“Receptiveness refers to the willingness to seek out, attend to, and fairly evaluate opposing information” (Hussein & Tormala, 2024, p. 1). As a professor, I strive to be receptive. And just as importantly, I also strive to be perceived as receptive. I want my students and colleagues to see me as someone who seeks out, attends to, and fairly evaluates information that does not mesh with how I see the world. This perception of receptiveness has real-world consequences: “[P]eople…perceived to be receptive are more persuasive, elicit greater openness and interest in interaction from others, and are seen as more trustworthy and intelligent” (Hussein & Tormala, 2024, p. 1). There are a few things we can do to boost perceptions of receptiveness. First, we can use hedge words, like “probably.” When teaching psychology, that’s not difficult. Our science deals in probabilities, not certainties. Asking questions that encourage others to share their views also makes it more likely (hedge!) that they will perceive us as receptive. Just about every time (hedge!) we ask students to discuss in small groups, we are asking for their views. Another way to boost perceptions of receptiveness is to express positive emotions. I learned a long time ago that teaching face-to-face is no different from acting—or, rather, improv. When I enter the classroom, I put on my (upbeat) teaching persona. Anything else that is going on in my work life or my personal life becomes irrelevant. I didn’t create that persona so that I would be perceived as more receptive. I did it because I want my students to have a pleasant classroom experience; I want them to want to come back. But boosting students’ perceptions of my receptiveness is a nice bonus. In an interesting experiment, researchers wondered if using the pronoun “we” instead of “you” could also increase perceptions of receptiveness. Their reasoning is that “you” can come across as adversarial and aggressive. We know that the use of “you” in the context of interpersonal conflict can make things much worse. “We,” on the other hand, implies a shared experience. (See how I used “we” two sentences ago?) Researchers asked participants about their views on lowering the legal drinking age. Participants then read what they were told were excerpts from a politician’s speech. The speech argued for what the participants did not want. For example, if a participant said they were opposed to lowering the drinking age, they were asked to read a speech that favored lowering the drinking age. For the independent variable, participants were randomly assigned to read a “you” speech or a “we” speech. For example, one of the “you” speeches started with, “If you oppose lowering the drinking age, you are essentially denying young people the opportunity to develop responsible drinking habits. Are you prepared to be responsible for stifling their personal growth and denying them the chance to learn how to consume alcohol responsibly?” (Hussein & Tormala, 2024, p. 4). That language certainly feels adversarial and aggressive to me. In contrast, the corresponding “we” speech started with, “If we oppose lowering the drinking age, we are essentially denying young people the opportunity to develop responsible drinking habits. Are we prepared to be responsible for stifling their personal growth and denying them the chance to learn how to consume alcohol responsibly?” (Hussein & Tormala, 2024, p. 4). The “we” speech feels very different. The researchers had two dependent variables: how receptive (willing to listen to new ideas) is the politician perceived to be and how persuasive was the message. The “we” messages resulted in perceiving the politician as more receptive and finding the message more persuasive. In a follow-up study (study 3), the researchers used a different message, but this time added “one” as a level of the independent variable to see if “we” increased or if “you” decreased perceptions of receptiveness. In the cover story, the researchers told the participants that they would be reading messages from a new online social issues discussion group where group members were writing about refugees from Afghanistan. Participants were told that they were moderating these messages. For example: Tucker Carlson called it the other night. Biden lied. Meanwhile none of the other news stations even criticized Biden. That’s what I am being told anyway, I stopped watching those long ago The fact that [one/we/you] never leave [one’s/our/your] little bubble of confirmation is sad… [One/We/You] never want [one’s/our/your] ideas challenged because [one/we/you] tie them so close to [one’s/our/your] emotions and personality, so anyone who challenges these ideas challenges [one’s self/us/you] (Hussein & Tormala, 2024, p. 7). On a 7-point scale, participants rated “we” as the most receptive (approximately 5.0), “one” next (approximately 4.3), and “you” as the least receptive (approximately 3.1). On perceptions of aggressiveness, “you” came across as the most aggressive (approximately 4.3) with no statistical difference between “we” (approximately 2.6) and “one (approximately 2.8) (Hussein & Tormala, 2024). In yet another follow-up study (study 4), the researchers parsed the “you” condition into an adversarial you and a supportive you. The adversarial “you” condition begins with this sentence: “You and your politics have become so polarized that you can’t even imagine living in the same state as people you disagree with” (Hussein & Tormala, 2024, p. 9). The supportive “you” condition begins with these two sentences: “Totally see what you mean and where you’re coming from. Politics have become so polarized that you can’t even imagine living in the same state as people you disagree with” (Hussein & Tormala, 2024, p. 9). They found that perceived receptiveness and aggressiveness to the supportive “you” and “we” conditions were the same. The adversarial “you” was perceived to be less receptive and more aggressive. All of that is to say that if our goal is perceived receptiveness, using “we” is the safest route. “You” works, but only if it is surrounded by supportive words to make it clear that the message is not meant to be adversarial. If a student’s first impression of us comes from our syllabus, using “we” pronouns may increase student perceptions of our receptiveness. When we do use “you,” we should surround it with supportive words. [If a student’s first impression of you comes from your syllabus, using “we” pronouns may increase student perceptions of your receptiveness. When you do use “you,” you should surround it with supportive words.]   Reference Hussein, M. A., & Tormala, Z. L. (2024). You versus we: How pronoun use shapes perceptions of receptiveness. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 110, 104555. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2023.104555   ... View more

I knew someone who didn’t want to see their primary care physician about knee pain because, “They’re just going to tell me to lose weight.” I couldn’t blame this person for not wanting to see physician. This person had gotten that message previously—more than once; going to their physician had become aversive. Operant conditioning predicted what was going to happen. Needed healthcare was avoided because they didn’t want to be chastised yet again. The biggest problem with the “lose weight” advice is that if it were that easy, we would have already done it. Also, “losing weight” is not a behavior. It’s not something we can just do. “Let’s see what’s on my to-do list today: reply to email, wash clothes, shop for groceries, lose weight.” We’re less than a month out for the next round of New Year’s resolutions. I bet “lose weight” will be on a number of resolution lists, and not necessarily because physicians have told us to lose weight. Because everyone has told us to—through words and looks. Losing weight is a poor choice for a resolution, though. Resolutions should be actionable. I can eat more vegetables, less salt, and less red meat. I can lift weights four days a week (although exercise will not help you lose weight; it just keeps you from gaining). Losing weight, however, is not actionable; it’s not a behavior. Side story: I had a husky mix who had the husky wanderlust. He got very good at escaping from our backyard. I would go out into the neighborhood to round him up. He’d come to me, I’d take him home… and put him in his kennel as punishment. Had I spent any time at all thinking about this, I could have predicted the result. He’d still escape the yard, and I’d still go back out to round him up. But now he wouldn’t come to me. That was my big DOH! moment. Why would he come? He knew he was going to be put in his crate. To reverse this dynamic, I had to pull out the special treats. These were treats that were only used for special occasions. Without too many repetitions, I could yell “special treats!” and he’d come running. Some physicians have had a similar DOH! moment. “I keep telling my patients to lose weight.” “Wait. Why aren’t my patients coming in for routine care? Why are they waiting longer to have their healthcare needs addressed when sooner is better?” “Could it be because they don’t want to talk to someone who is nagging them?” Could be. The physicians who seem to have had this DOH! moment are turning their practices into weight-neutral practices. One physician who has adopted this approach said, “We don’t recommend weight loss as a way of treating medical conditions… We recommend moving your body in a way that’s sustainable, which hopefully is joyful [and] eating food in a way that nourishes” (O’Neill, 2023). This approach is about reinforcing behaviors that contribute to good health. Weight is irrelevant. Weight-neutral medical practices may also feel more welcoming to Black women who perceive thinness as a “white” thing (Hughes, 2021). I would imagine that every time a physician tells a Black woman with this perception to lose weight, she may hear, “I want you to be more white.” It’s not hard to see why she wouldn’t be in a hurry to see this physician again. Our future healthcare professionals are taking our Intro Psych classes. Let’s help them understand the power of operant conditioning. Now, what to do about family members who feel free during holiday visits to comment on our weight (and relationships, or lack thereof, and everything else that’s not their business)? No, I don’t want to see those relatives, either.   Reference Hughes, E. (2021). “I’m supposed to be thick”: Managing body image anxieties among black American women. Journal of Black Studies, 52(3), 310–330. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934720972440 O’Neill, E. (2023, December 2). Some doctors are ditching the scale, saying focusing on weight drives misdiagnoses. NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/12/02/1216455346/doctors-weight-loss-neutral-inclusive-misdiagnoses     ... View more

Exciting news! The latest episode of PsychSessions features an interview with Macmillan Learning intro psych author, Dan Schacter (Harvard University). Dan's journey from Brooklyn, NY to Cambridge, MA is filled with adventures and achievements. Join podcast host Garth Neufeld and guest host Jane Halonen (University of West Florida) us as they dive into his fascinating story!   Check it out at https://psychsessionspodcast.libsyn.com/e186-dan-schacter-memory-cognition-expert-golfer-prolific-author-did-we-mention-golfer  ... View more

Alexandria Cowheard, a 22-year-old Wendy’s employee and Bluegrass Community and Technical College certified nursing assistant student (Newspath/WKYT, 2023), was working the afternoon of October 16, 2023. Shortly before 2:30pm, Cowheard’s coworker saw that a man was on the ground in the parking lot and alerted Cowheard. She called 911 then went to the parking lot (Crenshaw, 2023). She saw the man turning purple. A woman who was with him was doing chest compressions. Cowheard, who learned CPR in her senior year of high school (Crenshaw, 2023), said, “She wasn’t doing her compressions for long enough. She'd do it a few times and then she'd try to do mouth-to-mouth” (Martin, 2023). It wasn’t working. Cowheard said, “I didn’t panic visibly, but in the back of my mind, I was like, what do I do… I kind of short-circuited a little bit before I was like, ‘Girl, you know how to do CPR; get over here and do these chest compressions’”(Crenshaw, 2023). After a few minutes of CPR, the man gasped for air. An ambulance crew arrived and transported him to the hospital (Newspath/WKYT, 2023). In the Bibb Latané (1937-) and John Darley (1938-2018) model of helping, four things need to happen in order for us to help (Latane & Darley, 1968). First, we have to notice the event. Second, we have to interpret the event as an emergency. Third, we need to assume responsibility for helping. And fourth, we need to know how to help. In the Wendy’s incident, Alexandria Cowheard noticed the event; her coworker told her that a man was down in the parking lot. Second, she interpreted the event as an emergency—initially because of her coworker’s report (Cowheard called 911 based on this alone) and then again when she saw that the man in the parking lot was turning purple. Third, she assumed responsibility for helping. Rather than standing by watching the man’s companion struggle to render aid while waiting for someone else to help, Cowheard decided she had a responsibility to help. Lastly, Cowheard knew how to help; she had learned CPR in high school. If you choose to share this example with your students, ask how many of them were trained to do CPR. Since knowing CPR was a key component in Cowheard’s decision to help, do your students think that all high school or college students should be required to learn CPR? Are there other helping skills that we all should be required to learn, such as using an automated external defibrillator (AED)? For example, researchers are exploring the effectiveness of delivering AEDs via drone while the EMTs are on their way (Schierbeck et al., 2022). Would having a public trained in AED use make AED drone deliveries more effective?   References Crenshaw, D. (2023, October 27). Employee at Lexington Wendy’s saves customer’s life using CPR. Https://Www.Wkyt.Com. https://www.wkyt.com/2023/10/27/employee-lexington-wendys-saves-customers-life-parking-lot/ Latane, B., & Darley, J. M. (1968). Group inhibition of bystander intervention in emergencies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 10(3), 215–221. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0026570 Martin, S. (2023, November 3). Employee at Wendy’s in Kentucky saves customer’s life, credits CPR for life-saving action. USA TODAY. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/11/03/wendys-employee-saves-customer-life-cpr-kentucky/71438264007/ Newspath/WKYT, C. B. S. (2023, November 25). Kentucky Wendy’s employee saves man’s life after medical emergency in parking lot. WKRC. https://local12.com/news/nation-world/kentucky-wendys-employee-saves-mans-life-medical-emergency-parking-lot-risk-hospital-police-rescue-quick-thinking-richmond-road-medical-ems-alexandria-cowheard-911-cpr-school-learning-nurse-nursing-assistant-fast-food Schierbeck, S., Svensson, L., & Claesson, A. (2022). Use of a drone-delivered automated external defibrillator in an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. New England Journal of Medicine, 386(20), 1953–1954. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMc2200833 ... View more

The New York Times published a freely-available 5-minute opinion piece on credit cards that offer rewards. They argue that the money rewards cards give back has to come from somewhere, and that somewhere is from the transaction fees the credit card companies—most notably Visa and Mastercard—charge business owners. They believe that using rewards cards ultimately hurts those in the lower economic strata who are less likely to use rewards cards and so don’t reap their benefits while still paying the higher prices the businesses have to charge to cover the transaction fees. The economists and public policy experts at the International Center for Law and Economics have a different opinion. I am not an economist, but I understand enough to know that this is all more complicated than it may first appear. I am also not so naïve as to believe that if we all stopped using cash-back credit cards, Visa and Mastercard would reduce these transaction fees. As a consumer, however, I have been encountering the reinforcement and punishment of credit card use. I have a credit card that gives me 5% back on gas purchases. Our local gas stations will give me 10 cents off per gallon if I pay with cash. With gas at $3.00 a gallon, when I use this credit card, I get 15 cents off per gallon. I am reinforced with money for using the credit card. The price of gas would need to drop to $2.00 per gallon for the 10 cents for cash equals the 5% back on my credit card. Now let’s imagine a fantasy world where gas is less than $2.00 per gallon. Even if it would cost me less to pay cash, the hassle of walking into the gas station, standing in line, and waiting for the cashier to make change would make using the credit card at the pump or using the app on my phone a more desirable option. And that’s not even calculating the cost of the snacks I’m more likely to purchase if I walk in. In short, the use of this particular credit card at gas stations is reinforced. I also have a credit card that give me 3% back on restaurant purchases. Because of the credit card transaction fees, our favorite local restaurant started adding a 3.5% credit card use fee to all credit card transactions. On a $30 bill (including tip), that’s $1.5, but we would only get 90 cents back from our credit card. Sixty cents isn’t much, but it doesn’t require any extra effort on our part to pay cash—it takes just as long to wait to for server to return with change as it does to wait for them to return with a credit card receipt to sign—so we pay cash and save the 60 cents, thank you very much. In other words, at this restaurant, our credit card use is punished with an extra cost, so we don’t use it. I wonder, though, if customers at this restaurant would be even more likely to pay cash if what we were charged initially included the 3.5% credit card use fee and they framed it as a 3.5% discount for using cash. It’s an empirical question! If you’d like to give your students some experimental design practice, ask them how they would go about testing that hypothesis. Last example. We have a rewards card that gives us 1.5% back on all purchases. We had to have the thermostat replaced on our car. Our mechanic recently started passing the 3.5% cost of the credit card transaction fee onto their clients. On a bill of a few hundred dollars, I would be punished in the form of having to pay many dollars for using my credit card. This was an easy decision. I kept the credit card in my wallet and paid by check. And, no, I don’t remember the last time I wrote a check. As more businesses adopt this strategy, I look forward to the development of the handheld printer that will print checks. It’ll connect via Bluetooth to an app on my phone. I enter the business name and amount, and it prints out the check for me to sign. Ask students if they have a cashback rewards card and if they decide when to use it based on whether businesses explicitly pass the transaction fees solely onto credit card users. My examples may be specific to me—what I find reinforcing and punishing. I can see where some people choose to use the credit card regardless—either because they’ve decided that the convenience of using a card (or app) always outweighs the dollar cost or because they don’t have the cash available so need to put the purchase on credit. ... View more

One of the APA Intro Psych key themes is “Applying psychological principles can change our lives, organizations, and communities in positive ways” (APA Introductory Psychology Initiative, 2021). In this post, I suggest a way that students can use what they have learned in their Intro Psych course to try to affect public policy. The scientific evidence is clear that good sleep increases our readiness to learn and that the adolescent circadian rhythm tends to lean toward falling asleep later and waking later. This NPR article explains that the reluctance of school boards to change the high school start time to later in the morning is not so much about not understanding or believing the science but are rather about money and logistics (Sweeney, 2023). Perhaps it’s time to prioritize teen sleep and find ways to overcome these barriers. In this assignment, we will write a letter to our school board using what we have learned about sleep in this course. For the purpose of this assignment, you are not required to send your letter. However, if you feel strongly about this issue, I encourage you to send it. Identify the school board you would like to address. It could be for the district where you currently attend or had attended high school, or it could be for the district where your children or other relatives attend school.   Investigate what time the district’s high school(s) start classes. Use the “Writing Letters to Elected Officials” webpage provided by the Center for Community Health and Development at the University of Kansas to create the framework for your letter (Chapter 33. Conducting a Direct Action Campaign | Section 1. Writing Letters to Elected Officials, n.d.). Provide a respectful and professional opening Explain the purpose for writing, e.g., you are interested in the district changing the high school start time to later in the morning, to congratulate the district on their later high school start time. Summarize your understanding, e.g., what impact do you expect that a change in start time will have for students. This may be as simple as, “My understanding is that a later school start time will mean students will be able to get the sleep they need.” Explain your position. Identify at least three pieces of scientific evidence that supports your position on later school start time. You may use information from the National Sleep Foundation position statement (National Sleep Foundation, n.d.),  American Academy of Sleep Medicine health advisory on school start times (American Academy of Sleep Medicine, 2017), your textbook, your instructor, or peer reviewed scientific articles. For each piece of evidence, cite your source. Describe the impact that a later high school start time had, will have, or would have had on you personally. Provide statistics on how many people in the district are or would be positively affected by a later high school start time. If the person you are writing to has expressed support in the past for your position, acknowledge it. Ask how you can help the district adopt a later high school start time, or if a later start time has been adopted, ask if they have suggestions on how you can help other school boards make this same change. Lastly, thank them for their time. Sign off with your name, email address, mailing address, and phone number.   References American Academy of Sleep Medicine. (2017). Health advisory: School start times. https://aasm.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/school-start-times-sleep-health-advisory.pdf APA Introductory Psychology Initiative. (2021). APA Introductory Psychology Initiative student learning outcomes for Introductory Psychology. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/about/policy/introductory-psychology-initiative-student-outcomes.pdf Chapter 33. Conducting a direct action campaign | Section 1. Writing letters to elected officials. (n.d.). Retrieved November 10, 2023, from https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/advocacy/direct-action/letters-to-elected-officials/main National Sleep Foundation. (n.d.). Healthy adolescent school start times: A sleep health policy statement from the National Sleep Foundation. Retrieved November 13, 2023, from https://www.thensf.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/NSF-Sleep-Health-Policy-Statement_School-Start-Times.pdf Sweeney, C. (2023, November 9). Science says teens need more sleep. So why is it so hard to start school later? NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/11/09/1211610533/science-says-teens-need-more-sleep-so-why-is-it-so-hard-to-start-school-later   ... View more

One of the APA Intro Psych key themes is “Applying psychological principles can change our lives, organizations, and communities in positive ways” (APA Introductory Psychology Initiative, 2021). In this post, I suggest a way that students can use what they have learned in their Intro Psych course to try to affect public policy. Daylight saving time is back on the minds of the members of the U.S. Congress. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) has updated their (freely available) position statement on the matter (Rishi et al., 2023), and the National Sleep Foundation has issued their own (freely available) position statement (National Sleep Foundation, n.d.). For this assignment, students in the U.S. will write a letter to their U.S. senators and U.S. representative. Students in Canada will write a letter to their member of Parliament. Students may send the letter if they choose, but it is not a requirement for this assignment. Their letters may urge their recipients to vote either for or against abolishing daylight saving time. While the Canadian lawmakers appear to be content to wait on the United States to make this decision (Gollom, 2023), Canadians can still ask their members of Parliament to make the change. Mexico, on the other hand, did away with daylight saving time in 2022 (Time and Date, n.d.). In this assignment, we will practice writing a letter to our members of Congress or Parliament using what we have learned in this course. For the purpose of this assignment, you are not required to send your letter. However, if you feel strongly about this issue, I encourage you to send it. Identify your members of Congress (senator and representative) or Parliament and their email and mailing addresses. Use the “Writing Letters to Elected Officials” webpage provided by the Center for Community Health and Development at the University of Kansas to create the framework for your letter (Chapter 33. Conducting a Direct Action Campaign | Section 1. Writing Letters to Elected Officials, n.d.). Provide a respectful and professional opening Explain the purpose for writing, e.g., you are interested in doing away with or keeping daylight saving time Summarize your understanding, e.g., what impact do you expect that doing with or keeping daylight saving time will have. This may be as simple as, “My understanding is that abolishing daylight saving time will mean no longer changing our clocks twice a year.” Explain your position. Identify at least three pieces of scientific evidence that supports your position on daylight saving time. You may use information from the AASM position statement, your textbook, your instructor, or peer reviewed scientific articles. For each piece of evidence, cite your source. Describe the impact that abolishing or keeping daylight saving time will have on you personally. Tell a story about how abolishing or keeping daylight saving time will affect you. Provide statistics on how many people will be positively affected by abolishing or keeping daylight saving time. For example, you may want to research the number of people affected by sleep deprivation. If the person you are writing to has expressed support in the past for your position, acknowledge it. If your letter argues for keeping daylight saving time, suggest at least one alternative for how at least one issue associated with daylight saving time may be addressed. Ask how you can help abolish or keep daylight saving time. Lastly, thank them for their time. Sign off with your name, email address, mailing address, and phone number.   References APA Introductory Psychology Initiative. (2021). APA Introductory Psychology Initiative student learning outcomes for Introductory Psychology. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/about/policy/introductory-psychology-initiative-student-outcomes.pdf Chapter 33. Conducting a direct action campaign | Section 1. Writing letters to elected officials. (n.d.). Retrieved November 10, 2023, from https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/advocacy/direct-action/letters-to-elected-officials/main Gollom, M. (2023, March 11). Is time running out on changing clocks twice a year? U.S. Sunshine Protection Act may hold key. CBC. https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/daylight-time-u-s-canada-1.6775291 National Sleep Foundation. (n.d.). Permanent standard time: A position statement from the National Sleep Foundation. Retrieved November 10, 2023, from https://www.thensf.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/NSF-Position-on-Permanent-Standard-Time_3.22.2021.pdf Rishi, M. A., Cheng, J. Y., Strang, A. R., Sexton-Radek, K., Ganguly, G., Licis, A., Berneking, M. W., Bhui, R., Creamer, J., Kundel, V., Spector, A. R., Olaoye, O., Hashmi, S. D., Abbasi-Feinberg, F., Abreu, A. R., Gurubhagavatula, I., Kapur, V. K., Kuhlmann, D., Martin, J., … Sullivan, S. (2023). Permanent standard time is the optimal choice for health and safety: An American Academy of Sleep Medicine position statement. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, jcsm.10898. https://doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.10898 Time and Date. (n.d.). Daylight saving time 2023 in México, Mexico. Retrieved November 10, 2023, from https://www.timeanddate.com/time/change/mexico/mexico   ... View more

I’ve had a few people ask me recently where I get my ideas for this blog. The short answer is everywhere and anywhere. But that’s not a very satisfying answer. Another answer: I get ideas for this blog from the same places I get ideas for new content and new examples for my classes. That’s also not a very satisfying answer, but maybe that gets closer to the underlying question. As a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), I get their flagship magazine Science every week delivered in print. H. Holden Thorp’s editorial that opens each issue and the “working life” essay that closes each issue provide interesting blog fodder. I see that Science is bringing us a special issue on sleep at the end of October 2023. I fully expect a few posts will be based on that issue alone. This blog post on who does science was prompted by a Thorp editorial in Science. As a member of the American Psychological Association (APA), I get both the American Psychologist and the Monitor on Psychology. Again, both in print. While the Monitor often has excellent feature articles, it’s the short research summaries that most frequently catch my attention. Each summary ends with a DOI that makes it comparatively easy to look up the original article. Since the font size for the DOI is quite tiny, each month, I feel like I’m taking an eye test. I’m still passing the test, but when I start failing, I’m ready with my phone’s camera or a visit to the online edition of the Monitor. This blog post on financial psychology was prompted by an interview in the Monitor. The last two publications I get in print are Smithsonian Magazine and Scientific American. The latter publishes more articles that generate blog ideas than the former. This blog post on recreational fear was prompted by a Scientific American article.   My organization system for anything I find potentially blog-worthy in these print publications is pretty straightforward. I rip out the article and put it on top of the stack of previously ripped out articles. It took me a bit to settle on this system. Ripping out pages was hard at first. But since our local public library no longer accepted print magazines for their give-away table, my magazines are destined for the recycling bin. I don’t think our recyclers care if the magazines have missing pages. Although, maybe they’re reading them. Hmmm. I also read from a number of news sources online. The feeds from those news sources come into my news feed reader, Inoreader. Here are a few of my favorite news sources for psychology-relevant material: Science Daily, Positive News, Good News Network, Optimist Daily, New York Times Most Shared, Health, and Science, The Learning Scientists blog, Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Network Open, and NPR Shots health blog. When I see something that could be the subject of a blog post, I tag it with “Macmillan blog.” And anything I see that could go into one of my courses or one of my books, I tag it by book or course and chapter, such as “I-txt: Memory & Cognition” or “S-txt: Groups.” This blog post on pop-up charity shops was prompted by a Positive News article. This blog post on air traffic controllers and sleep and this one on decreasing loneliness with weak ties were prompted by articles from my New York Times Most Shared news feed. While I primarily use Inoreader to categorize stuff I might want to use, I also use Trello and Zotero. I have a Trello board for each of my courses. Within in each board, I have a list for each chapter, and then in each list I have a card for something I might want to change in that chapter the next time I teach the course. In Zotero, I have all of the research article pdfs and websites I reference in my writing. Each writing project has its own folder. I can also tag articles in Zotero, but I’m not quite ready to move everything there just yet. I may keep the “possibles” in Inoreader and save Zotero for the stuff that I am actually using. Or at least that’s my system today. Do you have a system that works for you? Please share in the comments. ... View more

There are lots of opportunities for professional development in the teaching of psychology no matter your budget. If you haven’t already, join the Society for the Teaching of Psychology (STP). Annual membership is $25 for psychology teachers, $15 for students and postdocs. If you live in a country that is not classified by the World Bank as a high income economy, it’s $5. As a member of STP, you get online access to our quarterly journal Teaching of Psychology, the ability to join one or more of our affinity groups and participate in their online discussions, the opportunity to join us at STP’s Annual Conference on Teaching (Louisville in 2024 and Minneapolis is 2025), the opportunity to apply for numerous grants and awards, the opportunity to participate in our mentoring program, and the ability to post to and view our list of job postings. Between September 1, 2023 and October 4, 2023, a total of 34 job postings have gone up. And by joining STP, you will have the opportunity to give back to the teaching of psychology community (and adding professional service to your CV) by getting involved in STP. If you’re on Facebook, join the Society for the Teaching of Psychology Facebook group. With over 22,000 members as of October 2023, the members can help you with any teaching of psychology related question you may have. Need new ideas for the Sensation and Perception chapter in Intro? Have a challenging student, colleague, department chair, or administration? Looking for a new kind of assignment? We’re here for you. If you’re not on Facebook, STP operates the PsychTeacher listserv. A listserv is an email subscription service. When you have a teaching of psychology related question, send an email to the listserv email address. Other subscribers will reply to your question. If you’re a fan of webinars, check out the American Psychological Association (APA) Education Directorate’s Learn 2 Learn Series.   For the podcast listeners, there are a number of excellent options. For example, there is Psych Sessions (conversations with psych instructors), Hidden Brain, Speaking of Psychology (from APA), Under the Cortex (from APS), and All in the Mind (from the BBC). The best (and only?) Intro Psych conferences are TIP Northwest (Seattle in the spring) and Psych One (Duke University in June). The two conferences have joined forces to host an online conference in January called Intro Psych: Coast-to-Coast. Psi Beta will be holding their Second Annual Psi Beta Teaching of Psychology Conference (PBTOP) online on December 1, 2023. All seven of the regional psychological associations (i.e. EPA, SEPA, MPA, NEPA, RMPA, SWPA, and WPA) have teaching of psychology programming either as a one-day preconference or embedded throughout the program. There are also local teaching of psychology conferences, such as the Southeastern Teaching of Psychology conference (SETOP) the Mid-Atlantic Teaching Psychology conference (MATOP) and the Midwest Institute for Students and Teachers of Psychology (MISTOP). If you’d like to start your own conference, this document—even though it’s a little dated now—provides some excellent advice. STP also has programming at the APA convention. When I attended my first APA convention, I was feeling a little overwhelmed at the number of presentations. A trusted colleague said, “Just attend the STP sessions. Treat it like a teaching conference.” It was fantastic advice. You can also find STP programming at the Association for Psychological Science conference, at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) conference, and at the Society for Research in Child Development conference. The National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology (NITOP) is held every January. It is one of the best teaching of psychology conferences. If you’re interested in international collaboration on scholarship of teaching and learning activities, check out the Biennial International Seminar on the Teaching of Psychological Science (BISTOPS) held in July on even years in Paris. If you want to flip the script and be paid for professional development rather than paying for professional development, I recommend participating in the AP Psych reading. It was the best move I ever made in my career. I learned a lot about writing essay questions and about rubric development. You'll get that if you do the reading online. However, if you're able, attend in person, at least for the first few years. The best part was making friends who love teaching psychology as much as I do. I have learned--and continue to learn--so much from them. ETS (the owner of the Advanced Placement testing program) pays you, and they cover all travel expenses including hotel for the week. In 2024, the reading will be in Kansas City. Read more about the requirements and apply. I am certain I have missed some fantastic professional development options. Please share your favorites in the comments!   ... View more

In a May 2023 Scientific American article, I was introduced to the concept of recreational fear (Martinez-Conde & Macknik, 2023). Of course, we’re all familiar with it. It was the term that was news to me. People who are into recreational fear do things that are scary—for fun: roller coasters, bungee jumping, haunted houses, horror movies. You get the idea. I’ve been on a bobsled (twice) and have been zip lining over some pretty impressive gorges (twice), but horror movies and haunted houses are not my bag. Researchers wondered if being with friends would lessen the intensity of the fear in these recreational settings (Tashjian et al., 2022). Sometimes when we are with others in fear-inducing situations, social buffering occurs. The presence of others reduces our fear. But sometimes we experience social contagion. The presence of others increases our fear. In instances of recreational fear, which is it? Here’s a little experimental design practice for the social psych chapter in Intro Psych. Ask students to work in small groups to design an exploratory study. Since we don’t know (or at least your students don’t know yet) whether the presence of others increases or decreases fear—and we can make a good case for either one, we won’t have an hypothesis. The question is “Does the presence of others in a recreational fear situation increase or decrease fear?” Your students will have a few problems to solve in designing this study. First, the independent variable. Will they focus on the effect of the presence of friends, strangers, or both? Will they investigate the impact of group size? Does the presence of five others have more of an impact than, say, one other person? There is also the challenge of the recreational fear situation itself. Even though your students are not actually going to conduct this study, potential IRB ethical concerns should be considered. I doubt that your IRB would approve of you scaring the bejesus out of your participants. Is there someplace in your community or nearby environs where people pay to be scared? Ask your students to design a study where they would solicit volunteers from those paying customers. And now the dependent variable. How would your students operationally define fear? Invite groups to share their designs with the class. To close this activity, tell students about the Tashjian et.al study (Tashjian et al., 2022). The researchers elicited the help of the good folks at The 17th Door, a haunted house experience now located in Buena Vista, CA. The research article includes a summary of what happens in each of the 17 scenes. I read through them. Here is the researchers’ concise summary. “Each of the 17 contiguous rooms involved distinct threats, including the inability to escape an oncoming car, mimicked suffocation, actual electric shocks, and being shot with pellets by a firing squad while blindfolded” (Tashjian et al., 2022, p. 238). In an understatement for the win, they write, “[T]his type of immersive threat manipulation is not replicable in the lab” (Tashjian et al., 2022, p. 238). The “immersive threat manipulation” lasted 30 minutes. I’ve been on a bobsled and been ziplining over deep gorges. As far as recreational fear goes, I’m pretty sure The 17th Door is not for me. The researchers recruited participants after they paid the admission fee and signed the waiver required by The 17th Door. Participants went through in groups of eight to ten. The researchers asked the volunteers how many friends were in their group. Everyone went through with at least one friend. Some groups were comprised entirely of friends. As a measure of fear intensity, each volunteer wore a wrist sensor that measured skin conductance. The groups of participants are led through the experience by an employee of the The 17th Door on a precisely timed schedule. That allowed the recorded sensor activity to be aligned precisely with the events. Now for the results. Social contagion won out over social buffering. The more friends people had with them, the greater the fear they experienced as measured by skin conductance. The authors acknowledge that because changes in skin conductance are due to sympathetic nervous system arousal, the increase in skin conductance could be caused by factors other than fear, such as excitement or nervousness. To close out this activity, tell students that there is a Recreational Fear Lab at Aarhus University in Denmark run by Mathias Clasen and Marc Malmdorf Andersen. If the photo on their “people” page is accurate, their research assistants get lab coats that read on the back “Horror Research Team.” I’m a little jealous. These are the Recreational Fear Lab’s research questions for 2020-2023:     What is recreational fear, and what can it be used for?     What characterizes engagement with recreational fear across the lifespan?     What psychological and physiological characteristics are associated with recreational fear?     When does recreational fear turn into real fear? I’m particularly intrigued by the last question. There is a boundary, but how do we identify it—both as researchers and as a terrified person? In The 17th Door, participants can yell “Mercy” to signal that they want to opt of a scene or opt out of the entire event. What factors contribute to a person making that decision? Is that caused by crossing the line between recreational fear and real fear? Which research question do your students find the most interesting and why?   References Martinez-Conde, S., & Macknik, S. (2023, May). Friends can make things very scary. Scientific American, 328(5), 80. Tashjian, S. M., Fedrigo, V., Molapour, T., Mobbs, D., & Camerer, C. F. (2022). Physiological responses to a haunted-house threat experience: Distinct tonic and phasic effects. Psychological Science, 33(2), 236–248. https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976211032231   ... View more

In the (freely available) editorial that opened the June 2, 2023 edition of Science, H. Holden Thorp, Editor-in-Chief of Science, reminds us that “it matters who does science” (Thorp, 2023, p. 873). His point is that scientists are human, humans make mistakes, therefore scientists make mistakes. And we should just own that. Science is riddled with mistakes. Thorp urges us to use the phrase “trust the scientific process,” because it suggests that “science is what we know now, the product of the work of many people over time, and principles that have reached consensus in the scientific community through established processes of peer review and transparent disclosure” (Thorp, 2023, p. 873). Science is the process, not just a collection of known facts—or a collection of theories that tie the known facts together into a (semi-)coherent whole.   Thorp also notes that when a working group of scientists all have the same preconceived notions, their biases may affect the research questions they ask, how they try to the answer those research questions, and how they may interpret the results. However, when people with different lived experiences and cultural backgrounds are part of the research process, “scientific consensus can be reached faster and with greater reliability” (Thorp, 2023, p. 873).  Yes, science is riddled with mistakes, but the greater diversity of experiences we bring to science the faster we can rid ourselves of these mistakes and reduce the number of mistakes we make going forward. I’m reminded of some of my favorite psychologists whose lived experiences led them to ask the research questions they are now famous for. Mamie and Kenneth Clark asked young Black children to choose the doll they would like to play with: a Black doll or a white doll. The children chose the white doll. That research, which was presented to the U.S. Supreme Court by Thurgood Marshall, influenced the outcome of what we now know as Brown vs. Board of Education. Anyone could have done that research, but only Black psychologists thought to ask the question. Lillian Gilbreth, the mother of industrial/organizational (I/O) psychology, became interested in efficient kitchens after 1920s sexism resulted in dropped business contracts after her husband’s death. Again, anyone could have done research into how to create an efficient kitchen, but only a female psychologist thought to ask the question. In a more recent example, researchers have been uncovering the factors that contribute to racial disparities in sleep quality, such as racial disparities in shift work, exposure to light and air pollution, and acculturation stress. Sure, we can tell people to get better sleep, they need to sleep in a quiet, dark, cool room, but what if they live in an urban environment with plenty of middle-of-the-sirens, ambient street lighting, and no air conditioning? And what if they work the night shift? What if what’s keeping them awake is worrying about whether their boss’s racism is keeping them from getting raise or promotion? Researchers who are asking these questions include Girardin Jean-Louis, Dayna Johnson, Carmela Alcántara, and Alberto Ramos (Pérez Ortega, 2021). After covering research methods in Intro Psych, ask your students to read Thorp’s editorial. Next, invite your students to consider their own lived experiences. What research questions would they ask?   References Pérez Ortega, R. (2021). Divided we sleep. Science, 374(6567), 552–555. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.acx9445 Thorp, H. H. (2023). It matters who does science. Science, 380(6648), 873. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adi9021   ... View more

Last month (August 2023) I wrote a blog post with suggestions on how we can embed financial literacy education into the Intro Psych course (Frantz, 2023). If I had not been behind on my science periodicals reading, I would have seen the excellent interview piece with financial psychologist Wendy De La Rosa in the Monitor on Psychology (Fairbank, 2023). De La Rosa and her colleague Stephanie Tully have been researching subjective wealth perceptions. “A person’s perception of their financial situation is often more important than their objective financial status” (p.33) (Fairbank, 2023). If you believe that you’re in dire financial straits—whether you actually are or not—the stress of that belief will interfere with your sleep, your concentration, and your health. One study found a statistically significant .32 correlation between household income and subjective financial situation (Gasiorowska, 2014). In other words, yes, the higher one’s household income, the higher one tends to rate their subjective financial situation—defined as “perceived financial situation, ability to make ends meet and adequacy of income to fulfill needs and wants” (Gasiorowska, 2014, p. 72). But a correlation of .32 is well below a perfect 1.0 correlation. After covering correlations, ask students what other variables they think may affect how one evaluates their own financial situation such that there would be a mismatch between how much money one actually has and their perception of how much money they have. The biggest mediator the researchers found was financial control (Gasiorowska, 2014). The more control a person has over their finances, the better able they are to align their actual income with their perceptions of that income. This reminds me of a couple I knew. He handled all of the finances, because she didn’t want to. However, she had high anxiety around how much money they had. She was certain they were going to be destitute any minute. He would assure her that they had plenty of money to make ends meet and then some. He would show her the bank statements and the bills. It would allay her fears for a bit, and then the anxiety would come roaring right back. While this study was not done with children or adolescents, I have to wonder how much of a disconnect there might be between their family’s actual household income and their subjective wealth perception. I wonder how many caregivers bring their children and adolescents into financial discussions. For example, “This is how much money we have coming in every month. Here is how much everything costs: utilities, cell phones, Internet, groceries, entertainment. This is how much we’re able to save.” In the Monitor article, we learn that Wendy De La Rosa’s mother did not speak English, so as a child De La Rosa translated financial documents for her mother, such as bank notices and credit card statements. De La Rosa had a front row seat to her family’s financial situation. With such early training on the inner workings of household finances, I imagine De La Rosa entered adolescence with an understanding of household money-management that many children don’t have. De La Rosa and Tully appear to have found another variable that helps create a mismatch between actual income and subjective wealth perceptions: pay frequency. “[G]etting paid more frequently increases subjective wealth perceptions and as a result, we tend to spend more than if we got paid less frequently” (Fairbank, 2023, p. 34). This really underlines the importance of creating a household budget and sticking to it. It will be hard to pay rent if the money is going out as fast as it’s coming in.   De La Rosa has a TED series called “Your Money and Your Mind.” There are eight videos, all less than five minutes long. This could make for an interesting online discussion prompt: Watch the eight videos created by financial psychologist Wendy De La Rosa. Which video is the most important one for your friends to watch? Why? Lastly, what was the most interesting thing you learned from that video? Explain. Lastly, I wonder how many students would enroll in a Financial Psychology course. It would be a fun one to teach!   References Fairbank, R. (2023, June). 5 questions for Wendy De La Rosa. Monitor on Psychology, 54(4), 33–34. Frantz, S. (2023, August 10). Increasing financial literacy through Intro Psych: Anchoring & operant conditioning. Macmillan and BFW Teaching Community. https://community.macmillanlearning.com/t5/psychology-blog/increasing-financial-literacy-through-intro-psych-anchoring-amp/ba-p/19235 Gasiorowska, A. (2014). The relationship between objective and subjective wealth is moderated by financial control and mediated by money anxiety. Journal of Economic Psychology, 43, 64–74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2014.04.007     ... View more

As of June 2023, recreational cannabis use is legal Canada (Department of Justice, Canada, 2021) and in 23 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands (Reuters, 2023). Not that it has to be legal for people to use it. In a 2022 national survey, researchers asked people about their marijuana use. Of full-time college students between the ages of 19 and 22, 22.1% reported that they used marijuana at least once in the last 30 days, whereas only 4.7% reported that they used it daily. Both numbers were lower than for age-matched non-college students (28.2% monthly and 14.5% daily). That 30-day percentage of 22.1% for college students is about where the numbers have been since 2013. To see these kind of numbers for marijuana use, we have to go back to the early 1980s. In 1980, a whopping one-third (34.8%) of college students reported using marijuana in the previous 30 days (Patrick et al., 2023). Why do college students use marijuana? In one qualitative study, one reason participants gave was that they used it for a boost in creativity (Kilwein et al., 2022). But does marijuana actually make users more creative? Or do they just think they are more creative? After covering experimental design, give your students this hypothesis: Cannabis use increases creativity. Ask students for the independent variable (including an experimental group and a control group) and the dependent variable(s). For all variables, ask for operational definitions. After students have had a couple minutes to consider this on their own, ask students to work in small groups to create their experimental design. If time allows, ask students how or where they would find volunteers for their study. What are the ethical concerns that they need to take into consideration? After group discussion dies down, ask a volunteer from each group to share their design. Now share with students how researchers investigated this same question (Heng et al., 2023). To recruit participants, researchers posted flyers in recreational cannabis dispensaries in Washington (a state where such use is legal) and on Craigslist. Users who smoked one joint no more than a few times a week were selected to participate. Anyone who reported being pregnant was excluded. Participants were mailed cannabis test kits and emailed the study information. Participants who successfully completed the study received a $25 gift card. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: high during the creativity test or not high during the creativity test. “High” was operationally defined as having used marijuana in the last 15 minutes. The researchers note that the participants had to supply their own cannabis. “Instead of stipulating a specific time to complete the study, participants were asked to begin the study within 15-min of their volitional cannabis use. This addressed the IRB restriction of not instructing cannabis use” (Heng et al., 2023, p. 637). Now we need an operational definition for creativity. “Participants were asked to generate as many creative uses as they could for a brick in 4 min” (Heng et al., 2023, p. 637). They also rated their brick ideas based on how creative, original, and novel they thought they were on a 5-point scale.  Then they used the saliva test kit and mailed it back to the researchers. What did the researchers find? Participants who used cannabis before doing the creativity task thought they were more creative than did those in the control group. But were they really more creative” The researchers asked a couple research assistants who were blind to conditions to evaluate the creativity of the answers, and they also asked participants on Prolific to do the same. Neither the research assistants nor the Prolific participants saw any difference in creativity between the groups. There was a bit more to the research design if you’d like to share this with your students as a way to conclude this activity. The researchers also asked the participants how happy and joyful they were. The researchers found that it was this mood state that mediated creativity evaluations. Cannabis use was more likely to result in higher creativity ratings if the person was happy while high.     References Department of Justice, Canada. (2021, July 7). Cannabis legalization and regulation. https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/cj-jp/cannabis/ Heng, Y. T., Barnes, C. M., & Yam, K. C. (2023). Cannabis use does not increase actual creativity but biases evaluations of creativity. Journal of Applied Psychology, 108(4), 635–646. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000599 Kilwein, T. M., Wedell, E., Herchenroeder, L., Bravo, A. J., & Looby, A. (2022). A qualitative examination of college students’ perceptions of cannabis: Insights into the normalization of cannabis use on a college campus. Journal of American College Health, 70(3), 733–741. https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2020.1762612 Patrick, M. E., Miech, R. A., Johnston, L. D., & O’Malley, P. M. (2023). Monitoring the Future Panel Study annual report: National data on substance use among adults ages 19 to 60, 1976-2022 (Monitoring the Future Monograph Series). Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan. https://monitoringthefuture.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/mtfpanel2023.pdf Reuters. (2023, June 1). U.S. states where recreational marijuana is legal. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-states-where-recreational-marijuana-is-legal-2023-05-31/     ... View more

In eight days, I officially retire from Highline College, where I’ve taught since 2001. For a number of months, I’ve been saying that I’m pre-semi-retired. It occurred to, however, that that’s hogwash. I’m actually differently employed. More on that in a bit. Since I announced to my colleagues that I was going to retire in fall 2023, I’ve had several people ask me about whether I had concerns about losing my professional identity. No, I don’t. In fact, I have so few concerns about it that it never occurred to me that I might no longer see myself as a professor. Years ago, my wife and I were watching some sort of sporting event. One of the broadcast analysts was once a coach, and everyone kept calling them “coach.” My wife said something like, “Oh! ‘Coach’ is an honorific. Once a coach, always ‘coach.’” Now that I’m close to no longer being a full-time professor, “professor” feels the same to me as “coach.” And, really, they’re pretty similar professions. There are other reasons that I don’t see me shedding my professor identity. For example, I can teach a class as an adjunct if I’d like. It’s hard to not see myself as a professor if I am professing to a class of students. Also in my professorial role, I am writing textbooks. I have an Intro Psych textbook on the market now and a Social Psych textbook will be published in the next year. Textbook writing feels a lot like teaching; I curate psychological science and explain it to students. As everyone who has been teaching for a while can attest, students comprise just one part of our teaching role. We also ‘teach’ colleagues. The ‘lessons’ commonly start with a colleague saying, “Hey, do you have a minute? I’d like some advice on…” I’m still doing that. While I don’t get as many questions as I did when I was full-time, I get the occasional text or have such a conversation at a conference. These blog posts are just another form of that. More generally, there are plenty of things I’m doing to maintain my happiness as I slide into the next chapter of my life. For all of my colleagues in the professoriate who are considering retiring or who have made the leap, let’s use the PERMA model of subjective well-being (Seligman, 2018) to see how things might go. P is for positive emotions One of the joys of retirement is that we get to choose to get involved in projects that are fun without having to suffer through job responsibilities that are, well, insufferable. Teaching a class as an adjunct? Fun! Chairing a search committee? Not fun! We know all of the things we should do to manage stress: eat well, exercise, sleep. With retirement we may find that we have even more time to do those things. My wife and I have more time to plan, shop for, and make meals. We have a basic home gym (dumb bells and a rowing machine), and we block out time on the calendar to use it. And sleep—I go to bed when I want (early!), and I get up when I want (early!). E is for engagement Flow. Let’s completely lose ourselves in the activities we enjoy. Writing frequently does that for me. Not always, but frequently. Most of my friends have hobbies that engage them. After retiring, they have more time to do the activities they love. R is for relationships The loss of work relationships is a real concern for most everyone who is considering retirement. That was one of the many lessons of COVID. Those of us who were sent home to work learned what it was like to no longer have hallway conversations. I know I couldn’t have told you how important those conversations were until they were gone. There are some Highline College colleagues that I occasionally exchange texts and emails with. My professional circle is much greater that, though. My wife refers to all of my non-Highline psychology colleagues in the collective as the “psychosphere.” Because I never saw them (you!) in the hallways of my college, I don’t feel like I’ve lost them (you!). As some work relationships fade with time, retirement gives us the opportunity to build new ones. I wrote a few weeks ago about how becoming a regular someplace can provide important relationships (Frantz, 2023). Online forums can provide similar opportunities. The Society for the Teaching of Psychology (STP) recently launched affinity groups that give STP members with shared identities or experiences the opportunity to meet and discuss important and not-so-important topics in an online forum. Conferences were another place where we were able to connect—confer—with colleagues. I’ll confess that well before I retired my primary purpose for attending conferences was to meet with my friends and make new friends. In SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, the author and Roman historian Mary Beard tells us that Polybius (200 BCE – 118 BCE) supposedly advised a young man, “Never come back from the Forum…until you have made at least one new friend” (Beard, 2016, p. 184). If we are not yet friends and you see me at a conference, please say hi. Remember that I’m following Polybius’s advice. After every conference trip, I need to have made at least one new friend. Attending conferences is more challenging as a retiree because your institutional travel support is gone. This is less of an adjustment for those who were at institutions that didn’t provide much or any travel support to begin with. Who knew that there’d be a plus side to that? If you have money budgeted for travel, consider building a vacation around a conference. NEPA/NECTOP are in Worcester, MA in early October 2023. My wife and I will be coming in a few days early and leaving a few days after so we can spend some time touring New England. Or, if you’re lucky, a conference may be held near your city. Here are some conferences worth considering. Some even have reduced registration rates for retirees. For example, STP’s ACT early bird registration for retirees (and adjuncts and high school teachers) is $35 less than the regular rate: NEPA/NECTOP (Oct 2023). Worcester, MA STP’s ACT (Oct 2023). Portland, OR NITOP (Jan 2024). Bonita Springs, FL EPA (Feb/Mar 2024). Philadelphia, PA SWPA (Mar 2024). San Antonio, TX RMPA (Apr 2024). Denver, CO SEPA (Apr 2024). Orlando, FL MPA (Apr 2024). Chicago, IL WPA (Apr 2024). San Francisco, CA Teaching Intro Psych (TIPNorthwest) (Apr 2024 – probably). Seattle, WA APS (May 2024). San Francisco, CA PsychOne (Jun 2024). Durham, NC APA (Aug 2024). Seattle, WA M is for meaning This may be the one that people contemplating retirement fear losing the most. The fear is not unwarranted. It’s not uncommon for recent retirees to struggle with finding meaning in their lives when for so long work provided so much of that meaning. These days, I get a lot of my meaning from writing. In addition to textbooks (including the Teaching Psychology book I have with Doug Bernstein and Steve Chew, I also have this blog and my Technology for Academics blog. I recently spoke with a publisher who was looking for someone to write a “how to teach Intro Psych” manual of sorts. While it’s not a project I can take on, it was a good reminder to let you know that if you’re interested in any kind of writing for publishers, let your book reps know. They’ll pass your contact information along to their editorial team. Lots of publishers are looking for people to create textbook supplements. Someone has to create the slide decks, instructor resource manuals, and test banks. It might as well be you. While writing a book is a significant commitment, a blog can be written on your own timeline. Here are some tips on getting started with blogs. Or maybe podcasts are more your thing. If you want to try out podcasting and you have an idea for a series, ask the good people at Psych Sessions (info@psychsessions.org) if they’d be interested in you being a series host. For example, a “where are they now?” series could be fun. You could have 30-minute conversations with teaching of psychology luminaries who have retired. What are they doing now? Or maybe you’d like to work one-on-one with someone who is new to teaching psychology. The Society for the Teaching of Psychology has a mentoring program where seasoned/experienced/veteran (you choose your adjective) faculty are paired with early career faculty or advanced graduate students. It’s a terrific opportunity to share your expertise. I also highly recommend getting involved in your professional associations. The Society for the Teaching of Psychology has a boatload of service opportunities—diversity and international, membership, resources, programming, awards. STP has something for everyone. You can always find current openings on the Get Involved page. A is for accomplishment Don’t underestimate the power of achieving goals. If you are about to retire or have recently retired, take some time to reflect on what you’ve accomplished (so far!) in your career. Now’s a good time to review your CV. What were your favorite classes to teach? Who are your most memorable students? What was your most satisfying research line? Who did you learn the most from? Who do you think learned the most from you? (Also, these are great questions for the guests on your “where are they now?” podcast series!) Now, what are your next set of goals? It’s time for a new chapter!   References Beard, M. (2016). SPQR: A history of ancient Rome. Profile Books. Frantz, S. (2023, August 21). Decreasing loneliness through weak ties: A survey example. Macmillan and BFW Teaching Community. https://community.macmillanlearning.com/t5/psychology-blog/decreasing-loneliness-through-weak-ties-a-survey-example/ba-p/19251 Seligman, M. (2018). PERMA and the building blocks of well-being. Journal of Positive Psychology, 13(4), 333–335. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2018.1437466   ... View more

To begin this online or face-to-face discussion, ask your students to read this brief introduction to Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) on the American Psychological Association website (APA, 2023). Next, ask students to read the section on the “criteria for IRB approval of research” in the U.S Code of Federal Regulations. (If you are outside the United States, refer to the regulations in your country.) Students are to imagine that they are the community representative serving on their institution’s IRB. Give students this information: A research proposal from a group of researchers at your institution is now up for review. Imagine that the IRB has received the following proposal. (The text comes from the introduction section of a recently published study. The bracketed text has been added to change the verb tense.) Study 1 [will test] whether couples’ financial arrangements can mitigate the corrosive effect of time on relationship quality. Using a longitudinal field experiment, we [will] randomly [assign] couples to merge their money in a joint bank account, to keep their money in separate bank accounts, or to a condition where they [will receive] no instructions about how to structure their finances. We [will recruit] only engaged or newlywed couples for this experiment, since those couples’ relationship dynamics are not yet set in stone and are presumably responsive to intervention (Huston et al. 2001; Joel and Eastwick 2018). We [will follow] these couples for 2 years, conducting six waves of data collection across the connubial crucible [the newlywed years]. We [will measure] changes in relationship quality and financial harmony (i.e., the extent to which partners are satisfied with how they handle and discuss money). We [expect to] find that couples who transition to a joint bank account [will be] buffered against the normative decline in relationship quality observed within longitudinal research on marriage, an effect due in part to positive changes in financial harmony (Olson et al., 2023, p. 3). One challenge for IRBs is how to weigh potential risks to participants against potential benefits to participants and the value of the knowledge gained from the research. What risks to participants can you envision? What benefits to participants? What is the value of the knowledge that may be gained from this study? Would you say that the potential risks are worth the potential reward? Explain. What questions do you have for the researchers about the ethics of this study? (Refer to the section on the “criteria for IRB approval of research” in the U.S Code of Federal Regulations to frame your response.) What answers to your questions would you need to see in order to give your okay for this study? Explain. If there are risks to participants, IRBs may allow a study to be conducted if the participants in the study are made aware of the risks. What information would you need to see in the informed consent form in order to allow this study to move forward? Explain. This study did indeed receive IRB approval and was conducted—as you undoubtedly guessed since it was published. Students may wonder about the results. The researchers found that their no-intervention control group and separate-money condition both experienced a similar decline in relationship quality over the 2-year period. The researchers noted, however, that 72% of the couples in the control group maintained separate accounts throughout the entire time period. Of those in the control group who did opt to merge their money did so in the second year. In other words, the no-intervention group, in practice, looked very similar to the separate-account group. In contrast, the participants in the joint-money condition experienced a boost in their relationship quality (Olson et al., 2023). If time allows, give students the opportunity to generate their own research questions regarding the connection between finances and relationship quality.   References APA. (2023, August). Frequently asked questions about institutional review boards. https://www.apa.org/advocacy/research/defending-research/review-boards Olson, J. G., Rick, S. I., Small, D. A., & Finkel, E. J. (2023). Common cents: Bank account structure and couples’ relationship dynamics. Journal of Consumer Research, ucad020. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucad020   ... View more