1) Fragile Rationalism To Collective Resilience
These two concepts are discussed in this paper by Stephen Reicher and Linda Bauld about the response to the pandemic of the UK government. They are interesting for us because the idea of fragile rationalism seems to me to owe its origins to the work of Asch, Milgram and Zimbardo. In those studies, the fragility of people’s rationalism is exposed as they are placed under pressure to conform or obey. When we criticise these studies, as we have been this week in Year 1 lessons, we implicitly challenge this view of rationalism.
2) The Predictive Brain
We’ve spent some time this term in Year 1 thinking about the idea of the brain as a computer. This article looks at an older idea: the brain is not a machine for storing information but rather a machine for making predictions about the world.
3) The Idea Of The Brain
I meant to include this video on the blog some time ago but seem not to have done. It explores our idea of the brain, in particular the idea of the brain as a computer.
4) Who The Hell Is Stanley Milgram?
Here is a link to a podcast of an extract of a book about Milgram written by my predecessor in my current job. It is very good.
5) Why Mental Health Goes Wrong And How To Make Sense Of It
Here is Dean Burnett talking about mental health. It’s useful for us because it asks us to think about what we mean by abnormality and illness.
6) 10 Minutes A Day In Nature
This article reviews evidence relevant to our methods for reducing stress practical. Some of the studies here measured reduction in the same way as we did.
7) Rethinking Assessment
Here’s Sarah-Jayne Blakemore talking about GCSEs. This is useful for us partly because it is a process in which we engage and also because it shows how different ways of studying the brain have transformed our understanding of development. This is cognitive neuroscience in action.
8) Maternal Depression And Mother-Infant Relationship
In our course, we deal with depression and attachment as two different things. This article shows how they can be combined in research.
DHSB/DHSG Psychology Research Digest 