstrated in a lesser degree in normal persons. This led to a study of the faulty actions of everyday life and later to the publication of the Psychopathology of Everyday Life."
The Freudian Slip:
This was the book that gave us what we now refer to as "The Freudian slip". As Freud states in the Psychopathology of Everyday Life:
"Although the ordinary material of speech of our mother-tongue seems to be guarded against forgetting, its application, however, more often succumbs to another disturbance which is familiar to us as "slips of the tongue."
You can visit the Sigmund Freud page by clicking on the following link.
The psychotherapy article Are Psychologists Afraid of Therapy is the latest addition to the psychology journal article collection. An initiative by the All About Psychology website to make important, insightful and engaging publications freely available.
This great article was originally published in 1950 and addresses the possible reasons underpinning what the author believes to be negative feelings towards psychotherapy among the wider psychological community.
Among the possibilities raised are an overattachment to mental testing; the intangible quality of dynamic psychotherapy in comparison to research and diagnosis; the misconception that therapy and diagnostic research are dichotomous and the problem of the interprofessional relationship between psychology and medicine.
If you would like to read Are Psychologists Afraid of Therapy over at the main website, you can do so via the following link.
I've had a passionate interest in psychology for over 20 years. I began studying psychology in 1990, and I've been teaching psychology in some capacity or another since 1998.
I have a first class honors degree in psychology and a Masters in Occupational psychology from the University of Sheffield (UK). For a number of years, I was a lecturer in psychology at the University of Huddersfield (UK).
I have built four websites around my teaching and research interests.
