The blog’s been away for a few weeks as the assessment cycles took their course. There are a few things now on which to catch up.
1) This BBC news feature covers some of the research we look at in Year 2 when studying obesity. It looks in particular at how research into the genetic basis of obesity changes the way people look at themselves and also at the issues surrounding the use of bariatric surgery. On the same area, here is a lecture from Sadaf Farooqi.
2) All In The Mind
A series of this programme is being broadcast at the moment. They are worth listening to. This episode was good, with an interesting interview with Dean Burnett about his new book demystifying mental health.
3) Nature-Nurture
In the last blog post last month, I noted that debates which we might regard as resolved in Psychology rumble on. That was about free will and determinism but the same applies to nature-nurture. Here is Celia Hayes dealing with some of this in a podcast.
4) Brain Computer Interface
When we look at localisation of brain function and ways of studying the brain, we look at how research is used to help people recover from injury. This video and the accompanying news story are an example of that.
5) The Digital World
I am planning next year to focus on the impact of digital technology on well-being as the theme for the self-report study we do in Year 1. Here’s a summary of the recent research by Andrew Przybylski and Amy Orben on the effects of digital technology. The research is based on a simple assumption. If technology improves, its negative effects should also increase. There is no evidence that they do.
6) Beyond The Mental Health Paradigm
One of the things which troubles me about our course is the section in Psychopathology on defining abnormality and on characteristics of disorders. The exam does not allow us to question the idea that abnormality can be defined and that disorders have clearly defined characteristics. This idea is now being challenged by the British Psychological Society itself through the establishment of the Power Threat Meaning Framework. This starts from the assumption that people who show signs of psychological distress don’t have something wrong with them but rather that their distress is to be understood with reference to their circumstances. The framework does not just apply to people in particular distress. It applies to all of us. This interview with Lucy Johnstone explains more.
7) Functional Imagery Training
Here is an article about how staff at Plymouth University have used Functional Imagery Training with the Army. It shows one piece of research happening on our doorstep.
8) IAPT
When we study cognitive behavioural therapy, we refer to the way in which access to that therapy has been improved by the IAPT programme. Here is an interview with someone who works in that system. It shows one career pathway for people with a Psychology degree.
9) Overlap Of Autoimmunity And Mental Health Conditions
Here is Hank Green in brilliant form summing up recent research on autoimmunity. The idea that mind and body, and therefore that mental and physical disorder, are separate is deeply ingrained in western thought and culture. It’s a central assumption of the way we study our subject: we separate the biological approach from other approaches. It’s not right though. In a similar way, this article looks at the link between depression and later physical disorders. In this context, it is worth reading this article about the sequencing of the human genome. It was assumed that it would be possible to understand the genome as nature’s “instruction book”. The influence of genes on development is far more subtle than that.
10) Eating Disorders Soared In Lockdown
This article comes from BBC Scotland but could equally apply, I’m sure, to the rest of the UK. It might make us think about the causes of anorexia nervosa which we study in our course: family systems, social learning, cognitive distortions. Certainly people have had to spend more time with their families. For all of us, the pandemic has challenged our beliefs about control.
11) Brain Mechanisms And Addictive Behaviour
Here’s a lecture from The Royal Society/
12) Why CBT Can Fail Those With OCD
When we study OCD, we look at the effectiveness of CBT as a treatment. This article looks at research into why it does not work for everyone. Some of that is down to lack of collaboration and rapport with the therapist, some is down to problems with formulating the therapy and agreeing behavioural goals. Wider social context also played a part.
13) Overloaded: How Your Brain Chemicals Influence Your Life
Here’s an RI talk from Ginny Smith. It challenges some of the assumptions we make in our course about how neurotransmitters work.
14) Essential Functions Of Sleep.
Here is Gina Poe talking about sleep and cognitive function. It builds on the work done on biological rhythms in Year 2.
Also on sleep is this older article about the early research into REM sleep.
DHSB/DHSG Psychology Research Digest 