Stand by (and do nothing)

This entry in the psychology series will draw upon current events. You might have seen this horrible story, the gang rape of a 15-year-old girl in Richmond, CA (the picture at right is approximately where the attack took place).  Here are harrowing details from the SF Chronicle about the incident:
“What ensued was 2 1/2 hours [...]

Cognitive Dissonance – Believe, do, then believe otherwise

We’d like to think that our private mental lives and outward behaviors correspond with and inform each other.
We hope that our attitudes predict and guide behavior. Pish, that would be too easy! Psychology, in her relatively short history, has sometimes confirmed our intuitions about human nature. But more often than not, psychological research will upend [...]

Gilbert – I understand ergo I believe

This entry will consider a paper by Daniel Gilbert entitled, “How Mental Systems Believe” (published in 1991 in American Psychologist, full text here).
Before we can really delve into psychological mechanisms and how they influence behavior, which we’ll learn about in later posts,  we first need to know how the mind processes information.
In our human experience, [...]

A Hero for Social Neuro

This past weekend I attended the 3rd annual meeting of the  Social and Affective Neuroscience Society. Everyone in attendance had the great privilege of hearing New York Times columnist David Brook give a keynote address. And lo and behold, today Brooks wrote an article recounting his experience at the conference. I am so glad that [...]

Psychology series (introduction)

I have determined that the time has come for me to discover (or re-discover) psychology studies and/or articles from the 20th century that have significantly impacted how we think about the mind and human behavior.

My intention with this is manifold: not only to describe and inform, but to challenge, question, and provoke. Psychology is one [...]

My thesis, wordled

This image was created at: http://www.wordle.net/.

Beautiful chaos in the brain

This is taken directly from New Scientist:

Chaotic thinking is rarely a recipe for success, but evidence is emerging that operating at the edge of chaos may drive our brain’s astonishing capabilities.
Neuroscientists have long suspected that the network of neurons in our brains might be connected in such a way that they achieve a state of [...]

You ≠ your brain

I came upon this interview on Salon.com. I am glad there are philosophers like Noë who are taking the risk of defending this position. Here is an excerpt:
The brain is essential for our lives, physiology, health and experience. But the idea that it is the whole story, or even the key to understanding the story, [...]

Kristof’s “The Daily Me”

While Nicholas Kristof makes no shocking or revelatory insights here, I think he’s wise to remind us of the dangerious, self-serving spiral of the confirmation bias.

De anima[l] ?

We might agree with Aristotle that human beings are complex, political animals , but if we also agree that humans innately possess the Imago Dei, what are we to make of the stuff given to us–raw and “unplugged”–by nature? What of our biological drives, motives, and desires? Evolutionary psychology tells us that: (1) these things [...]