Psychology and Policy

Obviously, there are many areas of psychological research that inform public policy, but few topics affect as many people as informed decision-making in the realm of healthcare. Enter Psychological Science in the Public Interest as a guide for policy-makers, clinicians, and doctors alike. In the recently published PSPI “Helping Doctors and Patients Make Sense of Health Statistics” by Gerd Gigerenzer, and “Current Status and Future Prospects of Clinical Psychology: Toward a Scientifically Principled Approach to Mental and Behavioral Health Care” by Timothy Baker, set to be published early this Fall, the authors presented two separate but equally important issues in modern healthcare. (more…)

Women of Psychology

The “History of Women in Psychology” symposium provided a very interesting glimpse into the history and challenges women psychologists have faced. Ann Johnson began the program by talking about the “classic history” of women in psychology: “That’s the ‘classic history’ – they are left out and excluded,” she observed. (more…)

In God We Trust?

Religious signifiers are everywhere you turn, from the church on the next street corner to the “In God We Trust” motto on the U.S. dollar. But despite the overwhelming influence of religion in the lives of roughly 85% of the world’s population, psychology has spent comparatively little time on the subject. However, there has been a resurgence of interest among psychological researchers in the study of religion, and the symposium “Toward a Cognitive Science of Religion: Insights From Personality and Social Psychology” chaired by Michael Inzlicht, University of Toronto, investigated some of the latest findings. (more…)

Sugar Stress and Sex

“So, apparently, putting ‘sex’ in the title really brings people out,” Ewan McNay joked as he opened the symposium “Sugar, Stress, and Sex: How Hormones Affect Cognition.” He was right, the room was packed, and everyone was there to hear the latest research on the effects of sugar (as in glucose), stress (as in glucocorticoids), and sex (as in estrodiol and progesterone) on the hippocampus and other regions of the brain. (more…)

The Writing Mind

There’s a phrase in Zen Buddhism—“beginner’s mind”: If you approach something in the attitude of someone with no ego, unburdened by the accumulated knowledge and assumptions that come with being an expert, you’ll get better results—no matter whether you’ve been actually doing that thing for a month or all your life.

Something like “beginner’s mind”—willingness to improve one’s writing and be influenced by great teachers of the craft—was one of the themes touched on by all four speakers in this afternoon’s workshop called “Perspectives on Scientific Writing.” (more…)