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In today’s episode of The Psychology World Podcast, we’re going to be talking about how to read people, so this involves social interactions (social psychology) and mental processes (cognitive psychology) So please join me for another episode of The Psychology World Podcast… As humans, we can get a lot of information through non-verbal communication. As a result, by merely looking at someone’s face we can tell a lot about them including their traits. For example, we can tell if the person we’re looking at is dominant, kind, honesty, angry and more. However, the way how we tell these traits is very interesting because we decode these facial expressions very quickly (according to Over and Cook we make recognise these impressions in about 100 milliseconds) but different emotional traits require different decoding strategies. For example, Over and Cook discovered that when people were looking at sad expressions as well as angry expressions, from these expressions other emotions would be inferred. Such as: dominance and other less desirable traits. They tend to focus on the eyes more. Whereas, people who were looking at happy expressions tend to focus on the mouth more as it can be easier to tell happiness from the mouth to the eyes. Why is this Important? It’s important to look at facial expressions as these give us impressions about people and these impressions impact our behaviour in almost every way. From sentencing decisions to employable decisions to who we think we should be friends with. In addition, impressions from facial expressions start at a very early age because Over and Cook found that children as young as three years old could tell if a person was ‘strong’ or ‘nice’ by looking at their face. Subsequently, a 7 month old baby prefers a trustworthy face compared to an untrustworthy face person. You have to love developmental psychology. Importance of Looking: As a final note, I have to stress here that it is very important to have face to face conservations so you truly understand and appreciate facial expressions as they are very helpful and they can help you to navigate the social world. So please try and make an effort to see people and not hide behind a computer or phone screen all the time. Overall, I hope that you’re enjoyed this psychology blog post today and if you want to learn about cognitive and social psychology then please consider checking out my books: Sociocultural Psychology 2nd Edition and Cognitive Psychology 2nd Edition. Have a great day, Connor. I truly hope that you’re enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an on-going 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. References: Harriet Overa and Richard Cook, “Where do spontaneous first impressions of faces come from?” Cognition 170 (2018): 190-200. Overa and Cook propose a framework entitled “Trait Inference Mapping,” explaining trait inferences as products of mappings between “face space” and “trait space.” Hedwig Eisenbarth and Georg W. Alpers, “Happy Mouth and Sad Eyes: Scanning Emotional Facial Expressions.” Emotion 11, no. 4, (2011): 860–865.

Today’s episode of The Psychology World Podcast focuses on social psychology and the misconceptions around people’s sexual interest in them, and if you’ve read any of my other blog posts or books then you know that I like Sociocultural Psychology and the Psychology of Human Relationships. Personally, I think that this is a very interesting topic to discuss because humans always think that people are less or more interest in us sexually then they actually are and typically men tend to overestimate sexually attraction and women tend to underestimate how much men on into them. Note: for the purposes of this article we are talking about heterosexual people. Moving onto the topic itself, a new study published in the Journal Psychological Science in January 2020 has revealed some very interesting things about these misconceptions, because the study (Lee et al, 2020) has found that these gender differences in misconceptions is down to two factors. Firstly, men tend to overestimate sexual attraction because of their own sexual attraction. For example, if they believe that a woman is into them a lot then they to be into that women a lot. Researchers have described this as the man projecting their own sexual interest onto the women. Secondly, this misconception is because of sociosexual orientation as well as men tend to have more unrestricted sociosexual orientation, meaning that they are more open to causal and uncommitted sex with a higher perception of attraction. Whereas women tend to have more restricted sociosexual orientation, so they are less open to uncommitted and causal sex. Overall, it is combination of these two factors that explain the differences in the misconceptions of sexual attraction between the gender as well as these biases are largely down to the sexual strategies of each gender. For instance, men tend to reproduce with many partners (evolutionary speaking) and women tend to focus on one mate who can provide resources. All to ensure the survival of the species. I hope that you’ve today’s episode of The Psychology World Podcast and if you want to learn more about social psychology as well as relationships then please check out my book: Sociocultural Psychology 2nd Edition and Psychology of Human Relationships. I truly hope that you’re enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an on-going 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: Lee, A. J., Sidari, M. J., Murphy, S. C., Sherlock, J. M., & Zietsch, B. P. (2020). Sex differences in misperceptions of sexual interest can be explained by sociosexual orientation and men projecting their own interest onto women. Psychological Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797619900315

Today’s episode of The Psychology World Podcast is on the developmental impacts of COVID-19 on children so we’ll be looking at social psychology and cognitive psychology as we will mainly be focusing on social skills and brain development. So right now as the world seems to be returning to some sense of normal; at least in the UK; it is a great time to consider the effects of COVID-19 on the social skills and brain development of children as this is has been a massive concern of parents. As a result of the decreased social activities as well as the dramatic decrease to schooling and potentially learning. However, I would like to assure parents that the brain development of their child and by extension their cognitive development; at least most of it; can still be on a healthy course to ‘normal’ development as long as the caregiver is attentive, loving, interactive and… basically is there and engaged with the child. Furthermore, thankfully a child’s social skills shouldn’t be impacted too much by the pandemic as long as the caregiver is stays engaged with their child, keeps stress manageable (we’ll talk about this in a moment) and provides opportunities for age related moments. Going back to the last point, some parents are creating very childish conversations with their children by literally narrating their entire day to their child as a way to interact and engage with them. For example: “I am putting the washing in the machine. This is the machine, and these are my jeans and your baby socks,” Overall, a baby needs an attentive and caring caregiver that loves them, interacts with them and is engaged in them. Nonetheless, I think that we all know how stressful COVID-19 has been on us so this can add a lot of stress into a parent’s life and whilst babies as well as children can learn from positive stress. They can be very badly affected by negative stress. Especially, as babies and toddlers when their brains are especially influenced by input. Thus, it’s important to try and relax and try not to get stressed about it all. Mindfulness and mediation is meant to be very useful so maybe this is something to try in the future. I hope you have enjoyed this social psychology and cognitive psychology post. If you want to learn more then please check out my books and if you want to learn more about Development Psychology then please check out my book: Developmental Psychology. Have a great day, Connor. Reference: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/babies/202005/will-social-distancing-affect-my-toddler-s-development I truly hope that you’re enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an on-going 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.

Today’s episode of The Psychology World Podcast is on cuteness, the psychology of cuteness and why you need more cuteness in your life. Therefore, today’s episode looks at social psychology as well as cognitive psychology. So, cuteness is very important in today’s society because it dominates everything. It started in Japan with those cute bears with massive eyes then it spread to east Asia and now the concept of cuteness has spread all over the world. In addition, cuteness dominates as well as permeates all aspects of our daily lives from cute fashion to cute food to cite houses. We cannot escape cuteness. The main reason for this cuteness obsession is because it sells. If you’re product is cute then it is a lot more likely to sell compared to an ugly product. A more popular and industry used word is called: cuteness engineering. As a result, companies need and actively try to make their products as cute as possible for customers to enjoy as well as find attractive. However, I heard you ask where does psychology come in as this is a psychology blog and a psychology podcast? Well, social psychology and cognitive psychology; as we’re dealing with thinking processes; comes in a lot when it comes to cuteness due to Lorenz; a famous researcher who worked with Bowlby on attachment (you can see Developmental Psychology for more information) theorised that cuteness was an adaptive process that can melt the toughest of hearts as well as it can turn people into devote carers or caregivers. Personally, this is quite an interesting idea because it explains why people like to look after cute children and others. Furthermore, this is backed up with cognitive and social psychological research due to Sherman, Haidt and Coan (2009) ran an interesting study where they got people to look at cute animal photos and play a game of operation afterwards. Their results showed that people who looked at the cute animals before playing the game were more careful and accurate when playing the game. Overall, this seems to agree with Lorenz’s idea. How can cuteness benefit your life? Well, cuteness and the psychology of cuteness can impact your life in a number of ways. For instance, if you look at cute pictures before you’re going to do tasks that require you to be careful, concentrate and accurate. These images can help you to do those things better. Finally, if you are met with an annoying person in front of you then you can simply imagine them as a cuter version of themselves or imagine them as a cute child. In turn, this activates the caring and empathy systems instead of the defensiveness system. Overall, I hope that you have enjoyed today’s episode of The Psychology World Podcast and if you want to learn more about social psychology or cognitive psychology then please check out my books and sign up to my newsletter. Have a great day, Connor. Reference: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/surprise/202001/why-you-need-more-cuteness-in-life Kringelbach, Stark, Alexander, Bornstein, & Stein, 2016: On Cuteness: Unlocking the Parental Brain and Beyond Sherman, Haidt, & James Coan, 2009: Viewing Cute Images Increases Behavioral Carefulness Nittono, et. al., 2012: The Power of Kawaii: Viewing Cute Images Promotes a Careful Behavior and Narrows Attentional Focus I truly hope that you’re enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an on-going 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.

Today’s episode is on How Does Racism Affect Health? So this episodes delves into social psychology as we deal with discrimination and prejudice and psychology addresses these topics well. However, we will be dipping into biological psychology as well because we address biology and physiological responses that people have to certain stimuli. I’m doing this topic as the episode of The Psychology World Podcast today because I want to show that racism DOES have a real physical impact upon the people who face it. In addition, to the profound amount of other effects that racism has on people and their lives. Firstly, and this is the main way how racism impacts a person’s health, is racism triggers the stress response in a person because they are in a potentially harmful situation. Therefore, there bodily acts accordingly by increasing heart rate, breathing as well as blood pressure. The body does this to get more oxygen around the body and to the muscles so the body can react if it needs to. In the short term, this is a good thing because it means that the victim of racism can fight or run away if needed. However, if this is frequently activated so the if the body is constantly increasing its heart rate and breath as well as blood pressure then this can lead to many health problems. Such as: depression, anxiety, insomnia and other problems. Additionally, a massive problem with racism as well as prejudice is that if a person is regularly exposed to it then it leads to their self-esteem and self-worth to be eroded. Leading to other problems such as: lack of self-esteem, depression, anxiety and in extreme cases, but this probably happens a lot more than we think, self-harm and suicide. Consequently, I hope that in this episode of The Psychology World Podcast I have shown you that racism has a very real and awful impact on people. Therefore, if we ever encounter racism and have racist thoughts then please challenge it as these thoughts are not needed and it is only if we work together can we survive and make our societies a better place for ourselves, our children and for the future generations. Overall, I hope that you have liked this social psychology blog post and if you want to learn more about racism, prejudice and other topics in social psychology then please check out Sociocultural Psychology 2nd Edition and if you want to learn more other depression and anxiety then please check Abnormal Psychology 2nd Edition. Have a great day, Connor. Reference: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/evidence-based-living/202006/how-does-racism-affect-health

Today’s episode of The Psychology World Podcast is on anxiety disorders and the different types. Today’s show notes are taken from my Abnormal Psychology 2nd Edition book: After looking at depression, I thought that it would be good to look at some other psychological conditions that people can develop. Personally, I loved this lecture at university because I love learning but it gave me the chance to learn about other types of mental conditions as well. What are anxiety disorders? This is a group of disorders that are distinguished by feelings of wrong and intense stress as well as when the sufferer makes attempts to deal with these feelings. Their methods are disruptive and largely unsuccessful. Unfortunately, anxiety disorders are moderately common as the lifetime prevalence; how common the condition is in a population; of this condition is 29% (Kessler et al, 2005) and it’s more common in women than men. (Bresula, Chilcoal, Kessler and Davis, 1999) In addition, the term anxiety disorders can be broken down into a lot of different sub-categories. Phobias: Phobias are a great subcategory to start off with as they’re well-known and television programmes love to use them. But what actually are phobias? A phobia is a very intense and irrational fear that is usually paired with great determination as well as effort to avoid to the object. Such as: if you have a phobia of spiders then you would not only have an intense fear of spiders, but you would do everything in your power to avoid them as well. Additionally, specific phobias are any disorder that is characterised by an extreme as well as irrational fear of a certain object or situation. Like: flying, spiders or snakes. Overall, the prevalence of any specific phobia is 13% (Kessler et al, 2005) and women are twice as likely to have a specific phobia than men. (Bourdon et al, 1988) Social Phobia/ Social Anxiety Disorder: I once knew a girl who suffered from Social Anxiety Disorder and it was interesting from a psychological perspective; at least; to talk to her about social situations because she hated them. She hated being watched, judged and anything to do with being social. Yet she was very social with certain people who she knew wouldn’t judge her. Moving onto the content, people with social phobias are very fearful about being watched or judged by others. Interestingly, it is not only negative perception or evaluation that is fearful but positive evaluation as well. (Weeks, Heinberg, Rodebaugh and Norton, 2008) That fact makes this disorder very interesting because it’s natural to assume that the person would be concerned about negative evaluations. Like: “She looks awful,” “What is he doing? What an idiot?” “The gym obviously isn’t working for them!” Yet it makes almost no sense for them to be concerned about positive evaluations. Such as: “He’s great to talk to,” “That’s an amazing piece of work!” “I love your cake, Sarah!” Nonetheless, one of the possible reasons for why sufferers of this condition might hate positive evaluations is because it sets a standard and then they become fearful of them missing the standard in the future. Leading to people judging them because they failed this time. Putting that into practice using the cake example, Sarah could make a great cake this time but as her friends think she’s an amazing cook now. She could become anxious over the thought of failing to bake another amazing cake, and her friends judging her for her failure. Furthermore, men and women are affected equally by this disorder as well as it typically manifests itself in childhood or adolescences. (Robins and Regier, 1991) This is a very interesting fact and it probably explains the behaviour of the girl that I knew. Interestingly, sometimes a social phobia is limited to only one situation; like: speaking in groups; whilst in other cases, social phobias are widespread or generalised to many or all social situation. Going back to the girl I knew, she hated meeting strangers and talking to them, but she was fine being the centre of attention for people that she knew. Another downside of Social Anxiety Disorder: In addition, to the suffering, the panic and the awful feelings associated with this condition. When forced into situations, people that suffer from social phobia may use drugs or alcohol to ‘fortify’ themselves. This increases the risk of alcohol and substance abuse or dependency. (Pollack, 2001) Which leads to many more problems for the individual. Panic disorders: This is another type of disorder that I’ve accounted in my life as I’ve had one or two friends that suffer from panic attacks as well as panic disorders. Especially, in social situations. What are Panic Disorders? This is a type of anxiety disorder that can be characterised by repeated or debilitating panic attacks. Panic attacks are a sudden episode of horrific bodily symptoms. Like: choking, chest pains and distress. All anxiety disorders involve panic attacks, yet a panic disorder involves panic attacks that come out the blue. For example, the girl I knew that suffered from Social Anxiety Disorder had panic attacks in social situations and only those situations. Nevertheless, a sufferer of a panic disorder would suffer from a panic attack in any situation. Finally, panic disorders are found in 5% women and 2% men. (Barlow, 2002) Generalised Anxiety Disorder: Whilst, people with phobias and panic attacks suffer massively and their lives can be very disturbed. Both of these conditions are limited as without the stimulus or trigger these people can function almost ‘normally’ This doesn’t apply to people with Generalised Anxiety Disorder because these people aren’t anxious about a particular thing. Instead, their anxiety is continuous and severe. This disorder is relatively common as it has a prevalence of 6% (Kessler et al 2005) as well as it’s twice as likely to be found in women than men. An example of Generalised Anxiety Disorder is: “I’m so nervous about making a mistake at work I take all my reports home to rewrite them the night before I’m suppose to hand them in” (White, 1999, p.72) People with generalised anxiety disorder worry about everything and anything as well as these people feel inadequate, can’t concentrate, are oversensitive and may sometimes suffer from insomnia. According to Rickels and Ryan (2001), these behaviours can be accompanied by irregular breathing, chronic diaherria, rapid heart rate and excessive sweating. Personally, I feel so sorry for these people as Generalized Anxiety Disorder can be very debilitating and stop you from enjoying life. I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s episode of The Psychology World Podcast and if you want to learn more about Abnormal Psychology then please check out my Abnormal Psychology 2nd Edition book here. Have a great day, Connor.

Today’s episode is on myths about apologies so this psychology blog post falls in social psychology. Therefore, in today’s episode of The Psychology World Podcast, we’ll talk about 5 myths about apologies and what the truth is about them. Weakness: Firstly, apologising isn’t weakness. I know that lots of people thinking that by apologising you are admitting that you were at fault and this makes you a weakling. However, this isn’t some as in a lot of cases by apologising you are showing that you have strength, as well as saying that an apology makes you weak is just an excuse! Only have to say I’m sorry: Personally, I would love this to true because that would make the social world so much easier but as social psychology shows us the social world is rarely so simple. Therefore, you need to say sorry in an apology, but you need to do more as well. Like: talk about your problems and try and fix things as well. I’ll go into more depth in a moment but it’s important to think about. Responsibility: Whilst, this next point more aimed at organisations, business and in other words, not individuals. Sometimes people do not apologise to people when they should because they are afraid of admitting their mistake and taking responsibility. As this responsibility could lead to them getting sued. Personally, I completely see the logic in this thinking but as a Human Branding Consultant, I equally do not see the logic in it. Furthermore, in the USA a medical organisation found that when they apologised to people. It actually decreased the likelihood of them getting sued. Of course, this is only one example and shouldn’t be taken as a rule, but it’s something to consider. The purpose is forgiveness: I will fully forgive; see what I did there; someone who thought or believed that the purpose of an apology is forgiveness as I believed this until I researched it. However, the true purpose of an apology is conversation due to an apology provides you with an opportunity to sit down and talk about what’s happened. In order for you to fix your problems and move on so, this doesn’t happen again. Guilt is pointless: Looking at our final myth and this is one that I had never considered before I researched this topic, is the myth that guilt is pointless. We experience this because we feel guilt when we apologise, and society tells us that guilt is pointless. Although, there is such thing called ‘Good Guilt’ because sometimes guilt makes us do something productive that benefits ourselves, others and our relationships that leads to other long-term benefits. For example, good guilt could lead us to repair or try to fix our mistake that leads us to this ugly situation we are in now. Like: when we hurt a friend by telling a secret you may try and tell them a ‘dark’ secret of yours. Therefore, this guilt caused us to do something that benefits us now and in the long term, as now our friend knows that we care about them. I hope that you’ve enjoyed today’s social psychology episode of The Psychology World Podcast. If you want to learn about more psychology, then please sign up for my newsletter to receive your FREE book. Have a great day, Connor Reference: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/make-it-right/202005/the-top-15-myths-about-apologies

Today’s episode of The Psychology World Podcast is on Sleep and How Sleep Works and as today’s psychology podcast episode is on Biological Psychology, the show notes are taken from my book Biological Psychology 2nd Edition: I thought that I would end this book looking at sleep because we all need sleep but: How does it work? Why do we need sleep? Why do we dream? These are all interesting as well as important questions that we need to answer to be able to understand the whole point of sleep. Because let’s face it, sleep can be inconvenient as sometimes I would rather be doing something than sleeping. However, as you will find out throughout this next section sleep is vital so it shouldn’t be taken lightly. What is sleep? Personally, I always find these sorts of questions to be great because ‘what is sleep?’ is one of those annoying questions as we know what sleep is but it’s almost impossible to put into words. Nonetheless, three definitions include: · “Sleep is a readily reversible state of reduced responsiveness to, and interaction with, the environment.” · “Sleep is a naturally recurring state characterised by reduced or absent consciousness, relatively suspended sensory activity, and inactivity of nearly all voluntary muscles.” · Sleep represents an altered state of consciousness (Mutz, Javadi, 2017) Although, regardless of how you define sleep it must be noted that sleep is a universal behaviour that is displayed by higher vertebrates (all mammals and birds), and some cold-blooded vertebrates. The Circadian rhythm: As I read these slides and passages for my university lecture I was immediately interested in the whole sleep concept but then this strange word kept popping up. This word or phrase was the ‘Circadian Rhythm’ Which come on is a nice word to say. So, before we continue, we need to define it. A circadian rhythm can be defined in simple terms as a circular rhythm that the body goes through. In terms of sleep, the circadian rhythm is our melatonin; more on than later; drops during the day as we wake up and remains low during the day and increase as we get closer to bedtime and remains high during the night. Before it comes full circle and drops back down to lower levels in the morning. Circadian rhythms for the entire body: Many bodily functions follow a circadian rhythm and these are the product of endogenous influences; influences that originate from inside the body; and exogenous influences; influences from outside the body. Some examples of exogenous influences include: · Light · Temperature · Environment The purpose of endogenous rhythms is to keep the working of our internal body in sync with the outside world. This is important as the human circadian clock generates a rhythm that is longer than 24 hours when it has no external cues to refer to. As supported by Kelley et al (1999) who studied naval officers on 18-hour shifts. Exogenous or external cues: These cues rely on a stimulus to reset the circadian rhythm. This is called a Zeitgeber. (time trigger) Although, out of all the stimulus that the human body encounters light is crucial for resetting the rhythm. Overall, the human body runs on a biological clock that needs to reset itself and we need stimulus in order to do that. Mechanisms of the biological clock: There are 3 mechanisms involved in the biological clock and these include: · Melatonin · Genes that produce certain proteins · The Suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) The SCN is part of the hypothalamus and it’s the main centre of the circadian rhythm for sleep and temperature. If the SCN is damaged then this results in less consistent body rhythms that aren’t synchronised to the environmental patterns of light as well as dark. In addition, cells in the SCN fire their action potentials in a very specific rhythm that are generated by the SCN are genetically controlled. Additionally, light resets the SCN via a small branch of the optic nerve called: the retinahypothalamus path. That travels directly from the retina to the SCN. The way how the SCN affects sleep is because the SCN controls activity in other areas of the brain. Like the pineal gland. The pineal gland is important as it secretes melatonin; a hormone that regulates the circadian and circannual rhythms as well as it increases 2-4 hours before bedtime. The genetic basis of circadian rhythms: There are two genes that are involved in circadian rhythms and thy are: · Timeless- this gene produces proteins called TIM. · Period- this gene produces proteins called PER. When TIM and PER are in high concentration, they interact with a protein (clock) to induce sleepiness. However, if the clock gene is damaged then this can result in a reduced sleep as well as erratic sleeping pattern. Furthermore, mutations in the PER gene can result in strange circadian rhythms. So now that we’ve looked at the basics of sleep and the circadian rhythm, what happens to us when it gets disrupted? I hope that you’ve enjoyed today’s episode. If you want to learn more about Biological Psychology, Sleep and more then please check out my book Biological Psychology 2nd Edition. Have a great day, Connor.

Today’s psychology episode dips into cognitive psychology as we are dealing with negative thoughts but social psychology as well because some of these ways to deal with negative thoughts are to do with social factors. All in all, today’s episode of The Psychology World podcast is on How to Deal with Negative Thoughts because let’s face it we all have negative thoughts sometimes but sometimes these negative thoughts can become problematic. Leading to depression, anxiety, and other mental health conditions. Therefore, I guess that this psychology podcast episode looks at clinical and abnormal psychology as well. Here are five ways to deal with negative thoughts. Challenge Your Thoughts: A lot of our thoughts and especially our negative thoughts are wrong because of various biases that you can read about in Cognitive Psychology 2nd Edition and it’s because of these why we need to challenge our thoughts. To see if we are correct and there is a problem or to see if we are incorrect. For example, if I think I’m a bad psychology student then I need to think and question this assumption and by looking at my grades I’m not a bad student but I’m only okay when it comes to essays. Thus, the takeaway point is to question your thoughts to see if you’re right and only if you’re right should you be concerned about this thought. Focuses on Strengths: Thankfully, we all have our strengths and; not so thankfully; we all have our weaknesses and it is our strengths that we must focus on. For instance, if my negative thought is that I am a bad dancer; I am; then I can focus on my strengths of being a good writer, publisher, marketer and student. In other words, focus on your strengths because I bet you- you are great at a lot of things that other people are not. Practice Gratitude: This is especially important if you’re criticising yourself because you have failed to do a number of things that you needed to do today and if you are punishing yourself. But the important thing to remember is that to deal with these negative thoughts you need to be grateful to yourself instead of punishing yourself. Such as: today I wanted to write 4 chapters of my Clinical Psychology book, do some audiobook recording and some other things. However, I didn’t do a few of these things so the negative thought of why didn’t you do this when you need to came to mind. But I practiced gratitude and at least I did some of these things. Plus, I had other things going on today. In other words, cut yourself some lack and thank yourself when you accomplish something. Release Judgement and Find a Positive: To put it simply, try not to judge people and try to find a positive in the mess because if you try and find a positive then this will help your mental processes be positive. Plus, I’m not saying don’t acknowledge and try to sort out the negatives in a problem but do them in a positive manner and don’t judge people for their mistakes as this only leads to negative thoughts. Note: I know that this is a lot easier said than done! Seek Out Professional Support: I know that the week that this post was written in is Mental Health Awareness week 2020 and I must stress that it’s important if your negative thoughts continue and you’re struggling with life then please seek out professional support for help. And no it does NOT make you weak for seeking out help. I fully believe that it means you are a strong person as it takes a lot of courage to seek out professional help. I hope that you have found this podcast episode on cognitive psychology useful. If you want to learn more about psychology, then please consider signing up to my newsletter to receive psychology news and your FREE book. Have a great day, Connor. Reference: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/women-s-mental-health-matters/201509/7-ways-deal-negative-thoughts

Today's episode is on Why Do We Have Large Brain as an intrduction to social cognition and this is a subtopic of cognitive psychology. Today's show notes are taken from Cognitive Psychology 2nd Edition: Humanity’s ability to think, interact, form communities and do other things as a group is rather remarkable compared to other animals. As it is this ability of humanity’s that has allowed it to accomplish so much. But how are we able to do this group work and working together? Well, this is where our next topic comes in as social cognition looks at the mental processes behind our social interactions and group processes. Although, it must be stated upfront that primates have unusually large brains for our body size, and this comes with the price of very high energy costs. Meaning that to compensate for this high energy costs, there must be a good explanation for why we have this large organ that costs us so much energy. Evolutionary: Our social cognition can be explained by evolutionary theory because our large brains aided our survival as they allowed us to develop social skills. That allowed us to form groups and communities that was beneficial for the survival of the species. As this allowed us to hunt in packs, share the workload and aid in the survival of the species in other ways, Ecological hypothesis: This hypothesis looks at the reason for our big brains from an environmental standpoint and the hypothesis proposes that our big brains are a bi-product of cognitive demands of certain behaviours. Like: foraging mental maps of the landscape (for example), innovation and tool use. As a result, these instrumental skills gave us a direct advantage over living as individuals for survival. Therefore, we developed better foraging skills amongst other skills as we could forage in groups and learn from others. Social learning: Personally, I have always loved social learning theory as it’s always useful and interesting to consider. Therefore, applying social learning theory to Social Cognition, our large brains reflect the social skills that developed through social competition, and in order to achieve success socially, we needed to develop skills. Such as deception, forming alliances and manipulation. Meaning that social skills gave a direct advantage to the individual to survive. Thus, having and being able to use social skills is beneficial to the individual and not only the species. I hope you've enjoyed today cognitive psychology episode of The Psychology World Podcast and if you want to learn more about Cognitive Psychology then please check out my book Cognitive Psychology 2nd Edition. Have a great day, Connor.

During this difficult time in living history also known as the Coronavirus pandemic, we are all grieving and some more than others because they have lost something precious to them, and this is where social psychology and cognitive psychology can help. Also, as we are dealing with grief, this post may tap into areas of abnormal psychology and clinical psychology as well. In addition, this social psychology blog post can easily to applied to everyday life and certainly after the pandemic, so how can social psychology help us to help our friends deal with their grief? Check in: I know that this simple act of kindness seems stupid or too simple but I promise you that simply checking in with a friend or family member to see if they need anything or to see if they’re okay means everything to that person. Mainly, because you’ve bothered, and you have tried to help them. Currently, I write this blog post two weeks after the death of my Grandma and I have let my parents deal with the funeral and my grandad as they want to try and protect with from this horror. However, I still text my grandad to see if he’s okay and he always says how much that means to him. Also, I’ve been doing a lot of cooking for him. Actively Listen: I cannot stress enough that humans have a great ability to think they know exactly what to say because they believe that they have listened to the person in need but when they try to help. They end up not being helpful because they didn’t listen to the person in need and what they needed to help them move on. Resulting in you probably giving them poor advice, and they may even tell you to go away as clearly you don’t care enough about them to listen to them properly. This is probably false but if you don’t actively listen to the friend in need then this is the impression you can give off. Offer Specific Forms of Help: This method of helping is usual and confusing at first, because what types of help can you offer? Well, this is actually very simple as all you need to do is simply offer to do specific tasks for them. For example, shopping, cleaning or making phone calls. Going back to my personal example, my family has been helping my grandad quite a bit because we are supporting him and another vulnerable person by doing their shopping for them as well as my mum is helping him make the phone calls to inform others about my Grandma’s death and other matters. Therefore, the takeaway message here is to think about what you can help your family member or friend in need with and then offer that help to them. Provide Resources: This psychology blog post is definitely taking a turn towards abnormal psychology and clinical psychology now as sometimes we know that our friend or family member needs professional help. This can be in terms of mental health support or another support service; like: taxes and probate; so to help your friend in need. It’s very useful to guide them the resources they need so they can get this help and they should appreciate it as you are trying to help them. I hope that you’re joined this social psychology and abnormal psychology blog post and if you want to know more about psychology then please sign up for my newsletter to learn more about psychology and get your FREE book. Have a great day, Connor. Reference: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/platonic-love/202004/how-help-our-friends-grieve

Today’s episode of The Psychology World Podcast is on Forensic Psychology and does treatment actually work for offenders. The show notes from today’s episode comes from my book: Forensic Psychology. Please enjoy. In all honesty, I could easily give you the answer to this vital question but that would make this section very short. Firstly, it must be said that general society; and this point will be expanded upon in the next chapter; has a very negative attitude when it comes to treatment and people often say: “Of course, treatment doesn’t work” Therefore, this attitude is important to tackle in the grand scheme of thing because if the public has a lack of faith in treatment then this could lead to political and social consequences. For instance, politicians don’t put funding into treatment to keep the public happy. Leading to offenders not getting a high quality of treatment as a lower quality is all the prison service can afford. Making the treatment stereotype or attitude true that treatment doesn’t work. Do harsher prison sentences work? Personally, I MUST stress to you all that longer periods of imprisonment are not associated with a decrease in re-offending. It all about rehabilitation. Meaning that our politicians wouldn’t be shouted and screamed demanding harsher sentences. They should be focusing on rehabilitation as that’s what works to reduce crime. Further support: Hood (1996) no relationship between serious crimes and capital punishment has been found across different nations. Yet these findings did differ by country. Genedreau, Giggin and Cullen (1999) showed that Canada’s longer sentences actually increase re-offending slightly. Effectiveness of treatment: Overall, intervention and treatment are largely unsuccessful because for programmes to work, trained staff must be used and appropriate programmes must be used. On the other hand, Redondo et al (2002) found that Community programmes have the greatest effects. Additionally, Sex offender programmes had greater effects than programmes for other crimes such as drunk driving. Smith, Goggin & Gendreau (2007) Duve and Goldman (2009) suggested that there’s a more or less consensus that re-offending rates are 5 to 120 points lower with treated groups compared to non-treated groups. Consequently, this demonstrates that treatment works as offenders that got the treatment was potentially a lot less likely to offend. However, this study does have two problems. Such as there was no random assignment to groups, and this wasn’t a true experiment. Meaning that causality is hard to state outright because as no variables were manipulated. We don’t know for certain if it was the treatment that caused the drop in re-offending rates or another factor. Furthermore, there wasn’t a control group; as a group of untreated offenders; so this casts doubt the findings as we don’t know if the treatment worked as we cant compare the results to an untreated group of offenders. Another study that calls the effectiveness of treatment into question is Welsh and Rocque (2014) that discussed that some interventions; such as boost camp; have an adverse effect on offenders. Personally, I can completely understand this result because I am NOT an offender and I am what society would call a ‘good’ person, but I do not take orders and I am my own person. Thus, if I was at a boot camp; why I would be there in the first place is beyond me, and someone was shouting orders at me. Naturally and I believe quite reasonably I would rebel, and my focus would change from trying to learn the benefits of the lesson I was being taught at the Bootcamp to rebelling. Generally, this is what happens to offenders as well. Overall treatment findings: Throughout this section, we have discussed the positives of treatment, the negatives of treatment and everything to do with rehabilitation. Therefore, in this chapter, I’ll tell you that in general, treatment which is defined in many ways tend to show a positive effect. The mean effect across interventions is small but it includes the interventions that are weak or ineffective. In other words, some treatment work very well, others work okay and some don’t work at all. The most important thing to remember though is that we have found no magic bullet for treating offenders yet. I hope that you’ve enjoyed today episode, if you want to learn more please check out my Forensic Psychology book and consider signing up for my newsletter to get your FREE psychology book. Have a great day, Connor.