Psychology in Everyday Life: The Psych Files

Did you know that you can apply your psychology skills to the development of effective websites?  Meet one woman - Nathalie Nahai - who does exactly that and she has a background in not only psychology, but also Art, Physics and English Literature.  She's putting all those together to help people improve their websites and the power of their online influence, which by the way, is the title of the book she's working on: The Psychology of Online Influence. 

A whole bunch of fascinating studies in this episode of The Psych Files! I cover the "Red Dress Effect", what exactly we're looking for in the facial characteristics of our leaders, how dark rooms might make you more likely to cheat, and how "contagious yawning" really works. Join me on this jaunt down some of the recent and fun research coming out of the fascinating field of psychology.

A whole bunch of fascinating studies in this episode of The Psych Files!  I cover the "Red Dress Effect", what exactly we're looking for in the facial characteristics of our leaders, how dark rooms might make you more likely to cheat, and how "contagious yawning" really works.  Join me on this jaunt down some of the recent and fun research coming out of the fascinating field of psychology.

You probably know that sites like Facebook are using the information they have about you - like your age, gender and interests - to serve up ads that are most likely to appeal to you. That's a little bit harmless and perhaps even helpful. But how about the more subtle filtering that is going on that you may not be aware of? Search engines are using information they have about you to show you news that these search tools think will most likely appeal to you based on your previous search activities. The problem with that? You might find yourself living in a bubble - sheltered from ever hearing about things you might not agree with, but which might also open your mind a bit and make you what your parents always wanted for you - to be "well-rounded".

You probably know that sites like Facebook are using the information they have about you - like your age, gender and interests - to serve up ads that are most likely to appeal to you.  That's a little bit harmless and perhaps even helpful.  But how about the more subtle filtering that is going on that you may not be aware of?  Search engines are using information they have about you to show you news that these search tools think will most likely appeal to you based on your previous search activities.  The problem with that?  You might find yourself living in a bubble - sheltered from ever hearing about things that might you might now agree with, but which might also open your mind a bit and make you what your parents always wanted for you - to be "well-rounded".

In episode 168 I discussed reliability but the real test of a test's "metal" - or how confident you can be in the results - comes when you subject it to lots of validity tests. You'll learn a lot about validity if you take a psychology class. High validity is what separates the many fun-to-take but essentially meaningless tests you'll find on the web, and a truly solid test of your personality.

In episode 168 I discussed reliability but the real test of a test's "metal" - or how confident you can be in the results - comes when you subject it to lots of validity tests.  You'll learn a lot about validity if you take a psychology class.  High validity is what separates the many fun-to-take but essentially meaningless tests you'll find on the web, and a truly solid test of your personality.

Can you tell your personality from what flavor ice cream you like? There are lots and lots of so called Personality tests on the web. How do you know when you've come across a good one? For example, are the inner workings of your personality revealed in the playlists you have on your smartphone or mp3 device? In this episode we take a look at the first thing you should demand from any test - reliability. If you're interested in psychology you are going to learn A LOT about the different kinds of reliability.

Can you tell your personality from what flavor ice cream you like?  There are lots and lots of so called Personality tests on the web.  How do you know when you've come across a good one?  For example, are the inner workings of your personality revealed in the playlists you have on your smartphone or mp3 device?  In this episode we take a look at the first thing you should demand from any test - reliability.  If you're interested in psychology you are going to learn A LOT about the different kinds of reliability.Ep 168: Reliability - the Foundation of Any Good Personality Test

Guess What? Bad news: if you've ever been overweight and you're trying to lose weight it's even harder than you think. Yikes. Pretty de-motivating. However, let's see what motivational psychologists would have to say about this. How to keep from throwing up your hands at the whole effort.

Guess What? Bad news: if you've ever been overweight and you're trying to lose weight it's even harder than you think.  Yikes.  Pretty de-motivating.  However, let's see what motivational psychologists would have to say about this.  How to keep from throwing up your hands at the whole effort. 

What do you reveal about yourself in the way you use the smallest and seemingly most insignificant words you use every minute? That's the focus of Dr. James Pennebaker's fascinating book and one of the most interesting psychology books of 2011: The Secret Life of Pronouns. If you're fascinated by language then you'll find this episode especially interesting.

What do you reveal about yourself in the way you use the smallest and seemingly most insignificant words you use every minute?  That's the focus of Dr. James Pennebaker's fascinating book and one of the most interesting psychology books of 2011: The Secret Life of Pronouns.  If you're fascinated by language then you'll find this episode especially interesting.

What's going on with Psychology? There have been a number of reports about poorly conducted or completely fraudulent research in the field. Well, there's bad research in all fields, but psychology, which has through its history struggled for scientific credibility, is particularly sensitive to this issue and many psychologists have come out with strong recommendations to make sure that our research is of the highest quality.

What's going on with Psychology?  There have been a number of reports about poorly conducted or completely fraudulent research in the field.  Well, there's bad research in all fields, but psychology, which has through its history struggled for scientific credibility, is particularly sensitive to this issue and many psychologists have come out with strong recommendations to make sure that our research is of the highest quality. In this episode I look at how research can be conducted poorly and what to watch out for when you either conduct or read about the results of research.