I read this CBC article on life coaches (Cowley et al., 2022) and felt great alarm. My alarm was not caused by the fact that anyone can call themselves a life coach, nor was it caused by these particular life coaches offering mental health advice. While I found this information disappointing, I cannot say that I was surprised. Instead, my alarm was caused by the fact that discussion of life coaches has not been included in our collective Intro Psych curriculum. We could do a much better job at arming the millions of students who take Intro Psych with the information they need to be informed consumers of mental health services. The therapy chapter would be a good place to use a jigsaw classroom. Divide your students (synchronous or asynchronous) into five groups. Assign each group one of the following professions. If you have a large class, divide the class into, say, ten groups, so that two groups will be working on each profession. Life coach Counseling psychologist Clinical psychologist Prescribing psychologist Psychiatrist Next, give each group the following set of questions to answer. Ask students to cite the sources they used to answer each question. What education is required for this profession? Does this profession require a license? If so, what is required to get licensure? What kinds of issues are typically treated by people in this profession? What kind of treatments can people in this profession provide? Once each group has the answers to these questions, assign students to new groups so that each new group has at least one member from the original groups. The new groups will be comprised of “experts” from each profession group. Give the new groups these instructions. In the following order, each group member will share what they learned about each profession: life coach, counseling psychologist, clinical psychologist, prescribing psychologist, psychiatrist. Once everyone has shared and all group members feel like they understand each profession, for each of the following issues, identify which profession or professions would be best and why. Lack of motivation for keeping a clean home Stress at work or school Relationship issues Severe anxiety Suicidal thoughts Heavy drinking Grief following the loss of a loved one Uncertainty in how to make a career change Once each group has finished its work, ask a spokesperson for each group to share what they generated. Start with “lack of motivation for keeping a clean home.” Once each group has shared, move on to the next topic.     Reference Cowley, J., Sampson, A., Szeto, E., & News ·, A. T. · C. (2022, February 26). Almost anyone can become a life coach. A hidden camera investigation reveals why that’s a problem. CBC. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/marketplace-life-coach-1.6364745   ... View more

New research suggests that we find people with a stronger immune system more attractive: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2308406-we-seem-to-find-people-with-a-strong-immune-system-more-attractive/?utm_source=onesignal&utm_medium=push&utm_campaign=2022-02-17-Physical-attrac ... View more

In a 2008 10-minute TED Talk, Joshua Klein described how he created a vending machine for crows, and how he trained crows to use it using basic operant conditioning principles. Once trained, crows deposited coins in exchange for peanuts, a tasty snack for crows. (See? You’re not the only one working for peanuts.) While the coin vending machine is fun, it’s not very practical. Maybe, say, in the 1970s coins were commonly dropped on the street, because, well, there were more coins being carried around. But now? I doubt that our local crow population be able to come up with enough coins to cover the cost of the peanuts. Coins, though, are not the only thing that could be deposited in a vending machine. Södertälje, Sweden (home to the Tom **bleep** Experiment Science Museum*) evidently has a problem with people tossing their cigarette butts on the ground. A company called Corvid Cleaning has created a crow vending machine where, once trained, crows will be able to deposit cigarette butts in exchange for peanuts. After covering operant conditioning, share the above information with students, then open it up for discussion. Here are a few discussion questions to get things started. What responsibility does Corvid Cleaning have to ensure that the crows are not harmed by the litter they are picking up? [They report that they will be monitoring the health of the crows.] Is it ethical to pay wild crows to pick up human litter? Would it be more ethical to train humans to not toss their cigarette butts on the ground? Using what we know about operant conditioning, how could we train humans to not litter?   *I visited the museum’s website to learn the story behind the name. Because my knowledge of Swedish is limited to what I learned from the Muppets Swedish chef, I was very thankful that they offer an English translation. From the museum’s About page: “The slightly quirky name Tom **bleep** originates from a an imaginary figure who carried out scientific experiments in the French magazine L'Illustration at the end of the 19th century. Tom **bleep** demonstrated experiments and encouraged the readers to try out various fun activities with a scientific theme. Which is pretty much what we do here at Tom **bleep** Experiment!” ... View more

Many of our Intro Psych students are headed into careers in law, engineering, computer science, business, sports, or healthcare. In those careers (and others!), they are likely to work with psychologists. Or, perhaps, they will encounter a situation in their work where consulting a psychologist would be beneficial. The American Psychological Association has produced five videos to date where panels of psychologists working in law, human factors, industrial-organizational psychology, sports psychology, and occupational health discuss their work.   If you have students interested in these fields, please direct them to these recordings. If you would like to offer watching one of more of these an assignment, included are a couple questions students could answer. Careers in Applied Psychology: Law and Psychology (46 minutes): Panelists: Margaret Bull Kovera, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY: Overview of field Jemour Maddux, managing director of Lamb + Madduz, LLC: “Role in forensic value of harm, risk, and abilities in family, civil, sentencing, and police cases” Natalie Anumba, University of Massachusetts Medical School: “Faculty role as a clinical forensic psychologist in a public psychiatric hospital” Jason A. Cantone, senior research attorney at the Federal Judicial Center: “Role in judicial processes, legal decision making, and judicial education” Apryl Alexander, University of Denver: “Faculty role as a clinical forensic psychologist working in juvenile justice” Jason Lawrence, staff psychologist/certified forensic examiner with Missouri Department of Mental Health: “Role as a forensic examiner in the Center for Behavioral Medicine” Dennis Stolle, past president and senior consultant with ThemeVision and capital partner with Barnes and Thornburg, and APA senior director of Applied Psychology: “Role in trial strategy and jury consulting services in high-stakes litigation. Questions: Summarize the types of work psychologists do in psychology and law as described by Margaret Kovera. After listening to the panelists describe their work, which did you find the most? Summarize the panelist’s description of their work. Explain why you found that one the most interesting. Careers in Applied Psychology: Human Factors (54 minutes): Panelists: Nancy Stone, Missouri University of Science and Technology: Overview of the field “Philart”Jeon Myounghoon, Virginia Tech: “Faculty role researching human-computer interaction/human-robot interaction” Gabriella Hancock, California State University – Long Beach: “Faculty role researching cognitive neuroscience and human-technology interaction” Dominique Engome Tchupo, graduate student at the University of Rhode Island: “Role researching team communication using fuzzy cognitive mapping” Scotty Craig, Arizona State University: “Faculty role researching the design of elearning and learning technology” Rupa S. Valdez, University of Virginia: “Faculty role researching interventions supporting home health management” Shawn Doherty, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University – Daytona Beach: “Faculty role researching gaming/gamification and virtual reality” Questions: Summarize the types of work psychologists do in human factors psychology as described by Nancy Stone. After listening to the panelists describe their work, which did you find the most interesting? Summarize the panelist’s description of their work. Explain why you found that one the most interesting. Careers in Applied Psychology: Industrial-Organizational Psychology (59 minutes) Panelists: Tyler Salley, lead for global talent management at Under Armour Sasha Horowitz, senior director of talent management at the National Basketball Association (NBA) Neil Morelli, chief industrial-organizational psychologist for Codility Ruth Frias, diversity, equity, and inclusion manager at NYU Langone Health Ismael Diaz, California State University – San Bernardino Dorothy Carter, University of Georgia Questions: Summarize the types of work industrial-organizational psychologists do. After listening to the panelists describe their work, which did you find the most? Summarize the panelist’s description of their work. Explain why you found that one the most interesting. Careers in Applied Psychology: Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology (44 minutes) Panelists: Brandon Harris, Georgia Southern University: Overview of the field Angel Brutus, associate director of mental health for the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC): “Career path to USOPC including university athletic department” Elmer Castillo, master resilience trainer-performance expert: “Performance psychology in the military/US Army” Abby Keenan, mental performance consultant at Intrepid Performance Consulting Sam Zizzi, West Virginia University Kensa Gunter, clinical and sport psychologist at Gunter Psychological Services Questions: Summarize the types of work sports, exercise, and performance psychologists do. After listening to the panelists describe their work, which did you find the most? Summarize the panelist’s description of their work. Explain why you found that one the most interesting. Careers in Applied Psychology: Occupational Health Psychology (45 minutes) Panelists: Christopher J. L. Cunningham, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga: Overview of the field Emily Ballesteros, stress management coach Liu-Qin Yang, Portland State University Tim Bauerle, research behavioral scientist for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Spokane Mining Research Division Roxanne Lawrence, graduate student at the University of South Florida: “Graduate student role researching stress and emotional labor” Alyssa McGonagle, University of North Carolina at Charlotte Questions: Summarize the types of work occupational health psychologists do. After listening to the panelists describe their work, which did you find the most? Summarize the panelist’s description of their work. Explain why you found that one the most interesting.   ... View more

MARCH 10 | 3:00 PM ET Join Jonathan S. Comer, the renowned best-selling co-author of Abnormal Psychology and Fundamentals of Abnormal Psychology, as he reviews the rapidly growing body of research on how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting the state of mental health and its treatment. Register today to save your seat! REGISTER HERE *NOTE: You must follow this link to register. Responding above as "going" will not register you for this event. ... View more

My Intro Psych students, on the whole, are able to design a pretty good study when given a hypothesis. They describe using a control group and one or more experimental groups. They describe holding everything constant except for the independent variable. They describe the use of one or more dependent variables. Where they most often falter is in applying the labels. For our non-psychology majors, how important is it that students be able to say what the independent variable is? Even for our psychology majors, the world won’t end if after Intro Psych they can’t yet apply the correct label to the independent variable. It not like we keep our psych majors from taking Research Methods if they missed the research methods questions on their first Intro Psych exam. By the end of Research Methods, they should have the differences between independent variable and dependent variable down solid, but it might even be possible to pass Methods without having a solid grasp of which is which. I bet a psych major could even earn a BA degree in psych without doing better than chance on identifying the independent variable and dependent variable. I’m nearing the end of revising an Intro Psych textbook. For the last 12 chapters, my brilliant wife has been my in-house editor. We’ve been together almost 25 years. She’s heard a lot of psychology during that time. Reading this textbook, she’s learned even more (as have I in writing it). Periodically, she will say, “Oh! That’s that thing where <description of concept>.” Last week, she perfectly described the tragedy of the commons applying it to something she had just read in a non-psychology source, but she couldn’t come up with the name “tragedy of the commons.” I confess that it took my brain a minute to dig through my mental files to come up with the term. For Intro Psych, I think of my neighbors as my audience. Many of my neighbors have bachelor’s degrees in something other than psychology. Looking at how many college students take Intro Psych, it’s likely that most of my neighbors took the course. As we all know, our writing and speaking has to be geared to our audience to be most effective. When I think about my Intro Psych audience, I think about my neighbors—people who will go into careers like healthcare, business, engineering, and social work. What do they need to know about psychology? This brings me to my terminology crisis. Which is more important? That my Intro Psych students/neighbors can design a decent experiment? Or that they can accurately label the independent variable and dependent variable? Is it more important they can identify a novel example of the tragedy of the commons? Or that they can accurately label the example as the tragedy of the commons? When I gave multiple choice tests, most of the questions were about accurately labeling. I didn’t do that because I gave deep thought to what my multiple choice questions should be testing. I did it because that’s how I was tested, that’s how my colleagues tested, and those were the bulk of the questions in the test bank. If everyone is testing for knowledge of terminology, then I must test for knowledge of terminology, too. (Is it more important that I recognize this as an example of going along with the group or that I can accurately label it “conformity”?) Here’s an example of testing for concept knowledge, rather than terminology knowledge. In a city, the roads are a shared resource. As individuals, we have a choice to drive (or take some other individualized transportation, such as a cab/Uber/Lyft) to work (adding to air pollution) or to take public transportation (not adding to air pollution). What does psychology predict that people are most likely to do? Drive (or take some other individualized transportation) without consideration for what is good for all of us. “If I drive, I won’t be adding much air pollution.”) Take public transportation because it is for the good of all of us. (“If I take the bus, I won’t be adding more air pollution.”) For those who can’t quite give up terminology altogether, tack this question on at the end. For ¼ point extra credit, what is the name of the concept that describes this? _________ Here’s another example. A researcher hypothesizes that students who take tests in hot rooms will score more poorly on the test. Which research design would be best for testing this hypothesis? Give students a test in a hot room and see how they score. Ask students if they would prefer to take a test in a hot room or a comfortable room. Put those who prefer a hot room in a hot room and those who prefer a comfortable room in a comfortable room. Give all students the same test and see how they score. Ask students if they would prefer to take a test in a hot room or a comfortable room. Put those who prefer a hot room in a hot room and those who prefer a comfortable room in a comfortable room. Give the hot room students a difficult test and the comfortable room students an easy test. See how they score. Randomly divide students into two groups. Put one group in a hot room and another group in a comfortable room. Give all students the same test and see how they score. Randomly divide students into two groups. Put one group in a hot room and another group in a comfortable room. Give the hot room students a difficult test and the comfortable room students an easy test. See how they score. For ¼ point extra credit, identify the independent variable in this example. ___________ For ¼ point extra credit, identify the dependent variable in this example. ___________ Currently, my Intro Psych students take open-note, open-book, take-at-home essay tests of a sort. In looking through my questions, for about half of them, I have an expectation that my students will be able to wrestle with the terminology and accurately apply it. My students aren’t expected to memorize the terms, but I do expect them to go from definition to application. Is it because it’s really necessary? Or is it out of my own convenience? For example, in one question in the learning chapter, I give students four examples, and ask students to identify the schedule of reinforcement. It’s much easier for me to score whether “fixed ratio” is correct, than it is to score “reinforcement after a set number of responses.” Although, in the end, what I really want is for a student to remember years later is something like, “I want to exercise more. I’m going to put a quarter in the jar for every 2,500 steps. I can only use jar money at the coffee shop.” If they don’t remember that this is a fixed ratio reinforcement schedule, I’m okay with that. If I’m okay with that for years later, it seems like I should be okay with it while they’re in the course. ... View more

How can psychologists stay safe standing up for the truth in a climate where misinformation is so common? The anatomy of a misinformation attack: How a respected psychologist ended up getting attacked online for sharing the facts https://www.apa.org/news/apa/2022/news-anatomy-misinformation ... View more

I read an article in Nature about how academics who work with graduate students could do a better job preparing grad students for non-academic careers (Forrester, 2022). It reminded me of when I was in grad school 30 years ago. (Yes, I walked through the snow uphill to get to campus–and to get home.) While I don’t remember anyone explicitly telling me that choosing/getting/accepting an academic job that primarily involved teaching would mark me a failure in the eyes of the program, I implicitly got the message. I remember one grad student who got a job in an applied field, and her work was discussed as a curiosity, not as a legitimate option for life after grad school. If we take the discussion down one more level, we can talk about the expectations undergraduate psychology programs put on bachelor’s students to go to grad school. If we’re not actively talking about career paths outside of grad school, we’re implicitly telling students they’re a failure if they don’t go the grad school route. Take a look at APA’s Center for Workforce Studies’ Careers in Psychology page to see how many people with which degrees and at what career stage are working in each career field. In the word cloud, click on a career field to get the estimated number of people working in the field and a percentage of this segment of the workforce. While the Nature article was written with an engineering, physical, and earth science grad faculty audience in mind, the advice works for psychology, too. And for both grad students and undergraduates. “Voice your support for alternative paths,” and “[g]ive students time to explore.” Let’s talk with our psych undergrad and grad students about psychology’s career path possibilities. If we feel we are not well-versed in the topic, then let’s make it an assignment. Turn students loose to do their own research with a report back to the class. Be prepared to learn a lot! As advisors, let’s “[a]sk students about their career interests and goals,” and “[d]evise a mentoring plan to help [our] students.” If students are interested in careers that we know nothing about, then it’s time to tap our networks. Let’s connect our students with others with similar degrees who are working in the fields they’re interested in. Have a psych major who is interested in going into business or healthcare? Or a grad student who is interested in helping golfers avoid the yips? If you don’t know where to start, I recommend posting to the Society for the Teaching of Psychology (STP) Facebook group. If you’re not on Facebook, try Twitter; STP’s Twitter name is @TeachPsych. Join the STP PsychTeacher email listserv and ask for networking help there. You may also want to contact the leadership of one or more of the 54 APA divisions that most closely matches your student’s interest. Don’t overlook your own department’s alumni. What are your former students doing now? If career and career interests match, are they willing to have a conversation with your current students? Mentoring isn’t always about having the answers. Sometimes it’s about helping finding someone who does.   Reference Forrester, N. (2022). How lab leaders can support students’ non-academic career plans. Nature, 601(7894), 655–657. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-00162-y   ... View more

Students should not only be taught the core concepts of introductory psychology, but also how those ideas play out in their daily lives and the world around them. In a seven-part video series produced exclusively for Macmillan Learning, Garth Neufeld shows how APA’s Introductory Psychology Initiative (IPI) offers a guided structure for doing just that. As Professor Neufeld (Cascadia College) explains, APA’s IPI’s themes help students understand the trends and patterns of human thoughts and behaviors, which are concepts they can then apply to their current and future studies, and to their lives beyond the classroom. Furthermore, APA IPI themes allow instructors to organize course goals, learning, and assessments around these key topics. Watch the full series with a community account. ... View more

Psychiatry and psychology are not averse to renaming our constructs. For example, with DSM-III, manic-depression became bipolar disorder. Since then, mental retardation became the more descriptive intellectual disability, and the controversial multiple personality disorder became the no less controversial dissociative identity disorder. Schizophrenia started life as dementia praecox. Is it time to change the name again? There are two arguments for a name change. First, there is much stigma associated with the term schizophrenia. As a class discussion item, ask students what immediately comes to mind when they hear “schizophrenia.” Be ready for students to say things describing people diagnosed with schizophrenia as being violent and having poor hygiene. What your students say is probably a pretty good representation of the public’s perception of schizophrenia. The more stigmatizing the label, the harder it is for clinicians to give the diagnosis to clients. And for those who have the diagnosis, the experience is all the more stressful when they have to manage the knee-jerk reactions of others. As if living with the symptoms of schizophrenia doesn’t make life much more difficult already. The second argument for a name change is that the word “schizophrenia” is not descriptive of the symptoms, and the name implies that schizophrenia is a single entity. Our modern understanding of schizophrenia is much more nuanced. For example, we now understand schizophrenia to encompass a wide and varying spectrum of symptoms. The disorder has already undergone a name change in Japan (to integration disorder), South Korea (to attunement disorder) and Hong Kong and Taiwan (disordered thought and perception) (Mesholam-Gately et al., 2021). Ask your students if they think schizophrenia should be renamed. A U.S. survey that included participants with mental illness, family members of those with mental illness, mental health providers, and others found much support for a name change; two-thirds supported a name change before seeing some possible names, and three-quarters supported a name change after seeing possible names and their descriptions. The names that received the most support were: Altered perception syndrome: “Indicates that people with this illness experience sensory information differently in a way that changes their day to day experiences.” Psychosis spectrum syndrome: “This term refers to a spectrum of common psychosis symptoms, such as hallucinations, delusions and thought difficulties.” and neuro-emotional integration disorder: “A biopsychosocial (biological, psychological, and social) term describing difficulty integrating cognition, emotion, and behavior” (Mesholam-Gately et al., 2021). (Download the pdf of the survey questions). Having seen these proposed terms and their descriptions, ask your students again if they think schizophrenia should be renamed. Personally, I find psychosis spectrum syndrome to be the most descriptive, but I doubt that being psychotic carries any less stigma than schizophrenia does. I can see why altered perception syndrome had the most support as it is probably the most innocuous of the group, but the name makes me think of synesthesia or ESP. I could work with neuro-emotional integration disorder. If you would like to extend the discussion, give your students a few minutes to consider alternate names. Give them these criteria: “Mental health professionals suggest that a successful name change should be clearly defined, neutral, easily understood, and illustrate the core symptoms of the disorder in order to increase accessibility and communicability by healthcare providers” (Mesholam-Gately et al., 2021). After students have a few minutes to brainstorm some names on their own, ask students to share their ideas in small groups. Ask each group to share their top one to three names. Invite the class to vote on the names.   Reference Mesholam-Gately, R. I., Varca, N., Spitzer, C., Parrish, E. M., Hogan, V., Behnke, S. H., Larson, L., Rosa-Baez, C., Schwirian, N., Stromeyer, C., Williams, M. J., Saks, E. R., & Keshavan, M. S. (2021). Are we ready for a name change for schizophrenia? A survey of multiple stakeholders. Schizophrenia Research, 238, 152–160. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2021.08.034    ... View more

In Intro Psych, we often approach sleep deprivation as an issue faced by individuals with solutions directed at individuals. A compelling article in Science (Pérez Ortega, 2021) argues that we should also consider sleep deprivation in the context of social justice. I’ll skip over how important sleep is. Instructors of Intro Psych, on the whole, probably have a pretty good grasp of the research on sleep deprivation and its effects. After covering the importance of sleep, share these data with your students: A 2015 study in the United States found that, 43.4% of Blacks, 37.1% of Chinese Americans, 31.5% of Hispanics, and 19.3% of Whites reported sleeping an average of less than six hours per night. Ask students to consider what environmental, socioeconomic, and social factors may contribute to that disparity.   Here are some of the factors identified by researchers in the Science article: Black and Hispanic workers are more likely to work nights. Those who work the night shift are less likely to get enough sleep. Acculturation stress for immigrants contributes to sleep loss. The stress of being the target of—or fear of being the target of—prejudice and discrimination is associated with greater insomnia.  “[P]eople of color tend to reside in brighter areas, where they are exposed to approximately twice as much ambient light at night as white people” (Pérez Ortega, 2021, p. 553). “Black, Hispanic, and Asian people in the United States are also exposed to disproportionately high levels of particulate air pollution”(Pérez Ortega, 2021, p. 553). Air pollution affects how well we breathe. The more difficult it is to breathe, the more difficult it is to sleep. Black Americans are more likely to live in neighborhoods where nighttime noise is common. Conclude the discussion by asking students what we can do as society members to mitigate these environmental and social factors. As an example, there is a movement to reduce city light pollution (Payne, 2021). While much of the impetus for the movement is about energy conservation, changing city lights to softer, less intense lights should make urban sleeping a little easier, too. “For the first time, the Department of Health and Human Services earlier this year included improving sleep as one of the main disease prevention goals for the next decade. [Marishka Brown, director of the National Center on Sleep Disorder Research at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, who chaired the working group that came up with sleep objectives for the project, called Healthy People 2030, is elated that improving sleep is now a national health priority. She is disappointed, however, that tackling sleep disparities wasn’t ultimately included, despite all the evidence she and others presented to decision-makers” (Pérez Ortega, 2021, p. 555). Here is the Healthy People 2030 section on sleep, for your reference.     References Payne, E. (2021, September 27). Dark skies ordinance to dim Pittsburgh’s light pollution. Carnegie Mellon University. http://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2021/september/light-pollution-ordinance.html Pérez Ortega, R. (2021). Divided we sleep. Science, 374(6567), 552–555. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.acx9445     ... View more

A break is never a waste of time, especially under circumstances of increased stress. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/202201/take-break ... View more

In December 2021, snow closed the major highways in northern California, including I-80. With those routes closed, Google Maps and Waze (also owned by Google) suggested routes that sent people on rural roads through the Sierra Nevada Mountains. People ended up stranded in the middle of nowhere. One person was quoted as saying, “Blaming vulnerable people for going down the wrong road is the same as blaming some of those poor vulnerable people who drowned in their basement apartments in New York City” during September 2021 flooding (Vigdor, 2021). This is not the only instance of drivers blindly following an app’s directions and ending up in trouble, e.g., 8 Drivers Who Blindly Followed Their GPS into Disaster, and Truck Drivers Following GPS Get into Serious Trouble. I admit that I am struggling with this one. My primary reaction upon reading such stories is thinking that, as drivers, we cannot turn off our brains. If a snowstorm has dumped enough snow that the department of transportation cannot keep the biggest highways open, how could the secondary roads possibly be open? Now, being a psychological scientist, my next thought is, “Wait. Am I blaming the victim?” Are the drivers who chose to follow their phone’s GPS victims of technology? But the drivers were not forced to follow those directions, so are they really victims of their own making? I grew up with snow in a mountain-y, rural area, so I have a lot of knowledge about snow and mountains and rural roads. For drivers who do not have that experience, is it reasonable to think that they and I share the same “common sense”? In grad school at the University of Kansas, a friend who had grown up in Kansas and I took a road trip back to my home state of Pennsylvania. As I-80 (the same highway that was closed in that northern California snowstorm) started into the Allegheny Mountains, the speed limit dropped from 70mph to 55mph. My friend who had no experience driving on major highways through mountains could not comprehend why the speed limit had dropped. I, foolishly, told her that if she thought she could drive 70mph to give it a try. She quickly discovered that they had built the road according to the terrain, so sharp turns that are more judiciously taken at 55mph are part of the driving experience. All of that is to say that our experience of driving conditions is not universally shared. Instead of following their GPS, let’s imagine that the drivers had pulled over and asked a local resident for directions, and the local suggested a snow-packed rural route that the drivers then followed. To me, the drivers now feel more like victims of bad advice, and blaming the drivers does feel like blaming the victim. But is there really any difference between a driver who trusts the advice of a local and a driver who trusts the advice of their phone’s GPS? This could be an interesting discussion with your students after you have introduced the blaming the victim concept. A few years ago, The Atlantic had a pretty good article on blaming the victim if you would like your students to have a bit more information about the concept (Roberts, 2016). Describe the snowstorm incident, and then ask students if the drivers were victims of technology or victims of their own making. Ask them to explain why. If the predominant answer is blaming the victim (victim of their own making), ask students if the directions had been given to the drivers by a local resident, would it change their thinking. Why or why not?     Reference Roberts, K. (2016, October 5). The psychology of victim blaming. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/10/the-psychology-of-victim-blaming/502661/ Vigdor, N. (2021, December 31). Snow closed the highways. GPS mapped a harrowing detour in the Sierra Nevada. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/31/us/google-maps-waze-sierra-nevada-snow.html   ... View more

Anxious about time passing you by? You might have chronophobia. https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/cant-stand-time-passing-you-by-you-may-have-chronophobia/ ... View more

According to the CDC, as of December 8, 2021, 83.5% of U.S. adults have had at least one dose of a COVID vaccine. When the unvaccinated are interviewed by journalists, they report a number of reasons for choosing not to get the vaccine, such as being too healthy to need it and not trusting that the vaccine is not harmful (Bosman et al., 2021). What I have not heard in person-on-the-street interviews, however, is someone saying they are not getting vaccinated because they are afraid of needles. In a pre-COVID meta-analysis, researchers found “[a]voidance of influenza vaccination because of needle fear occurred in 16% of adult patients, 27% of hospital employees, 18% of workers at long-term care facilities, and 8% of healthcare workers at hospitals” (McLenon & Rogers, 2019, p. 30), and the younger the people, the more common the fear. For young and young-ish adults (ages 20 to 40), approximately 20% to 30% have a needle fear (McLenon & Rogers, 2019). I wonder how many of the unvaccinated have a fear of needles but are citing other reasons for avoiding the vaccine. All of the photos of healthcare workers jabbing people with needles cannot be helping. For someone who is needle-phobic—or merely needle-averse—seeing a jabbing photo would likely result in them immediately turning away. Not only are they not getting the vaccine, they are not getting good information about the vaccine. In our Intro Psych courses, we can assume that 20% to 30% of our students have a fear of needles. For our students who do not have a fear, they certainly know someone who does, whether they know it or not. When we cover phobias and treatment for phobias, let’s include needles (but no photos!) as an example. Where does the fear of needles and shots come from? It is easy to see how a needle fear would develop. Classical conditioning offers a pretty likely scenario. A young child is approached by a gloved healthcare worker carrying a needle, gets a shot, and the shot hurts! Things that hurt are scary. The hurting is the unconditioned/unconditional stimulus, and the fear is the unconditioned/unconditional response. The needle (and all things associated with it) is the conditioned/conditional stimulus, and the fear of it is the conditioned/conditional response. Observational learning may have been the source of the fear for some, such as seeing a sibling screaming after they got a shot. As we know, the key to overcoming fear is exposure. For most of us, as we got older and we received more and more shots, the fear began to dissipate. Yes, the shot may still hurt, but by the time we are well into adulthood, we have been hurt in many worse ways. The sting from the jab is a pain that we know is both temporary and manageable. For some, though, that is not the case. The fear has not dissipated, perhaps because they have spent most of their life avoiding needles. Strategies and Treatment for Fear of Needles There are several strategies a person with a fear of needles can use (Huff, 2021). Techniques useful for relaxation can help, such as taking deep breaths and picturing serene environments. For some, knowing exactly what is going on as the shot is being prepared is helpful. For others, knowing absolutely nothing and, with headphones on, being completely absorbed in a game or video is preferred. In either case, the person should communicate their preferences with the healthcare provider. A little self-talk doesn’t hurt, either: “I have so got this!”   For those with more severe fears, working with a mental health provider trained in systematic desensitization would be best (Huff, 2021). Identifying the cause of the fear is first. Is it the needle? The pain? Blood? Next, the mental health provider would work with the client to create a fear hierarchy. If the fear is the needle, then they may start with viewing a drawing of a needle. With the help of say, progressive muscle relaxation, the client relaxes. Once again, the drawing is presented, and the client relaxes. Once the client can look at the drawing without tensing up, they move on to the next item in the fear hierarchy, such as a photo of needle, then perhaps a plastic toy needle, and so on up to a real needle. Helping our students see that a fear of needles is conquerable may help save their lives or the lives of their loved ones. References Bosman, J., Hoffman, J., Sanger-Katz, M., & Arango, T. (2021, July 31). Who are the unvaccinated in America? There’s no one answer. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/31/us/virus-unvaccinated-americans.html Huff, C. (2021). How psychologists can help patients with injection fear. Monitor on Psychology, 52(4). https://www.apa.org/monitor/2021/06/injection-fear McLenon, J., & Rogers, M. A. M. (2019). The fear of needles: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 75(1), 30–42. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.13818   ... View more