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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.

Whilst I’ve spoken about the end of psychotherapy before and its importance in one of my Clinical Psychology Reflections books, I wanted to talk about it again from a different angle because endings are important in therapy. So in today’s podcast episode we explore why clients and us as current or future therapists know that it’s time to never psychotherapy for a client. This is a great episode for anyone interested in clinical psychology. Today’s episode has been sponsored by Clinical Psychology Collection. 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. Note: as always nothing on the podcast is any sort of official or professional or medical advice. What I Am Shaking My Hands Off In This Episode? Now I want to fully admit this, and especially after my recent lectures, that I was forgetting on purpose a hell of a lot of real things that goes on in the clinical psychology workplace. So please, don’t think I’m stupid and naïve because of this podcast topic and to be honest, very little of this episode applies if you work or want to work in the public sector. Since in the public sector and the NHS in the UK, you give your client 6 sessions maybe 8 if you beg your boss and that’s it. It doesn’t matter if those sessions work or are actually at the end of the therapy for the client. You have six sessions and that’s it. Therefore, please know that I’m talking about in an ideal world this is how you know you’re at the end of the therapy. Or this works if you’re in the private sector, but I still believe it’s important to learn about so all of us are at least aware of these signs. How Psychotherapy Works? Whilst I know a lot of the podcast audience are psychology students and professionals I still want to recap this topic briefly in case there’s anyone who isn’t too familiar with what exactly psychotherapy is. Therefore, psychotherapy is a uniquely collaborative environment centred around learning since the psychotherapist teaches and works with the client to give them new skills, concepts and knowledge that could help the client to navigate their lives a little easier (American Psychological Association, 2012). For example, a client might get help to improve their emotional awareness, finding a purpose, improving their problem solving or improving their interpersonal relationships. In addition, therapists use different approaches and types of psychotherapy depending on the demands of the client (or in the public sector you’ll get what you’re given). For instance, psychodynamic therapy is where you explore your underlying wishes, fears and fantasies as well as your unconscious thoughts (Brown et al., 2014). This form of therapy is effective at improving and addressing people’s relationships. Whereas Cognitive Behavioural Therapy investigates a person’s maladaptive thought processes and dysfunctional behaviours. Making it great to treat anxiety, depression and other mental health conditions. Additionally, whilst different therapies target different aspects of a mental health condition, they all have three things in common or at least share similar aspects. They all involve a relationship between a client and a therapist, they involve the implementation of goals and health promoting actions as well as they involve setting both expectations and goals in each therapy session (Wampold, 2014). How Do We Know If It’s Beneficial To End Therapy? Again, unless you’re in the public sector, deciding to end therapy is a decision that should always be made carefully by both the therapist and the client. Ending it too soon is problematic because the client’s difficulties might return quickly and the client will not benefit from the therapy if it isn’t completed. Equally, there’s no point continuing with the therapy if there’s no need for it. It is always best to decide if the time is right to end therapy with a conversation between the psychologist and client, and they need to both agree this is the right time. This is a collaborative process after all. As a result, now we’re going to cover three questions that might help you as the therapist or client to decide if the time is right. Is The Treatment Relationship Going Awry? This is the first question I wanted to ask because at the end of the day, a therapeutic relationship is still a relationship. All relationships can go wrong at times and they can form, be maintained and break down. The therapeutic relationship is not immune to this breakdown. Interestingly enough, if this conflict does activate then this is normally the start of a “real” therapeutic relationship and the therapy itself. Since if the therapist struck a nerve then this is an area that is often reflected in the client’s real world relationships and this conflict spreads to other contexts. Therefore, speaking and working through this conflict is important and of course, this requires a lot of trust from the client. However, what you don’t want as a therapist, is for this conflict to be because of a lack of skills on your end. Such as, a therapist needs to maintain and hold emotional boundaries with the client so this doesn’t lead to confusion about who’s difficulties are being assessed and solved. If this is the problem and a client can talk to their therapist about this, and if the conflict still isn’t being resolved. Then it might be an idea for the client to find a therapist who has the skills they require. Is The Client Running Away? When therapy actually starts properly, it is natural for clients to get scared and as psychology students and professionals, we have to acknowledge that fact. As well as it’s important to bear in mind that a client’s past behaviour can predict their future behaviour because if a client has ghosted or left people in their own life, then they want to do the same to you as their therapist. Clearly if a client does do this then these behaviours are maladaptive and avoidance-focused. As well as the client might do this because the therapeutic relationship feeds into their fears of abandonment and continue their cycle of avoidance, because the therapy will end at some point and that’s scary. But the client needs to ask themselves, what exactly are they running away from? And hopefully, they can be convinced (hopefully without any external involvement) that it’s important to stick around so they can find out what they’re running away from. Is The Client Improving? Typically, this final question is asked in such a biomedical model way that I hate it, but it is important. As a result of the client came to us because they had a mental health condition severe enough to get a diagnosis, so this was causing them disruption in their daily lives. Therefore, when they leave the therapy room (in an ideal world) they would be better, they would know how to live with their condition because you cannot get rid of mental health conditions and they would be able to live a clinically “normal” life. However, some clients start to question therapy when lives get tough, when they make a little bit of process but not as much as they like, or when they believe they haven’t made any progress at all. When this happens they should of course talk to their therapist and there should be a conversation as to why this might be the case and it is possible that the client is experiencing psychological resistance. Possibly leading to avoiding emotions and/ or rejecting the change that therapy brings. If this is happening then it’s good for clients and therapists to know that this could be a part of a larger emotional as well as cognitive process people call ambivalence. This happens for a range of reasons but being able to recognise when ambivalence is happening and acknowledge it is important. As this is the first step for the client overcoming the resistance with the help of their therapist. Clinical Psychology Conclusion I know I ignored a lot of real-world public sector things in this podcast episode, and that is an important detail for the UK audience at the very least, but this is what should happen in an ideal world. As well as I’m sure that the members of the audience working in the private sector can tell us stories about clients ending the therapy when they really shouldn’t have. This is sadly nothing new. However, this is important for us to remember as future or current psychologists, because if we work with clients then there will be a point in our careers when we have to ask this question. And we will have to gently tell the client that they really shouldn’t be ending the therapy because there is still work to be done. Maybe those three questions will help you and your client come to a shared realisation or maybe this episode was just good background knowledge for a rainy day. I don’t know but what I do know is that at the end of the day, we can only go so far and if a client truly wants to end therapy because they aren’t ready for the change. Then there is nothing we can do to help them until they’re ready. I really hope you enjoyed today’s psychotherapy podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Clinical Psychology Collection. 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 Brown, J., Scholle, H. S., Azur, M. (2014). Strategies for measuring the quality of psychotherapy: A white paper to inform measure development and implementation. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation Office of Disability, Aging and Long-Term Care Policy. (ASPE) Wampold, E. B. (2015). How important are the common factors in psychotherapy? An update. World Psychiatry, 14, 270-277. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20238 Understanding psychotherapy and how it works. (2012, November 1). American Psychological Association. Retrieved November 4, 2022 from https://www.apa.org/topics /psychotherapy/understanding 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.

Psychology students and professionals are often told by parents and others that psychology is useless because you can’t get a job in it. That is the biggest lie I have ever had the displeasure of hearing because there are tons of fascinating career options for you with a psychology degree. That’s why in this psychology podcast episode I’ll introducing you to Careers In Psychology so you can realise just what is possible with an amazing psychology degree. Today’s episode has been sponsored by Careers In Psychology By Connor Whiteley. 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. Note: as always nothing on the podcast is ever any sort of official, professional or career advice or guidance. Extract From Careers In Psychology By Connor Whiteley. COPYRIGHT 2023. As much as I and everyone else reading this book probably wants to get onto the “good bits” about careers in psychology. It is critical that we actually focus on why it is important to look at? Since everyone reading this book probably does psychology in one form or another, and I can promise you that we all have certain areas of psychology that we aren’t very keen on. For me, it’s business psychology because it flat out doesn’t interest me. For you, it might be social or biological or cognitive psychology. Yet the thing that helps us get through these difficult areas is the fact we know why it is important. The reason tends to be as simple as knowing we need the information for our exams, but it still helps us to focus. Therefore, that’s why this chapter is needed, so in case you find a chapter you aren’t too interested later on then you know why it is still good to read it. I now know that from writing this book how some career options can really take you up surprise. The Most Important Reason: As you’ll see throughout the book, knowing where you want to go in psychology is critical from an early start because if know where you want to go then you can aim for it, make decisions that will help you get there and do the requirements that that particular career route requires. For example, if you wanted to do clinical psychology in the future (forgetting how massive all areas of psychology are) then it is a good idea to start taking clinical psychology modules in your undergraduate degree so you can start to show extra interest and learn more about your future career. Therefore, if you learn about career options sooner rather later, then this can give you a great goal to aim for when it comes to making decisions about your degree and modules. Personally, this is what I did with my undergraduate degree because I knew I wanted to work in clinical psychology in the future. Leading me to find a degree with clinical psychology modules and I went from there. In fact, I managed to find a degree that was a lot more specialised in clinical psychology than a “normal” psychology degree. Due to my undergraduate degree has a lot more compulsory clinical psychology modules than non-specialised psychology degrees. Overall, because I made a decision about my possible future career early, it really did help me understand the type of courses, extra things and experiences that I needed to try to do in an effort to improve my employability skills. Don’t worry. We will talk about a lot more these things in this book, so pleas rest assured all these types of things mentioned two paragraphs above will be made clear to you. Massive Overlap This is definitely something that I realised after writing a lot of the book but there is a massive amount of material in the book that overlaps with each other. For example, you might be reading a chapter on careers in academia and there’s a paragraph or two that applies to careers in business or clinical psychology. I was rather surprised at how much content overlapped and helped to reinforce or reexplain what was mentioned in other chapters. As well as as I was writing the book out, I too found it very helpful since this overlapping content provided a fresh perspective on that information. My point is, is don’t skip a chapter of this book. You might hate the idea of working in academia (me too!) but I would still read it for two reasons. Firstly, you’ll probably find some minor overlapping information which might help you understand something you’ve read in another chapter. Secondly, it will give you more awareness about what it is actually possible with your psychology degree. As well as whilst this might not be useful right now, it might be in the future. Especially if you go into one degree, find out you hate it, then remember another career you read about and might like the sound of that. Basically, please give yourself options. And believe me, with a psychology degree those are hardly in short supply! I really hope you enjoyed today’s Careers In Psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Careers In Psychology By Connor Whiteley. 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. Psychology Reference Whiteley, C. (2023) Careers In Psychology. CGD Publishing, England, United Kingdom 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.

Humanity’s obsession with serial killers and murders shows itself in many different forms. Be it from watching crime programmes on TV and movies, reading true crimes about horrific murders that happened in the real world or some people decide to research and interview killers themselves. People are very interested in serial killers but why? In this fascinating forensic psychology episode, we look at why are people interested in serial killers? People interested in forensic and criminal psychology will enjoy this great episode. Today’s episode has been sponsored by Criminal Profiling. 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. Also if you enjoy addictive, gripping, compelling mystery and crime short stories, then please check out my Kickstarter to get 100 short stories for a bargain price before the 3rd February 2023. Why Are People Fascinated By Serial Killers? Personally, I cannot deny that I’m one of these people interested in crime and murder and negative events. I will never be a true crime reader or podcast listener, but I do find myself reading and listening to cases on the news, reading crime and mystery fiction and other smaller ways that expose me to the darker side of human nature. I even think that once in a while we cover something here on the podcast that is a little dark. However, I think we can all agree that people are fascinated by serial killers and this isn’t anything new since Aristotle commented on this back in 250 CBE with the following quote: “Objects which in themselves we view with pain, we delight to contemplate when reproduced with minute fidelity: such as the forms of the most ignoble animals and of dead bodies.” Therefore, even back in ancient Greece, you can see how people were thinking about dead bodies and this fascination has only increased over the past thousands of years. Leading some researchers to propose that this allure of destruction as well as death could have a physiological basis. One piece of evidence for the idea is our brains and our physiology shows a greater response to negative stimuli than positive ones. Meaning people are stimulated more by negative events, and this is why the media also focuses on negative stories since people are drawn to stories about destruction and death. Typically, this phenomenon is called “morbid curiosity” and this encompasses people’s fear and excitement that draws their attention to death and terror. And this is very used by endless numbers of podcasts, movies, books and TV shows, because all of these forms of entertainment try to help give people something to satisfy their hunger for more information about death and terror. In fact, and personally I do find this very disturbing, murderabilia (the collecting of things connected to murders) is a pricey industry. With the industry selling all sorts of things connected to famous crimes, like hair, murder weapons and sketches as well as drawings of killers. At the end of the day, morbid curiosity is all about excitement and fear. And personally I don’t know anything that would be more fearful and exciting then going into someone’s house and seeing they had a weapon used in a famous murder. It would be a brilliant conversation starter and stopper. Why Are People Fascinated With Serial Killers: Fear Let’s face it, serial killers, murderers and all those extreme criminal types they scare us and they provoke a fearful response. This is good from a survival viewpoint because we all fear things that can harm us and having a fear response helps us to avoid harmful things, so we constantly monitor things that can and will harm us. This is because fear is a natural response that humans have to a horrific event, and as much as we try to close our eyes, we have to open them at some point. Having closed eyes to the dangers of the world will not keep us safe. Therefore, some researchers argue that we’re interested in serial killers, murderers and other criminals in the real world so we can understand the dangers better. Personally, I do understand this but again, I prefer to do this in fictionalised ways. Yet I do understand why some people want to hear about the true crimes because they’re reals (obviously) and they’re darker than a lot of what they show on TV. Lastly for this section, we’re also relieved that we aren’t the victims. And by watching, listening and reading about true crimes, people might be provided with information about how to survive a similar situation or perhaps avoid becoming a victim of a violent act altogether. As a result, people do struggle to look away from threatening events and this is why the allure of murder, terror and death is so strong all over the western world. And it will remain for a long time. Serial Killers And Sensation-Seeking Finally, another aspect to how people are fascinated by serial killers is a person’s sensation-seeking behaviour, because this involves their need for ever-increasing stimuli to satisfy the need for new and exciting experiences. Sometimes this sensation-seeking comes in the form of risky behaviours like skydiving and mountain climbing or betting on horses. Yet serial killers serve as another way for some people. Since learning about serial killers, their terrifying ways of stalking and hunting victims and the long often twisted road to finally get justice for the victims can be stimulating to some people. Now I say some people, because I read and write and watch enough entertainment with serial killers in that I just don’t want to see real life serial killers. I seriously don’t. However, I will note that the downside of sensation seeking behaviour is that over time greater and greater amounts of stimulation are needed to satisfy their need for exciting and new experiences. Forensic Psychology Conclusion In this episode, we looked at a lot of reasons why people are fascinated with serial killers and if we bring it all together, we have these reasons. People are interested in death and destruction because of our own morbid curiosity and this is something we all have. We all want to find out more about the darker side of life including death and murder. Also people’s fear responses make them focus on serial killers because they want to learn about these dark events so perhaps they could be learn from them or fulfil their own need for sensation and stimulation. At the end of this episode, I want to wrap up by saying that I won’t be reading, listening or watching true crime programmes anytime sooner. Yet tonight as I’ll write this I’ll probably read a mystery with a dead body or something similar. The vast majority of people enjoy learning about death and terror that is simply a part of us as a culture. And as psychologists I certainly think that is something that should fascinate us, but maybe also scare us. Just a little. 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 Check out my Kickstarter before the 3rd February 2023 to get 100 Mystery and Crime short stories Criminal Profiling. 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 and Criminal Psychology Reference Harrison, M. A, & Frederick, E. J. (2022). Interested in serial killers? Morbid curiosity in college students. Current Psychology, 41, 3768-3777. 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.

Personally, I believe that no mental health condition is a true reason why a person cannot become a therapist or should be blocked from a chosen career path. As current or future clinical psychologists, we need to help realise that a mental health condition isn’t the end of a person’s life with plenty of lost opportunities, but a life that is still worth living. It might be more difficult to perform in certain professionals but a mental condition is not the certain end of the road that many in our society believe. Hence why in today’s clinical psychology episode, we’ll be looking at the positives and potential challenges therapists with ADHD can face in the psychology workplace. Today’s episode has been sponsored by Careers In 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. A Brief Introduction To ADHD I’ve spoken about ADHD on the podcast a few times now but in case you’re new to the condition, we need to quickly talk about it. Since ADHD is often misunderstood in our society because even the name is a massive oversimplification because ADHD people don’t have an Attention-deficit per se. Instead they have a difficulty in controlling their attention. As well as ADHD impacts and impairs a person’s motivation, memory, focus, processing speed, emotion processing, reward response and more. Therefore, it can be said that people with ADHD don’t have the biological tools that other people do, so they struggle to use these processes effectively depending on the situation. As well as it certainly isn’t helpful at all that the truth around ADHD is often muddled up with tons of misinformation on the internet so the general public find it hard to understand what ADHD involves. For example, most people have no idea that ADHD includes hyperfocus, which for the sake of ease, you could possibly compare to such an intense focus like an obsession, and not a child bouncing off the walls. Equally ADHD can include behaviours like fidgeting with a pen, racing thoughts or making impulsive shopping decisions, but of course no one really thinks about these behaviours because they aren’t as flashy and loud as other facets of ADHD. Therefore, now we know what ADHD is, how can this impact therapists that have the condition? How ADHD Impacts Therapeutic Skills? To be honest a therapist is nothing or not very good if they don’t have therapeutic skills, and these are the skills that they learn about in their training. For example, micro-skills like body position and eye contact. Yet therapists also learn about things like cues towards the client like encouragement and nodding, as well as macro-skills like reflecting on the meaning of something. In addition, therapists learn the importance of these skills because they help to make a safe and comfortable space for the client. Of course, most of these skills are very culturally and client-dependent but in many western cultures, therapists are encouraged to maintain eye contact and encourage clients to do the talking for the most part. However, for therapists with ADHD it can be difficult for them to process information whilst holding eye contact. Therefore, sadly people with ADHD are often moaned at because they appear rude or not paying attention, when in reality they actually are taking in a lot more information than other people believe. As well as reflecting in depth can be difficult for people with ADHD as they tend to speak about things in ways that others might view as tangential. I think this is a shame on the part of other people, because people with ADHD can be therapists. They can be taught the skills and knowledge and have the practical skills needed to help improve lives and decrease psychological distress. Yet because of their condition they might have to behave differently in front of clients, like the lack of eye contact, which is misinterpreted so the therapist with ADHD gets criticized for no reason. Maybe more open communication would be helpful here but this could be problematic for sure. How ADHD Impacts Focus? I think this is the clearest concern or difficulty for therapists with ADHD because therapists have to focus on and think about another person’s thoughts, feelings and emotions all whilst trying to pull out their meaning and make connections. This requires an awful amount of focus and even writing out that paragraph I felt tired just thinking about having to do all of that, but then a therapist would have to do this for up to an hour multiple times a day. And this actually reminds me of a conversation I was having with a lecturer last year about how he’s almost glad occasionally to have clients drop out of therapy because it gives him an hour break and an hour to catch up on paperwork. As a result, with ADHD impairing attention control, this kind of focus would take even more energy for a person with ADHD. As well as it can mean the therapist ends up fighting against their own brain without any common coping mechanisms like background noise or something as simple as fidgeting. Therefore, this can cause a lot of anxiety for the therapist and this is before we add their natural concern about missing something important that the client said. How ADHD Impacts Organisational Skills? As we all know from our studies or real-life work experience, the work of a therapist doesn’t end at the end of a therapy session. I really wished it did but it doesn’t. Since the therapist has to write up notes, plan future sessions, schedule clients and all of these tasks involve a lot of executive functioning to help the person stay on track. And to be honest, this might not sound too bad on the face of it, but when we consider that a therapist might have a caseload of 20 to 30 clients then that is a lot, a lot of scheduling, planning and more to do each week. And this is before you take into account the therapist’s personal life, life event and more. This all increases the likelihood of a therapist, let alone a person with ADHD, mixing up or forgetting information or certain details. Of course, this is going to add stress and anxiety for therapists with ADHD and this only adds to the list of things they have on their mind whilst they working. Basically already adding to a very full plate. Benefits Of ADHD For Therapists Now I do want to return to a point I always try to make on this podcast, if a client or yourself has a mental health condition, you will face difficulties. I will never ever deny that, but people with mental conditions can be supported, helped and most of the time they can live a fairly normal life given the right support. And that is absolutely true for people with ADHD who want to become therapists. I truly believe that and there are two major benefits of having ADHD if a person wanted to work in clinical psychology. How ADHD Benefits Empathy For Therapists? Interestingly, people with ADHD generally experience more intense emotions than neurotypical people and others without the condition. This is particularly useful because one of the many roles of a therapist is to think about a client’s feelings and use their own personal reactions to those feelings as a tool for helping the client deal with them. Therefore, if a therapist had ADHD then they’re more likely to experience stronger reactions and this can make it easier for them to access these tools in a therapy session. Of course, it’s important for a therapist with ADHD to ensure these strong emotions don’t flood them, but when a therapist can use their more intense emotions effectively then this could be a very powerful tool to not only help their clients, but connect and strength the therapeutic alliance as well. How ADHD Benefits Creativity For Therapists? ADHD can be a great benefit for people because it increases creativity and this is often referred to as divergent thinking, and the condition can make it easier for people to think outside the box and come up with creative solutions. Which is flat out critical in clinical psychology because sometimes there are clients that have such a range of factors maintaining their maladaptive coping mechanisms that therapists really need to think outside the box to help them. As well as if “traditional” approaches don’t work for a particular client then a therapist who thinks quickly and creatively is best here, and that is perfect for a therapist with ADHD. Conclusion: Moving Beyond The Stigma I sort of realise now after 186 episodes of the podcast that one of my missions with the podcast is empowerment. The empowerment of not only you as the listener to do whatever you want in psychology, but also the empowerment of all those with a mental health condition, because it doesn’t defy them. And this is the entire point of today’s podcast episode because if you or someone you know has ADHD, loves psychology and wants to become a psychologist then they could. It will be more difficult for them but then some aspects will be easier for them too. The real problem I believe is that there is so much stigma and misinformation about ADHD, and the obstacles that people with ADHD face are very easy to overlook and this overlooking can make daily life trickier. Resulting in people internalising these struggles as something to be shamed of, like they’re messed up and they couldn’t possibly achieve anything meaningful in life. Instead of this only means they think differently to people without the condition. However, I do truly believe that people with ADHD can become therapists, and these people will require support but it is possible. A therapist with ADHD might need to find a subtle way to fidget during sessions to help them focus, they might want to engage in therapeutic models outside the traditional Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, like play therapy, to help them maintain their focus better as they aren’t sitting in an office and they’re actually doing something a little physical. Or a therapist might want to ask a peer for them to take notes together. It’s important to adapt to the way the ADHD brain works, instead of forcing all therapists to work in the exact same way. ADHD obstacles are real and they’re exhausting but it doesn’t mean a person cannot thrive, achieve great things and help people. Just like a neurotypical therapist does. 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 Careers In 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. ADHD, Psychotherapy and Clinical Psychology References Rucklidge, J. J. (2010). Gender differences in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Psychiatric Clinics, 33(2), 357-373. Skirrow, C., Ebner-Priemer, U., Reinhard, I., Malliaris, Y., Kuntsi, J., & Asherson, P. (2014). Everyday emotional experience of adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: evidence for reactive and endogenous emotional lability. Psychological medicine, 44(16), 3571-3583. Taylor, C. L., Esmaili Zaghi, A., Kaufman, J. C., Reis, S. M., & Renzulli, J. S. (2020). Divergent thinking and academic performance of students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder characteristics in engineering. Journal of Engineering Education, 109(2), 213-229. 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.

To kick off the new year I really wanted to return our focus to the amazing world of forensic psychology and fire-setting behaviours. In this fascinating episode of the podcast, we’ll look at why children start fires and commit arson. If you love learning about youth offending and criminal psychology then you’re bound to love this brilliant episode. Today’s psychology podcast episode is sponsored by The Forensic Psychology of Theft, Burglary and Property Crime. 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. Why Do We Need To Look At Why Children Start Fires? Whilst I’ve written about the topic before, youthful offending when it comes to arson is hardly rare because according to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 1,200 adolescents and children were arrested on fire-setting-related charges in 2020. Also research from the Department of Justice shows that over 50% of arson cases were committed by youth offenders. Therefore, this is important to look at because the vast majority of fires are started by children. Another reason why this is an important area is because deliberate firesetting by everyone often results in death or injury and around $1.4 billion in property damage each year. As a result, if we can understand why children set fires then we can hopefully prevent them and stop some of the injuries, death and sheer amount of damage from happening in the first place. Nonetheless, given how much I hate Criminal Profiling as I explain in my book, I’m hardly surprised that there’s limited research for a so-called psychology profile, but there is research showing that most perpetrators are motivated by instrumental factors. For instance, a strong desire for some kind of financial gain. Why Children Start Fires: Motivations Abuse and Neglect As Child Firesetting Factors and What Targets Do Children Set Fire To? Firstly, one reason why children set fires can be found in Root et al. (2008) because the researchers found that abused and neglected children were more likely to be involved in firesetting when compared to children that weren’t treated in this disgusting way. Also the researchers found that the abused children who set fires were more motivated by anger and rage as well as more flexible in their firesetting targets, with their firesetting behaviours being more likely linked to immediate family stressors than other factors. Moreover, most commonly children set fire to isolated wooded areas and abandoned structures but a 2015 study from Ekbrand and Uhnoo analysed tons of cases of school firesetting with them finding that many offenders engage in school firesetting to obstruct school activities, commit vandalism and eliminate evidence of school burglary. The Notion of Mental Health and Child Firesetting It was towards the end of this post when I realised that there were so many myths and misconceptions about firesetting and mental health that this just needed its own section so we could really focus on it. Consequently, research shows that adult firesetters can be motivated by anger and rage or they engage in typical behaviours as a cry for help. Yet researchers have also determined that certain antisocial behaviours, communications and self-regulation problems play, as well as certain mental health conditions, could underpin some of these criminal offences. As a result of a person who engages in these abnormal firesetting practices could be suffering from a pyromania. Which is an impulse-control disorder with the hallmark of a pattern of firesetting that functions as an avenue of gratification or to release their anxiety. However, I have to admit, the literature is go vague on the idea of pyromania and to be honest, there seems to be such a limited amount of research that even suggests pyromania is a mental health condition. As well as even psychologists like Robert Stadolnik who has performed firesetting risk assessment for over 30 years points out how he has never ever met a child that fits the diagnosis of pyromania because the very notion that a child has an innate urge to set fire is a complete myth. So again I think that is a tedious claim to say that pyromania motivates children. Additionally, returning to the 2015 study we looked at earlier, they also found that people diagnosed with severe mental health conditions and targeted schools had no educational relationship with the school at the time of the offence. Which I would personally imagine sounds a little weird because you would have imagined they might want to burn down a school because they were angry with it, but this isn’t the case according to the 2015 study. In addition, when it comes to mental health of youth firesetters, Michael and Slavkin (2014) found this group of offenders often has difficulties in communicating with their family members, peers and people at school. Then these social deficits could have a negative impact on their mental health, possibly leading to an amplifying of their firesetting behaviour. Which could effectively co-occur with conduct or antisocial difficulties. Another mental health condition that is also of interest to arson researchers is Conduct Disorder. Which is characterised by a pattern of behavioural and emotional problems including disregarding others. As well as firesetting with intent to cause property damage is listed as an example of problematic behaviour for Conduct Disorder in the DSM-5. Finally, when it comes to child firesetters many of them have a history of PTSD, victimisation and generalised anxiety disorder as well. Due to all of these are extremely common in this offender demographic too. However, it is critical to note here that just because a child sets a fire, it doesn’t mean that they have a mental health condition or that mental health is even remotely a primary cause of firesetting by children. Overall, I think of course mental health plays a role in child firesetting because to say it is the only factor, or even a major factor isn’t a good idea, and it is very reductionist. Therefore, let’s talk about some other reasons for child firesetting now. Gender and Child Firesetting Behaviour Furthermore, when it comes to gender and gender differences in firesetting behaviour, research and experience from Stadolnik, shows that firesetters are mainly males yet researchers are seeing an increase in female firesetting in adolescent populations. As well as there isn’t any exact research at the moment on the gender differences in firesetting, but Stadolnik affirms that young people set fires for the thrill, as coping mechanisms for past experiences and they want to experiment with fire with the psychologist saying “Some kids will set fires as a means to self-soothe… Many of the children we see have a history of trauma or neglect.” Personally, I would prefer to see more research into this area because there is such a lack of it at the moment and that’s one of the things that I realised when I was writing the arson section of the book. Therefore, I do hope that this improves over time and more researchers conduct research that will help us to really understand why they do it and what are the gender differences. Especially as right now I sort of feel like sometimes research and opinions in this area just read like guesswork. Forensic Psychology Conclusion In today’s episode, we’ve looked at a lot of reasons for why children set fires. Some of them are related to mental health, some aren’t and there is a lot of evidence that mental health isn’t as major of a factor as everyone thinks it is. However, the point of today’s episode is that firesetting is a dangerous behaviour and a potential feature of a mental health condition. Yet without more research into the area, we just will not know the full extent and how major any of these factors actually are. As well as clinical psychologists will have to be involved at some point because even if this firesetting behaviour isn’t a part of a mental health condition, we still have the knowledge to hopefully help the child to change their behaviour, thoughts and desires so they will hopefully set fires less and stop committing so much damage. That is the hope anyway, and everything good in the world always starts with a little hope. 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 The Forensic Psychology of Theft, Burglary and Property Crime. 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 Apsche, J. A., Siv, A. M., & Bass, C. K. (2005). A case analysis of MDT with an adolescent with conduct personality disorder and fire setting behaviors. International Journal of Behavioral Consultation and Therapy, 1(4), 312. Garry, E. M. (1997). Juvenile firesetting and arson. US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Root, C., Mackay, S., Henderson, J., Del Bove, G., & Warling, D. (2008). The link between maltreatment and juvenile firesetting: Correlates and underlying mechanisms. Child Abuse & Neglect, 32(2), 161-176. Ekbrand, H., & Uhnoo, S. (2015). Juvenile firesetting in schools. Journal of Youth Studies, 18(10), 1291-1308. Slavkin, M. L. (2002). Child & Adolescent Psychiatry: What Every Clinician Needs to Know About Juvenile Firesetters. Psychiatric services, 53(10), 1237-1238. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). (n.d). Estimated number of juvenile arrests, 2020. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). Retrieved November 25, 2022, from https://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/crime/qa05101.asp Dalhuisen, L., Koenraadt, F., & Liem, M. (2017). Subtypes of firesetters. Criminal behaviour and mental health, 27(1), 59-75. 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.

For the very last podcast episode of 2022, I want to look at terror management theory and how can we apply this theory to the holiday season. Since whilst this episode comes out the day after Christmas, it is still a great time to look at this seasonal topic, even if most of us are still recovering from the day before. I don’t drink but I know I will still be recovering from all the amazing food of the day. Therefore, if you enjoy social psychology, terror management theory and the holiday season then you will love today’s episode. Today’s psychology podcast 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. How Terror Management Theory Connects To Christmas? The holidays and the Christmas season is a wonderful time of year filled with singing, presents and most importantly food. Oh yeah, and friends and family. I love Christmas because it is always such a fun time of year and it is so nice to have a little downtime towards the end of the year when we can all come together give presents, spend time together and see our friends and family. However, we also need to remember that Christmas can be a strange time of year for all of us too, because the family and friends we’ve lost. I know that is always a very minor theme at our Christmas day celebrations because my paternal grandad comes to us every Christmas now only because my grandma died in April 2020 (thankfully it wasn’t COVID related) and the same goes for my great-aunt. She only comes to us every Christmas now because her husband died of dementia in March 2021, so there is always a very, very minor theme of loss at our Christmases. And I’m hardly alone in this. I’m sure that some of you listeners experience the same each Christmas. Leading us onto Terror Management Theory, which is a branch of psychology research that was developed in 2015 with Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski and Sheldon Solomon writing their book The Worm at the Core which is all about death anxiety. With the book proposing that death anxiety drives people to adopt a worldview that both defends as well as defends them from facing reality. Since the theory proposes that when thoughts about death are in our awareness, we attempt to remove these thoughts by suppressing them, engaging in behaviour that reduces our sense of vulnerability or we deny the threat exists. In addition, Terror Management Theory suggests that a lot of our own life decisions are, in reality, distractions to help us deal with our own death anxiety. In other words, the concerns and worries that a person has about their own death, someone else’s or the process of dying itself. And I realise now that when I thought of doing this podcast episode, I thought it would be really cheery but now I realise how much I’m talking about death. But I promise you it will get more cheery soon. Anyway, life choices like our careers, rituals and our routines are all ways that allow us to give meaning and purpose to our lives and this allows us to believe that we play an important role in the world. Yet according to the theory, these are only distractions from our death anxiety and the truth is that we live in a meaningless way. Now, personally, I can sort of see where this is coming from because in its most basic elements it is correct. Since in the grand scheme of things, the human life span is a mere flare of light. When in reality, everyone can make small meaningful differences in the world and I choose to believe that this does make an impact over time. For example, when Nicola Tesla created the light bulb, sure he had a massive impact on history and the world we lived in but he wasn’t alone. There had to be other small influences, impacts and other factors that led him to have the massive and hardly meaningless impact of giving us light. The same goes for the creators of Apple, Google and Amazon. These companies and their workers are changed the retail, technology and other landscapes forever and their impacts will echo throughout the generations because of their meaningful impact, just like the people behind the Industrial Revolution. Equally to put this in more an everyday context, a charity might do useful and amazing and meaningful work that could lead to great things. For example, if a homeless charity helps a young person to get off the streets, go to university and they become a doctor that saves life. The charity did a meaningful thing but the charity is useless without its donor (even the 50p donors). So what I’m trying to say is that even the smallest actions can have truly massive impacts in the true, so yes some actions are meaningless, but I think to say all actions are meaningless is simply foolish. Ernest Becker and Terror Management Theory However, terror management theory isn’t a new idea at all because Ernest Becker wrote back in 1973, in his book The Denial of Death, that most human actions are very ignorant to our own mortality as supported with the following quote: "It is fateful and ironic how the lie we need to live dooms us to a life that is never really ours." Therefore, it could be argued that everything we do in life from our search for wealth, power and influence, are actually (and I am talking very deep down here) all driven by our need to feel invincibility and this in turn helps to protect us from our fears about death. How Terror Management Theory Links With Christmas? Surprisingly enough, we can still connect Christmas to terror management theory because the rituals, consumerism and routines of the Christmas holiday season can definitely serve this function, but only if we let it. However, even though, this podcast episode might have come across as bleak and maybe a little depressing, it actually isn’t meant to because there’s a critical takeaway that all of us can use in our Christmas season. It is the takeaway that this Christmas and whenever there are special occasions in our lives, if we approach them a deeper and bigger appreciation of everyone and everything we have in our lives. Then this can serve as a merry reminder that Christmas and the holiday season is a time of year to savour life, what really matters to us and turn our thoughts to the people that are already living with the loss of loved ones and friends. Christmas really is a magical time of year filled with presents, family and friends and amazing food, but that is why Christmas is such a powerful time of year. Because it really is the time of year to make ourselves feel better, strong and certainly a lot less fearful about what will happen to all of us in the end. 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 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 References Becker, E. (1973). The Denial of Death. New York: Simon & Schuster. Solomon, S., Greenberg, J., & Pyszczynski, T. (2015). The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life. London: Penguin. Think Like a Therapist. Six Life-changing Insights for Leading a Good Life By Stephen Joseph 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.

This episode will go out to the world in Christmas Week 2022, and since I’m a romance writer in addition to a few other genres, I thought it would be really fun to look at an extremely light-hearted topic this week on the podcast. Because I would like to think that some listeners of the podcast would be spending it with their boyfriends, girlfriends and other partners this holiday season. And other listeners might be engaging in a holiday romance, so this does beg the question, how do you know if a seasonal romance is real or not? And that’s what we’ll focus on in today’s social psychology podcast episode. This really is going to be a lot of fun. Note: as always nothing on the podcast is ever any sort of professional, relationships or official advice. Today’s episode has been sponsored by Psychology of Relationships: The Social Psychology of Friendships, Romantic Relationships 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’s “Winter Coating”? Before researching this topic I had never heard of the term “winter coating” before and this is where former couples rekindle their relationship over the holiday season and discard it like a winter coat when the spring (if that) arrives because this is the time when new dating opportunities arise. This “winter coating” is probably a short-term dating strategy used throughout the year for couples but it is just more on show during the holiday season. As well as what I personally find surprising is that there’s research on the topic showing men and women tend to value different types of traits depending on their own personal relational readiness and intentions. The Christmas Crush Research Some of this research includes Mehmet Mehmetoglu and Ilmari Maattanen (2022) because these two researchers studied the types of traits that both men and women value in short-term relationships. The researchers also acknowledged that prior research has found that women are more selective in general, but both sexes are more selective in choosing long-term partners compared to short-term ones. As a result, the researchers studied 1,000 people and their results showed that men were more selective regarding a person’s physical appearance and women were more selective in all other areas of partner preference. For example, valuing, dominance, kindness, intellect as well as understanding. However, Mehmetoglu and Maattanen found that a person’s relational intentions mattered as well, because they found that people who were looking for a short-term relationship had a higher preference for physical appearance, sociability and humour. This I think makes perfect sense around the holiday season because there tends to be a lot of parties, social events and work-dos so it only makes sense for a person to pick a short-term partner that’s sociable, they can show off to their friends and families and can give a good impression of them, or at least their tastes in partners. Yet when it came to people who were looking for a long-term partner, these people valued other things more highly than physical appearance, sociability and humour. Since these people showed a higher selectivity in most other areas of partner preference. For instance, kindness, reliability, understanding, domestic and cultivated and how similar they were to each other. Another surprising finding of the research is that the researchers found there was no interaction effect between mating strategy and sex. Meaning that the differences between long-term and short-term partner seekers and what types of mate preferences they valued wasn’t based on sex. In other words, they found no difference between how men and women decide between partners. As well as it shows that when it comes to short-term relationships both men and women value the same traits. How To Spot A Short-Timer? As nice as I think it would be that we could read the minds of our suitors, what we can do is interpret their behaviour so you can know if you’re being “winter coated”, and we can learn how to stop ourselves falling for it. Firstly, one of the signs to watch is the changing of seasons since you were ever contacted by a previous love interest, then naturally you would want to review your time with them through a rose-coloured lens. This isn’t the best idea. Since it would be best to put on your “reading glasses” (to use a terrible analogy) and remind yourself why you or them broke up in the first place. Due to people change, including you, and a past romance might not fit the person you are anymore and it might not be right for you at this stage of your life. Secondly, timing definitely matters because if an ex texts you during the summer and apparently misses the two of you spending time together walking on beaches, then in all fairness this person is more likely to miss you than, let’s say, someone who texts you in the winter months when all they want is your company to some parties. Thirdly, old flames save money, I’m not exactly sure where this reason fits in the whole warning sign or protecting yourself bit, but old relationships save you money compared to sparking new ones. And I suppose this is because with new relationships you tend to go out to dinner at neutral locations, you buy each other gifts and more. Yet when an old flame wants to get back together with you to only cut costs then this should be a massive no-no. Since so-called “dates” will consist of invitations to watch a movie on the sofa and order a takeaway, and you might start to wonder if you’re being used or not. As this person could be sending signs to you that they aren’t willing to spend money at all on you in a meaningful way. And this is even more true when your so-called “date” wants to spend time with you to keep warm and low their own heating bill. I was very shocked to learn people actually did that. Finally, and this links to what I said earlier about showing you off as a new date, but definitely be mindful that there is a chance a new or old partner might want to take you to a party as a mere accessory to improve their appearance. Basically this would make you worth no more than a nice designer watch or handbag, it certainly doesn’t make you seem special, even though you are. Social Psychology Conclusion We started this podcast episode by looking at the great question of how to tell if a seasonal romance is serious or not? And I really feel like we know the answer by now because if you suspect that an ex’s sudden interest in you is seasonal-related then maybe you shouldn’t waste your time on them because you really are just being “winter coated”. And you never know that might free you up to meet an authentic love interest that sees you for who you truly are. A bright, intelligent, amazing person that is far more than a mere winter coat. 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 Psychology of Relationships: The Social Psychology of Friendships, Romantic Relationships 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 References Mehmetoglu, Mehmet, and Ilmari Määttänen. 2020. “Norwegian Men and Women Value Similar Mate Traits in Short-Term Relationships.” Evolutionary Psychology 18 (4). doi:10.1177/1474704920979623. https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/why-bad-looks-good/202212/how-tell-if-seasonal-romance-is-superficial-or-serious 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.

As this podcast is mainly for psychology students and professionals, we should have all heard about cognitive behavioural therapy, what is it and why it is so effective at treating a wide range of mental health conditions. As well as different forms of cognitive behavioural therapy have been adapted to treat different conditions, like psychosis, and now we’ll going to look at a different form of cognitive behavioural therapy that focuses on treating Eating Disorders. This is going to be a great podcast episode that is absolutely perfect for anyone interested in mental health, clinical psychology and eating disorders. This podcast 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. Introduction To Enhanced Cognitive Behavioural Therapy As many of us know, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a very popular and extremely well-researched psychotherapy that is highly effective at treating a wide range of mental health conditions. For example, depression, OCD, anxiety amongst a bunch of other conditions. As well as CBT focuses on identifying a client’s patterns of thoughts, emotions and/ or the behaviours that negatively impact and influence their lives. As a result of its effectiveness, CBT has been adapted into different forms to treat different conditions more effectively. Including Enhanced CBT (CBT-E) that is focused on treating eating disorders, and this will the focus of this brilliant podcast episode. What Is CBT-E? When it comes to treating eating disorders, like Anorexia (AN), Binge Eating Disorder (BED) and Bulimia Nervosa (BN), CBT-E is considered a first-line and evidence-based treatment for these conditions amongst other eating disorders. And even though, these conditions present us, as current or future, psychologists with very different problematic behaviours, they all share the same foundational features at their very core. Such as people with Anorexia, BED and Bulimia, they all often experience extreme concerns with their weight, body shape and/ or find it difficult to cope with negative emotions. These factors lead to a client to “overvalue” their body shape and weight and mood intolerance, all of which are common triggers to problematic eating behaviours. Such as binge eating, purging and food restriction. Therefore, CBT-E is a very structured and manualised treatment like other forms of CBT, that is intended to fit the client “like a glove” by focusing on creating a personalised map or formulation of the client’s eating disorder in order to create a customised plan for addressing the unique patterns and challenges. Personally, this is why I love formulation so much, because it is so critical and important when it comes to mental health conditions. Since you can have two clients with the exact same eating disorder, but you cannot treat them exactly the same, because each other will have their own backgrounds, histories and social and psychological factors that can be causing the maladaptive coping mechanisms. And that’s why creating a formulation that is personalised to the client is so critical. However, CBT-E isn’t a first-line approach for adolescents and children with anorexia or bulimia. In these cases, it is very common for treatments for children and teenagers with eating disorders to incorporate caregivers either as a central part of the treatment or very closely integrated. Since Family-based treatment is a far more common recommendation for younger people presenting with disordered eating. What Are The Four Stages of CBT-E? In terms of practicalities, there are four stages of CBT-E that are done over the course of 20 to 40 weeks using regular outpatient therapy sessions. Normally not a lot of clients reach the 40 week mark since this is only really for clients who need to restore their weight like clients with anorexia nervosa. As well as CBT-E highlights to clients the importance of “starting well” and building as much momentum at the start of therapy as they can, so sessions are normally twice a week for the first four to eight weeks, then they drop down to once a week for eight weeks and then go every-other-week afterwards. And I know I was surprised when I learnt that therapy sessions were twice a week at the start so I think others will be too. Yet there are a range of reasons for this, but one of them has to be that eating disorders are extremely deadly conditions as we’ve spoken about before. Therefore, it is critical to try to build as much momentum in the early parts of the therapy just to try and give the therapy as much chance of working as possible. Stage One of CBT-E The entire point of stage one is about understanding and then systematically addressing the factors that keep the client locked into their eating difficulties. To do this the therapy would guide the client in establishing a pattern of consistent as well as regular eating, and the client would learn how to effectively plan ahead, anticipate challenges and maintain a predictable routine of eating every few hours. Additionally, this first stage involves a lot of building self-awareness, education and problem-solving for the client to help them avoid known triggers. Then the therapist would expect significant change during this brief first stage of the first four to eight weeks. Stage Two Of CBT-E Secondly, stage two is only a session or two where the client and therapist reviews progression, collaborate on building a plan for Stage Three and identify any ongoing challenges. What Is Stage Three of CBT-E? Now Stage Three occurs during the once-a-week sessions and they focus on factors that could be fuelling the remaining problematic eating behaviours. These are typically concerned with body shape and weight. Also a lot of attention at this stage is focused on forms of over-control of food, like the types of food that a client continues to avoid, the restriction of their overall food intake and more. Overall, stage three focuses on the mood and event-related triggers of a client’s disordered eating. What Is Stage Four Of CBT-E? Finally, the fourth and final stage focus on the therapist and the client looking ahead to the future and life after CBT-E. Therefore, the client learns about consistency, mindfulness and how to engage strategies to reduce the vulnerability of them relapsing in the future. Barriers To Treatment and Barriers To CBT-E I always like to offset therapy-based podcast episodes by highlighting the immense problems that some amazing future-clients have when it comes to accessing therapy. I mainly do this because I want to help raise awareness so hopefully these barriers can be ripped down in the future. And yes, sometimes I really am that much of an optimist. When it comes to CBT-E, there are a number of barriers that prove very problematic for people because CBT-E is very expensive and it isn’t accessible to a lot of people. Especially in countries like the USA where they don’t have free healthcare, as well as from what I’ve read it seems to be difficult to find CBT-E providers that accept commercial insurance or Medicaid. Additionally, and please note this is NOT an official recommendation from me in any way, shape or form, but I have read a few experts recommend the book Overcoming Binge Eating By Christopher Fairburn by saying that his self-help guide can be used as an effective course for BED and sometimes BN, as well as it could be more effective if there was external support available as a supplement. But again, I am NOT recommending that book officially. Thankfully, there are some specialised eating disorder training and research centres that offer CBT-E at a reduced rate or even free of charge in exchange for participation in research studies. That is brilliant in my opinion, but this is a major problem that still needs to be fixed in society. Clinical Psychology Conclusion I will never deny that eating disorders are extremely deadly mental health conditions and treating the people with these conditions is beyond critical. I know I occasionally mention that psychotherapy saves lives, but in this case, I truly, truly mean it. And as current or future psychologists, we need to acknowledge that what we do has amazing power and is a force of good for people and their lives, so just remember that when you’re down or having a rough time. Because you truly never know what positive impact you’ll have on someone in their darkest hour. 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 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. Clinical Psychology and Eating Disorder References Atwood, M.E., Friedman, A. (2019). A systematic review of enhanced cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT-E) for eating disorders. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 53(3), 311-330. https://www.cbte.co/what-is-cbte/a-description-of-cbt-e/ Murphy R, Straebler S, Cooper Z, Fairburn CG. Cognitive behavioral therapy for eating disorders. Psychiatr Clin North Am. 2010 Sep;33(3):611-27. doi: 10.1016/j.psc.2010.04.004. PMID: 20599136; PMCID: PMC2928448. 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.

I was rather surprised lately to find out that a lot of psychology students and social work students constantly mix up these two disciplines and they don’t really know the difference. This is understandable because psychology and social work are related but very work disciplines. So in this psychology podcast episode, you’ll learn what are the differences between psychology and social work, how they’re similar and why both of them are very helpful to each other. If you’re interested in any form of applied psychology then you will definitely enjoy today’s episode. Today’s episode has been sponsored by Applied Psychology Collection: A Guide To Developmental, Health and 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. Introduction To The Differences Between Psychology and Social Work In all fairness, I have been sort of meaning to do a podcast episode on this topic for ages because it has popped up on my radar a good few times when psychology students have mixed up our work with social work. At the time, I was a little confused because I know the differences so I was surprised that other people didn’t understand the differences either. Yet on Tuesday, I was at my clinical psychology lecture and my lecturer made a brief comment about how the job of a social worker and clinical psychologist does get mixed up slightly. And that proved to be the tipping point for me to actually do a podcast episode on the differences but also the similarities since there is some overlap between our great disciplines. As well as I have to admit, this is a lot more interesting than you first imagine but please continue listening. Differences In The Names Now please don’t make a sarcastic comment about the name being different as one is called social work and the other is called psychology. But it’s also the meaning of the names because -ology at the end of psychology means that it is an empirical field to study and it mainly focuses on the study of human behaviour. Then social work ends in work meaning that whilst social work does focus and require study for its worker. It is still focused on the applied angle because the work aspect takes centre stage and not the study aspect. However, it’s important to note here that social work and psychology are similar in the fact that they both require you to study in order to work with people. Social work requires its people to learn how to effectively help people. Whilst psychology requires us to know how human behaviour works in order to help people. Therefore, some people recommend that social work students take a psychology course because as they’re working with people they might as well understand human behaviour. As well as Masters-level social work courses require people to take a human behaviour module too, but they might as get a good foundation under themselves early on. Additionally, other people recommend psychology students should take a social work course as well. Since it can help psychology students really understand how to work with and help the people they’re studying. Personally, I like this idea and this is why I like clinical psychology because there is such a large overlap between the two whilst still being very distinctive. Is Social Work Or Psychology Easier? I think this is a brilliant trick question, because as I’ve been testing a lot of first and second years for my Final year Project at the moment, I’ve found out that tons of people think psychology is hard. They’re shocked about how much it covers, how complex it is and some people wish they have never chosen it. Equally, some people think that social work is easier than psychology, because psychology covers everything. Social work does not. Psychology has thousands of subfields and topics that students need to learn. Social work does not. And there are so many statistics and computer programmes and other nightmares to deal with in psychology. But there is not in social work. However, this is a trick question and a very false idea that has been created. Due to social work is not easier than psychology, and psychology isn’t easier than social work. Because they are very different subfields that require a lot of different learning. For example, yes in psychology, you will have to learn about biological psychology, social psychology and cognitive psychology just to get a foundation under you. Before you then start learning about personality, clinical and developmental psychology. As well as R studio for statistics. Yet you still have to learn tons in social work too. So a very helpful way to remember this is simply, psychology is a science and social work is based on science. There are tons of different pieces of information to learn in both so there is no easier or harder option. Is Psychology or Social Work More Applicable To The Real World? I love this question because it is very easy and hard to answer. Since I know that social work mainly focuses every single lesson towards the student’s future career and it is very possible that you can use every single thing you learn in social work in your future career and everyday life. So in that respect social work is most certainly more applicable to the real world. I think all of you listeners can support that too because come on, most of the stuff from cognitive psychology, biological psychology and personality. I don’t think we will ever use that in our everyday life, let alone future careers unless you specifically work in those areas. Am I wrong? However, psychology can be very applicable to the real world as well. That is the idea that developmental, clinical and forensic psychology are built on. How do we use psychological theory and knowledge and apply it to these problems. Therefore, psychology is very applicable to the real world and real problems too. Differences Between Social Work and Psychology Ethics When I was researching this episode, I came across a brilliant article about the differences between psychology and social work ethics. Now I won’t go into psychology ethics much for two main reasons. One, I have a book coming out in October 2023 called Ethics In Psychology, available for pre-order now, and the wonderful listeners of this podcast are all mainly psychology students and professionals so you all know the basics of psychology ethics. Nonetheless, I was surprised to learn that the ethical guidelines that social work includes six values that psychology does not. These values are: · Social justice · Dignity · Worth of the person · Service · Importance of human relationships · Competence · Integrity Now before I get a bunch of angry emails, I am not flat out not saying psychology doesn’t have these values. Hell, I think I’ve written tons about all of them in different forms and how important they are in different areas of psychology. Yet the point I want to make is the service value of the ethical guidelines for social work is all about the work part. This emphasises that social work is all about the work and not necessarily the research and study angle like psychology. In addition, I personally found this very interesting to read and I know it is controversial to say but I think it is largely true. But social work is grounded in anti-oppression theory whereas psychology is not necessarily. Since all social work introductory textbooks teach students straight away about oppression, discrimination and similar topics, but psychology textbooks are not. And of course, there are areas of psychology that focus on social justice like community as well as liberation psychology. But as an entire discipline, social justice is not at the heart of what we do. Since social justice defines social work, there is no social work without social justice. And to some extent, social justice informs psychology but not absolutely. Should You Do Both Social Work and Psychology Or One Or The Other? Of course, as a psychology student, I would say do a psychology degree because I’m biased and I love psychology wholeheartedly. It’s amazing, fun and I love it. Although, in all seriousness, I found one opinion that I like and I want to share with you since Ashley Maier, a teacher of psychology at Los Angeles Valley College, recommends that students take both social work and psychology. She says this because they both complement each other and despite the constant competition framing between students having to choose either social work or psychology. She proposes that this is a completely false choice and students should do both because it isn’t an either or not choice. It’s an both or and choice. Personally, this has been an enlightening episode I think because it is important for us, as current or future, psychologists to look outside of psychology once in a while. Since our sister disciplines that look at human behaviour do have things to offer us and they can teach us more about behaviour. And sometimes those things can help us become better psychologists and at the end of the day, that is extremely important indeed not only for ourselves and our future careers, but also for the amazing clients we serve. 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 Applied Psychology Collection: A Guide To Developmental, Health and 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. Applied Psychology Reference https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/psychology-in-the-real-world/202210/how-are-psychology-and-social-work-different 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. 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Over the past few months, the impact of language and what we call people with mental health conditions has been highlighted to me in a lot of different places. For example, in the newest academic papers, my lectures and even now we talk about people with conditions in clinical psychology. And in this brilliant podcast episode, we look at what impact does language have on people with mental health conditions, and most importantly, what is the best term to use to describe this group of people. If you enjoy autism, clinical psychology and more, then you will love today’s episode. This 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. Introduction To “Person With Autism” or “Autistic Person” As a result of me fully believing in honesty between me and you, as my wonderful podcast audience, I first encountered this when I was working with a PhD student on my Gamification of Autism literature review back in May. I just thought that he was being a bit nit-picky because he wasn’t sure on what term to use because this language is very new, but I am seeing it more and more so that’s why I want to focus on it now. Therefore, I just thought this being a little too correct because from my point of view, labels, diagnosis and more, all of them can be damaging and stigmatising and harmful in their own right, and I have written about these impacts in different places. However, when I returned to university this September and we started having autism lectures, I realised the drive towards correct language is very real, good and it needs to happen. But again, no one is taking the time to explain the language to me as a student, so I found some research and now I want to help explain this to all of us. Let’s crack on with it then. Also, I should mention here that there is a fair amount of today’s episode focuses on the carer’s experience of using language. But at the end of the podcast episode, I do explain how this applies to us as current or future clinical psychologists. Person-First and Condition-First Language I seriously doubt this will come as a surprise to anyone but the vast majority of people’s understanding of autism comes from the biomedical model standpoint. This model sees autism as a disease and it normally uses person-first language. For example, “Person With Autism” (Kenny et al., 2016). In addition, I am very happy to know that despite the damage some labels can do to people with mental health conditions, there are a lot of parents of young people on the autistic spectrum that find the diagnosis process reassuring. Since it validates their concerns about their child’s well-being, behaviour and future, as well as it offers a roadmap of support. But it gets rather interesting when we realise that other parents and children find the process of integrating the concept of Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) into their narrative about their child’s very identity to be very confronting. As a result of lots of carers and parents go through a process of redefining their expectations towards their child, and some even grieve for the former expectations they have about parenting a neurotypical child. Personally, I just want to jump in here and mention that I do understand this wholeheartedly, because if you’re a parent or you have nieces and nephews then you do plan for the future. Like I should have a niece coming next May and of course, me and my family are already planning for things for the future and far future, so if those ideas are effectively ripped away and made “impossible” then this can be very upsetting. However, I also want to point out here that just because a child as ASC, it doesn’t mean they can’t do anything in life. Since given the right support and scaffolding, autistic children can do a lot that neurotypical children can. Anyway, if case you didn’t know, in the UK at least, ASC diagnosis takes years and of course, the person with autism continues to show their autistic behaviour. Therefore, by the time the carers and parents receive a diagnosis, the vast majority of these are absolutely no stranger to being judged by others (Rowan, 2013) and they experience increased levels of stress (Bonis, 2016). This happens because their child’s special needs and these tend to have a commodity with conditions. For instance, anxiety, attention challenges, sleep difficulties and disruptive disorders (Mutler et al., 2022) and this all has financial implications too (Tathgur and Kang, 2021). Why Do Carers and Parents Choose A Language Preference? Moving onto the main topic of this episode, even before a parent or carer has received an ASC diagnosis for their child, they might choose a language preference to help set a boundary surrounding the identity narrative they want to create for their loved one. This serves a few purposes, including it helps to gently assimilate the new reality of the diagnosis into the perception of their loved one. Moreover, the heterogeneous nature of ASC adds to a carer’s uncertainty about the impact of early autism interventions on their child’s symptomatology. As well as it’s important to note here that every single child on the autistic spectrum is different with the frequency and severity of their symptoms changing over time. This all makes it a lot more difficult for carers to experience acceptance. Why Do People Choose Person-First Language Initially? With diagnosis mainly being from the biomedical model, it leaves parents and carers wanting to use Person-First language initially for a few reasons. For example, if the carer comes from a counselling or mental health vocation then person-first language could come from their own personal preference. Also, person-first language is effective for their limited awareness of the experiences of autistic people from their own point of view. As well as lots of carers are uncertain about how the diagnosis will affect their child’s sense of self and being in the world. Furthermore, once a carer has a diagnosis, they slowly or quickly start expanding their awareness of what ASC means over the course of years. Because we need to appreciate as current or future psychologists that this is a very scary time because these carers do not know what ASC is, what it means and what help is available. That’s why part of our job in an ideal world is to help guide them through the process. As a result, the carer’s knowledge expands over the course of years and they have a clearer understanding of what being on the autistic spectrum actually means for their child, and this includes how the child sees themselves. For instance, lots of carers notice how they learn to appreciate the cherished aspects of their personality and this includes the aspects that are intertwined with them on the spectrum. It also includes the acknowledgement of the challenges the person faces but also the celebration of their growth and their achievements. Subsequently, as a carer’s experience of acceptance deepens, sometimes their language preference shifts so they prefer disability-first terminology. Nonetheless, I know I am focusing a lot on the carer’s viewpoint here, and normally I would flat out avoid this because personally I am only really interested in what the person with the condition is experiencing. But in this case, there are a lot of narratives and evidence of this coming from the carers of children with ASC. Consequently, I am absolutely not saying children with the condition do not have the right to choose their own language preference or what they want to be called. Because they seriously do have that right and everyone else does too. I am simply writing about this from what the research and other articles I can find says. Why Might Diagnosis-First Language Be Better? It turns out that whilst diagnosis-first language isn’t too common in certain fields, like counselling, it has been suggested by Brown (2012) to be associated with greater acceptance of autistic people as neurodiverse and this helps to go beyond the disorder model perspective on autism. Furthermore, Kenny et al. (2016) found that despite some variability, a lot of parents and carers of ASC children generally prefer diagnosis-first terminology, as it places an emphasis on the value-neutral neurodiversity and positive aspects of autism. Overall, modern research suggests that identifying as autistic does have a positive impact on the self-esteem of autistic people and lowers their risk of developing depression (cage et al., 2017) What Does This Mean For Clinical Psychologists? As current or future psychologists, I definitely feel like there are quite a few different takeaways for us to learn from. For example, I will always firmly believe that is it critical that we move away from the disorder-perspective model of all conditions because that isn’t how mental health conditions work and it is so biomedical model that I seriously doubt has any place in modern clinical psychology. Therefore, using diagnosis-first language is important. Not only for us as professionals because it shows how serious we are about moving away from the biomedical model and towards something more empirical and something akin to the biopsychosocial model. However, it is also important for us to start using diagnosis-first language because it addresses something that is so wonderfully critical to our profession. It helps to decrease depression, psychological distress and it helps to improve self-esteem. Since being on the spectrum does not make a person messed up, strange or weird, and if using Diagnosis-first language helps our clients and the people we are meant to be help. Then this is only a good thing. Personally, and as the final thing for this section, I will mention that I was very surprised by today’s podcast episode. Since I fully believed coming into the topic that person-first language was the best because it should be harmful to define someone only by their condition, but it turns out that whilst that is true in other areas, when it comes to person-first or diagnosis-first language, it is better to do diagnosis-first. And that is why I love this podcast, learning and psychology, because there is always something to surprise you. Conclusion: At the end of this great episode, I think the most important thing we need to remember here is that diagnosis-first language isn’t bad, and in fact, it can have a lot of great benefits for a person’s mental health and acceptance. So personally, I really hope that we continue to debate the impact of language, we keep researching it and hopefully, over time more and more people will start to adopt this more positive language, and in an ideal world our society’s definition of autism will change too, to become more positive and accepting. Being autistic isn’t a death sentence, a prison sentence or anything. And just because you’re autistic, it doesn’t mean you cannot do things to a large extent. It just means you think differently, you might need more support but I always come back to one of the founding principles of the Mental Capacity Act. We should never ever assume someone cannot do something just because of their condition. And that seriously applies to autism. 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. Clinical Psychology References APA (2013) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 5th ed. Washington, DC: APA Bonis S. Stress and Parents of Children with Autism: A Review of Literature. Issues Ment Health Nurs. 2016;37(3):153-63. doi: 10.3109/01612840.2015.1116030. PMID: 27028741. Brown, Lydia (2 March 2012). "Identity First Language". Autistic Self Advocacy Network. Cage, E., Di Monaco, J. and Newell, V., 2017. Experiences of Autism Acceptance and Mental Health in Autistic Adults. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 48(2), pp.473-484. Crompton, C. J., Hallett, S., Ropar, D., Flynn, E., & Fletcher-watson, S. (2020). ‘I never realised everybody felt as happy as I do when I am around autistic people’: A thematic analysis of autistic adults’ relationships with autistic and neurotypical friends and family. Autism, 136236132090897. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361320908976 Siegel, D., 2012. Pocket Guide to Interpersonal Neurobiology: An Integrative Handbook of the Mind. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. Hayes SA, Watson SL. The impact of parenting stress: a meta-analysis of studies comparing the experience of parenting stress in parents of children with and without autism spectrum disorder. J Autism Dev Disord. 2013 Mar;43(3):629-42. doi: 10.1007/s10803-012-1604-y. PMID: 22790429. Kenny L, Hattersley C, Molins B, Buckley C, Povey C, Pellicano E. Which terms should be used to describe autism? Perspectives from the UK autism community. Autism. 2016 May;20(4):442-62. doi: 10.1177/1362361315588200. Epub 2015 Jul 1. PMID: 26134030. livescience.com. 2022. Parents Rank 'Judgment' as a Big Problem in Raising a Child with Autism. [online] Available at: <https://www.livescience.com/36555-parents-judgment-problem-autism-behav…; [Accessed 15 July 2022]. Mutluer T, Aslan Genç H, Özcan Morey A, Yapici Eser H, Ertinmaz B, Can M, Munir K. Population-Based Psychiatric Comorbidity in Children and Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Meta-Analysis. Front Psychiatry. 2022 May 23;13:856208. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.856208. PMID: 35693977; PMCID: PMC9186340. https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/nurturing-self-esteem-in-autistic-children/202207/autistic-person-or-person-autism Tathgur MK, Kang HK. Challenges of the Caregivers in Managing a Child with Autism Spectrum Disorder— A Qualitative Analysis. Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine. 2021;43(5):416-421. doi:10.1177/02537176211000769 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.