Advertise on podcast: The Psychology Undergrad Podcast

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Cognitively, the average 75-year-old today matches the average 56-year-old from the year 2000. So why do we still treat aging as a slow slide into decline? This episode covers the late adulthood chapters of our Human Development textbook, from age 65 to the end of life. We follow the textbook's case study of Rose, a 77-year-old Jamaican American woman who recently lost her wife, Ruth, to cancer, is living with early-stage dementia, and has just moved into an assisted living facility called The Gardens. In this episode: - The Flynn effect in aging, and why today's older adults report being happier than earlier generations - Hays' ADDRESSING framework, explained as faders on a mixing board - Minority stress theory and a study where older Black adults showed stronger cognition in difficult neighborhoods - Gibson's model of disability identity: passive awareness, realization and acceptance (mnemonic: PRA) - Lawton's ecological theory: environmental press vs. individual competence, explained as difficulty scaling in a video game - How Rose uses Jamaican dominoes to set the pace of her own social life, and what Bandura's agency and forethought have to do with it - Erikson's integrity vs. despair, and the ninth stage Joan Erikson added in her nineties - Gene Cohen's four phases of the second half of life, and whether they depend on money and health - Spiritual well-being and physical symptoms of anxiety and depression - Dr. Susan Moore, racial bias in pain treatment, filial piety and stereotype embodiment - Wortman and Silver's myths about mourning, and the Jamaican Nine Night tradition To close: if smart homes and AI sensors keep older adults perfectly safe, will they also leave them alone? #Psychology #HumanDevelopment #LateAdulthood #Aging #DevelopmentalPsychology #Erikson #Intersectionality #Gerontology #GriefAndLoss #Dementia #PsychologyStudent #CounselingStudent #ThePsychologyUndergrad #StudyPodcast

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! You see someone on the sidewalk carefully stepping over every crack and whispering to themselves. Your first thought is "that's not normal." But who decides what normal is? This episode covers chapter 10 of Neukrug (2022), on abnormal development, diagnosis and psychopharmacology. Neukrug admits that when he started as a therapist he resisted diagnosing clients, until the DSM "soon became my Bible." We take that line literally and use religious ideas to explain how each school of psychology tells the origin story of human suffering. In this episode: - Five origin stories: genetics and epigenetics as predestination, Freud's id, ego and superego as spiritual warfare, behaviorism as karma, humanism as an inner light, and social constructionism as myth - Epigenetics explained as a sound board, where the environment pushes the genetic sliders up or down - Freud's anal stage, and whether anyone still links hoarding to potty training - How negative reinforcement slowly shrinks the world of someone with agoraphobia - Rogers' conditions of worth and the case of Ellen West - The "color therapy" thought experiment: what if loving blue were a diagnosis? - The DSM from 1952 to the DSM-5: dropping the multiaxial system, specifiers, provisional diagnoses and Z codes - The Cultural Formulation Interview and ataque de nervios - Five classes of psychiatric medication: antipsychotics and tardive dyskinesia, lithium, the move from amphetamines to SSRIs, benzodiazepines, and why stimulants calm ADHD - Szasz and Laing's critique, Rosenhan's "On Being Sane in Insane Places," and O'Connor v. Donaldson (1975) - An ethics reminder: changing a diagnosis to satisfy an insurance company is fraud To close: which traits we treat as disorders today might look like strengths 100 years from now? #Psychology #AbnormalPsychology #DSM5 #Psychopathology #Psychopharmacology #Counseling #MentalHealth #Freud #CarlRogers #Rosenhan #SocialConstructionism #PsychologyStudent #CounselingStudent #CounselorEducation #ThePsychologyUndergrad #StudyPodcast

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! 64% of Americans think you should be financially independent by age 22. Only 24% actually are. What happens when what society expects from adulthood runs into real life? This episode covers chapters 10 and 11 of our Human Development textbook, which deal with middle adulthood. We follow the textbook's case study of Ellen (57) and Clark (61). When midlife pressure hit, Clark moved into a downtown apartment and cut himself off from the family. Ellen stayed home to care for her injured 83-year-old mother and her 22-year-old son, who had just moved back after college. Why does one person shut down while the other grows? In this episode: - Hays' ADDRESSING model: identity as a set of overlapping traits, like building a character in a role-playing game - Bronfenbrenner's ecological model explained as a video game's physics engine, plus the "sandwich generation" - Is the "empty nest" mostly a Western, middle-class idea? - Erikson's generativity vs. stagnation, plus "other fathering" and grandparents raising grandchildren during the opioid epidemic - Loevinger's stages of ego development, and why most adults stop growing at the self-aware stage - Why a crisis is often what pushes people to the next stage - Kohlberg's ethic of justice vs. Gilligan's ethic of care, and the problem with studying only teenage boys - How an adult's moral reasoning shapes who they exclude and who they stand up for To close: if people start living to 100 or 120, what happens to middle age? Could it last 40 years? #Psychology #HumanDevelopment #MiddleAdulthood #MidlifeCrisis #DevelopmentalPsychology #Erikson #Bronfenbrenner #Kohlberg #CarolGilligan #EgoDevelopment #SandwichGeneration #PsychologyStudent #CounselingStudent #ThePsychologyUndergrad #StudyPodcast

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Why does asking "why?" shut a client down? And why did a 12-year-old visibly relax in his chair the moment his parents admitted their own struggles? This episode covers chapters 5 and 6 of Neukrug's counseling text. It starts with what a counselor does one-on-one, then shows how the same skills work with a whole family. In this episode: - Setting up the therapy room, proxemics, and the therapist who was fired for hugging his clients - The Carkhuff empathy scale, acted out with a client who is drowning at work - Why a 30-second silence can do more than advice - Two true stories about self-disclosure: one tragic, one handled well - The inverted pyramid method for organizing what a client brings in - Systems theory: feedback loops, boundaries, and Jim Jones as an example of a closed system - The identified patient: a family's "problem child" who is carrying everyone else's pain - Satir, Bowen's genograms, Haley's paradoxical directives and Whitaker's experiential therapy - Narrative and solution-focused therapy, Gottman's Love Lab (divorce predicted with 91% accuracy), the Four Horsemen, and emotionally focused therapy Along the way we link these ideas to religious frameworks, which deal with many of the same questions about connection and healing. To close: Watzlawick said "One cannot not communicate." What message are you sending to the groups you belong to without realizing it? #Psychology #Counseling #FamilySystems #FamilyTherapy #Therapy #MentalHealth #PsychologyStudent #CounselingStudent #Gottman #AttachmentTheory #SystemsTheory #EmotionallyFocusedTherapy #NarrativeTherapy #ThePsychologyUndergrad #StudyPodcast

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! So is mental illness a biological reality, or a label society puts on people who don't fit in? In this episode we take opposite sides and argue it out. One of us defends the medical model, with the DSM-5 as a "Dictionary of Symptoms and Medicine," Z codes, the WHODAS 2.0, and the evidence for medications like SSRIs and stimulants. The other argues the social constructionist and humanistic side, using a kaleidoscope analogy, Rosenhan's famous "Being Sane in Insane Places" study, and the tragic case of Ellen West. Along the way we cover side effects like tardive dyskinesia, Gilligan's critique of Kohlberg, the Cultural Formulation Interview, and ataque de nervios. We also bring in Fowler's stages of faith to ask why we want a diagnosis so badly in the first place. We don't pick a winner. We end with Kegan's idea of holding two truths at once: maybe it's the brain's hardware and the story's software, both at the same time. Hashtags: #ThePsychologyUndergrad #MentalHealth #DSM5 #AbnormalPsychology #Psychopathology #SocialConstructionism #CarlRogers #Rosenhan #Psychopharmacology #CounselorEducation #PsychologyPodcast #CMHC #NCE #StudyWithMe

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! It's 1968. The doors are locked for a 48-hour session, the leader is telling everyone to scream at each other, and half the room is naked. For a short time that counted as cutting-edge group therapy, until the APA stepped in. In this study session we follow group work from Jane Addams and Dr. Pratt's tuberculosis patients to the five types of groups used today. To make them easier to remember, we match each one to a kind of religious gathering. We explain Tuckman's stages with a roommate story everyone knows: the stolen yogurt. We also cover why confidentiality in a group can never be fully guaranteed. Then we look at consultation, comparing the expert "visiting theologian" with the "spiritual director" who helps an organization find its own answers. Last comes clinical supervision and the strangest idea of the semester, the parallel process, where a client's anxiety moves up to the counselor and then to the supervisor. We finish with a question: how much of your own daily stress started somewhere else? #ThePsychologyUndergrad #GroupWork #GroupTherapy #ClinicalSupervision #Consultation #ParallelProcess #CounselorEducation #PsychologyPodcast #CMHC #NCE #StudyWithMe

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! A broken bone shows up on an x-ray. A broken mind doesn't. In this late-night study session we work through Neukrug (2022), chapters 4, 5 and 6, from Freud's id, ego and superego to the hidden feedback loops that run your family. We cover: - Psychodynamic roots: the ego as a stressed-out middle manager, defense mechanisms, Jung's shadow and Adler's teleology - Existential and humanistic theories: Frankl's logotherapy, Rogers' core conditions (unconditional positive regard as grace), Gestalt's unfinished business - Cognitive-behavioral tools: Ellis' ABC model, Beck's cognitive distortions, Glasser's WDEP, ACT's hexaflex and defusion, and the motivational interviewing acronyms DARN CATS and OARS - The counselor's toolkit: proxemics, the Carkhuff empathy scale, therapeutic silence, confrontation, Schwitzer's inverted pyramid and SOAP notes - Couples and family systems: cybernetics and homeostasis, the identified patient as scapegoat (straight from Leviticus), Minuchin, Haley's paradoxical intention, Bowen's triangulation, EFT and Gottman's Four Horsemen All the way through, we look at where modern psychology meets old ideas of sin, grace and moral responsibility. We finish on a puzzle: if family systems shape so much of what we do, where does free will begin? Mnemonics, analogies and exam hacks throughout. Grab your coffee. Hashtags: #ThePsychologyUndergrad #Counseling #CounselingTheories #Psychology #FamilySystems #FamilyTherapy #CBT #ACT #MotivationalInterviewing #Freud #CarlRogers #Gottman #MurrayBowen #MentalHealth #CounselorEducation #StudyWithMe #PsychologyPodcast #NCE #CMHC

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! - The fetus as a "stress sponge": a mother's cortisol and adrenaline cross the placenta and wire a baby's brain for threat before birth. - Wilhelm Reich's character armor: how chronic stress becomes physical rigidity, seen in infants who can't relax into a caregiver's arms. - Freud's psychosexual stages: retold as the body's first contact points with the world (trust, control, body awareness). - Attachment as "glue": Bowlby, Ainsworth's Strange Situation, and how Western independence and collectivist amae define "secure" differently. - Vygotsky's shoelace analogy: children learn only what their environment demands, so kids surviving violence, foster care or systemic racism put survival ahead of academics. - Dev's story: a first-generation South Asian Muslim teen coming out as transgender, mapped onto Aaron Devor's 14-stage model, with social media as a lifeline. It closes on one question: if our wiring is set before we can choose our environment, how much of you is actually you? #Psychology #DevelopmentalPsychology #ChildDevelopment #Trauma #AttachmentTheory #Neuroscience #PrenatalStress #CharacterArmor #Freud #Vygotsky #MaryAinsworth #CulturalPsychology #Adolescence #TransgenderIdentity #MentalHealth #PsychologyPodcast #PsychStudents

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Did you know the egg that became you formed inside your grandmother? On this late-night study session of The Psychology Undergrad, we work through lifespan development from before conception to adulthood. We start with epigenetics and transgenerational trauma: how the Dutch Hunger Winter, colonization and the "haunted womb" leave biological marks that pass down through generations. Then we put the classic theories to the test: Erikson's psychosocial stages, Piaget's cognitive stages (mnemonic: Smart People Cook Food), Levinson's life structures (adulthood as levelling up in a video game), Bandura's triadic causation, and Gilligan's ethics of care as a response to Kohlberg. We look at where each one's "ruler" was marked wrong for women and marginalized groups. We also walk through two case studies, Carla and Ariana, rebuild Bronfenbrenner's ecological model as a smartphone (app, operating system, Wi-Fi), and cover Hays' ADDRESSING model and Hardy's privileged and subjugated tasks. Our closing question: if farming changed human development 11,000 years ago, what will digital life do seven generations from now? Hashtags #PsychologyUndergrad #LifespanDevelopment #GenerationalTrauma #Epigenetics #DevelopmentalPsychology #Erikson #Piaget #Bandura #Bronfenbrenner #CounsellingStudent #MentalHealth #PsychologyPodcast #StudyWithMe

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Why can't a mental health diagnosis be as clear as an x-ray? This study session works through Chapters 1–3 of Neukrug's The World of the Counselor. - Guidance vs. counseling vs. psychotherapy: what separates them. - The field's history: Jane Addams and Hull House, Freud, the Army Alpha test, Pinel unchaining asylum patients, and Frank Parsons, the founder of vocational guidance. - What makes a counselor effective: Wampold's research, Rogers' unconditional positive regard, empathy, cognitive complexity, and the "it factor". - Ethics: the ACA Code of Ethics and its moral principles, and what happens when a counselor's personal values clash with a client's choices. - Standards and justice: the ABCs of accreditation (CACREP), board certification (NCC) and licensure, then the MSJCC and social justice as counseling's fifth force. - The closing question: could AI ever have the "it factor"? #CounselingStudent #COUN530 #Neukrug #ProfessionalCounseling #CounselorIdentity #ACAEthics #CACREP #MSJCC #MulticulturalCounseling #SocialJustice #CarlRogers #CounselingHistory #MentalHealth #GradSchool #StudyPodcast

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! What turns a group of coworkers into a real team? We walk through Tuckman's stages of group development, team roles, and what separates high-performing teams from the rest. Industrial-organizational psychology for psychology students. #psychology #psychologyundergrad #psychstudent #iopsychology

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Conflict at work is inevitable, but it doesn't have to be destructive. We cover conflict resolution styles, the negotiation process, BATNA, and common biases that sink deals. Industrial-organizational psychology for psychology students. #psychology #psychologyundergrad #psychstudent #iopsychology

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! How do people really make decisions at work? We compare the rational model with bounded rationality and intuition, and look at traps like escalation of commitment and how groups can decide better. Industrial-organizational psychology for psychology students. #psychology #psychologyundergrad #psychstudent #iopsychology

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Most workplace problems are communication problems. We cover active listening, nonverbal communication, communication channels, and the barriers that garble messages at work. Industrial-organizational psychology for psychology students. #psychology #psychologyundergrad #psychstudent #iopsychology

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! What does emotional intelligence look like on the job? We cover workplace stress, burnout, emotional labor, and practical ways people and organizations manage emotions at work. Industrial-organizational psychology for psychology students. #psychology #psychologyundergrad #psychstudent #iopsychology