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As psychology students and professionals, we know that a lot of topics, debate and more aren’t discussed in the lecture theatre or in many textbooks. Therefore, to celebrate the release of my brand-new Clinical Psychology Reflections book containing tons of fascinating and brilliant topics to really help you deepen your knowledge of psychology beyond the lecture theatre. I wanted to share one of my favourite reflections with you from the book. It is why we need to support psychologists with lived experiences of mental health conditions. This is critical area to understand and you’ll learn a lot from this episode. Enjoy. Today’s episode has been sponsored by Clinical Psychology Reflections Volume 3. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Extract From Clinical Psychology Reflections Volume 3 By Connor Whiteley. COPYRIGHT 2023 SUPPORTING PSYCHOLOGISTS WITH LIVED EXPEREINCES Our next reflection is inspired by an article in an issue of The Psychologist by the British Psychological Society from October 2021. In this article it was written by a female psychologist that was depressed if memory serves and she mentioned a lack of support within the psychology community for her. Citing that people were even moaning at her for going to see her General Practitioner (local doctor for our international audience) first. Now I feel that this is a critical topic to reflect on because here we have a clinical psychologist that is being moaned at for doing the exact same thing that our clients have to go through. Therefore, there are three aspects I want to reflect on here. Firstly, there is immense value of having therapists and psychologists with lived experience. Since the “problem” in clinical psychology is that we can read all the books we want, go on all the courses and listen to all the different experts on the different mental health conditions. But at the end of the day, unless we have had personally experience with the condition then our knowledge is limited. It's why I have already firmly believed in something by clinical psychology lecturer once said: “You are the expert in the psychological knowledge and theory. The client is the expert in themselves,” And absolutely nothing is truer in clinical psychology for this simple reason alone. We will never fully understand our clients, their struggles and their mental health conditions unless we have had them ourselves. Of course, the vast majority of us will never have any of these conditions thankfully, but it does slightly limit our insight into these conditions. Therefore, when a psychologist or therapist comes along with lived experience then they should be supported like everyone else is in our profession. They shouldn’t be condemned or discouraged from the profession because they are the subset of therapists we definitely need. They will make some clients feel so much more relaxed not only because they will show that you can live with the mental health condition and thrive. But also you can thrive so much that you can get a brilliant highly paid and respected job. Completely helping the client combat any myths about how messed up and doomed to fail they are. Therefore, these therapists and psychologists must be appreciated for what only they can bring to the table and the profession. Just like how you are the only person who can bring your unique characteristics and talents to the profession. Moaning At Following The System To be honest, this is my true problem with this article and what this psychologist experienced. Because I cannot understand for the life of me why we are moaning at the person who is suffering and experience struggles just because they did what our other clients have to do. As well as for our international audience, in the UK because we thankfully have free healthcare, we don’t have to pay for our psychotherapy unless we go private. Therefore, if we’re experiencing a mental health difficulty, we have to go to our local medical doctor (GP), talk to them and then they refer us to mental health services. I’m not going to go into the details and the length of time this referral takes, but I cannot believe that fellow psychologists were criticising this woman because she went to speak to a medical doctor first. Let me say this, there is no other way in the UK to access psychological services. If you want public healthcare, you have to follow this procedure and route. I have not come across anything else. So why are we criticising someone for doing what anyone else has to do? It simply makes no sense. What I think is actually happening is these criticising people are taking out their frustration on a peer who is struggling with a condition. Now I fully admit I understand and support the frustration. I think it is ridiculous that clients who are not suffering from medical and biological conditions have to see a medical doctor first. I fully support the idea of clients being able to reach out to psychological services first because we understand psychological difficulties at a deep level, medical doctors do not. Just like how psychology doctors do not have a deep understanding of medical problems. However, what I will never understand is how psychologists can take out their frustration on one of their peers. That is flat out outrageous and as a profession that is something we cannot tolerate and stand for. Finally, instead we should run that frustration towards the decision-makers and policy-makers that prevent people from reaching out to mental health services themselves. Therefore, to end this reflection, we must remember that as frustrating as the current system is, it is our job to always support out colleagues if they are struggling and they follow the current system. Because they most probably are not the person running the current system, they are a person struggling who needs psychological help, and if you really want to look at it from the system perspective. Our colleague is a victim of the current system, and we should never ever blame the victim. I really hope you enjoyed today’s clinical psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Today’s episode has been sponsored by Clinical Psychology Reflections Volume 3. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Patreon for exclusive access and rewards Have a great day. Clinical Psychology Reference Whiteley, C. (2023) Clinical Psychology Reflections Volume 3. CGD Publishing I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley for a one-time bit of support. Click www.paypal.me/connorwhiteley1 to go to PayPal.

All of us are on our own psychology journeys and all of them are very different. In this psychology podcast episode, we explore my own psychology journey in the past, how it’s impacted me now and what my hopes for the futures are. If you want to understand more about me, the life of a psychology student and how psychology works, you’ll enjoy this podcast episode for sure. Today’s episode has been sponsored by my Direct Store at https://www.payhip.com/connorwhiteley and buying directly from authors just helps to support them better because they get more of the money instead of the larger retailers taking a large cut away from authors. Hope. Wonder. Passion. My Psychology Journey. My Psychology Journey Before University So, it might come as a surprise for you to know that I did not want to do psychology before I went to university. Well, to be honest, I never intended to do psychology. I never wanted to. I didn't think there was a job at the end of it and I thought psychology was profiling, which now looking back absolutely horrifies me. But again though, this is why in my Criminal Profiling book, I do actually focus on that aspect a little bit because everyone does think psychology is profiling and all of that absolute rubbish. So, it's something that we need to be kind of ourselves on because even though that's such a myth, it's okay to believe in myths as long as we find the truth later on and as long as we realize that they are myths. My psychology journey actually started in sixth form, which in the UK is the 16 to 18 year old education system. And normally, you would go to a sixth form or college. So, college to oversimplify it, is where you do more vocational courses but sixth form is where you typically do A levels, which are the more academic subjects. But in the UK, increasingly, the International Baccalaureate, it has become really popular. So, what I did at my school was the International Baccalaureate careers-related program, which meant I had to do two IB subjects and two BTEC. So two vocational subjects. And this was actually really interesting. I did geography and psychology for my IB subjects. And then I did travel and tourism, and business studies for my BTEC. All of them absolutely great courses and I loved them all. However, the problem with chemistry that I found was that yes, I was getting the grades. Yes, I could get the grades if I revised, but I didn't feel like I was understanding it. It just didn't really mesh for me with the topic. And it was all really quite advanced stuff, which I didn't have a problem with. My grades didn't have a problem with it, but I just wanted something that I feel like I understood intrinsically and that I was really good at. At the time my form tutor and a bunch of my friends that were in the psychology classroom. Some of my friends are learning about psychology and they were talking about it. My form tutor, Mrs. Shepley, absolutely wonderful woman, who I owe so much to, she was the psychology teacher. So, the next day I asked her, "Could I join psychology?" She said yes. She was really pleased that I was considering it and she had absolutely no problem with it. The next day, I spoke to the chemistry teacher, she was fine about me dropping out, not in the horrible sense because she realized that it's not for everyone. And even she realized this is really quite advanced stuff. It's more advanced than the A level was at the time. And even she was having to think about, right, how do I break this down so those 16, 17-year-olds understand this. So it was tough and even she acknowledged that. So, then I started psychology three months after everyone else. But the good thing about that was that at least according to other people, I was understanding it more. I was asking more questions and I was basically really adding it to the classroom because for the past three months, it had been sort of dead, really difficult. It wasn't easy to understand for a lot of other people. But I sort of came in and "I lightened things up," apparently, which was always like quite nice to hear. Then what's happened was that over the Christmas break and I had to catch up on biological psychology, they had already covered it and that kicked off my psychology journey. And I honestly think it was one of the best decisions of my life. Well, in fact, I know it is the best decision of my life to change from chemistry to psychology. Because psychology is how I met all of you wonderful people. And it gave me a lot of hope, passion, and opportunity. Applying For University Psychology Degree One of the things I absolutely love about psychology is that you cannot get a job in it unless you have a degree and a master's degree at the bare minimum. That was my selling point because I know I'm gonna sound harsh, I know I'm gonna sound horrible, but I think that there are so many degrees that you can go to university and do, and yes it gives you a degree qualification and it gives you tons of transferable skills which are brilliant, absolutely brilliant, but there isn't a job at the end of it. Or to be honest, it doesn't give you anything unique. Personally, I think psychology does give you that uniqueness because if you go for a job, you are only competing against other graduates, which is brilliant and it's always nice. It doesn't mean getting the job's gonna be any easier but at least it's a little easier compared to if you were going to an office job, for example. So, I knew I had to go to university and this is what makes it even funnier. So, in the UK when it comes to UCAS, which is the application system, you are allowed to take five options. So, you are allowed to apply for five different universities. I'm gonna tell you what my choices were and why and what my original plan was. I applied for the University of Kent, so my current university, as a backup choice, I had no intention of going there. Canterbury Christchurch. Again, I had no intention of going there for reasons I can't say on this podcast, a little touch of defamation. I wanted to go to University College of London, which is a really top-level university. I wanted to go to University of Bath and the University of Oxford. Now, the University of Oxford was not my idea. I had looked at that before and I'm thinking no, this course didn't sound right for me. But then my psychology teacher said, "I think you could get into Oxford, I believe in you." So, I said, "All right, fine then." So, I did all of my university applications late September, early October because when you applied to Oxford, Cambridge and medicine schools in the UK, they've got a very early deadline because there's so much to it. So, I applied. I did the Oxford entry exam. I didn't get quite what I was meant to do but I wasn't that far off. And to be honest, since I think that's the best decision I've ever made and I've never been so grateful to fail, I say, you know, in a air quotes in my life because I've heard so much stuff about Oxford because of one of my old friends, she actually went to Oxford. And she was from a middle-class background like me. And our parents don't teach us which wine goes with a particular fish and we don't want to write essays every single week and defend it like a dissertation for a PhD. And it's like, I'm so glad I don't have that life, like the Oxford life. Yes, it would've been great in some respects but it would've been a lot harder. And that's even more important for something coming later on. University of Bath, always love that, it's a beautiful campus. And if you ever are in Bath, just go and see the university. It's brilliant and and Bath is a wonderful city. University College London. This university might sound great but it's a city university. And the reason why I'm talking about this is that if there's any university psychology students here thinking about going to university, you've got to go to different campuses. You've got to go to different universities so you can see what is right for you. UCL, University College London is a city university. That was not right for me especially because let's just say their accommodation is questionable, their accommodation is small. And that's all I'm gonna say because I'm pretty much pushing the boat out on how much negativity I can say on this podcast. Yeah, University College London, I was really glad I didn't go there. And then at Christchurch, no joke, they accept everyone. So, I got an offer within a few days. University of Kent took a bit longer but I got there. My original plan, I think, but I'm really not sure because it's been four years, was to go to UCL in London for my undergraduate, and then I go to university of Bath for my masters. And then I think go somewhere else for my PhD. But of course back then, I didn't know that to become a clinical psychologist you don't need a PhD and in fact you shouldn't get one to some extent. But I talk about that in different places. So, that's my original plan. Thankfully, I actually ended up going to University of Kent. Best decision of my life. My First Year At University I think whenever we go to university, whenever we decide to make this massive change in our lives, this is always a scary time and it's always quite nerve-wracking. We are just filled with self-doubt and we basically don't know where we stand in the world. So, University of Kent from my house, on a good day and committing to the 70 miles per hour speed limit, I can get there in about 40 minutes. So, that's the sort of distance, it's about 35 miles away. So, what that means is that it wasn't too far away from home. It was far enough away that I got to live down there in Halls for first year. And that was an interesting experience. But it meant in my second and third year, I could commute very easily. My first year at university. I can't really remember it because it was four years ago and lots of stuff happened. But I remember when I first got to university, I had a great habit of just wanting to get away from there because even though I've been away from my parents before, I've been on scouting trips that have lasted a week. I've been to Sweden, Malta, I've given speeches and stuff like that to different people abroad. But university just seemed a bit different. Because I remember my parents leaving my dorm, well my dorm, we're not in America, sorry Americans, in my flat, my university accommodation. And when that happened with that I felt really sad. At University, it's always that sort of awkward first few days because people are still moving in. You don't know who your flatmates are, so you really are quite unsure. So, the next day, or to be honest I should probably say that, what would you do the next day? Normal people might want to have a walk around campus, meet people, see who else has moved in. I decided to do a 19 mile walk to Whitstable and back. So, basically I walked nine miles there. Good few miles through the sea front and then the nine miles back. The back of my knees were hurting the next day and for a few days after. And I realized, oh I think you might be trying to escape university. Thankfully, that didn't stay with me for very long because at my university accommodation, I met great people, made great friends. And the only problem I've ever had with university accommodation, please bear in mind that mine was en suite, it was self-located, quite nice accommodation, was that people were loud. And I mean like there were some nights I didn't go to sleep before 2:00 a.m because people were just so noisy. People were coming back from clubs and stuff like that. People were running up and down through corridors, but besides from that it was great. And you do meet some wonderful nationalities like French and Italian, like they were my two like good friends during like my first year. And even now I do keep in good contact with them. That's always nice. In terms of psychology itself, well, I thought I'd made a massive mistake for the first few weeks. I was honestly scared that I'd ruined my life or made a big mistake because the problem with the first year at university, even though everyone listening to this probably knows this, is that it's a step down. So, they really sort of dumb it down because there were tons of people on the course who have never done psychology before. It's always about bringing everyone to the same level. The first few weeks, and I found this in my second year and my final year, it does make you question because they're all introductory stuff. There's stuff that you already know and you are sort of thinking, oh my god, is this what it's gonna be like for the whole year? If not, what have I done with my life? I'm stuck here now. Well you're actually not stuck there at all. After the first few weeks, it really got sorted. We started to move on to more interesting, more advanced stuff that I didn't necessarily know. And it was just all about filling gaps in everyone's knowledge. And there's some great lecturers at the University of Kent, so I did enjoy it. But my problem has always been group projects. When it comes to group projects, I'm very independent. I like to get stuff done and I have a fear of group projects because there were some people on any course at whatever university, whatever stage of life you're in that don't wanna put the work in. They seriously don't. So, it is sort of down to you. I have a massive fear of group projects. And my first group project at university confirmed this fear innately. It really did hammer home how much this fear was and it was really founded. I was really stressed. I was feeling really down and I think towards the end of the first term because of this group project. Yeah. It was always a bit harsh. I did beat myself up a bit and I did worry about it quite a lot, which turns out that it wasn't the case or I didn't need to be because we did get a good like, grade on it. But I still have a massive fear of group projects and I've always hated them. And then the only other interesting thing for my first year, and this sort of feeding into my second year mainly, was that in March, 2020, that was my first year. That was the end of the spring term. That was when COVID struck and that's when the world changed. The Second Year Of The University And My Psychology Journey As you can imagine, at the end of the first year, the early exams were online, they were just thrown up and they were very tense. It was a very tense time and I feel so sorry for the second years and the final year students. So, then what happened was my second year, and as you can imagine this was very much all online. It was a tense time because of the world we were locked down. And yeah, it just wasn't a pretty time of life. Thankfully, that didn't really matter with me in my university experience. Of course, we still couldn't do much. And looking back, I realized that, yeah, we did miss out on a lot because it's why this year I'm actually really glad I have been down on campus even though I've not really done any societies and stuff. I did miss out on quite a lot during my second year. But equally, I'm sort of glad COVID did happen in that sense because it really did divide up the time between my first and my second year and my placement year and my final year. Because to be honest, they're really important distinctions in my academic life. And because there's nothing really interesting that happened in my second year, I do wanna just gloss over something quickly. My academic writing was appalling. I could not write academically to save my life. And I think that the problem with the university as a whole is that they do expect you to be able to write academically. They just expect you to know exactly what you are meant to do. And I find some university advice is so misleading. So, I don't know if you've actually got this in your countries, but in the UK we are sort of given the PEEL structure when it comes to writing essay paragraphs. So that's point, evidence, explain, link back to the question. I don't think that works for university essays because I followed it, I followed it down to the letter and I was only getting 50s in my first and my second year when it came to essays. And I was getting worse and worse and worse when it came to essays But in my placement year, which I'll talk more about in a moment, I changed my structure. I learned how to write a good academic argument like a professional paper, and then that helped me to get the firsts that I'm thankfully getting now and touch wood still will be because I've still got quite a few assignments not back yet. I am sort of pushing the boat out on that comment. I really hope it doesn't bite to me in the backside now. So, academic writing is hard. It's really, really hard I found. So, that was a massive struggle for me. I basically thought at the end of my second year that I was going to fail university and my psychology journey was over. My Placement Year And How This Impacted My Psychology Journey I fully admit, this next section of the podcast is definitely gonna be very glossed over simply because I've got an entire book coming out in the end of the year called "A Year in Psychology" that actually talks about this in a lot more depth because it talks about everything I did in my placement year, why I did it, why I thought I really needed it and why I would honestly recommend it to anyone in the world. It is amazing. My placement year. Because it was still sort of COVID, sort of wasn't, it was in that sort of weird getting back to normal time. Oh, yeah, plus I think there was even a lockdown during my placement year. Yes, I think there was a one-month lockdown in November, December on that year. COVID, it was such a messy time. I lose track of it half the time. What happened was that it was a remote placement at my home but it was also at the university and I was doing like literature reviews and other stuff. So if you are interested in that, I've spoke about it on the podcast before in the personal update section. But the reason why I'm talking about this is because this really did impact my psychology journey. If this placement year didn't happen, my psychology journey would be completely different. It would've failed. It would've been awful because my placement year gave me back my hope and it gave me back my passion for this subject. Because not only because of the topics we were looking at, but also because it taught me how to write academically, which no one else does. People that I was working with, they were really supportive and stuff. And also they never judged me which is always nice. And they realized I could write academically quite well but they just needed to give me a few tips. And it was from reading these literature reviews and reading these academic papers, that I realized how you are actually meant to write academically. And it's like good that I now know how to do it. Because universities they just don't tell you how to do that stuff. So, it's really good that I was able to up my skills and basically this placement year, it saved me. It saved my grades. So, this year I'm doing so much better than I ever could have done if I never did this placement year. And also the reason why I talk about opportunities quite a lot in this podcast and when it comes to placement, is because if you do a placement year, and you actually meet a great supervisor, especially at university, then it can open so many doors for you. For example, if I didn't do that placement year, I never would've been on the final year project that I'm on. I never would've met all my friends. I never would've met this great PhD student that I get on really well with. So, placement year has given me so much and it really has sort of revitalized my interest in psychology. Because even though my interest, my passion for this amazing topic never went away, I sort of thought I could never do it because my academic writing simply wasn't good enough. So, placement year, definitely, definitely do it. My Final Year This sort of last section actually looking at my psychology journey is sort of gonna be short because I've spoken about it all year basically. And there are some books coming and I have reflected on it in different places about different aspects of it. Like, I know "Clinical Psychology Reflections Volume 4," which is coming out next April, I know that covers some of my final year. I'm planning to do a third year survival guide. Yeah, like that sort of book. So, there's definitely a lot coming up which reflects on this a lot better than I can now. But your final year at university can be the most amazing time of your life. I think. You can meet great people, you can get involved in great projects and it can really make you excited about the future but also sad at the same time because sad in the sense that you just completed an amazing journey through university. And I'm honestly a shadow of my former self in the fact that I am more confident, I know how to stand my ground, I've got friends. And yeah, it's just amazing what university can do for you if you take the opportunities that come your way and if you are proactive. And this is even more true in your final year because I'm doing so many other opportunities which have deepened my learning, deepened my interest in psychology that makes me realize exactly what I want to do in the future. It's honestly great. And so many opportunities have popped up for me just because I've been willing to actually talk about them. So, there's one that I can't talk about actually because I'm not sure if it's actually gonna happen, but when it does on the podcast I will talk about it. So, I'm so excited about it. And again, it's something I would never ever thought I would do. In fact, I've been a very vocal critic of it in various places. So, that's always interesting. To be honest, sometimes I think I just shouldn't have opinions because they always come back biting me because then I end up doing them. So, that's always fun. And again, that is why I love university. It's why psychology always gives me hope, wonder and curiosity. And yes, I know I'm changing these, but to be honest, these little deviations on the original title of this podcast episode, this episode took so long to actually fix up. Take Home Messages In this penultimate section of the episode, I just wanna say that the entire point of me doing this episode isn't just so that you know what I've been through. It's that you know that in psychology, there is so many opportunities for you. And psychology it is honestly a wonderful discipline. It's a wonderful profession. It's a wonderful degree that I just love because it covers so much. Without psychology, humans are nothing. As I've said before on the podcast, from a biological standpoint, we can say smoking gives you cancer but what do you do about it? Only psychology can make someone change their mind, get a healthier habit and improve their lives. Biology can't do that. Chemistry can't do it. Physics can't do that. Psychology is in everything we do and that is why it's so important. It's arguably one of the most important disciplines in the entire world and that is why I'm so passionate about it. We can improve lives, we can help people, we can make people not want to kill themselves, well, potentially. We can do so much more than we ever thought possible and this is only because of psychology. So, this is why I love it and this is why I'm so grateful for all of you for listening to this podcast because your interest, your passion, your comments really keeps me going and keeps me wanting to learn. And thank you. I cannot thank you guys enough. So, that's the sort of the take home message. And I was actually gonna do these in separate sections, but I'm actually not going to. In terms of the future, my future is, I'm gonna be doing a clinical psychology masters in September, hopefully at the University of Kent. I'm really looking forward to it. I want to learn more about clinical psychology and it's gonna be a lot of fun. And the project that I'm gonna be working on will be a lot of fun too. Working with people on depression. Well, not actually working with depressed people, but working on the cognitive angle, even though I also talk about why that's a bad thing about why academics with no clinical psychology experience are researching mental health conditions. But again, that's something coming out like next year. So yeah. So, there's a lot going on in the future. I'm really excited about it and I do want to get a part-time job or something or a volunteering position, if I work with service users directly, in fact I've actually got to start like looking at that. In fact, my original plan was to do that in April. So, anyway, though, busy times ahead. When it comes to the future of this podcast. Well, this podcast, I love it. I just cannot give this up. I really can't because I love it so much. You guys honestly keep me learning. I see the statistics, I see the watch numbers and I look at these subscribing numbers on YouTube and I'm pleased that this is growing. And I know that the podcast has been a bit chaotic at times. For example, back in October, when I slowed down the podcast and I changed the pitch of my voice, that was weird and I'm really glad that someone told me about it. So, thank you. And then I know that I've fixed it by slowing it down slightly, but keeping my own voice basically. So, this a podcast I'm gonna keep. It will continue. I will fight to make sure it continues because I love it so much. You guys aren't just listeners to me. I will never see you guys as numbers. All of you take time out of your day. I'm busy, I know you're probably busy. So, the fact that you want to listen to me is amazing and I'm so grateful, right? You honestly don't know how much it means to me that you guys want to listen to me ramble on. Like at the moment, this is almost half an hour long as I'm recording this, even though that's gonna change when you guys hear it. There's a lot going on and I'm not gonna give up this for the world. I want to keep learning. And if I didn't have this podcast, I know my psychology learning would just be what I learned in lectures and that's not what I want because lectures, come on, they're fixed, they're a bit boring at times. I want to go beyond my lectures. I want to learn about stuff that no one in psychology really talks about. And that's the aim of this podcast. So, thank you for listening. I honestly love you all and you guys are just brilliant. So, thank you. I really hope you enjoyed today’s university psychology student life podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Today’s episode has been sponsored by my Direct Store at https://www.payhip.com/connorwhiteley and buying directly from authors just helps to support them better because they get more of the money instead of the larger retailers taking a large cut away from authors. Buy Me A Coffee Have a great day. I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley for a one-time bit of support. Click www.paypal.me/connorwhiteley1 to go to PayPal.

Whenever couples sadly experience a miscarriage, it is the traditional view in society, families and amongst friendship groups that only women grieve a miscarriage. Men aren’t affected by them at all, and because of that false belief men are left to grieve miscarriages in silence because they sometimes believe that no one cares about them, their feelings and how miscarriages impact them. In this social psychology podcast episode with a minor overlap in clinical psychology, we investigate how miscarriages impact men and their own grief process. Definitely listen to this one everyone. It is critical to understand. Today’s episode has been sponsored by Psychology of Relationships: The Social Psychology of Romantic Relationships, Friendships and More. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. How Do Men Grieve Miscarriages? I want to start off this episode by saying that miscarriages are normal and extremely awful for the people who experience them because 1 in 5 pregnancies end in a miscarriage and this does negatively impact the miscarrying woman and her own social network. As well as miscarriages do occur inside and outside a wide range of relationships, but typically they happen in heterosexual and cisgender people. Therefore, the effects of a miscarriage sends shockwaves through a social network system and relationships leading to an increased chance of the couple getting divorced (Gold et al., 2010) or breaking up. In addition, when it comes to men they often suffer from grief, anxiety and depression after a miscarriage as well as at times their mental health difficulties lasts longer than their partner’s does (Farren et al., 2021). This only makes the fact that men often feel ignored or stopped from grieving even worse and they may feel the pressure from society and their friends to be stoic, emotionless and “strong” so they don’t grieve. This only ends badly. Not only because men need to cope with their grief for the sake of their mental as well as physical health, but for the sake of the relationship and their partner’s health too. Everything interacts when it comes to mental health after all. How Metaphor Can Be Used To Help Men Grief A Miscarriage? The work of Horstman et al. (2019) was very interesting reading and they looked at the stories of 45 white, straight, married men and how miscarriage impacted them. also, what’s really interesting is that they made sense of the loss and the miscarriage by using metaphors, that’s certainly a new take on this important issue. We all know from English classes that metaphors are a set of tools we use to help us understand confusing ideas or events by linking them with a familiar idea, event or concept. Therefore, in the work of Horstman et al. what they did was get participants to use metaphors to reflect society’s very limited knowledge about how common miscarriages are and how society morphs this into a very taboo topic. Not only so that people can always believe that miscarriage is a very rare and I’ve heard conversations that blame the mother for the miscarriage, but also so the people experiencing the miscarriage cannot grieve for their loss because it is such a taboo subject. One common theme of the metaphors used was the idea a lost gift or another idea was that wonderful gift you receive and it is suddenly taken away. Some participants said this was like a present under the Christmas tree only to find it broken or missing when you opened it. or a participant described it as being given the winning lottery but you’re one number away. That would be seriously annoying. As well as that’s why metaphors are so important in human communication, because I don’t have kids and I wouldn’t have them for at least another decade ideally if I ever do. But even I can understand that feeling of a lost gift, a lost precious item and the lottery idea. I can understand all of that and it is a truly awful feeling. However, other people describe a miscarriage, as a profound emptiness that fills you right up. You feel like you have empty legs, empty chests and empty hearts because that lost baby has left such a gap or void in your world. Leaving these men feeling hopeless and listless. Finally, men can describe a miscarriage as something unexpected, devastating and sudden like a cataclysm or maybe something like a natural disaster. Leading men to feel like a miscarriage is a tragedy and the men were onlookers of this tragedy and couldn’t do anything to stop it. Like witnessing their loved one was in a car crash and they could only stand and watch the destruction and fallout happen. These metaphors were all to show that the participant was helpless as they tried to help their devastated partner through both emotional and physical pain. And this links to a point earlier about how men aren’t really helped and there is no support for them too. Social Psychology Conclusion Overall, I am telling you all this because I want us all to understand that the idea that men don’t care or grieve about miscarriages is such a myth and it has to end. I also want to highlight that yes miscarriages are a dark topic in society, this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t talk more openly about that not only so we all understand the truth about miscarriages like their likelihood. But also so that the men and women that have to go through this horrible event don’t feel isolated, pressed and abandoned because society deems this topic to taboo to actually talk about. That taboo-ness has to end outright. Connecting this to social psychology, we are a social species and our communication comes under social psychology too. Therefore, the metaphors that men use to describe and explain how it feels to have a miscarriage will hopefully provide all of you with a better understanding of what it’s like to have a romantic partner experiencing this type of loss. Then if we understand how it feels then we can better support the men and women experiencing this perhaps better inform our own private conversations and the larger, more societal discourse too. That would be nice. And maybe if you have experienced your own miscarriage then maybe this has validated you. Maybe you can finally realise that you were okay to grieve, be sad and emotional during this impossible time. I don’t know but I know there is something in the USA (and other countries probably have it too) the National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness month so get involved in that in your own way. I think in the UK a similar event is in March judging by a politician’s social media that I follow. I truly hope none of us ever have to experience a miscarriage but if you do or if someone you know experiences one. Then it is critical we all support each other and allow people to talk about it. Nothing good comes from keeping everything bottled up so please, don’t let it. I really hope you enjoyed today’s social psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Psychology of Relationships: The Social Psychology of Romantic Relationships, Friendships and More. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Buy Me A Coffee Have a great day. Clinical Psychology and Social Psychology References: Farren, J., Jalmbrant, M., Falconieri, N., Mitchell-Jones, N., Bobdiwala, S., Al-Memar, M., Tapp, S., Van Calster, B., Wynants, L., Timmerman, D., & Bourne, T. (2021). Differences in post-traumatic stress, anxiety and depression following miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy between women and their partners: multicenter prospective cohort study. Ultrasound in obstetrics & gynecology: the official journal of the International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology, 57(1), 141–148. https://doi.org/10.1002/uog.23147 Gold, K. J., Sen, A., & Hayward, R. A. (2010). Marriage and cohabitation outcomes after pregnancy loss. Pediatrics, 125(5), e1202-e1207. Horstman, H. K., Holman, A., & McBride, M. C. (2020). Men’s use of metaphors to make sense of their spouse’s miscarriage: Expanding the communicated sense-making model. Health Communication, 35(5), 538-547. I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley for a one-time bit of support. Click www.paypal.me/connorwhiteley1 to go to PayPal.

Cyberstalking is a type of stalking that occurs online and using technology, and as this is a psychology podcast, we have to question why people do this. In this useful psychology podcast episode, we investigate the gender, personality and other factors that are likely to impact cyberstalking behaviour. If you’re interested in how social psychology and clinical psychology intersects with cyberpsychology then you’re in for a treat. Today’s episode has been sponsored by Personality Psychology and Individual Differences. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Introduction To Cyberstalking One of the things that makes this issue so interesting is that everyone throws the word about like it's nothing. For example, I regularly hear people say how they “stalk” celebrities online and check in on their social media accounts once, twice or three times a day. This overuse of the term “stalking” isn’t exactly helpful because all forms of stalking can be very serious in the “right” circumstance, but is understandable. I am no different because I occasionally state I stalk celebrities and a politician or two online. Although, the form of cyberstalking that is common is the following situation. When a man or woman (or to be honest any intimate partner) are asleep and when the man had fallen asleep, the woman checks the man’s phone if they know their password or have face ID access. Then the woman starts reading their messages and checking up on their boyfriends. That is the form of cyberstalking that we’ll be focusing on in today’s episode because it’s common, and it’s been very well researched in a recent paper by Evita March et al. (2022). Since this paper gives us insight into why this happens and more. Also, I know this might not sound like cyberstalking because at least, I imagine cyberstalking involves stalking people online, possibly hacking them and harassing the stalker’s target. Therefore, I understand how in comparison to online harassment and menacing online acts, “simply” checking a partner’s phone might be seen as relatively innocent and acceptable. Especially, when we consider how this tends to involve checking in on a long-partner and investigating their commitment to the relationship, or checking out a potential short-term relationship to get information like their sexual promiscuity. Although, this matches cyberstalking behaviours in a sense because one of the aims of cyberstalking is to retain or gain a partner. As well as knowing relationship commitment and sexual promiscuity definitely helps achieve that aim. Furthermore, it’s perfectly possible that a person’s motivation to monitor their partner online is related to their personality. Since the study we’ll look at in a moment does find cyberstalking implications for the Dark Tetrad. These are the personality traits of narcissism, psychopathy, sadism and machvavellism. March et al. (2022) The main study we’ll look at in this episode was done by March and her peers because they aimed to investigate the different methods people used to monitor or cyberstalk their imitate partner and what techniques were used to get this information. These methods were gathered from long-term and short-term partners, data about personality traits as defined in the Dark Tetrad classification were collected and mating goals whether the person wanted to gain or retain a mate. All that data was collected. Moreover, the study measured cyberstalking with 21 items asking participants to rate whether or not they would engage in each type of behaviour by responding to yes or no questions, in 4 different contexts, long-term or short-term relationships and while pursuing the goal of either gaining or retaining a mate. In other words, the participants had to think about how they would behave in each of these life circumstances. For example, how they would engage in these techniques if they were in a short-term relationship compared to long-term. Then a factor analysis was run to classify the cyberstalking behaviours into three different types of cyberstalking. The researchers labelled these as duplicitous. This involved behaviours like using the location settings on a partner’s phone to see where they’ve been. Personally, I find that just creepy and flat out wrong. The second classification was invasive. For example, partners would use invasive behaviours to get information from their partner, like checking the partner’s messages and phone history. Then finally, there was passive cyberstalking behaviour involving checking the online status of a partner. In my opinion, I think whenever we casually throw around the word “cyberstalking”. We definitely mean passive cyberstalking because scrolling through our favourite person’s social media account is very passive, and maybe we like or comment on a few things. What Were The Results Of March Et Al. (2022)? The findings of the study show that thankfully both men and women were more likely to passively cyberstalk their partner compared to using invasive or duplicitous methods. This makes sense because most people just want to see what their partner is up to online and whilst I suppose there is an argument that duplicitous methods of cyberstalking, like using the location app to monitor your partner’s movements, might be more beneficial. Since this allows you to get higher quality information, it is probably outside a lot of people’s comfort zones because I’m fairly sure that’s illegal. Interestingly, the results show that women cyberstalk a lot more than men do. Due to women are a lot more likely to use invasive and passive forms of cyberstalking than men. As well as women engage more in invasive cyberstalking to retain a long-term partner and they use invasive cyberstalking to gain a short-term partner too. And I think those results are really interesting. Especially, as whenever I think of cyberstalking I always imagine men doing and a lot of media and other representations of cyberstalking is that it is a male dominated task. Yet one possible explanation for why women cyberstalk more than men can be found in Trivers (1972) because he argued that from an evolutionary perspective it makes sense. since if women made a mistake in choosing their sexual partner then this is potentially more costly for women than men. Due to women have to invest more in parenting compared to men and domestic violence happens more than women than men. Therefore, it is arguable that cyberstalking provides women with a low-risk strategy to avoid making these errors in their partner choice. Personally, I think this is very understandable to some extent because I think in the UK and across the western world there have been a lot of high-profile murders of women on the news. Also, whilst I know that I am almost certainly tapping into media bias and the availability bias here, the research does show that women are more likely to get abused, assaulted and murdered by male partners so it makes sense that partner choice is more costly to women than men. I can understand why cyberstalking is a strategy to help women get information but I still think there are some ethical and possibly legal questions about this strategy. Moreover, something interesting that March and her peers did note was that it is strange that women reported using invasive cyberstalking to get a short-term partner. This is weird because invasive forms of cyberstalking offer require greater knowledge of a partner than would normally be available in a short-term relationship. For instance, in my mind, if I’m in a short-term relationship with a guy then I’m hardly going to give him access to my phone. That makes no sense to me, so that finding is a little strange. How Cyberstalking Links To Personality Psychology? To wrap up the results of the study, the research did find that personality impacts cyberstalking because people higher in sadism, narcissism, psychopathy and Machvavellism were related to higher levels of intimate partner cyberstalking. Although, when each form of cyberstalking was examined more closely, it was only psychopathy that related to duplicitous, invasive and passive forms of cyberstalking. As well as machvavellism was associated with passive and invasive cyberstalking but not duplicitous. Also, sadism, Machvavellism and narcissism didn’t impact invasive cyberstalking too. Cyberpsychology and Personality Psychology Conclusion To wrap up today’s episode, cyberstalking can be a very serious crime and problem for people who are harassed and menaced online. And whilst March et al. (2022) only looked at intimate partner cyberstalking, this is still an important area to learn about because I’m sure there’s some research out there on the possibly darker implications of cyberstalking in relationships. Or maybe that really is just for Hollywood and entertainment. As you’re seen in this episode, gender and personality traits play a large role in cyberstalking and this study and others do raise massive questions about cyberstalking and whether it is good or not. So please let me know your thoughts. Is the fact that errors in partner choice are more costly to women than men enough to justify cyberstalking? I really hope you enjoyed today’s clinical psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Personality Psychology and Individual Differences. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Buy Me A Coffee Have a great day. Cyberpsychology and Personality Psychology References March E, Szymczak P. Di Rago, M, Jonason, P. K. (2022). ‘Passive, invasive, and duplicitous: Three forms of intimate partner cyberstalking’ Personality and Individual Differences, 189. Trivers, R. L. (1972). ‘Parental investment and sexual selection.’ In B. Campbell (Ed.), Sexual selection and the descent of man (pp. 1871–1971). Aldine. I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley for a one-time bit of support. Click www.paypal.me/connorwhiteley1 to go to PayPal.

When it comes to sex and intimacy, a lot of people approach these topics with ease, excitement and desire for deep, meaningful connections. To neurotypical people these topics are hardly given a second thought, but for autistic people, sex and intimacy can be difficult. No mental health professional talks about these topics leaving autistic people in the dark about sex and intimacy, two things they desire and want to experience. In today’s clinical psychology podcast episode, we aim to explore this topic and provide neurotypicals and autistic people alike with the information they need. If you enjoy mental health, autism and social psychology, you’ll love today’s podcast episode. Today’s episode has been sponsored by Developmental Psychology: A Guide To Developmental And Child Psychology. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. What Needs To Be Said About Autism, Intimacy and Sex? I know when I started to research autism and want to explore this topic in great depth towards the end of my 6th form years (around 18 years old), I came across the weird myth within academic research that autistic people have no sense of self and they didn’t have a sexuality at all. I’m really glad academia has realised this is a myth now, but a lot of professionals still don’t realise that sexuality and intimate relationships within autistic people aren’t subjects commonly discussed. And this is a great shame I think because there are tons of autistic people that do want to have sex, be in deep and meaningful relationships, autism can make these topics difficult. Especially when research like Dattaro (2020) shows that many people on the autistic spectrum don’t identify with heteronormative and traditional values when it comes to sexual and intimate relationships. Yet there is a massive lack of academic research on these subjects and this academic research if it was available. Then this would be very helpful in supporting autistic people having the healthy as well as meaningful relationships that they carve. For example, I’ve known tons of autistic people in my life and only a handful of them would never ever want a sexual relationship with anyone. Yet my old best friend, he had plenty of great, loving and caring relationships with girlfriends and he was autistic. So it is clear that some autistic people do want sexual and intimate relationships and others do not. Um, is it me or does that sound like neurotypical people too? So why might this lack of research exist? Personally, I believe it centres around prejudice, stigma and discrimination against autistic people and the beliefs people have about them. I know talking to other students and professionals that they’re surprised to learn that autistic people do want relationships, love and sex. These beliefs are understandable to the extent that it is known that autistic people have difficulties with touch, emotions and empathy. All three are needed for close and sexual relationships. In addition, sex and intimacy are still very taboo topics to talk about in western society and even more so for people with disabilities, be it physical, mental or neurological. Therefore, these beliefs about sex and intimacy impact academic research, funding and basically makes no one want to research this topic. If you’re listening to this episode, like autism research and are in a position to do this. Then perhaps please consider doing this sort of research because it is so badly needed. Furthermore, whilst there are some autism advocates working on this topic like the Neurodivergent Rebel as well as Wheelchair Rapunzel and now me on this podcast. It is a massive shame that the mental health services support autistic people just aren’t doing enough to educate autistic people and others about intimacy and sex. Just because a person is autistic, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be able to enjoy intimate and sexual relationships if they want to. How Could We Educate And Support Autistic People? There are tons of different ways we could hopefully start to change this and one of the simplest ways could be starting with ourselves. The main problem with this debate is that it is the mental health services and academics that aren’t doing enough to support autistic people in this area. The solution has to start with them, so we all need to accept that relationships are not the same for everyone. And I think this is so easy to understand when you start thinking about it because successful relationships seriously are not the same for everyone. For example, it’s a joke in my family that my family’s weird because they sleep in the same bed but all their friends sleep in separate beds. Yet that clearly works for all of their relationships, and a lot of non-straight people have successful relationships too. I bet if you started looking at you and your friends and the relationships involved, you would see tons of differences. And that’s honestly part of what makes this all so fun, interesting and important to understand. Therefore, if we explicitly connect this to autism then a lot of traditional relationships, marriages and heteronormative relationships aren’t available or even desirable to autistic people. As well as whilst Joyce et al. (2021) found most autistic people are in fact interested in a relationship, few professionals seem to be openly talking about how having a neurodivergent condition will impact the likelihood of this happening. As a result, this does need to change because we do need professionals to help autistic people understand intimate relationships. This is even more important when we realise that a lot of autistic people enjoy talking about and questioning their sexuality and personal preferences. Personally, this is a great thing and to really focus on the autism aspect here, I know from personal experience that being a teenager is so, so hard for questioning your sexuality AND being autistic. It’s hard, because you truly don’t know where you stand and the world is already chaotic and bad enough if you live in a world that doesn’t accept or want to help your autism. So throwing questioning sexuality into the mix is a nightmare, a beautiful nightmare, but one just the same. That’s why it’s so important for therapists to be open to talking about this. Additionally, it’s important that people understand that what might look strange to neurotypical people is actually healthy and joyous for autistic people. As well as it is these differences that should be supported and encouraged by psychological professionals, because after all it is their job to ensure their clients live happy and fulfilled lives. And I think we can all agree being in sexual and intimate relationships (if we choose to be) certainly helps that happen. Is There An Overlap Between Autistic People And The LGBT+ Community? I will admit that the book that really got me interested in autism research and similar topics when I was about 17 years old was on autism and gender identity. Whilst that is different to sexuality, I still think it was important in making me realise just how many myths there are about autism within the academic literature. As a result, there is an overlap being neurodivergent people and the LGBT+ community (I should note there is still an overlap between neurotypical people and the community). And yet, something I have a minor problem with, okay then, a massive problem with is just how little resources and books and papers are on the topic. Personally, I would have imagined there to be tons of research because if you think about the current (or past) thinking about autism, this is a “weird” finding. I can imagine some professor somewhere who’s out of touch with the world wanting to find out why autistic people would ever want to be LGBT+ considering it is apparently against societal rules and autistic people have rigid rules in their minds. And when you consider the myths surrounding LGBT+ people then this represents another conflict with perception against autistic people. I mean the myths surrounding gay sex and how every single autistic people would hate it. I just want to point out that considering a lot of research sets out to challenge myths, stereotypes and so-called common knowledge, I am surprised this stuff hasn’t been tested yet in academic settings. Going back towards more fact-based stuff, a possible reason for this lack of books and resources on the topic is because many disabled as well as neurodivergent people are infantilised and desexualised to such an extreme extent that their preferences and sexuality are often ignored and devalued. Again this comes back to the myths about autistic people not being interested in sexual relationships at all. Autism, Clinical Psychology and Social Psychology Conclusion: Overall, at the end of this podcast, we’ve covered a lot of interesting points that make us question the myths surrounding sex, intimacy and more about autistic people. I know, I truly know from personal experience that this is an impossible topic at times, but it needs to be spoken about. As Maslow said in his hierarchy of needs, intimacy is a fundamental human need and if professionals and therapists aren’t encouraging, helping and supporting autistic people to have these healthy relationships then we, as a profession, are failing people. All of us have the right to relationships, to love and sex and intimacy. Just because autistic people are technically “disabled” doesn’t mean they are the exception to this rule and as future or current therapists, it is our duty to try and help autistic people form and maintain these most critical relationships. Because what are humans without our relationships? I really hope you enjoyed today’s clinical psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Developmental Psychology: A Guide To Developmental And Child Psychology. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Buy Me A Coffee Have a great day. Autism, Clinical Psychology and Social Psychology References: Dattaro, L. (2020) Gender and sexuality in autism, explained. Spectrumnews.org Joyal, C. C., Carpentier, J., McKinnon, S., Normand, C. L., & Poulin, M. H. (2021). Sexual knowledge, desires, and experience of adolescents and young adults with an autism spectrum disorder: an exploratory study. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 12, 685256. Taylor, L. (2022) What Isn't Being Said About Autism, Intimacy, and Sex. Psychology Today. I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley for a one-time bit of support. Click www.paypal.me/connorwhiteley1 to go to PayPal.

Whenever people think about giving birth and having children, they think about a wonderfully peaceful birth that delivers a perfectly happy mother and child. Then the mother and child go on to be perfectly tender, loving and happy with the newborn and the entire birthing process is so idyllic that it is the best feeling in the world. However, this isn’t always the case and for some mothers pregnancy can be traumatic. In this clinical psychology episode, we investigate how mental health is impacted during and after pregnancy on women. If you enjoy clinical psychology, mental health and maternity care you’ll enjoy this episode. Today’s episode has been sponsored by Abnormal Psychology: The Causes And Treatments For Depression, Anxiety and More. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. What Happens When a Mother Has A Bad Birthing Experience? I think it’s a massive shame that a lot of women don’t have the traditional idyllic, joyous experience giving birth and becoming parents. Since a lot of people can feel cut off and distant from their own bodies, offspring and identities both during and after their pregnancy. And it’s important to note that this isn’t because the parents don’t care about the child and they don’t want a bond, because this can happen even when they really, really want that idyllic bond with their child. In addition, this distance that the parents feel can be increased or made worst by a range of mental health challenges that can and do change the course of lives for generations, particularly when the pregnancy wasn’t wanted in the first place. That’s something we’ll cover later in the episode. Also, this is a lot more common than people believe because Vegas-Lopez et al. (2008) found that across the globe 15% to 20% of people developed mental health conditions because of the birthing experience and their pregnancy. One example of these conditions is Postpartum Depression, and this is the most studied and common of these pregnancy-related conditions. Since nearly 1 in 6 women develop Postpartum Depression according to Wang et al. (2021) with symptoms including excessive sadness, crying, severe mood swings and unexpected changes in their sleeping, eating, lower energy and they not only withdraw from their friends and family but they struggle to bond with their child. Then to make things even worse for the mother, the depression they feel is in stark contrast to how they’re meant to feel after giving birth making them feel isolated, guilty, shameful and sad. With the external and internal stigma surrounding mental health conditions only interfering with the mother’s likelihood of seeking professional help and some studies find less than 20% of mothers actually do get help (Manso-Cordoba et al., 2020). Personally, this is why I hate stigma around mental health conditions because it is so negatively impactful and it does ruin so many lives. Since if there are less stigma then these mothers could seek professional help, get treated and then learn how to cope with their condition so they could have that idyllic bond that they want so badly. This is why it’s important to talk about these sort of mental health challenges so we can raise awareness and hopefully decrease this stigma. Moreover, a range of healthcare providers as well as researchers are continuing to learn about other mental health difficulties associated with pregnancy like the development of anxiety, OCD and posttraumatic stress disorder (Ali, 2018). For example, some pregnant women develop constant worrying, fear of uncleanliness and contamination and intrusive thoughts about aggression and harm towards the baby. We don’t understand why pregnant women get these symptoms but some people do, so we have to keep learning. As a result of these symptoms, parents can impose very strict rules and avoidance behaviours and since it’s so terrifying to talk about these thoughts about harming a child to a healthcare provider, so many parents suffer in silence and great shame. Due to if a parent does disclose these symptoms then they risk getting misdiagnosed, involuntary hospitalisation, inappropriate care and even getting separated from their families. And I don’t think there is a good way to deal with this disclosure from the point of view of a healthcare provider. Especially because I know about safeguarding procedures and this is a clear safeguarding risk so this does have to get reported. But equally we need to balance the need for child protection with what will help the mental health of the parent. They need to be treated regardless. What Happens If A Mother Doesn’t Get Professional Help? Sadly, the longer a mother goes without seeking professional help for their mental health during pregnancy and afterwards, the greater risk of the mental, financial and physical health problems getting worse. A lot worse. Since if the symptoms persist and get worse then the mother tends to withdraw more and more from their baby and toddler. So the child in turn is less likely to develop a secure attachment style so this has long term impacts for the rest of their childhood and adulthood. This is even more concerning when we consider how these people might then start to become parents themselves. In addition, if a mother doesn’t get the needed treatment, then naturally they will try to cope themselves. And as we know from clinical psychology, these strategies are always maladaptive and not helpful in the long term. Therefore, the parent would probably turn to drugs and alcohol. With the worst impacts of mothers not getting treated is that OCD is the 5th most cause of disability for women aged between 15 and 44 (Speisman et al., 2011) and suicide as well as overdoses are two most common causes of death for new mothers. That is why treatment is so critical. How Pregnancy and Postpartum Period Impact Existing Mental Health Conditions? However, pregnancy and the postpartum period afterwards aren’t only a risky time period for developing new mental health conditions because existing conditions can be made worse during this time. Since pregnancy requires mothers to make changes to their lifestyle and jobs and they might have to take certain medications. This is all before we consider the massive financial burdens that having children places on families. As well as because so many medications for mental health conditions aren’t deemed safe for babies, people are often advised to stop taking them which is good for the baby’s health during both the pregnancy and the feeding period. But what about the mother’s mental health? Therefore, the break from medication, the financial burden, the immense lifestyle changes and stress caused by a pregnancy. It’s actually amazing more people don’t have a mental health crisis during pregnancy. Personally, I can see how this would be a nightmare for any family because all these are factors are stressful, negative, awful. And I think families are heroes for having to deal with everything before you add in mental health conditions. So whilst I don’t think there is a “true” answer about how do we manage this better and better support pregnant women with mental health conditions during this time. It is still something we have to focus on. Even worse, this is all whilst mothers go through with a birth that they wanted to complete. What happens when a mother goes through a pregnancy they don’t want? What Happens When A Mother Is Forced To Complete An Unwanted Pregnancy? Very interestingly there was ground-breaking research published in the book “The Turnaway Study” in 2020 and it examined the impact of women being denied an abortion and chance to terminate their pregnancy with it looking at over 1,000 women over the years (Foster, 2020). They got very clear data and it went way beyond mental health implications. Since a woman wanting an abortion was NOT associated with negative mental health outcomes. In other words, just because a woman wanted an abortion did not mean she was “to put in coequally” not in her right mind. On the other hand, if a woman was denied an abortion then she did suffer from negative mental health outcomes. A real shocker I know. Since these women are more likely to experience anxiety, stress, physical and financial harm when compared to women who had abortions. In addition, women who were denied abortions were more likely to have life-threatening complications during the pregnancy and have more chronic health problems after birth. But of course making abortions illegal helps protect everyone. Yeah right? Furthermore, if a woman was denied an abortion then they were more likely to live in poverty, have a lower credit score and have more debt. As well as their children and the mother themselves were more likely to remain with a violent partner or have no partner or family support. And all those negative outcomes are before we consider that women who are denied abortions experience all these social, financial and physical problems resulting in negative impacts for a child’s development becoming a certainty. But of course as everyone says, abortions are flat out wrong. To me whoever says that is just flat out stupid. Pregnancy Mental Health Conclusion As we bring this clinical psychology episode to a close, let me just say that I truly hope all of you have a brilliant pregnancy if you’re a mother and if you’re a male listener, then I hope your partner is okay. Whilst the vast majority of people having a pregnancy will be okay, there are of course some people that will not be. And that’s okay. It doesn’t make them rubbish parents, bad people or evil monsters that need their child to be ripped away from them. It just means that they need help, support and love and despite nothing on the podcast ever being official advice, if you’re a mother having a hard time, please seek professional help. Pregnancy can be a magical time for everyone given the right support, guidance and most importantly, love. I really hope you enjoyed today’s forensic psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Abnormal Psychology: The Causes And Treatments For Depression, Anxiety and More. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Buy Me A Coffee Have a great day. Pregnancy Mental Health References Ali, E. (2018). Women’s experiences with postpartum anxiety disorders: a narrative literature review. International Journal of Women’s Health, 237-249. https://doi.org/10.2147/IJWH.S158621 Miller, S., Wherry, L. R., & Foster, D. G. (2020, May). What happens after an abortion denial? A review of results from the Turnaway study. In AEA Papers and Proceedings (Vol. 110, pp. 226-230). 2014 Broadway, Suite 305, Nashville, TN 37203: American Economic Association. Foster, D. G. (2020). The turnaway study: ten years, a thousand women, and the consequences of having–or being denied–an abortion. NY: Scribner. Manso-Córdoba, S., Pickering, S., Ortega, M. A., Asúnsolo, Á., & Romero, D. (2020). Factors related to seeking help for postpartum depression: a secondary analysis of New York City PRAMS data. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(24), 9328-9340. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17249328 Speisman, B. B., Storch, E. A., & Abramowitz, J. S. (2011). Postpartum obsessive‐compulsive disorder. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing, 40(6), 680-690. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1552-6909.2011.01294.x Vesga-Lopez, O., Blanco, C., Keyes, K., Olfson, M., Grant, B. F., & Hasin, D. S. (2008). Psychiatric disorders in pregnant and postpartum women in the United States. Archives of General Psychiatry, 65(7), 805–815. http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.65.7.805 Wang, Z., Liu, J., Shuai, H., Cai, Z., Fu, X., Liu, Y., Xiong, X., Zhang, W., Krabbendam, E., Liu, S., Liu, Z., Li, Z., & Yang, B. X. (2021). Mapping global prevalence of depression among postpartum women. Translational Psychiatry, 11, 543-566. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-021-01663-6 I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley for a one-time bit of support. Click www.paypal.me/connorwhiteley1 to go to PayPal.

Celebrating the release of my brand-new dementia book, I want to investigate whether or not dementia rates are declining or increasing. Due to the advancement of medical care or maybe the ageing population of certain worlds will lead to an increase in dementia rates. In this great podcast episode we investigate this clinical psychology topic in depth to help you understand more about dementia. If you enjoy mental health, neuroscience and clinical psychology then you’ll love today’s episode. This episode has been sponsored by Dementia Psychology: A Biological Psychology, Cognitive Psychology and Neuroscience Guide To Dementia. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Extract From Dementia Psychology By Connor Whiteley. COPYRIGHT 2023 Connor Whiteley. Before we move onto the last two chapters of the book, I wanted us to look at a very interesting argument and some findings from a recent study on dementia rates. The main reason why I wanted us to look at this is simply because in psychology and science as a whole, we always need to look at both sides of an argument, and dementia is no different. Therefore, one of the subtle arguments throughout the book and in the dementia literature is that dementia rates will only grow and grow and grow over the next few decades, but this might not be the case possibly after all. Yet if it does than all these dementia cases will put an immense pressure on our society, medical services and other public services and these will only cost more and more to taxpayers. Then there’s the personal costs because families will be devastated that this is happening to their loved one and they will somehow have to pay for care. As well as with a lot of western countries like the United Kingdom and Italy have ageing populations, these only encourage the rates of dementia cases to rise. As a result, in an article by The Alzheimer Cohorts Consortium, they suggest that the dementia case burden might not be as bad as feared. Due to they presents results of a comprehensive research project examining thousands of people aged over 65 between 1988 and 2015. For their study they used 9 cohort studies in United States, Sweden, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Iceland and France, along with data collected from 49,202 participants and it must be noted that 59% of the participants were female. But as you’ll see in our final chapter is this is probably not a population or sample bias, it might be a great realistic look at the dementia population. Out of all these people studied in the cohort studies, 4,253 participants unfortunately developed some form of dementia by 2015 and the incidence of new dementia diagnosis is steadily increasing with age. Although, against the expectations of the researchers, there was a 13% decrease in all-cause dementia per decade since 1998 with a similar decrease found for cases of Alzheimer’s disease alone, as well as men showed a much higher decrease than women of 24% compared to 8%. I know that was a lot of information in that paragraph but it’s basically saying there was a lot of decreases in different groups, suggesting an overall decrease in dementia cases. Consequently, if these trends continue in Europe and North America over the next few decades, there could be 15 million fewer dementia cases than expected in high-income countries alone. Possibly meaning by 2040, there could be 60 million fewer new cases of dementia. That would be brilliant. In addition, whilst this study seems to contradict earlier studies, thankfully these trends do seem fairly robust over time and across different countries. Personally, this is a great study to look at because its methodology does use a lot of my favourite research techniques, and that’s actually what makes it a very powerful study. Since the study uses data from a lot of people and 6 different countries on two different continents. Therefore, it is a lot more difficult for critics to condemn the study for making grand conclusions based on tiny amounts of data from a single country. Instead because there are so many participants from so many different countries and continents, these results suggest there is a universal behavioural trend going on that dementia rates are decreasing in higher income countries. Of course, as psychology students and professionals, we always need to be balanced. So I will add that these results (like the research says) can only apply to higher income countries because no middle or lower income countries were used in the research sample, and as you’ll see in the next two chapters those types of countries have their own problems. Also, I am slightly concerned about the size of the research sample overall compared to the population of those countries. For example, off the top of my head, the USA’s population is around 350 million people and according to Statista.com in 2020 16.9% of the US’s population was aged over 65 giving us around 59 million people. Therefore, even if all 49,000 participants where from the US then this isn’t a very large sample and probably representative of the overall over 65 population in each country. Especially when you have stark regional differences like the USA (next chapter). I know it’s a bit picky but there are just some limitations of the research. Possible Explanations Building upon these findings, there are no easy explanations for why this decrease seems to be happening, but it is important to find out why says the lead author of the research Albert Hofman. As well as he acknowledges the true explanation is likely related to overall improvements in medical care over decades for older adults in high income countries. For example, over the past few decades there have been improvements in cardiovascular treatment like statins and other medications to control blood pressure, inflammation and cholesterol, and as we saw from a previous chapter, maintaining good cardiovascular health is important to protect your health and reduce risk of dementia. In addition, over the past few decades as the public and society as a whole have become more aware of healthy living. There have been a lot of people introducing other healthy lifestyle changes and more to help them ensure they have a healthier life, and this helps many people who might have developed dementia otherwise. On the other hand, there has been a sharp rise in diabetes and obesity in western countries and according to Hofman (and I highly doubt any medical professional would disagree) these are two risk factors not helpful in curbing dementia. Moreover, over the past few decades, there has been an amazing rise in access to education and other mental stimulation to older people. Like the rise in websites, online courses and other educational content. For example, I would personally like to add that the rise of the internet has allowed older adults and everyone to access more information so they can learn and keep their minds active. As well as the rise of podcasts, like my one The Psychology World Podcast, have allowed older people to learn on the go and just listen if reading is a bit harder than it used to be. In fact, I get a good amount of emails a year and I’m really pleased that I’m able to help these older adults learn, stay active and hopefully reduce their risk of dementia. And the same goes for eBook or print books really, they are easier and cheaper to get now so this gives older people even more access to information. Dementia Psychology Conclusion Overall, this study might be very promising and it is truly amazing that we have such a hopeful finding from research. But we cannot stop worrying about the dramatic rises in dementia cases and potential impacts, because even if the predictions are not as bad as we feared, there will still be a lot of cases that will seriously strain our loved ones and our healthcare infrastructure. Then again, this does suggest that having proper healthcare and staying both mentally and physically active could help older adults live much longer and more productive lives. And that’s something all of us definitely want for ourselves, our friends and our loved ones. I really hope you enjoyed today’s clinical psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Dementia Psychology: A Biological Psychology, Cognitive Psychology and Neuroscience Guide To Dementia. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Buy Me A Coffee Have a great day. Cognitive Psychology Reference Whiteley, C. (2023) Dementia Psychology: A Biological Psychology, Cognitive Psychology and Neuroscience Guide To Dementia. CGD Publishing. England I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley for a one-time bit of support. Click www.paypal.me/connorwhiteley1 to go to PayPal.

All around the world, misinformation is a massive problem that has a wide range of consequences and all of them negative. This was stark and very clear to see during the COVID-19 pandemic where the spread of misinformation about health, the disease and vaccines were widespread causing a hell of a lot of damage. Therefore, in this social psychology podcast episode, we investigate the important question of who is most vulnerable to misinformation so we can better protect them, and better protect society as a whole. If you enjoy social psychology with an applied psychology focus then you will love today’s episode. Today’s episode has been sponsored by Social Psychology: A Guide To Social And Cultural Psychology. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Who Is Most Vulnerable To Misinformation? Because of the interest in the problem and risk associated with misinformation, a lot of researchers and academics have started investigating this topic in more depth in an effort to help tackle this stark problem. And yet, there is one question that keeps rising without a seemingly clear answer, who is the most vulnerable to misinformation? Then there are, of course, sub-questions that quite rightly get attached to this big one. For example, researchers are interested in are there certain environmental or circumstantial factors that impact someone’s vulnerability, or do personality or psychological profiles predict someone’s firm belief in misinformation? These questions are great in theory because knowing the answer to them would certainly be helpful but they are problematic because of methodological issues. Because I have no idea how the hell would test these questions at all in an empirical way. That’s the problem facing researchers but thankfully some people have made headway so we are starting to have an idea. Especially, as we used to believe that if someone was just exposed to misinformation then that was enough to make a person believe in it, but more modern research is starting to cast a lot of doubt on that idea. For example, Vidgen (2021) suggests that people who are low in certain skills, for example media literacy, digital literacy and cognitive skills may be prone to misinformation. And personally, this is why I hate tabloids because in my experience, tabloids simply made up or twist stories to make people angry and sell stories. For example, in February 2023 in the UK, a far-right protest outside a hotel housing migrants waiting to get their asylum claim processed turned violent, because the far-right started beating up innocent migrants. That’s the facts. The next day, I saw at two tabloids reporting that it was the migrants that started to riot and they were attacking people. It was absolute… rubbish and clear misinformation but tons of people believed it sadly. Hence, creating the completely wrong belief that refugees and migrants are nothing more than criminals. It’s wrong and I hate the myth. Anyway, this is why I always encourage people to check your sources whenever you read the news. In addition, these findings flat out don’t say that people who believe in misinformation just lack key knowledge. Since these factors around literacy and cognitive skills don’t make up most of the reasons why people probably believe in misinformation. These factors only account for a small part of the problem. As well as it’s likely that a knowledge deficit isn’t the reason why misinformation spreads. How Do Identity Characteristics Impact Misinformation Vulnerability? Some other research findings find that identity characteristics could make someone more vulnerable to misinformation. For example, previous research finds that whilst political polarisation (meaning both the far-left and the far-right) is a risk factor for believing in misinformation, people on the political right are more likely to believe in and spread misinformation than people on the political left (Digital Planet, 2020). In addition, age and education seem to be risk factors as well since advanced age is associated with a higher likelihood of sharing misinformation as is only having a high school degree display more vulnerability to believing in fake or misleading news (Digital Planet, 2020). Also, I’m just putting this in because this was a massive fake argument that my nan tried to say and I want to get ahead of it. If you believe for one moment that these research findings are fake because you believe that the researchers manipulated their data because they were left-wing and they just wanted to blame the right-wing. You clearly have forgotten how academia works. It is impossible or extremely, extremely difficult for researcher nowadays to fake data, write misleading articles and get them professionally published. So the idea that left-wing researchers just wanted to blame the right wing is stupid and very funny. Anyway, research on identity and skills-related factors show that certain people are predisposed to believing in and sharing misinformation, so this research is helpful in understanding these factors. But it doesn’t answer questions about, are there certain psychological or personality factors involved? How Psychological And Personality Factors Relate To Misinformation Vulnerability? Thankfully, in the realm of conspiracy theory research, there have been a good amount of studies investigating this area with some good findings. For instance, certain psychological features, like loneliness and isolation (Hutson, 2017), and certain personality traits, like narcissism (Cichocka et al., 2022), do lead to a greater chance of believing in conspiracy theories. But are these psychological and personality factors at all relevant to misinformation? Maybe. The main problem is that misinformation research is still in its infancy stage, but there is good research that suggests that psychological factors if present in childhood might affect them in adult life in ways that make them susceptible to misinformation (American Psychological Association News Release, 2018). Since generally, our childhood beliefs get challenged when we get older, but there is always a strong emotional inclination to hold onto beliefs from our childhood that allow us to maintain family peace. Therefore, as children learn to come up with rationalisations for their firmly-held beliefs and maintain them regardless of the challenge, confirmation bias (our tendency to seek out confirming and agreeing evidence for our beliefs), our beliefs get strengthened all the way into adulthood. As a result, the less a child is challenged about their beliefs, the more likely they are to excel with rationalisations that get rid of alternative ideas. On the other hand, if children are actively taught scepticism and critical thinking, their confirmation bias “muscles” get a little weaker. Moreover, people with high levels of anxiety are more prone to confirmation bias, partly because they have a tendency and a strong reason to block out new information that might threaten in any way, shape or form. So that’s another psychological factor. Finally, belonging to a social group that believes in certain types of misinformation could strengthen a person’s misinformation “muscle” as well. Since if a person tries to disengage from this belief then it threatens their identity and group membership and as we know from social psychology, absolutely no one wants that. So people believe in misinformation if it helps them maintain their group membership and identity even if disconfirming evidence comes to light. How Can We Protect People Against Misinformation? Overall, whilst our understanding of misinformation and who’s most vulnerable to it might still be evolving, there are several things we can do right to help protect people. Firstly, we can start to teach children and people the value of scepticism and critical thinking because that is critical and research shows this is always useful to teach. Secondly, we can learn how to recognise people sharing misinformation and how these people might be anxious or trying to defend a deeply held belief so that we can help these people by approaching them with empathy, compassion and understanding. Social Psychology and Misinformation Conclusion Personally, I flat out love this topic. Misinformation is so critical to understand and protect yourself from because it is everywhere. Which is why personally, I would love going to university to be mandatory since a lot of university courses do teach critical thinking, tolerance and media literacy so it does help people protect themselves against misinformation. But I know that will never happen, especially when there are times that misinformation keeps people in power. However, in the fight against misinformation, we will never ever get very far if we don’t understand how it spreads, where it comes from and who is most susceptible. This research has to continue and we might have a long, long way to go in fully understanding this, but progress is being made. And we are already achieving amazing things with this small amount of progress so just imagine all the stunning things we can do when we start to fully understand misinformation. That really will be an amazing day for sure. I really hope you enjoyed today’s forensic psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Social Psychology: A Guide To Social And Cultural Psychology. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Buy Me A Coffee Have a great day. Social Psychology and Misinformation references https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/denying-the-grave/202212/who-is-most-vulnerable-misinformation Cichocka, A., Marchlewska, M., & Biddlestone, M. (2022). Why do narcissists find conspiracy theories so appealing?. Current Opinion in Psychology, 101386. Vidgen, B. (2021). Who is most vulnerable to health-related misinformation about COVID-19? The Health Foundation. https://www.health.org.uk/news-and-comment/blogs/who-is-most-vulnerable-to-health-related-misinformation-about-covid-19 Digital Planet (2020) The Misinformation Maelstrom: A Mapping of Vulnerability Across America https://sites.tufts.edu/digitalplanet/the-misinformation-maelstrom-a-mapping-of-vulnerability-across-america/ Hutson, M. (2017) Conspiracy Theorists May Really Just Be Lonely. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/conspiracy-theorists-may-really-just-be-lonely/ American Psychological Association (2018) Why We’re Susceptible To fake news, how to defend against it. EurekAlert!. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/498093 I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley for a one-time bit of support. Click www.paypal.me/connorwhiteley1 to go to PayPal.

Whilst a lot of the criminal justice system focuses on retribution and punishing people for crimes, there is an argument that the focus should actually be on healing. That’s why restorative justice is so interesting and potentially powerful, but how does restorative justice be used to help victims with the trauma of crime? That’s the focus of today’s forensic psychology podcast episode. A perfect episode for anyone interested in forensic and criminal psychology wanting to learn more about the psychological impacts of crimes on victims. Today’s episode has been sponsored by Forensic Psychology. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. What Is Trauma In Crime? In case you’re brand-new to criminal psychology, it’s important to know that when a crime happens this sadly sets a number of events in motion that can be very damaging to the mental health of victims. Not only does this include the crime itself, like being home when a bulgar raids your house or being held at knifepoint. But this also includes what’s known as secondary victimisation when the criminal justice system itself victimised and traumatised the victim of the crime. In addition, when we’re talking about trauma and because psychology loves a definition, as every single psychology student can tell you. Trauma is a deeply disturbing and/ or distressing event that has long-lasting mental, emotional and physical impact on a person. For example, an event like a natural disaster or a car crash could be traumatising but so could exposure to traumatic conditions for a long time. Like abuse, crime as well as combat. Resulting in this trauma manifesting itself in several ways like PTSD, depression, anxiety and also crime. That is a very interesting finding because logically you might assume that because a person has experienced and been traumatised by a crime then they wouldn’t want to commit a crime. This isn’t always the case because whilst the prevalence rate of traumatised people going on to commit crimes, of course, varies by population type of trauma. There is a strong link between criminal behaviour and trauma (Ardino, 2011). Another study supporting this claim is from the National Center For Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (NCPTSD) who found that people that experienced childhood trauma like sexual or physical abuse are at a higher risk of involvement in the criminal justice system. With the results being 80% of men and women in both state and federal prisons have a history of trauma compared to “only” 60% of the general population. Now I want to say upfront here that this is a very heart-breaking thing to hear and it also raises a lot of ethical questions that we do sort of investigate in this episode. For example, given how traumatised and abused some of these people are, should we be punishing them or trying to help them deal with their trauma? Let’s stick with that question in mind and I’ll come back to it later on. Additionally, research from Wolff and Shi (2012) demonstrated how these traumatised people, who especially experienced their trauma in childhood, are more likely to engage in their criminal behaviour and risky behaviours as a method of coping with the trauma. As well as we have to note that trauma can lead to the development of mental health conditions, which sort of contributes to criminal behaviour but as I talk about in Forensic Psychology, this link is tenacious to some extent. Overall, at the end of this section, we have to realise that not every person who is traumatised will go on to commit crimes as well as not every criminal has a history of trauma. However, when we consider that a resilient community responds to the victims’ needs to help reduce the impact a crime has on them, us understanding the link between criminal behaviour and trauma can be very important. Especially when we then use this knowledge to help develop more effective and compassionate interventions for people who have been traumatised and then go on to become involved with the criminal justice system. What Is Trauma Informed Care? Trauma-informed care encapsulates an approach to justice about providing services that recognise the impact of trauma on people and it helps to incorporate strategies to address the effect of the trauma in the delivery of care. For example, trauma-informed care includes understanding how common trauma is, responding with empathy and support, recognising the symptoms and signs of trauma and taking steps to avoid retraumaisation. Thankfully this type of care is used across a wide range of settings like social services, healthcare, education and the criminal justice system. Personally, I really like this idea because when it comes to people that have gone through hell and go on to commit crimes, I just can’t see how it’s right not to take the trauma into account in at least some fashion. Especially when the research says this type of care works. How The Current Justice System Traumatise People? I’ve mentioned a few times in this episode about how the criminal justice system leads to victims becoming traumatised even if the crime itself wasn’t traumatising. This is down to a number of factors that we’ll look at now. Firstly, the process of reporting a crime, facing the offender during a trial, actually going through the trial process and more can all be re-traumatising for the victim. Especially if they aren’t providing with good resources and support in the first place. Secondly, in the justice system, there is a massive problem with a lack of sensitivity. Now whilst part of this might be down to the sheer size of their workload, many criminal justice professionals just are not trained to recognise the symptoms or signs of trauma and they really might not understand the impact of their words and actions on a trauma survivor. Thirdly, and this is hardly a shocker for any long-term listeners of the podcast, there is a sheer lack of mental health care for people with trauma-related mental health conditions. Especially when they’re in a criminal justice system either as a victim or criminal and this only leads to an increased risk of reoffending and the continuing of their trauma. Now if we step back for a moment and take the emotion out of it and our society’s natural tenancies to want punishment and retribution. I think we have to admit this is very silly because if we treat a criminal for trauma-related mental health conditions so they have healthy ways to deal with their trauma. Then they will be less likely to reoffend, meaning less crimes, meaning less people going through the criminal justice system meaning less money has to be spent on this area. Overall, meaning public services are spending less money on criminals and surely this would make politicians very happy. So why isn’t there the political will to investigate this area more? I have spoken about that in other areas so I won’t repeat myself here. In addition, criminals can be retraumatised during their incarceration as jails and prisons can be high-stress environments capable of triggering memories and feelings of their past traumatic experiences. Therefore, this does only lead to more people becoming traumatised and having their trauma continue. Finally for this section, the survivors of crimes can be stigmatised by criminal justice professionals causing the victim’s feelings of shame, guilt and isolation to only increase. This only makes the trauma of going through the criminal justice system worse. Also, it is very much worth noting that there are a lot of amazing professionals and organisations trying to address these stark issues and start implementing a trauma-informed practice to help minimise the retraumaisation of people. I really, really hope they succeed. What Is Restorative Justice? Whilst traditional views of crime and punishment focuses on, well, punishment and getting the criminal to “pay” for their crimes. This view overlooks the needs of the victim and restorative justice focuses on the importance of repairing the harm done by the crime, repairing relationships and rebuilding communities so the criminal doesn’t do it again and so that some good can come out of the crime too. This is done by bringing the criminal and victim together in a restorative conference and they discuss the impact of the crime so they can work towards a resolution that addresses the needs of all parties. And most importantly in my opinion, unlike traditional views of crimes, restorative justice is victim-focused. Resulting in research finding victims in these cases are more satisfied with the outcome and feel validated, heard and have a greater sense of healing and closure (Latimer et al., 2005; Strang et al., 2013). Also, restorative justice can result in community service for an offender, restitution and other forms of reparation instead of going to prison and court trials. However, it is important to note that not all victims are suitable or even willing to take part in this restorative justice. I really understand this because some crimes just are not suited to this format and I don’t even think I would be willing to talk with and listen to the needs of an offender. Especially if the offender had attacked me, murdered someone I love or abused me. Again though, restorative justice does tend to get used for different crimes. How Is Restorative Justice A Trauma-Informed Approach? Now restorative justice can be used as a trauma-informed approach because we can use it to recognise the impact of trauma on both the offender and the victim and address the effects of the trauma by restoring the harm and repairing relationships in the restorative justice conference. This is done by focusing on the traumatic impact and formulating preventive strategies as a result. In addition, if we want to roll this out wider and make this a sort of standard for criminal justice. The process would have to involve an understanding of how common trauma is, recognition of the signs and symptoms of trauma, how to respond with support and empathy as well as an understanding of how we take steps to avoid retraumaisation. Moreover, when it comes to victims, a restorative justice process that is trauma-informed would have to create a safe and supportive space for them where they could share their feelings, needs and experience along with knowledge of resources and support for them to heal from their awful trauma. Again just basically correcting the errors of the current criminal justice system. On the other hand, when it comes to offenders, this process needs to understand the role of trauma in criminal behaviour and how to address those underlying problems as part of their rehabilitation. And it is that rehabilitation that research shows time and time again is so critical to stop reoffending. Restorative Justice As A Trauma-Informed Approach In The Real World For the final section of the podcast episode, I want to prove that nothing in this episode is only theoretical so here are three real-world examples. There are at least two more but I am conscious of time and length of this episode. Firstly, Canada uses this approach as provinces like British Columbia, Ontario and Alberta used these types of programmes to address the needs of offenders and victims. Secondly, the United Kingdom uses restorative justice programmes in several jurisdictions including education, youth justice, communities as well as the criminal justice systems. Finally, many states in the United States, like Vermont, Colorado and California use these programmes as do cities like Baltimore and Chicago. Forensic Psychology Conclusion On the whole, it is important to note that this is a new field of psychology and the number of places using restorative justice will very likely to grow as its effectiveness becomes more widely recognised. And whilst this is flat out not appropriate for some crimes, like I personally still believe we need to punish sex offenders, abusers and murderers. There are other types of crimes that I really want to see this used in because it isn’t right we forget about an offender’s or victim’s trauma in the justice process. Because if we don’t address the victim’s trauma and feelings, then who are we deserving justice for? Is it for some government statistics or is it actually like so professionals can feel good about themselves about their day’s work? If we dismiss, don’t care about the trauma and how traumatised the victim are, then I am not ashamed to say then justice is failing the victim. The very person the justice system is meant to serve. I really hope you enjoyed today’s forensic psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Forensic Psychology. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Buy Me A Coffee Have a great day. Forensic Psychology References Ardino V. Post-traumatic stress in antisocial youth: A multifaceted reality. In: Ardino V, editor. Post-traumatic syndromes in children and adolescents. Chichester, UK: Wiley/Blackwell Publishers; 2011. pp. 211–229. Wolff N, Shi J. Childhood and adult trauma experiences of incarcerated persons and their relationship to adult behavioral health problems and treatment. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2012 May;9(5):1908-26. Latimer, J., Dowden, C., & Muise, D. (2005). The Effectiveness of Restorative Justice Practices: A Meta-Analysis. The Prison Journal, 85(2) Strang H, Sherman LW, Mayo-Wilson E, Woods D, Ariel B. Restorative Justice Conferencing (RJC) Using Face-to-Face Meetings of Offenders and Victims: Effects on Offender Recidivism and Victim Satisfaction. A Systematic Review. Campbell Systematic Reviews 2013:12 https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/building-resilient-minds/202301/the-use-of- restorative-justice-as-a-trauma-informed-approach I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley for a one-time bit of support. Click www.paypal.me/connorwhiteley1 to go to PayPal.

There are so many dangerous and deadly myths about suicide that stop people from seeking help when they need it so desperately. So in today’s clinical psychology podcast, I’m going to be reading you an extract from the second chapter of my new book and if you enjoy this episode you can read five more myths and learn tons more about the psychology of suicide in the book. This is the perfect episode for people interested in mental health. This episode has been sponsored by Suicide Psychology: A Social Psychology, Cognitive Psychology And Neuropsychology Guide To Suicide. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Extract From Suicide Psychology by Connor Whiteley Copyright 2023 The reason why this is the second chapter in the book is simply because I want to tackle a lot of utterly stupid myths right now, just so we can get them out of the way and we can focus on facts. Personally, I hate these myths with an utter passion because they are harmful, evil and just end up causing a lot more damage to people. And the entire point of this book is to help raise awareness and maybe help people too. To that end this chapter will look at 12 myths in varying amounts of detail just so moving forward we are all on the same page, and we can all interpret this information without seeing it through any myths. As well as whilst I am extremely passionate about this area, I do completely understand if you believe any of these myths. They are so powerful in society and they could easily be considered cultural norms in their own right, they’re that strong in people’s minds. And I have believed some of these in the past but that’s why I want, need to tackle these head on. Suicide Myth 1 If you ask someone about suicidal thoughts, it may trigger them to act out. I’ll fully admit that a bunch of these myths we will focus on different sections of the book, and this one does pop up later. However, for now just know that research shows that by asking someone about suicidal thoughts it will NOT put any ideas into their head that were not already in there. As well as suicidal people want to be asked about and they want to know they matter. Asking out saves lives 99.9% of the time, so if you’re concerned about someone, ask. Suicide Myth 2 People who talk about suicide never do it. Now this myth I do understand because in different areas of our social world, it is often the people that bang on about things are the ones that cannot do it. For example, the loudest people that praise how great they are, tend not to be as great as people who don’t praise their own achievements. Things like that. However, when it's suicide, this is an extremely wrong myth and this easily causes deaths. Since when it comes to suicide, it is the people that do talk about it are the people most likely to do it. That’s a major theme through this book. Therefore, if someone does tell you they’re going to self-harm or commit suicide, take it seriously and get them professional help. Suicide Myth 3 Suicide is an impulsive act. This is another myth that is completely wrong, and whilst there are sections of this book and research that sort of supports the idea of suicide is related to impulsivity. The vast, vast majority of suicides are planned down to the last detail and suicidal people think about committing suicide for days, weeks or even months before an attempt. So no, suicide is flat out not an impulsive act and that thinking can harm people because it means others aren’t looking out for the warning signs. Suicide Myth 4 The elderly don’t commit suicide. I suppose in some weird way I can sort of see the twisted logic behind this myth because I think other people believe that because elderly people are, well, elderly they might just wait a few more years anyway to die of natural causes. However, research shows that the elderly are most likely to complete suicide attempts successfully. And there are other factors that other groups don’t always have. Like losing friends and being alone because they’ve died, terminal illness, the pain and immobility associated with older age and more. We all need to remember that suicide is not specific to one group. Suicide can happen to anyone, even if they’re in a group with not a lot of extra risk factors. Suicide Myth 5 Minorities are most likely to commit suicide. Whilst this seems like a perfectly logical argument at first and it is true these minority groups have risk factors that make them more likely to commit suicide compared to others. It is actually white men that are the most likely to commit suicide due to a range of factors, most of which probably being down to men’s inability to get professional help, because of personal and cultural factors as discussed in other chapters. More myths and more great information inside the book. Check it out now. I really hope you enjoyed today’s psychotherapy podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Suicide Psychology: A Social Psychology, Cognitive Psychology And Neuropsychology Guide To Suicide. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Buy Me A Coffee Have a great day. Suicide Psychology Reference Whiteley, C. (2023) Suicide Psychology: A Social Psychology, Cognitive Psychology And Neuropsychology Guide To Suicide. CGD Publishing, England. I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley for a one-time bit of support. Click www.paypal.me/connorwhiteley1 to go to PayPal.

With valentine’s day just around the corner, I really wanted to do a romance-focused psychology podcast episode and as a romance writer myself, I really like the idea of workplace romances. Therefore, I decided we should look at this in a lot more detail because these aren’t rare and they’re very interesting to look at from a psychological point of view. If you enjoy social psychology then certainly keep reading. Today’s episode has been sponsored by Psychology of Relationships: The Social Psychology Friendships, Romantic Relations And More. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. How To Manage Workplace Romances? They Aren’t Rare Whilst a lot of this information does sort of come from the perspective of a manager or boss, I will comment on how us as non-managers would use this information to manage a workplace relationship. And this is important for all of us because we never know when we’re going to meet the man or woman of our dreams and it could very much happen at work. In addition, it’s important to note that workplace romances are very common and they’re highly accepted since a 2022 Society For Human Resource Management survey found that out of 505 American adults a third of them were in a workplace romance. This appears to have increased slightly from 27% pre-pandemic. But thankfully, few people appear to care that these workplace romances are on the rise since the survey also found that 75% of US workers are comfortable with workplace romances. Personally, I completely agree because as long as they’re getting their work done and they aren’t disrupting the office or workplace environment then I seriously cannot see the problem. As well as on a minor side note, I want to mention a connection, admittedly a very tenuous connection, and sign that this is acceptable is that the workplace romance genre has actually morphed into its own subgenre of romance. Now I want to mention this as something important because it means that a lot of people enjoy reading about this, so not only are they comfortable with the idea but they also want to experience what a workplace romance is like. Granted it is in a fictionalised way but as a reader and professional writer I understand how subgenres are formed. And it is a fairly major thing that does reflect wider society to some extent. How Could Managers and Leaders Prepare For Workplace Relationships? Whilst workplace romances are great and they’re on the rise, I think we can all admit that for leadership and management teams they can create a bit of a headache so here are three things that can help leadership teams prepare for these romances. As well as I’ll explain how this helps non-leadership people too. Be Clear and Establish Even Clearer Guidance So I know how annoying it is as an employee when your bosses do not give you clear guidance on any situation, please don’t be that boss for starters. But also bosses need to be prepared to lay down the law of their company regardless of how this could affect their approval ratings. As well as this links back to what I mentioned earlier in the episode, romances can shake up working environments, create problems and cause interpersonal conflict. As a result, it is important to set boundaries with workers so the workplace can continues to be a neutral space or whatever your company believes in. For example, if your company thinks Public Displays of Affection (PDA) aren’t appreciated in the workplace then it is best if you tell your workers this before they get caught doing god knows what in the breakout room (and you might need to remind them that it’s a breakout room, not a make out room). Overall, for bosses and managers, it’s important to be clear on these guidelines so everyone is up to date and clear on what the company wants. For workers, I would just say respect the guidelines and rules and if you fall in love in the workplace, don’t make out constantly in front of other people, because it can be a little off-putting. But again your workplace might be different so just read the room. Talk To Human Resources Now I have to explain that it’s only normal to really have a human resource department if you’re working for a big company so every business has a HR department of some sort. Even if the boss of the small business is the HR department and a bunch of other things. As a result with these romances on the rise, everyone in leadership and management roles do need to be advised and prepared about the company’s position on such matters before these relationships occur in the first place. This way it helps to prevent or at least give the leadership team the knowledge about what to do if challenges arise because of these workplace romances. Don’t be A Hypocrite I really love this rule because it is so right. There is nothing more annoying in life than a company having a rule banning relationships in the workplace only for the boss and the boss’s friends completely doing the opposite. That is really annoying. In other words, whatever your position and company rules are, make sure you stick with them and whatever you do as a boss, that is the behaviour you promote to your team. For example, if you’re paying special or extra close attention to someone, and even if it isn’t for romantic interest, you will create problems in your team. Because there’s a real chance you will be seen to have one rule for everyone else and yet another rule for yourself as you’re the boss. Workplace Romances Vs Workplace Harassment However, I absolutely couldn’t do a podcast episode on this topic without talking about sexual harassment. This is wrong, disgusting and women and the handful of men that face it should never ever have to experience it. Therefore, we have to talk about how when the workplace and intimacy are mixed there is a very real chance of an abuse of power. As well as like all the high-profile court cases reveal, you cannot rely on everyone reading the situation the same way. For example, if we look at Weinstein who still protests his innocence despite serving an extended prison sentence. And his accusers and millions of supporters worldwide maintain that he didn’t only harass women, he raped dozens of them in so-called work meetings. Additionally, there are mixed interpretations of what actually happened at a company called KPCB. Since it was revealed during a closely watched court case in 2015 that a junior partner did start a sexual relationship with Pao shortly after she joined the company but when the relationship didn’t work out, she was excluded from networking events as well as important meetings. And yet, none of this was enough to persuade a jury that Pao had experienced discrimination in the workplace so she lose the case. That is amazing to me but the legal system is weird at times. Another way to put this into perspective is that despite how many abuse and harassment headlines we see, there are tons more cases we will never hear about. These cases are wide ranging from harmless flirting at after-work meeting to more persistent and very concerning forms of harassment and awful abuse that no one, absolutely no one should ever suffer. However, the real problem is a lot harder to solve. Because when a romance or harassment case happens in the workplace, you cannot escape it easily and rejecting someone in the workplace is more risky and challenging. Especially, if this person is someone you report to or is a team member that might turn the other team members against you in some revenge plot. Overall, when it comes to workplace romances and preventing harassment it is the duty of all managers and leaders to understand how power dynamics work and how they impact the working relationships in the working environment. Due to the workplace can be a great place to meet people and for relationships to develop, but they can be risky if status, power and high stakes are involved. Harassment is something we all need to be mindful of so we can keep everyone safe be it a man or woman, a friend or enemy or a worker we know greatly or barely at all. Social Psychology Conclusion To wrap up today’s business psychology podcast episode, I want to mention that workplace romances I think have the potential to be great, fun and really nice. I’ll admit that I’ve worked with some great people that I sort of wish could have developed into a romance and relationship. Because as I mentioned earlier in the podcast, you never know where the right man or woman for you will come from so the workplace could be where you meet your ideal partner. Since when sparks fly in the workplace, the result can very much be powerful and great or they can create a ton of problems for someone’s team and the company they work for. And that’s all before we remember the risk for abuse and harassment. Workplace romances can be great but we have to be just as careful in the workplace as we do in other areas of the dating world. I really hope you enjoyed today’s psychotherapy podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Psychology of Relationships: The Social Psychology Friendships, Romantic Relations And More. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Buy Me A Coffee Have a great day. Social Psychology And Business Psychology References Shrm. (2022, February 8). New SHRM survey: The rise of workplace romance. SHRM. Retrieved February 9, 2023, from https://www.shrm.org/about-shrm/press-room/press-releases/pages/new-shrm-survey-the-rise-of-workplace-romance.aspx https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/mental-health-in-the-workplace/202301/when-cupid-strikes-in-the-workplace I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley for a one-time bit of support. Click www.paypal.me/connorwhiteley1 to go to PayPal.

Body image concerns and the negative impact on both women’s and men’s mental health make for concerning reading and its effects are both deadly and extremely dangerous. I looked at this topic before in Body Negativity In Boys And Why This Is A Silent Crisis, but in today’s episode we need to look at what’s wrong with having the perfect body? And more importantly, what’s driving this obsession with the perfect body and more. This is a great psychology podcast episode for anyone interested in clinical psychology, eating disorders and male mental health. Today’s episode has been sponsored by Cognitive Psychology: A Guide To Neuroscience, Neuropsychology and Cognitive Psychology. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. What’s Wrong With Having The Perfect Body? The idea of the perfect body is something that really does influence society and you could even argue that it plagues us because it is everywhere. It is on social media, in movies and TV programmes. Since if you think about the last major film or television programme you watched that was a blockbuster then you probably imagine scarily thin and sexy women with perfect beautiful bodies with long perfect hair. Or men with stunning muscles, the perfect body and the perfectly strong jawline and more. Of course, none of these definitions are healthy, natural or positive in the slightest and there have been changes in recent years. Since in recent years, the bodies of these actors and actresses are becoming more and more extreme and further away from the average body of the average man or woman. For example, if you look at Hugh Jackman in the early 2000s his body was described as being perfect in those days but now he has become more increasingly lean and massive over these two decades, with Jackman saying that the next wolverine is going to be even bigger and the biggest ever wolverine. This is also supported by a recent accountability post that actor Jake Stormeon posted on his personal Instagram account saying that in his 20s when he was filming The Outpost his job required him to be shirtless most of, if not all the time, and that required him to do a hell of a lot of things for his body. And as a fan I can confirm there is a difference but as an average man, I think it is a healthy difference. Now I am not singling with him out but his honesty makes a good point. He didn’t say he wanted to do these extreme things to his body, he said his job required it. Again this basically harks back to the idea of the perfect body image and what film companies require. Body Image and Social Media In addition, social media reflects this increase in impossible standards for the so-called perfect body and as an Instagram user I know that Instagram is literally clogged with tons of “thirst trap” selfies featuring muscular men with minimal body fat percentage. As well as Longergan et al. (2021) found that posts like these receive a disproportionately positive response from other social media users, so this reinforces the men who post this way. In other words, this positive response reinforces these impossible standards and the so-called need for these standards in the people who look like this. Moreover, in 2020 a quantitative study by Gultzow et al. analysed photos posted by men on Instagram and found the exact same thing. Most photos posted in the sample that depicted a lot of muscles and lean body mass. Then to measure this perceived need for males to be muscular, McCreary created a psychometric scale measuring “drive for muscularity” in 2017, and the researcher noted that the no-body-fat physique, packed with muscles is often “considered the male ideal”. Also McCreary (2017) found that men felt worse about their physical appearance after looking at and absorbing the idealised and hyper-muscular images and other content found on Instagram. As well as Carfi et al. (2002) showed these body image concerns reduce a man’s confidence, self-esteem and overall life satisfaction just like they do for women. Why Am I Not “Picking” On Instagram Here? I just wanted to make it clear to people here on the website and on the podcast that I am not picking on Instagram here but I do want to highlight it. This is where the research is done, Instagram is an image-based platform so it is perfect for sharing idealised body images and their recommendation algorithms are scary. I will admit on this podcast because I believe in honesty and telling you the truth and on Instagram I clicked on an image of these idealised bodies once or twice and the next time I went onto Instagram my recommendation feed was filled with them. And I mean filled. Therefore, these social platforms of course play a major role in pushing this harmful content which is understandable considering the positive reaction they get. Male Body Image and Wider Society If we step back from social media for a moment then we can see that this is also reflected in general, wider society since Luicano (2007) found that American men grow up believing that muscles signal masculinity. In other words, having muscles makes you a man and all that absolute rubbish. Therefore, these distorted expectations do more than just contribute to the constant creation and sharing of shirtless photos on social media. These beliefs and attitudes can warp into the body image disorder known as muscle dysmorphia. This is a dangerous condition when a sufferer becomes convinced that their body is too skinny, weak and small. And this problem is only getting worse. As a result of a 2019 study of 700 American men between the ages of 18 and 24 showed that more than 20% of men had a disordered relationship to food because of their desire to get bigger and more muscle-bound. These young men were eating too much due to “bulking up” requires a high-calorie intake, they put their own health at risk by using anabolic steroids or they took dietary supplements like extra protein. International Body Image Concerns Sadly these body image concerns are not contained to only the USA because this is an international crisis since whilst up to 40% of American men do feel anxious about their weight according to Frederick et al. (2022). In the UK according to the Mental Health Foundation, more than 20% of English men admit they try to dress in a way that conceals parts of their body in 2019. In addition, 11% of English men reported suicidal thoughts because of their negative body image concerns as well as 4% said they had already tried to hurt themselves for this exact reason. Then in France, the Journal of Men’s Health (2014), up to 85% of French men reported they weren’t happy with their bodies because they thought they didn’t have enough muscles. Finally for this section, this was all only made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic because the health-related anxieties that were swimming around in society could have made these body image issues worse. A 2021 study supported by this by finding social distancing was linked with higher male dissatisfaction with their muscles and weight. Overall, before we move on, I will just say this. These body image concerns, they kill people, they harm people and they can twist someone’s mind in horrific ways. I already mentioned in the last podcast episode on this topic that eating disorders (that these concerns can lead to) kill people and are some of the deadliest mental health conditions in the world. So I don’t say this to scare you at all. I say this because enough is enough and we need to help fix this international mental health crisis. Why Don’t Men Talk About Their Body Image Concerns? As Rasisanen and Hunt pointed out in a 2014 article for the BMJ Open Journal, a lot of men just don’t want to talk about these issues with their friends and family members. They feel insufficient enough already in their own heads without adding to the concerns about their family and friends judging them or even agreeing with them (I highly doubt they would but these are the sort of things people with body image issues tell themselves). Therefore, these men stay silent out of fear of expressing these feelings and risking them being seen as even less manly. This is why I personally hate the idea of “manliness” because it is pathetic. I am sorry but I have no time for people who parade around the idea of manliness because they are doing so much damage to society, the mental health of innocent people and more that I just don’t want to hear from them. I do have time for the victims of the “manliness” culture and people that want to help people, and this is why I do these podcast episodes. I want to help people and I want people to realise that the traditional ideas of “manliness” aren’t only damaging but very outdated. Furthermore, as the 2014 article pointed out, even if these amazing men who are perfect in their own way get enough courage to ask for help. Some are dismissed because people believe body image issues are only for women and men don’t have them. This is why knowing how to identify what to look for in men with body image issues is critical. How To Know If A Man Has Body Image Issues? Very quickly for the last section of the episode, if you think that a friend or family member is having body image issues then maybe look out for these signs. This isn’t official advice but this could be a starting point if you’re worried. Maybe your family member or friend has gained a lot of weight all of a sudden, maybe they’ve been talking about their body a lot lately or they could be bulking up excessively. Or maybe they have been spending a lot more time in the gym or in front of a mirror lately. This could show that a body-image issue is present. If this is the case then maybe they should check out a therapist specialising in eating disorders. Then they will help the client (if they want the help) to change their obsessive thoughts about their physical appearance and reorient them to focus less on their exterior benefit and more on the effects of their long-term well-being. Clinical Psychology and Eating Disorders Conclusion I know in the last podcast episode I spoke about my own eating and body image issues in the past and that is why I love talking about this topic. I will not pretend that I have had these issues so dire that it has destroyed me but it honestly could have. I could have had an eating disorder and hospitalised a few years ago because I hated my body that much. That is why I make sure I make three meals a day even if I am NOT hungry. So to end this episode, I want to remind you that body image issues will be seriously harmful to people in the end and they are no joke. If you’re a man or woman with a body image issue then please talk to someone, get their opinion on it and if you need it then please seek professional help. Please don’t suffer in silence because you are perfect just the way you are and there is a massive difference between wanting to be healthy. And wanting to have the perfect body. Having the perfect body never ends well. I really hope you enjoyed today’s psychotherapy podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Cognitive Psychology: A Guide To Neuroscience, Neuropsychology and Cognitive Psychology. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Buy Me A Coffee Have a great day. Clinical Psychology References Barlett, C. P., Vowels, C. L. & Saucier, D. A. (2008). Meta-analyses of the effects of media images on men's body-image concerns. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 27(3). Cafri, G., Strauss J. & Thompson, J. K. (2002). Male body image: Satisfaction and its relationship to well-being using the somatomorphic matrix. International Journal of Men's Health; 1 (2) Frederick, D. A., Crerand, C. E., Brown, T. A., Perez, M., Best, C. R., Cook-Cottone, C. P., Compte, E. J., Convertino, L., Gordon, A. R., Malcarne, V. L., Nagata, J. M., Parent, M. C., Pennesi, J., Pila, E., Rodgers, R. F., Schaefer, L. M., Thompson, J. K., Tylka, T. L., & Murray, S. B. (2022). Demographic predictors of body image satisfaction: The U.S. Body Project I, Body Image, Volume 41, 17-31. Gültzow, T., Guidry, J. P. D., Schneider, F. & Hoving, C. (2020). Male body image portrayals on Instagram. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. 23(5), 281-289. Lonergan, A.R., Mitchison, D., Bussey, K. & Fardouly, J. (2021). Social Media and Eating and Body Image Concerns Among Men and Boys. In J. M. Nagata, T. A. Brown, S. B. Murray & J. M. Lavender (Ed.), Eating disorders in boys and men, pp/ 307-316. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. Luciano, L. (2007). Muscularity and Masculinity in the United States: A Historical Overview. In J. K. Thompson & G. Cafri (Eds.), The muscular ideal: Psychological, social, and medical perspectives (pp. 41–65). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/11581-002 McCreary, D. R. (2007). The Drive for Muscularity Scale: Description, Psychometrics, and Research Findings. In J. K. Thompson & G. Cafri (Eds.), The muscular ideal: Psychological, social, and medical perspectives (pp. 87–106). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/11581-004 The Mental Health Foundation. (2019, Nov 12). Millions of men in the UK affected by body image issues – Mental Health Foundation survey. Retrieved from https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/about-us/news/millions-men-uk-affected-body-image-issues-mental-health-foundation-survey Räisänen, U. & Hunt, K. (2014). The role of gendered constructions of eating disorders in delayed help-seeking in men: a qualitative interview study. Retrieved from https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/4/4/e004342.full.pdf Swami, V., Horne, G. & Furnham, A. (2021, Feb 15). COVID-19-related stress and anxiety are associated with negative body image in adults from the United Kingdom. Personality and Individual Differences, 170. Valls, M., Bonvin, P., & Chabrol, H. (2014). Association between muscularity dissatisfaction and body dissatisfaction among normal-weight French men. Journal of Men's Health, 10(4), 139-145. I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley for a one-time bit of support. Click www.paypal.me/connorwhiteley1 to go to PayPal.