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I often talk a lot on the podcast about how us as future or current psychotherapists can make our clients feel. Since that is critical to understand, but in this clinical psychology episode, I want to talk about a new study that focuses on what happens when therapists are attracted to their clients, and why this is critical to look at. This clinical psychology 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. Why Are Therapists Being Attracted To Clients Important To Look At? There are two critical reasons why we need to look at this topic. Firstly, our clients will be concerned about finding the right therapists for them and there are plenty of tried and tested methods for helping them with that. But they will still be concerned about will they be comfortable, will they like the therapist among other things. This is even more important when it comes to clients with a history of emotional and/ or sexual abuse, since they will be concerned about history repeating itself. Secondly, it is perfectly normal for therapists to find clients attractive for time to time. You can easily compare it to two doctors, nurses, or whoever looking at a patient walking into a doctor’s surgery. They may say that person is hot or handsome, but that’s it. Of course, it might not be strictly professional but it happens and this is where the research comes in. What Happens When Therapists Are Attracted To Their Clients? It turns out many therapists do experience occasional sexual or romantic feelings toward their clients, but only an extremely small percentage actually do anything about it. as well as act on them. This is what a new study by Vesentini et al. (2022) has discovered and their study will be the focus of this episode. To quickly explain what they did, they sent a 15-minute long survey to Belgium psychotherapists and it contained sections on “Intimate Feelings and Behaviours related to sexuality and friendship towards clients”. As well as another section that looked at the participant’s sexuality, relationships and/ or friendships with patients and how many of them they had had in the past year, or their entire career. Finally, the survey collected their demographics. For example, their education level, sexuality, gender and age. Therapists’ Feelings and Behaviours Towards Clients The first section of the survey found the response rate was 40% giving them a total final sample of 758 mental health professionals. Naturally (because of the psychology demographic) 69% of them were female, 89% of them were heterosexual and 83% of them were between the ages of 20 and 59 years old. In terms of their behaviour, it turned out that 71% of the therapists said they sometimes or regularly found one of their clients sexually attractive. And about 23% of them actually fantasized about having a romantic relationship with them but an additional 4% fantasised about having sexual contact with a patient. Interestingly enough, it was very common for therapists to develop friendship-related behaviours and feelings towards their clients. For example, 80% of therapists had accepted gifts from clients and 72% had had a perception of feeling like a client was a friend. Personally, I think this is extremely interesting because this would play into the therapeutic alliance. Since both the therapist and the client need to feel comfortable in front of each other. Mainly so the client wants reveal their past and things about themselves so the therapist can start helping them to relieve their psychological distress. Therefore, whilst this might sound shocking or very concerning. I think that there are benefits to therapists feeling like friends with their clients, as that helps both parties and strengths the therapeutic alliance. This only comes dangerous or bad if one party takes it too far. We’ll talk about that in a moment. Therapists, Clients and Friendships: In addition, only 15% of the surveyed psychotherapists had started a friendship with a client, and mostly the surveyed therapists had only started this friendship after therapy had ended. This is a lot better because it ensures that no boundaries were violated. However, only 3% out of the entire sample had started a sexual relationship with a client, and only 1% of the sample had done this during therapy. Of course that 1% would be in extremely dangerous, unethical and uncharted waters. So that was very risky for them, so unofficially I would encourage you to never do that. Boundary Violations By Therapists: After looking at Vesentini et al. (2022), I think we can all feel confident in saying that many therapists can experience occasional sexual thoughts, feelings or fantasies about people they’re treating. As well as in 7 out of 10 therapists (more men than women) found a patient sexually attractive and nearly a quarter of therapists had fantasies about being in a romantic relationship with their patients. Thankfully, so few therapists actually violate boundaries with their clients. Since Vesentini et al. (2022) found less than 1 in 30 therapists actually crosses the line into that dangerous area. Also even in these cases, it tends to be one client in their career. In addition, there are other studies that find similar rates like Garrett and David (1998), so this does increase the reliability of the results. Overall, these sexual fantasies and feelings might be common but acting on them is rare. And that is why I wanted to talk about this topic, because I wanted to dispel myths around therapists praying or hooking up with their clients. Then what’s more common is the friendship forming after therapy has ended, and 20% of therapists do receive goodbye hugs. Why Do Therapists Feel Strong Connections With Clients? Maybe the biggest question this topic has caused us all to ask, is why do therapists get so emotionally involved with their clients? In all honesty, it is probably because therapists and clients spend a lot of time alone together in a room. Here the client and therapist talk about extremely personal and intimate details of their lives, and as we know from Social Penetration Therapy By Atlman and Taylor (1973) when communication from a shallow level to a deeper level of personal disclosure people tend to feel closer. As well as with therapists always attending these sessions with empathy and without judgement. This environment is very conducive to intimate feelings developing. Subsequently, if we flip this over so we focus on the client themselves. They may develop romantic or sexual feelings for the therapist for the same reasons. Why Are Male Therapists More Likely To Start A Relationship With A Client? But why did Vesentini et al. (2022) find that compared to female therapists, male ones are more likely to start a sexual relationship with a client? This could be because men tend to experience stronger and more frequent sexual desires. Or it’s because they are opposed to a lot more opportunities for sexual attraction. Since the vast majority of male therapists are heterosexual and the majority of therapy clients are women. Although that is probably just because of all the nonsense society teaches men about being tough, don’t show emotions and all the other utter nonsense that is spread about to stop men getting the help they need. Nevertheless, there is a third possible option here in relation to power, which the authors of Vesentini et al. (2022) note: “The need or ability to dominate and control can also play a role in cases of sexual abuse. Studies of gender differences have shown that men overall desire power more and possess higher levels of power.” Of course, the point of this episode has not been to give men a bad name. Since the vast majority of men are amazing, wonderful and very good people, who only sometimes need to be reminded not to use sexist language. But it is always the tiny minority that gives the rest of us a bad name, and positions of power, like a therapist, always attracts a few predators. Just like doctors, teachers and Church people. Therefore, the last point is something to just bear in mind and remember that not all men are like that. Conclusion: Personally I always like to look at people’s sexual interests, relationships and how social psychology can impact people. So when I found this research that intersected with clinical psychology, I just had to do an episode on it and I’m very glad that I did. Since if anything else I really hope that it is set your mind at ease (whether you’re a future or current therapist) that it is normal to feel sexual feelings about your clients. And it doesn’t make you some awful person, but it is important to bear in mind that unethical uses of power and relationships can occur. And that is something we must all be vigilant against. I really hope you enjoyed this clinical psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE AND EXCLUSIVE 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! Clinical Psychology and Social Psychology References: Garrett, T., & Davis, J. D. (1998). The prevalence of sexual contact between British clinical psychologists and their patients. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy: An International Journal of Theory and Practice, 5(4), 253-263. Vesentini, L., Van Overmeire, R., Matthys, F., De Wachter, D., Van Puyenbroeck, H., & Bilsen, J. (2022). Intimacy in Psychotherapy: An Exploratory Survey Among Therapists. Archives of sexual behavior, 51(1), 453–463. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-021-02190-7 Whiteley, C (2021) Psychology of Relationships: The Social Psychology of Friendships, Romantic Relationships And More. CGD Publishing. England I truly hope that you’re 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-bit of support. Click www.paypal.me/connorwhiteley1 to go to PayPal.

For the podcast’s first ever political psychology episode, I wanted to investigate how propaganda works. Since lots of people think propaganda is simply brainwashing people into believing stuff, but it doesn’t work like that. For example, there is evidence that even in Nazi Germany, the Nazi propaganda failed to convince lots of people of the Nazi’s righteousness. However, propaganda can work sometimes, so that raises the critical question of how does propaganda work? This 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. Why Is It Important to Know How Propaganda Works? As I write this in late March 2022, it is the Russia-Ukraine war and it is extremely alarming that the majority of Russian people support the illegal invasion of Ukraine. Since the Russians believe that Ukraine is a major security threat to them, and they believe that NATO is an offensive alliance. Nothing could be further from the truth, so it begs the question, how did Russia convince so many people to believe such nonsense. Propaganda. Therefore, propaganda can work sometimes to influence people, and control their behaviour. That’s why propaganda is critical to study in social and political psychology. In addition, effective propaganda works in two main ways. It increases support for the regime and it confuses and disunities the opposition. This will probably be a part-two podcast episode so there is a lot of fascinating content to unpack here so in today’s political psychology episode, we’ll focus on how propaganda gathers support for a regime. How Does propaganda Gather Support For A Regime? Quite simply, one of the most fundamental truths about propaganda is that it works for people who want to believe it. For example, and I am trying to keep out of politics here, but this is how Brexit propaganda works in the UK. The people who want to believe Brexit works believe the propaganda, but for people who don’t believe it worked, the propaganda doesn’t affect them. In terms of psychology, propaganda offers what looks like the facts as well as the overall narratives that feed in our motivated reasoning. This term is ubiquitous and it is our tendency to treat evidence selectively to justify our beliefs that align with our preferences. And this motivated reasoning isn’t specific to propaganda because we use it regularly. For example, when we have to assess whether our beliefs are right, whether what we did was right or wrong and if our work deserves more recognition than we got. Therefore, when it comes to thinking about what a country did was right or wrong. The citizens of that have a preference to think that it is so propaganda can be very effective. Since it provides the justification that people to believe in. Using the war example, the Russian people might not want to believe their government invaded Ukraine out of some evil intent and they’re breaking international law. So it is easier to imagine that Ukraine is the enemy with their so-called biological weapons. Additionally, because propaganda works with our motivated reasoning, it works best when the regime using it can foster feelings of nationalism amongst their citizens. And increase their national identity. As well as we know from social psychology, our group identities are very, very strong and are fierce when members of our group are in conflict with another group. This doesn’t just apply to countries, it applies to all ingroups and outgroups. Leading to cooperation to increase within the group, and aggression to increase towards outgroups. Again this only increases support for a government because the citizens want to cooperate with their own group, and be hostile towards the outgroup. As a result, by increasing and making closer bonds within a country, the government is able to support itself with the citizens’ nationalist feelings and the government is less likely to be questioned because of their decisions. This is what all propaganda wants. Support the propaganda creator and question them less. (Um, reminds me of Cult Psychology!) And something that I love psychology is there is an effect name for everything. So in terms of this propaganda topic, this effect is known as the Rally-Around-The-Flag effect. Also it is known to favour leaders who see their support increase in times of war, at least at first. Overall, the key goal of propaganda is to reinforce and create an “us vs them” narrative along with the propaganda firmly reinforcing the message that the ingroup is innocent. Whilst at the same time, repeating all the abominable and outrageous (real or fake) aggressions that the outgroups have committed. Leading to these messages having a very strong emotional impact on a country’s population and this fosters a willingness from the people to accept the propaganda. More On Using propaganda When A Country’s Unpopular With It People We narrow down on how a country uses propaganda when it does something that isn’t popular with its people. For example, lots of Russians don’t like the government invading Ukraine because they have a close relationship with each other. Propaganda can channel citizens through three steps to rationalise what’s happening. · Denial · Minimisation · Justification When people are in the denial phase, propaganda can help people reject factual evidence and believe that it isn’t happening. For example, “there is no war in Ukraine. It is just a special military operation,” In the minimisation phase, as factual evidence (like the targeting of a maternity hospital) becomes harder to ignore and outright reject, propaganda can help people minimise the problem. For instance, “There is a conflict but it’s limited to the Capital or south of Ukraine,” Lastly in the justification phrase, propaganda can be great for getting people to believe that the problem was needed, and they accept as well as support this new reality. Such as, “There is a war, but it was needed,” The Sad Truth: If we turn slightly pessimistic for a moment and actually apply this understanding. It is a great shame that propaganda can be used effectively to change a population’s factual perception and thus not generate massive opposition to a regime and their actions. For example, the invasion of Ukraine. Therefore, it isn’t necessarily the case that Russian people do disapprove of the war when the evidence of its reality becomes questionable. For example, in terms of the extreme inflation, the price of everything increasing and the increased oppression they live under. How To Stop Propaganda Working? If we ever want to stop propaganda from working then we need to stop a person’s motivated reasoning. This is where the cost (be it human, economic or another type of cost) increases to such a degree that the person's personal interests conflict with the war itself. Because the war then becomes a problem to their personal interests. With that mind in, the quick-round-the-flag effect which happened after the invasion and jingoistic support that on full display in many parts of Russian Society may slowly crumble (or really quickly). All because the huge costs of the war will move down onto Russian citizens. And that is why sanctions are such a viable economic weapon. Conclusion Please believe me when I say what’s currently going on in the world is tough, horrible and scary. I am concerned but that’s because I don’t understand it. After this episode, I’m really hopeful about the future because I now understand critical Western sanctions are for breaking people’s motivated reasoning. So hopefully if these sanctions increase and continue, there will be an end to this war in the future and the war will not go past Ukraine. And at least we know that propaganda can be stopped and undone. I really hope you enjoyed our political psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE AND EXCLUSIVE 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 Political Psychology and Social Psychology Reference Mercier, H., 2020. Not born yesterday. Princeton University Press. Epley, N. and Gilovich, T., 2016. The mechanics of motivated reasoning. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 30(3), pp.133-40. I truly hope that you’re 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-bit of support. Click www.paypal.me/connorwhiteley1 to go to PayPal.

Stepping away from clinical psychology and looking at suicide through that lens, we now need to look at how the forensic psychology of suicide by looking at criminals and suicide. I have spoken about this in my Forensic Psychology book, but in today’s podcast episode we’re going to look at it from another angle. This is going to be really, really interesting! Today’s episode has been sponsored by Forensic Psychology. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Suicide and Prisons There are two “danger zones” for suicide when it comes to criminals. The first is when they are arrested and taken to jail at the police station or something like this before they go to prison. As well as the second danger zone is when they go to prison itself. Both of these situations and places are suicidal danger zones (especially in the first 24 hours) because the criminal’s future looks so uncertain to them. And as we spoke about in the last podcast episode on suicide, is that uncertainty about the future and inability to see a better one, that leads to suicidal ideation. Then the attempt itself. As a result, this is why suicide rates in prisons are extremely high compared to the outside world. But besides from the lack of a certain future, what other factors increase the risk of suicide in prisons? Crying Wolf: Now of course the crying wolf title isn’t anything official but it is an easy way to imagine what the research shows. For example, we have all seen at least once or twice a TV programme or film where the prisoner screams about their in pain, they need to see a doctor or they’re going to kill themselves if something doesn’t happen. Then if someone does help them then they are attacked and the prisoners escape. In reality, this rarely happens but because it is overly in Television. It sort of becomes part of our collective knowledge so we expect it to happen. This doesn’t help the situation, especially considering what I say below. This does happen in the real world and sadly there are inmates that fake real suicide ideation. Leading to the prison officers to conclude that all prisons are simply crying wolf and are lying. Meaning no prison officers are going to help them. Personally I can understand this because even the most compassionate prison officers can become immune to these cries for help. And then if you read into forensic psychology and the workplace culture of prisons, then you learn that it is understandable for the officers not to be too helpful towards the inmates. Unfortunately. Hardening Officers: As I mentioned in the above section, over time as a compassionate and hopeful new prison officer gets to experience prisoners and what work is actually like inside a prison. This can lead to them hardening their attitudes towards the inmates making them harsher, stricter and generally less likely to believe them and this affects their judgements too. Again I do understand this because it isn’t easy working in a prison. And you must have to deal with some truly horrible people on the more extreme end of the scale. Then again, you get to work with some good people too that have simply made a bad choice. But as we know from Cognitive and Social Psychology, we always tend to remember the bad more than the good. In addition, it is terrible that “just dessert” sentiments flow free in our society. Meaning even if a prison officer believes the criminal will commit suicide they may not bother trying to prevent it, because it is what they deserve. Prolonged Sentences: A final reason for suicide in prisons can be linked to inmates who are serving a prolonged prison sentence. For example, a life sentence or a whole life sentence. As this prolonged length of prison time can make inmates think that suicide is a reasonable reaction to such a sentence. And interestingly people on the outside believe it too. Of course there are more people that serve long prison sentences and do not commit suicide, but depression and suicidality are common like we spoke about before. What Is Done? All prisons have different processes in place for suicidal inmates but there are problems with everything. For example, in one place if an inmate was seen to be suicidal, they would have their cell stripped of every single thing that could be used to end themselves with. Even their sheets and mattress, so the inmate was given a strange foam thing to cover themselves with at night. But inmates can still climb up on their sink and jump. That’s all I’m going to say about that. In addition, if suicidal inmates don’t stop in their ideation then they can be moved to hospitals for treatment. And lots of other complicated and unfortunately bureaucratic processes can happen too. However, what is interesting is Joseph H. Baskin, M.D says that impulsivity suicidal inmates are actually easier to work with because they want to be helped and regarded. So it might be easier to reach out, form a therapeutic relationship and help them. But still, the combination of hopelessness and impulsivity is deadly. Conclusion: Forensic psychology will always be one of my favourite areas of psychology. But this is both a fascinating and tragic topic to look at, because retribution doesn’t get us anywhere so these “just dessert” sentiments are deadly. And even though these people have made bad choices, it doesn’t mean they need to commit suicide. So hopefully in the future more can be done to help prevent this, and decrease the alarmingly high suicide rate amongst prisoners. I really hope you enjoyed today’s episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE AND EXCLUSIVE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Forensic Psychology. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Buy Me A Coffee Forensic Psychology Reference: https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/cell-block/201902/suicide-behind-bars I truly hope that you’re 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-bit of support. Click www.paypal.me/connorwhiteley1 to go to PayPal.

As much as I wanted to do this when the Russian-Ukrainian war first broke out, I needed time to understand, learn and know my own feelings about the war. I have firmly stood with Ukraine and now I want to understand how all the young Ukrainians and Russians going to war for the first time will be affected. This will be a very eye-opening episode for sure! This developmental psychology episode has been sponsored by Developmental Psychology: A Guide To Developmental And Child Psychology. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. What Happens When Young People Go To War? The first set of images out of the war I remember seeing where a group of young Ukrainian men who were preparing to go to war for the first time with only a few days of combat training. As a person I felt sorry for them that they have to go and fight for the first time without proper training but as a psychology student I was rather interested in their behaviour. Interestingly we can actually learn a lot from the first sets of photos released. I’m talking about photos released by people like Jeremy Bowen’s report from BBC News on the 4th March 2022. Since they showed the young people’s (basically teenagers) first concern were the daunting cameras and this is to be expected because they would be struggling with that teen “looking-glass self” and appearance anxiety. Basically this is the first time they would have been on camera, and they were being thrusted into a warzone. Not ideal! After the photos were taken the young people were taken on a bus with other volunteers were slogans and shouted different noble and heroic sounding things. All because ten days ago they didn’t know they would be fighting in a war that is arguably the worse in Europe since World war two. The Psychology behind Young People In The Russian-Ukraine War No one likes to think of young people engaging in combat whatsoever. We only need to remember all of our own shook at learning in World War I tons of young people lied about their age just so they could serve in the military and fight in The Great War. And yes there was the whole it is right and proper to die for your country rubbish. But the point is still the same. No one likes to think of young people going into wars. Since people believe is a sign of a betrayal of humanity and we think of child soldiers that have been brutalised and brutally shaped by the warlords rather than loving families. Thankfully (I think), these Ukrainian soldiers setting off for war are not as damaged as child soldiers and in all the images showed the preservation of their healthy humanity is so unsettling. Since these are perfectly normal, happy young people that are sent off. That is not normal in the world we live in. So that makes it rather unsettling. However… the problem is psychologists, mental health experts and other people all around the world know that in three weeks (less now) these young people will never be the same again. And that is heart-breaking. Young People, Military and Developmental Psychology All soldiers that fight in combat are very high risk in terms of mental health but research shows that soldiers under the age of 25 are particularly vulnerable to mental health conditions. As well as teenagers are seven times more likely than adult soldiers to experience Post-traumatic stress disorder, this is where the experiences of threat and their own helplessness remain raw and immediate, leaving them constantly on high alert. Also every sound or smell or movement signals they’re in mortal danger, and they respond accordingly even in peacetime. These responses are often inappropriate and destructive. This is simply awful and this is why psychologists will be even more critical in the future. In terms of developmental psychology, from the age of 12 to 24, the human brain undergoes rapid changes where it grows new connections that shape our behavioural patterns and skill development and expectation. Thankfully (probably more in peacetime), the human brain is very adaptable in adolescence because each generation needs to navigate its own special habitat due to our constantly changing environment. Returning to military psychology, all combat soldiers will learn skills and coping mechanisms that do tend to serve them very well in wartime. But these skills and mechanisms nearly always fail them afterwards and it leaves them awfully unequipped in peacetime and decisions in combat need to be made quickly as they are often the difference between life and death. Therefore, the brain shuts down reflection, drastically limits a person’s empathy and ignores our individual emotions like fear as well as our needs. Like, our human needs for creature comforts, warmth, security amongst others. This is all how the brain helps us to survive. In normal situations with normal soldiers then once out of combat soldiers have a very good chance at switching back to peacetime patterns of behaviour. But what about 18-year-old soldiers? This is where the rather heartbreaking truth of the war comes in. Because these soldiers are been teenagers in developmental terms their brains will still be forming new neural connections to help them adapt to combat, but other neural connections that are not being used in these terrible environments will be “pruned” away. Remember during this developmental stage of brain development the brain always prunes itself to help make it as effective as possible. However, in this case this is not ideal. Especially if these lost connections would be useful in peacetime but they pruned away because the young person needs to adapt for wartime during this critical period. Without further research we will not know, but I seriously hope the paragraph above is flat out wrong. Psychology’s Response We’ve touched on neuropsychology, neuroscience and developmental psychology so we might as well see what clinical psychology has to offer. And I mean that light-heartedly because I think this only highlights the scale of the problem because when you need to touch on so many different fields that highlight the wide range of damage war causes. As a result because of young people’s vulnerabilities to mental health conditions, psychologists have thankfully been campaigning for more careful assessments so only those who are mentally resilient enough can be allowed to fight. But this is just ideal. There is no choice in this war. When you have a former superpower who were throwing so much at a smaller, weaker country. Ukraine has no choice but to allow every single person who is willing to fight to take up arms. After all, this is not a little battle for some territory. This war is a fight for a country’s right to exist. So this assessment and screening idea is just that. And to be honest, I could continue in this podcast episode to talk about the tragedy of these young people who have minimal training and training that is nowhere need as sufficient as these young people need. And will be fighting young Russian men who are almost the same as them. But I will not because I believe we have all learnt enough about What Happens When Young People Go To War. The final thing I will say is this, whether you are a psychology student or psychology professional, we will have acknowledged the challenge this war represents to everyone’s mental health but especially these young people. And we must be ready to answer their call when they admit they are struggling and need our team. It is not the only thing the psychology community around the world should do because it is our job, but because it is the right thing to do. I really hope you enjoyed today’s episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE AND EXCLUSIVE 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 Neuroscience, Neuropsychology and Developmental Psychology Reference: Resul Cesur, Joseph J. Sabia & Erdal Tekin (April 2011) The Psychological Costs of War: Military Combat and Mental Health Discussion Paper No. 5615. IZA. Bruce Dohrenwend, Thomas Yager, Melanie Wall, et.al. (July 2013) The Roles of Combat Exposure, Personal Vulnerability, and Involvement in Harm to Civilians or Prisoners in Vietnam-War-Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Clinical Psychological Science: 1(3): 223-238. I truly hope that you’re 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-bit of support. Click www.paypal.me/connorwhiteley1 to go to PayPal.

Continuing with our fascinating look at dementia, we’re going to move away from clinical psychology and into forensic psychology to see how dementia can impact criminal behaviour. This will be a perfect episode for anyone who loves forensic and criminal psychology! This episode has been sponsored by Forensic 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. How Can Dementia Impact Criminal Behaviour? As a society as a whole, we are never too surprised when a criminal that has committed crimes before gets in trouble. But when a 60 year old model citizen commits a crime even if it is only vaguely illegal, we become a lot more shocked and we really want to know what happened. And it turns out dementia can be one such explanation. Since Liljegren et al. (2015) conducted a study that suggests that new late-onset criminal behaviour could reflect an underlying dementia. And as we’ve mentioned before, dementia is an umbrella term for a wide range of conditions. Also, rather interestingly, the different crimes committed actually differ with each type of dementia. This particular study involved a retrospective record review of patients that were seen at the University of California between 1999 and 2013. That revealed that out of the 545 people with Alzheimer’s Disease examined only 8% of them got into any legal trouble, and they only tended to get into legal trouble when the dementia symptoms were well established. For example, people with dementia could drive the wrong way on a motorway or they could wander onto private property, also known as trespassing. Due to they’re confused. As well as dementia sufferers could walk out of a store without realising they hadn’t paid for such an item. Therefore, these “crimes” are very understandable when we find out the person has dementia. On the other hand, there are other criminal behaviours that don’t occur in Alzheimer’s patients. For example, socially inappropriate actions (like sexual harassment), fighting and public urination. These types of behaviours are common in another type of dementia we haven’t looked at yet, called behavioural variant Frontotemporal Dementia (bvFTD). Furthermore, Liljegren et al. (2015) reported that out of the 171 with bvFTD they examined 37% of them got into legal trouble with these socially inappropriate behaviours. What is behavioural variant Frontotemporal Dementia? This type of dementia tends to occur in people when they’re in their 50s and it is characterised as a gradual onset of personality changes including inappropriate and impulsive behaviours. In addition, over time these behaviours become more and more pronounced and clear to see. Then the cognitive changes with this type of dementia include memory, organisational skills and language do actually develop and start to return. Yet this is only after the behavioural changes. However, the early brain damage in behavioural variant Frontotemporal Dementia occurs in the brain regions that are a part of the brain’s “emotional salience network”. And this is a critical network because involves regions such as the amygdala and the insular cortex. Both of these areas have known for their importance in emotional regulation. An Important Wider Forensic Psychology Point: Nonetheless, there is a critical point to all of this criminal behaviour and mental health condition talk. There are other conditions like bipolar disorder, sociopathy and alcohol abuse that can also lead to criminal behaviour. Therefore, when people are arrested and it is believed they might have a mental health condition that impacted their criminality. It is important for them to get assessed by a health care professional so we can fully understand what happened. As well as this is why different disciplines working together is so important. The law and psychology and general medicine have to work together if we are going to create a fairer, safer and better society for everyone. Whether they have a condition or not. Forensic Psychology and Dementia Conclusion: Truth be told, I’ve been putting off doing this episode for a while because I wasn’t sure if I could create a long enough episode from it. But now I have I’m extremely glad because it was great to see how dementia can interact with our behaviour to cause criminality. And this is what I love about focusing on a topic because you get to see all the little nuances, and how it impacts from different fields of psychology! I really hope you enjoyed today’s episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE AND EXCLUSIVE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Forensic 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! Forensic Psychology and Dementia Science Reference Liljegren, M., Naasan, G., Temlett, J., Perry, D. C., Rankin, K. P., Merrilees, J., Grinberg, L. T., Seeley, W. W., Englund, E., & Miller, B. L. (2015). Criminal behavior in frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer's disease. JAMA neurology, 72(3), 295–300. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaneurol.2014.3781 I truly hope that you’re 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-bit of support. Click www.paypal.me/connorwhiteley1 to go to PayPal.

Lots of psychologists, law enforcement professionals and laypeople use the term psychopath and sociopath interchangeably with no idea what the differences are. So in this personality psychology podcast episode, you’ll learn the differences between these two types of people and more fascinating things you never ever considered before. This episode has been sponsored by Personality Psychology and Individual Difference. 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 Are Psychopaths and Sociopaths? Before we go into depth about the differences, I want to mention the similarities before. Since there are clear reasons why people mix them up and use them interchangeably. For example, both types of people according to the DSM-5 are categorised as Antisocial Personality Disorders (ASPD). These types of personality disorders share a lot of common behavioural traits. Hence the confusion and the key traits that psychopaths and sociopaths have include: · A failure to feel guilt or remorse · A disregard for the rights of others · A disregard for social norms and laws. · A tendency to display violent or aggressive behaviour. However, there are a lot of differences between these two types of personality disorders and that is the real focus of this episode. What Are Sociopaths? Sociopaths tend to be nervous and easily agitated, as well as they are volatile and prone to emotional outbursts. This includes fits of rage, which is what people normally think of. However, the first major difference between psychopaths and sociopaths is sociopaths are a lot less likely to become educated and they tend to live on the fringes of society. As well as many sociopaths are unable to hold down jobs or stay in one place for a very long time. It is often very difficult, but not technically impossible for sociopaths to form attachments with others. Whereas psychopaths are pretty much the opposite on most of those points, but they’ll look at them in a moment. Interestingly, there are many sociopaths that are able to form attachments to certain people or groups. Despite sociopaths having no regard for society or its many rules in general. Therefore, these attachments will be very few to the sociopath and limited in scope. As a result, they tend to struggle with relationships. On the other hand, to other people sociopaths generally appear to be erratic or disturbed people. With any crime they commit, including murder, tend to be spontaneous or haphazard rather than planned. Personally, and I do mean talk as a not-sociopath expert here, I think that makes them even more scary. Since if I knew a sociopath my concern would be I’ll just be talking to them normally then they would be erratic and be outraged by something for no reason. And my mind cannot simply skip over the spontaneous murder part. Can you? Finally, because sociopaths are more erratic and arguably more expressive in their abnormal behaviour, it is easier for professionals and laypeople to spot them than psychopaths. Leading us onto the arguably darker, scarier of the two types. What Are Psychopaths? Psychopaths are very different to sociopaths because psychopaths cannot form any emotional attachments. As well as they tend to be aggressive and predatory in nature and they view other people as objects for their amusement. I’m sorry but that is just terrifying. That really has to be one of the most chilling sentences I have ever written on the podcast. Anyway, to make this all even worse, just because they lack empathy doesn’t mean that cannot function in the real world. In fact, they have often very disarming or even charming personalities. Making it easy or easier for them to manipulate others and gain their trust. Also psychopaths learn to mimic emotions and despite them being unable to feel them in the slightest, they still appear normal to unsuspecting people. Leading them to be able to hold down good jobs and become very well-educated. To only add to this rather alarming type of personality is some psychopaths are so good in their manipulations and mimicry. They are able to have families and other long-term relationships without those around them ever suspecting they were psychotic. Personally, I think what is fascinating, scary and intimidating about psychopaths is their ability to appear normal. Due to unlike sociopaths, you cannot tell just by looking at them, so you can just be talking to a so-called normal person and they could be easily trying to manipulate you without you even realising. As I’ve mentioned on previous episodes, I really hope I never get to meet one. Psychopaths and Forensic Psychology You all know I can never exist forensic psychology when I have the chance. Therefore, in terms of psychopaths and criminal psychology, they carefully plan every detail of the crime in advance and very often they have contingency plans in place. As well as they seem unflappable in a crisis. Now if that was the only major difference between “normal” people and psychopaths. Then I would have no problem with them, after all I do like organised people. But the other things are just too concerning. In addition, psychopathic criminals are calm, cool and meticulous. As well as from a law enforcement perspective, the “cold-blooded” nature of psychopaths makes them very effective criminals. As a result, they are a lot harder to identify compared to sociopaths. And to make things worse, it can be hard to know when a psychopathic predator has targeted you. However, to start wrapping up this episode, it should be noted that thankfully psychopaths are rarer than sociopaths. And psychopaths are still considered the most dangerous antisocial personality disorder, as well as it is hardly surprising that nearly 50% of serial killers are psychopaths. Conclusion: This really has been a wide ranging podcast episode touching on topics from personality psychology to forensic psychology and more. But I really hope you’ve enjoyed it, psychopathy is a “fun” topic to explore because it is scary and something I hope we never have to experience. I’ll definitely be exploring it in future podcast episodes. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE AND EXCLUSIVE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Personality Psychology and Individual Difference. 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 Personality Psychology and Forensic Psychology Reference Bouchard, T.J., Jr., Lykken, D.T., McGue, M., Segal, N.L. and Tellegen, A. 1990. "Sources of human psychological differences: The Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart." Science 250 (4978), pp. 223–228. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/wicked-deeds/201801/how-tell-sociopath-psychopath I truly hope that you’re 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-bit of support. Click www.paypal.me/connorwhiteley1 to go to PayPal.

In addition to all the misconceptions and myths around psychology, lots of laypeople believe that psychology is a very bad career choice for students. But why? Considering psychology is an extremely popular degree in the US and UK, it is surprising to learn that people think it is a bad idea to pursue for a career. So in this Careers In Psychology podcast episode, you’ll learn why people think this? And more importantly, why they’re wrong? This episode has been sponsored by Clinical Psychology (There’s a great career chapter in the book). Available from all major eBook and audiobook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Why Do People Think Psychology Is A Bad Career Choice? As I mentioned earlier, psychology degrees are very popular in the US and UK. But with all the myths and misconceptions surrounding psychology, it often leads to parents asking (quite rightly) their children or university: “what are you doing to do with a psychology degree?” or “Don’t do a psychology degree. It’s useless,” Now I do understand these questions, because I am of the firm belief, people should only go to university to do a degree with a job at the end of it. For example, any hard and social science degree is a great option because there are specific roles at the end of it, more or less. For example, a biology degree has a biologist job at the end of it potentially. Whereas if you do an English Literature degree… you could become an English teacher? A poet? A… I don’t know. There is no English Literature job that jumps to mind. Also I like these science jobs because you cannot do them without a degree. Anyway, these questions from parents are understandable. What Options Does A Psychology Degree Offer? As I have and will continue to explore in future episodes, there are plenty of career options with a psychology degree. However, as I’ve mentioned before, you need at least a Master's degree to do anything within psychology. As well as less than half of students that do a Psychology Bachelor's go on to do a Masters and higher. We’ll return to students who only do a psychology Batchelor's later on with a link to a great website at the bottom, but now let’s focus on Master's students and higher. As shown in the paths To Becoming A Psychotherapist podcast episode, the most obvious career pathways with a psychology degree is to do something in clinical and counselling psychology. Since these are the two career pathways that are most popular in TV and films. Nonetheless, there are other, more specialised jobs in the broad psychology job market. For example, with the more applied psychology degrees, like cognitive, social and biological psychology. You can become a researcher amongst other areas. In addition, I will look at this in another episode but with organisational psychology, you could become a worker in Human Resources, business strategy, marketing and many more places. Conclusion: Because of the psychology job market is so large and has so many opportunities for psychology degrees, this post has just scratched the surface of this topic. If you’re interested in learning more about Careers In Psychology then definitely check out the “Other Links of Interest” section. Personally, I’m really pleased that there are so many different options for students in psychology. And at least we can all set the record straight about the so-called lack of opportunities with a psychology degree. I’m really looking forward to future Careers In Psychology episodes where we get to focus on more specialised areas of psychology and what jobs they have. I hope you’re excited too! I really enjoy you enjoyed today’s episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE AND EXCLUSIVE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Clinical Psychology (There’s a great career chapter in the book). Available from all major eBook and audiobook 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! Other Links of Interest: Paths To Becoming A Psychotherapist What Are Forensic Psychology Careers? Careers With A Psychology Bachelor’s Degree by The American Psychological Association (APA) Education Career Centre by The APA Careers In Psychology Reference https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/cutting-edge-leadership/202009/why-everyone-thinks-psychology-is-bad-career-choice I truly hope that you’re 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-bit of support. Click www.paypal.me/connorwhiteley1 to go to PayPal.

In today’s episode of The Psychology World Podcast, we’re looking at the social psychology and cognitive psychology topic of 3 Tips to Help You Start Exercising. This episode has been sponsored by Biological Psychology 2nd Edition. Since it is December 2020 and this year (that feels likes a decade) is almost over. You might be starting to think about your new year’s resolutions of what you want to achieve in 2021. Soon I’ll be doing my personal and business plans for 2021 for my various brands, but I know a lot of people want to start exercising more as part of their resolutions. And I want to help you. Therefore, here are 3 tips to help you start exercising more in 2021. Problem Solve: This is where we tip into cognitive psychology here, there is always a reason holding us back from exercising, and one of the best ways to combat this is to solve the problem. If you’re problem is you don’t have enough time to yourself to exercise at home, and your family life is too busy to go to the gym. Then you might want to try making a Do Not Disturb Me Sign and put it on your door and join an online class. Or you could try stepping on the spot when you have a free minute or two. Of course, it’s ‘just’ a minute or two, but over the course of a day you might end up doing an extra 20-30 minutes of exercise. It doesn’t have to be done in a solid block of time. Keep it Interesting: Let’s face it- exercise can be boring. Especially, if you keep doing the same thing everyday. Hence, why when I’m on the mini bike in my bedroom. I tend to watch YouTube or an online course to keep it interesting. Yes, I know that’s weird! However, the pandemic has meant there’s more opportunity for excerising than before. Since, before the pandemic you only really had gyms, your home or outdoors. Although, now we have a lot more online gym classes that we can do from home, you can do virtual personal trainer sessions and lots more. Therefore, whenever you do exercise try and keep it interesting! SMART Goals: This point links to another min-tip about exercise doesn’t need to be a grand 30 minute run and/or 30 minutes of hard sweating cardio. If that’s what you want go for it! But if you do that from the start, you will probably not be able to it do, get annoyed at yourself and quite. Instead, work yourself up to that workout and you can do this by setting yourself Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic Timed Goals. When you’re starting out, your goal can be as simple as: I want to do 5 minutes of exercise a day for two weeks. Afterwards, you can advance your goal to: I want to do ten minutes of exercise a day for three weeks. And so… Conclusion: At the end of the day, exercise is about raising your heart rate and having fun, and exercise has a lot of great psychological benefits for you. So, please have fun and exercise. I hope this episode has been useful. Have a great day, everyone! I truly hope that you’re 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 www.paypal.me/connorwhiteley1 to go to PayPal. Reference: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/lab-real-world/202012/8-tips-overcoming-obstacles-exercise

I have touched on this great topic a number of times on the podcast and in my books, but today I want to do a specific episode on the topic. Therefore, you know what careers are possible in forensic psychology, and we’ll investigate what forensic psychology is NOT. This is a great psychology episode if you want to work in forensic psychology in the future! This episode has been sponsored by Forensic 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: none of this is official career nor professional advice. Forensic Psychology Is Popular: Over the course of the past few years, forensic psychology has become extremely popular because of the programmes like Bones, CSI and many more. This is great because it shows that psychology can be applied to criminal behaviour and it helps people to understand that forensic psychology is fascinating. But it is wrong! As I talk about in my Criminal Profiling book, TV, books and movies never ever represent forensic psychology probably. Because profiling is real but as I say in the book, FBI profiling isn’t worth the paper it is written on and “real” forensic psychologists don’t do profiling. Because psychology is a science, profiling is far from it! Therefore, when it comes to choosing a possible career in forensic psychology, you need to remember that is NOT profiling and there are plenty of scientific and fascinating areas to choose them. What Are Forensic Psychology Careers? Now we’ll start to look at some of the career paths you have access to in forensic and criminal psychology. As well as most of the information on this area is US-centric, I will try to write this as broadly as possible so this is suitable for people in other western nations, and most probably eastern nations too. Correctional Facilities: From everything I have seen in forensic psychology, this is where the majority of the jobs are. Due to most forensic psychologists work in prisons and jails doing a wide range of tasks. For example, assessing offenders or working on the rehabilitation side. Both of very broad areas because you could asset the level of violence, sexual deviance, psychopathy or more in an offender. These assessments are critical considering these ideally allow offenders to be assigned to the most appropriate prison, treatment programmes amongst other places. Therefore, I do talk more about the scales and measurement tools used for sex offenders, violent offenders and other types of tools in Forensic Psychology. So if you’re interested in that area, definitely check it out. On the other hand, you could work in rehabilitation where you work with them to teach them coping mechanisms, skills and other needed behavioural techniques so they don’t reoffend. As research shows that rehabilitation with sex offenders and other types of criminals does work, so if you want to have a direct impact on improving an offender’s life. Then this might be something for you to consider. My Thoughts On Those Forensic Psychology Careers: Personally, as you know I do love forensic psychology, and both of these options do tempt me. Working in the assessments I think would be fascinating because you actually get to interact with different offenders and have to almost decide their fate. That would be scary, interesting and exciting. Especially, (and yes I am taking this example from TV) if you had to assess a serial killer. In terms of rehabilitation, this career idea I do love. Since rehabilitation does work for the vast majority of offenders so if I can help them, help make society a safer place and improve lives. Then that’s very tempting. My only concern (that really annoys me) is because the general public doesn’t believe in rehabilitation. Politicians capitalise on that and focus on longer prison sentences (that don’t tend to work) instead of rehabilitation that would actually make society safer. Meaning there is a lack of funding in this career option so I think I could be massively disappointed by the reality. Courts and Forensic Psychologists: This is an example of a range of careers that are extremely hit and miss when it comes to TV representation, because as a forensic psychologist you could work in the legal system to some extent. As courts allow you to become expert witnesses, evaluate offenders, comment on mental health and criminal behaviour and more, as well as private practice. Of course, you need to be well-reputed before any of this happens because it is a great place to work towards. Since as an expert witness you could testify on memory, thinking, mental health and almost anything you are qualified in to talk about (more or less). Again I think this would be amazing and I would love to walk into a courtroom, sit in the dock and testify on a gripping case. Of course most of them aren’t gripping and expert witnesses in the grand scheme of things are rarely needed, but it is still fun to think about. What Are Forensic Psychology Careers? Conclusion: I know I grouped the three main jobs of forensic psychologists into very broad groups and all of those three could be divided and broken down into many more. However, the entire point of this psychology podcast episode was to shine a light on the real forensic psychology career paths that you could take. Forensic psychology is an amazing area of psychology that I love and will continue to explore over time. And if you’re interested in this area and want to learn more, definitely check out my books on the topic here. But at the end of the day, when it comes to what you what to do with your career, you need to do what is best for you! So have fun, keep learning about career paths and enjoy the journey too. That is very important. I really hope you enjoyed today’s episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE AND EXCLUSIVE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Forensic 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! Forensic Psychology Careers Reference: https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/and-running/202011/forensic-psychology-careers I truly hope that you’re 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-bick www.paypal.me/connorwhiteley1 to go to PayPal.

After looking at suicide already in a lot of depth, we need to consider how depression affects suicide. Since as always there are a lot of myths and misconceptions about how depression impacts suicide, so in this psychology podcast episode, that is exactly what we seek to look at. How does Depression impact suicide? This clinical psychology episode has been sponsored by Abnormal Psychology: The Causes and Treatments For Depression, Anxiety and More Third Edition. 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. Other Useful Episodes: Male Suicide: A Silent Clinical Psychology Crisis How Social Factors Impact Male Suicide? How Does Depression Impact Suicide? How Does Depression Lead To Suicidal Thinking? Lots of different people experience suicidal thinking in their life and this usually happens after a difficult life event. Like the loss of a loved one, job or something else that is important to them, as we’ve spoken about on previous episodes. In addition, depression links to this type of thinking because it impairs our cognitive flexibility as it changes our patterns of feeling and thinking so we cannot see a way out of our current situation. As well as we cannot imagine or even entertain the idea of a better future. Also the Cognitive Triad in depression leads a person to focus on all their setbacks, all their so-called mistakes and what makes them a failure. Including relationship failures and adverse childhood experiences. Therefore, this only adds to their feelings of worthless and depression only magnifies the pain they’re suffering. All leading to a depressed person being more likely to seek out suicide as the only viable escape route from all this suffering and psychological pain. Personally, this is rather tragic to write about but it is important. It is important for all of us to understand the importance of treatment and the work we do as psychology professionals and in the future psychology students. It is the work we do that can save lives, or at the very least help people decrease and cope with their psychological distress. This is why psychology is critical. How Common Is Suicide In Depression? According to the U.S Department of Health and Human Services, it turns out 2% of people who are treated for depression in an outpatient service take their own life. As well as out of all those people who were ever hospitalised for depression, the death rate by suicide is 4%. Before I go on to dive into the numbers a bit more, I just wanted to mention that this does sort of fly in the face of a massive misconception about suicide. Since I have heard plenty of times through the grapevine so to speak that people believe that all depressed people commit suicide. Thankfully that is far, far, far from the case. But still 4% is too high for my liking. It should be 0% in an ideal world and thankfully that is where psychologists come in. Additionally, around 60% of suicide victims have a mood condition that is potentially treatable and younger people who kill themselves often have a substance abuse difficulty as well. Of course, in addition, to the other life factors that can impact suicide. And this is the main reason why I talk about all these things in my books, in-person and on the podcast. Because even if I can educate or prompt one person to convince others to get professional help if they have a mental health condition, then that means I could have potentially saved a life. This is why psychologists and therapists are critical because without us so many people would still be suffering. As well as this is why I hate with a passion all the rubbish that psychology gets. With people thinking we know nothing, psychology is profiling and therapists are dangerous (as in villains in TV and books). Because this bad representation isn’t helpful to us, our clients and the people who need professional aid but don’t trust us. Anyway jumping off my soapbox now! Do Anti-Suicide Pacts Work? Wow! This is actually rather cool and rather clever. So these pacts have been around for ages between at-risk patients and therapists as a way to stop the patient from committing suicide. These pacts or contracts can be written or verbal but that isn’t important. What is important is that it gets the at-risk patient to not self-harm or commit suicide. As well as the pacts make the patient call the therapist, an emergency number or 999 if they even think about suicide for a moment. Furthermore, effective suicide contracts which are written, dated and signed with a copy given to each person and kept in an accessible location. Not only ensure the patient doesn’t kill themselves but it ensures they call emergency numbers when they’re in danger. Again what is so brilliant about these pacts is they are not legally binding so that increases comfort for the patient. As the therapist cannot and does not need to file it in court and get the patient arrested. Because of course, suicide is a crime. Also this is already very commonplace in certain industries where the suicidal rates are extremely high. Like in paramedics and other first responders, with them becoming more and more common amongst friends and family members of anyone who has been suicidal. And this is what I love about this podcast, because I think this pact is utterly amazing. It is such an effective and easy to do method that I’m extremely pleased that people have this option. Conclusion: After today’s episode, I’m actually… rather hopeful about the future because if this episode has taught me anything. It is how important psychology students (for the future) and psychology professionals are, because we are a massive line of defence for depressed people. Also I guess that was the real point for today’s episode, it was to teach all of us how valuable we are for depressed people, and why our work matters so much to so many. And I have to admit I love those anti-suicide pacts. I think they’re a great idea. Of course, nothing the podcast is ever official advice, but they’re still pretty great. I really hope you enjoyed today’s episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE AND EXCLUSIVE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Abnormal Psychology: The Causes and Treatments For Depression, Anxiety and More Third Edition. 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 Reference: https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/basics/depression/depression-and-suicide I truly hope that you’re 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-bit of support. Click www.paypal.me/connorwhiteley1 to go to PayPal.

Whenever domestic violence is mentioned, you never hear about the countless men that are abused as well. It is outrageous that any man or woman is abused by their partners, and this needs to stop for everything. But whilst there is plenty of research focusing on men assaulting women, there is barely any research on women attacking men. This is extremely harmful to everyone and this needs to change. But why does is it so hard to recognise abuse against men? Also as this is to do with mental health and abuse is a crime that’s why this is both a forensic and clinical psychology episode. This episode has been sponsored by Forensic Psychology. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Why Is It Difficult To Recognise Domestic Violence Against Men? Even in 2022, there are so few research studies that focus on men as the victims of domestic abuse, and the studies that do exist tend to focus on homosexual couples. Creating and reinforcing the extremely damaging stereotype of an adult straight man cannot be abused by a woman. Of course it is flat out wrong. But the stereotype exists and it is what people believe. In addition, the national coalition against domestic violence reports that 1 in 9 men experience domestic violence in the USA. But when you consider the damaging impact of the stereotypes, the tendency for men to underreport it and the so-called accompanying embarrassment, this number is likely to be very low compared to the real number. And I call the embarrassment so-called because there shouldn’t be any negativity towards the male victims. They should be able to get support and stop the awful things they are experiencing. Additionally, whereas male abusers tend to use physical methods to inflict pain onto their victims. Women don’t necessarily have that option, not only because their small size and possible inability to overpower a man. But also it comes back to how women are socialised in our society. Therefore, women abusers tend to use psychological warfare instead. By using revenge-seeking behaviour (like posting horrible things on social media and spreading rumours), emotional abuse and stalking. And most experts and people who work with domestic violence survivors actually say this form is more harmful than physical aggression. Due to it is harder to spot and prove, as well as even more our legal systems are not designed to effectively deal with the non-physical side of abuse. Meaning that this psychological abuse is far more likely to continue, go unnoticed and unstopped for much longer than any physical abuse would. Personally, I think this is tragic because in society, we should want to protect everyone, regardless of gender, so it is a shame that we cannot detect and even legally deal with psychological abuse. And this goes for any gender. All abuse is flat out wrong! Male domestic violence and stereotypes: Nonetheless, when it comes to men being victims of domestic abuse, men don’t only feel weak, embarrassed and shame because of the abusive woman. But because of the damaging stereotypes too. As the men aren’t only learning how to deal with the trauma of the partner abuse, they are learning how to survive the societal pressure and stereotypes too. Because clearly if a man gets abused, he isn’t a real man. What utter rubbish! In addition, these stereotypes only increase the self-doubt the victim is already experiencing and can actually lead them to put up with it, because they ask themselves questions like, is the abuse really that bad? And how much damage can a woman do? Again isn’t helpful and it is even worse when people around the victim ask that this. It doesn’t help them to fight, deal or survive the trauma. It only makes it worse. Societal expectations and the law: Of course in this clinical psychology podcast episode, i am not saying men are the majority of domestic abuse victims. That unfortunate and outrageous statistic goes to women. But I am highlighting that men are victims too. Also the very idea of straight men being abused by women was laughable up until recently in research. As well as even in the legal system, men aren’t given the same amounts of legal protection against abusers. This is not good because surely as a society, we should try to make things equal for everyone. And yes, I know this is very idealist but ideally we should have a society were everyone gets the same amount of legal protection. Of course, it will never ever happen. But we should still try to come as close as we can! Additionally, because of the intimate and tight-lipped nature around domestic violence all victims feel alone and isolated in their experiences. Like they’re trapped forever. And being a man in our culture only adds to this difficulty, because of the utter rubbish expectations we have about men. Like the rubbish about real men don’t talk about their feelings, they don’t cry and they leave the emotional wrecks to the woman. It is rubbish and we need to stop these harmful beliefs. Also it is worth noting that most people (i was no exception a few years ago) believe that a man would be able to stop the abuse and therefore don’t think about it nor do they take it too seriously. This only creates an environment that isn’t conducive to supporting men who have been domestically abused. Signs to watch out for: As always on this psychology episode, I like to mention some useful unofficial tips toward the end. Therefore, if you think you are experiencing, or suspect a man that you care about might be going through what we’ve spoken about today, here are some signs to watch out for: · He is concerned about his partner’s reaction to social media, calls or texts from other women. · Their partner is extremely jealous and/or possessive. For example, they aren’t able to go out with friends alone or allowed other forms of privacy. · The partner tells people very personal details about him or the relationships out of spite or malice. Basically making fun of him. · Having the partner’s friends do their dirty work for them. For example, driving past his house and checking up on him. · The partner threatens to kill herself if he doesn’t behave in a certain way or do certain things she asks of him. · She brags about trying to get him fired from his job or another form of punishment for leaving the relationship. Clinical Psychology Conclusion: Domestic abuse should not happen to anyone. Regardless of their gender, sexuality and all the other outrageous causes of abuse. It shouldn’t happen full stop. But hopefully after today you can see that domestic abuse can happen to everyone and we still have a lot of work to do to help both women and men from being abused. I really hope you enjoyed today’s clinical psychology episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE AND EXCLUSIVE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Forensic Psychology. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Buy Me A Coffee Forensic Psychology Reference: National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. https://ncadv.org/statistics. Accessed 12/15/2021. Seelau EP, Seelau SM, Poorman PB. Gender and role-based perceptions of domestic abuse: does sexual orientation matter? Behav Sci Law. 2003;21(2):199-214. doi: 10.1002/bsl.524. PMID: 1264504 I truly hope that you’re 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-bit of support. Click www.paypal.me/connorwhiteley1 to go to PayPal

Continuing our clinical psychology look at dementia, I want to talk about this fascinating topic that no one thinks about. I certainly didn’t. It’s the topic of dementia isn’t a diagnosis and if we stop there, then the dementia sufferer cannot get the professional help they need. And what makes this really interesting is how this relates to other areas of psychology too. You don’t want to miss this! This episode has been sponsored by Cognitive Psychology: A Guide To Neuroscience, Neuropsychology and Cognitive Psychology Third Edition. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. What is Dementia and Types of Dementia? Would be useful to read first. Why Dementia Isn’t A Diagnosis? On past dementia-focused podcast episodes, we’ve spoken about the different types of dementia and how they all differ. Each one has its own causes, symptoms and possible treatment options to some extent. As well as dementia is just an umbrella term for a whole range of mental health conditions. Therefore, if anyone just says someone has dementia then this can be extremely dangerous. As it can stop them from getting professional help and seeking a real diagnosis to find out what condition they have exactly. This is even more important when we realise that several conditions copy the symptoms of dementia and have similar impacts on behaviour. Hence why this is of interest to psychology. Furthermore, not only does it allow people to understand the type of dementia they have. But it allows us all to understand what aspects of our cognition and behaviour are likely to be affected first and those likely to be affected later. So by getting a specific diagnosis, it allows us to plan more effectively with treatment and support, but expectations too. Another way to think about this is like saying someone has a headache. Due to headaches can be caused by an entire range of things, like stress and migraines. As well as they can be caused by a range of diseases which can be much more serious, like brain tumours and strokes. This is why is it critical to always get a professional diagnosis. Additionally, if we apply this to clinical psychology more generally, this is why diagnosis is important for all mental health conditions. For example, people could believe a child is awful, badly behaved and anti-social but they might have autism. And without the diagnosis we wouldn’t know and we wouldn’t know how to get access to the brilliant range of support and interventions that could be used to help the child cope with everyday life and thrive. Importance of Checking and Reversible Causes of Dementia: Another reason to check for dementia and get a real diagnosis is because it is critical to check for reversible causes of dementia. This is another great reason why I love learning about dementia because I had no idea dementia had reversible causes, meaning the dementia can be reversed. Some reversible causes of dementia include: · A B12 deficiency · Hypothyroidism · Chronic infection like in Lyme disease. All these conditions and causes can be easily detected by blood tests so after a diagnosis has been reached, these tests can be conducted and hopefully if the causes are reversible. Then a treatment programme can be arranged and the dementia can be gone. In addition, we’ll look at this potentially reversible cause of dementia in another episode, but depression is another cause to bear in mind. Also by using structural brain imaging, doctors can identify subdural hematomas (accumulation of blood between the skull and the brain) and other rather horrific sounding abnormalities that need to be removed to relieve brain pressure or help prevent strokes. Overall, it’s important to get a real dementia diagnosis so people can understand the type of dementia they have so treatment options can be developed. Even if it is sadly just options to slow down the dementia. As well as it gives people a chance to see if their dementia is reversible. (I really wish my Great-uncle had that option) More On Treatment For Dementia: Throughout the podcast episode, I’ve hinted (heavily!) at the main reason why getting the right diagnosis is important is for treatment options. Since it is only with the right diagnosis can the sufferer get the correct treatment for them. For example: · Cholinesterase inhibitors can improve patients with Alzheimer’s, dementia with Lewy bodies and vascular dementia. · Stroke Workup and treatment is necessary for vascular dementia and it usually uses aspirin or other blood thinners. · Surgical Evaluation and possible intervention is needed for people with normal pressure hydrocephalus (a build-up of spinal fluid inside the brain) or subdural hematoma. · Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (very famous in clinical psychology!) are used as the first line of defence (and first therapy) for treating frontotemporal dementia. Then of course, don’t forget about medical trials or studies looking at new treatments of dementia. None of this is official advice, but there are some great studies going on for dementia, my placement supervisor is always working on one (I think). Therefore, if you and the dementia sufferer are interested in that sort of stuff, go for it! Explore the area and you never ever you might have helped dementia science take another step forward! Why Does This Apply To Psychology Students and Professionals? Conclusion: I know this podcast is made up mainly of amazing psychology students and psychology professionals and this is for whom I always try to create my content for. But I wouldn’t blame you in the slightest for wondering why I’m telling you about the importance of diagnosis, since it is a fundamental principle in clinical psychology. But I did this episode for two main reasons. Reasons that might not be clear to us, but they are critical for our clients and the people we serve. Firstly, don’t give our clients a general diagnosis like dementia. Because at the end of the day, that general diagnosis is useless to them, give them the full details so they can truly understand what is happening to them, and maybe they can start to do something about it. Of course, this doesn’t always apply, but you get the idea. As well as it will help them to understand why psychotherapy or another course of action is needed. Secondly, deepen our understanding. I still love clinical psychology because there is always something more to learn, and for all of us deepening our understanding and learning about where people are coming from is critical. By learning why dementia isn’t a good diagnosis, we can inform our own practices and learn how to treat our current or future clients better. And learning more about clinical psychology never hurts, does it? Overall, dementia is a great topic that has as many as facets as other mental health conditions, so it is important to focus on from time to time. But remember the most important takeaway from this episode is don’t settle for a dementia diagnosis. I really hope you enjoyed this clinical psychology episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE AND EXCLUSIVE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Cognitive Psychology: A Guide To Neuroscience, Neuropsychology and Cognitive Psychology Third Edition. 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 Clinical Psychology Reference: Budson, A. E., & O'Connor, M. K. (2017). Seven Steps to Managing Your Memory: What's Normal, What's Not, and what to Do about it. Oxford University Press. I truly hope that you’re 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-bit of support. Click www.paypal.me/connorwhiteley1 to go to PayPal.