by on February 26, 2013 Leave a Comment

Ep 190: Why Do You Get So Absorbed in that Book (or Movie)?

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Experience TakingHave you ever become so immersed in a book or movie that you actually felt like the character? Or you felt the character’s pain or joy? Why does this happen? When does this happen? What is it about the book or the movie and its characters that draws us in like this? It’s amazing isn’t it? To be so moved like this. Psychologists have studied this experience and we have some ideas regarding what factors have to be present in order for this to happen. And would you believe that this understand might help us to combat racism and bullying? Pretty amazing stuff. Join me as I explore what psychologists call “experience taking“.

Experience Taking

  • Kaufman, G. F., & Libby, L. K. (2012, March 26). Changing Beliefs and Behavior Through
    Experience-Taking. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Advance online publication.
    doi: 10.1037/a0027525

  • Kill These Characters at Your Own Risk


Filed Under: Emotion, Personality, Social Psychology Tagged With: ,
by on February 12, 2012 1 Comment

Ep: 169 – Validity – How Can You Tell a Good Test from a Bad One?

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In episode 168 I discussed reliability but the real test of a test’s “mettle” – or how confident you can be in the results – comes when you subject it to lots of validity tests. You’ll learn a lot about validity if you take a psychology class. High validity is what separates the many fun-to-take but essentially meaningless tests you’ll find on the web, and a truly solid test of your personality.
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Filed Under: Personality, Research and Stats, Testing
by on January 19, 2012 4 Comments

Ep 168: Reliability – the Foundation of Any Good Personality Test

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Can you tell your personality from what flavor ice cream you like? There are lots and lots of so called Personality tests on the web. How do you know when you’ve come across a good one? For example, are the inner workings of your personality revealed in the playlists you have on your smartphone or mp3 device?


In this episode we take a look at the first thing you should demand from any test – reliability. If you’re interested in psychology you are going to learn A LOT about the different kinds of reliability.
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Filed Under: Critical Thinking, Personality, Research and Stats
by on December 31, 2011 3 Comments

Ep: 166: The Secret Life of Pronouns – an Interview with James Pennebaker

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What do you reveal about yourself in the way you use the smallest and seemingly most insignificant words you use every minute? That’s the focus of Dr. James Pennebaker‘s fascinating book and one of the most interesting psychology books of 2011: The Secret Life of Pronouns. If you’re fascinated by language then you’ll find this episode especially interesting.
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Filed Under: Emotion, Gender/Sexuality, Personality
by on February 6, 2011 6 Comments

Episode 140: Psychoanalyzing Jack Lalanne

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In this episode I put Jack Lalanne "on the couch". I take selections from several of his videos and see what they reveal about his personality. He was clearly passionate about exercise, but what drove this passion? What was his underlying motivation? I suggest that his relationship with his father was crucial to his passion for exercise and fitness. Join me as I do a little armchair psychoanalysis of Jack Lalanne.



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Filed Under: Motivation, Personality, Therapy Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
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