​Book Description
The book reflects over 20 years teaching a course on Relationships at Portsmouth High School, NH and incorporates other work with youth and young adults at the University of New Hampshire, Phillips Exeter Academy, New Beginnings youth programs, and other schools and agencies in New Hampshire and Maine.  I have also taught at the University of New Hampshire, The University of Massachusetts – Lowell, Fisher College and Hesser College. Currently, I am an instructor at Great Bay Community College.
 
Teaching Teens about Relationships describes how to teach a relationships course for adolescents, including many learning activities and instructional strategies, along with student reactions to it. The course integrated mindfulness work into each session and examined such topics as flirting, jealousy, infidelity, gossip, starting and ending relationships and other ubiquitous aspects of adolescent relationships rarely found in school curricula.
 
Incorporating student perspectives and experiences was essential to the course’s success. Students created their own material for use in acquiring and practicing relationship skills. Students provided the content to work with activities addressing communication issues, problem areas, sexuality, and the importance of relationships in their lives. They provided an extensive and diverse pool of information and experience that formed the basis of our discussions. This student-centered approach gave me access to their experiences, concerns, values, and strengths. The course gave them access to a safe environment to discuss issues that were in the forefront of their lives.
The book provides guidance for secondary and community college teachers and counselors and professionals working with adolescents in out-of-school settings, such as group homes, agencies, and faith communities. It describes how to develop a course or program series on romantic relationships and the rationale for doing so. 
 
It begins by explaining the importance of establishing and maintaining a safe classroom environment to allow a diverse group of students to participate freely and fully.  Readers will learn how to approach each class as a unique experience, tailoring content and methodology to the students in a particular class. There is an emphasis on how to involve the students in determining content.
 
The book contains over 120 instructional strategies, including experiential activities, dyad and small group tasks, music and artistic expressions, role-playing, writing exercises, and quizzes. It addresses how to include beliefs and theories about relationships, mindfulness and communication skills, starting, building, and ending relationships, sexual decisions, problem-solving, and defining love. 
This publication is more than a how-to teach resource about relationships. It is also a story of the experiences of students who took the relationship course. In keeping with the spirit of reciprocity integral to a responsible relationship, readers are encouraged to communicate their thoughts, reactions, questions, ideas, or critiques with the author via email or his webpage.
 
Note: That discussing relationships can be triggering and should be led by an experienced individual with proper training in the field to address any potential trauma or vulnerabilities that may arise. 
 
Chapter Descriptions 
The Introduction explains the antecedents and development of the course. It describes the students who took this elective Relationships course and their motivations for registering. It previews the  content of the succeeding chapters.
Chapter 1 details how the initial sessions served to build comfort, trust, and safety among the students so that sensitive issues could be best addressed later in the course. Substantial time is spent on group-building activities, including the identification of group agreements to guide participation and class interactions. 
Chapter 2 contains activities and practices that recurred throughout the course. Its primary focus is on mindfulness training, with sample meditations and active mindfulness exercises.  It also includes the use of music as an instructional tool, describing how students presented their chosen songs about relationships and led group discussions regarding the songs’ messages.  
Chapter 3 takes a careful look at family connections and acknowledges that a range of experiences exists in families of origin and family constellations. How these early experiences might influence future relationships is examined, including a study of developmental stages and attachment theory as ways to help explain and understand the impact of earlier experiences.
Chapter 4 addresses friendships. This involves a look at expectations and realities, good times and not-so-good times. The chapter investigates such student concerns as the role of gossip among peers, joys and troubles among friends, beliefs about friendships, and loneliness, the lack of friends. Some common relationship themes are introduced here, with a look at how friendships might affect romantic relationships. 
Chapter 5 begins the focus on romantic relationships by identifying beliefs students bring to the relationships they establish and experience. Students scrutinize their own beliefs and values and those of their classmates and investigate beliefs common to different cultures. Myths and long held beliefs are compared to psychological research. The chapter also notes how the Arts portray beliefs about relationships. 
Chapter 6 examines the science of relationships through theories developed from research using the scientific method and conceptual thinking. These theories provide ways to explain how relationships begin and develop, and what factors contribute to problems and breakups.  Studying theories hones students’ abilities to reason and reflect and provides tools for identifying and combatting biases.
Chapter 7 focuses on how relationships begin, from first impressions through early interactions to growing connection. Using my own dissertation research, the stages of starting a relationship are explored. Important communication skills and strategies are practiced.
Chapter 8 provides an in-depth training in communication skills. Beginning with practices in developing listening skills, the chapter breaks down the dynamics of the communication process, examining the mechanics in a challenging, rigorous, and innovative training. Youth provide topics and situations to apply their training in lively conversational practices and feedback sessions.
Chapter 9 builds on the basic communication skills by integrating emotional content into practice. Attention to enhancing emotional intelligence to inform their communication processes helps students learn to honor and respect their own and others’ feelings while engaged in conversation.
Chapter 10 utilizes a strength-building approach, seeing problems as learning opportunities for youth. A key feature engages students in creating most of the content by identifying the problems they think are important to work on.  Respect for youth’s abilities to work through even the most difficult issues centers this work. The chapter addresses youths’ need for skills to perceive, understand, negotiate and resolve differences. It shows how to help them develop awareness of their own and their partner’s perspectives and to use strategies for dealing with conflict. It addresses difficult problem areas related to infidelity, jealousy, dating violence and abuse. 
Chapter 11 shows how to engage students in open and honest discussions of sexual issues. Beginning with a full discussion of the components of the consent process for sexual activities, the chapter shows how to allow and encourage students to identify and assess various experiences of sexual touch according to values, motives, impact of the partners involved and other criteria. As in the chapter on problems, students are encouraged to supply much of the content for discussion. The chapter applies communication skills to sexual topics and provides an opportunity to talk about what youth consider to be a first sexual experience. The chapter includes the use of movies to discuss sexual issues. It ends with students defining what constitutes a healthy sexual relationship. 
Chapter 12 addresses endings in relationships and concludes with the ending of the course and the relationship we had built as a class. It looks at why and how relationships end. Once again, pertinent communication skills are included. Special attention is given to ending abusive relationships and the impact of parental separation and divorce on children and youth. The course ends by honoring the students’ participation in this course with a selection of closure experiences.
 
Other Related Resources
Author website: Chuck Rhoades – Writing, Training, and Consulting on Psychological Health Education
Publisher website: Rowman & Littlefield.
Publication flier: Chuck Rhoades, Teaching Teens Flyer.pdf
Amazon link: Teaching Teens About Relationships: A Guide for Teachers, Counselors, and Youth Group Facilitators - Kindle edition by Rhoades, Chuck. Health, Fitness & Dieting Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.
Goodreads link: Teaching Teens About Relationships: A Guide for Teachers, Counselors, and Youth Group Facilitators by Chuck Rhoades | Goodreads
Sex Ed Lecture Series Presentation link: Teaching Youth about Relationships | Sex Ed Lecture Series (square.site)

Psychological Concepts and Figures
Ainsworth, Mary
Allport, Gordon
Bowlby, John            
Ekman, Paul, 106
Erikson, Erik 
Sternberg, Robert
 
Abuse
Active listening
Adolescent development
Attachment 
Attraction
Bisexual youth 
Commitment 
Communication   
Confidentiality 
Conflict 
Consent 
Contact hypothesis 
Emotional intelligence 
Family 
First impressions
First sexual experiences
Gender 
Gender-fluid youth 
Gender non-conforming youth 
Identity
Inclusion 
Intimacy 
Lesbian youth 
LGBTQ+
Meditation 
Mindfulness 
Reciprocity
Sexual behavior
Sexual communication 
Sexual orientation
Substance use
Transgender
Trauma
Triangular Theory of Love
 

You’re Not Listening: What You’re Missing and Why It Matters
Author: Kate Murphy
ISBN-10: 1250779871
ISBN-13: 978-1250779878
 
APA Style Citation
Murphy, K. (2019). You’re not listening: What you’re missing and why it matters. Celadon Books.
 
Buy This Book
https://www.amazon.com/Youre-Not-Listening-Missing-Matters/dp/1250779871
​

Book Description
In today's fast-paced culture, the art of listening is often overshadowed by the clamor of speaking. However, author Kate Murphy argues that listening may, in fact, be more crucial than speaking. Listening transcends mere auditory reception; it entails attentiveness and thoughtful response. Through effective listening, individuals can revolutionize their lives, fostering wisdom and deep connections with others. Murphy delves into the research on listening and shares insights gleaned from various interviews.
 
Loneliness Epidemic: Researchers warn of a growing epidemic of loneliness in modern society, affecting individuals despite their online connections. The essence of connectedness lies in reciprocal listening and response. Instances like the hiring of actors by companies in Japan to provide companionship highlight the dire consequences of a lack of genuine listening. Loneliness is a pervasive issue that impacts individuals regardless of gender or age. Generation Z, being the first to grow up immersed in digital screens, faces heightened levels of loneliness compared to other generations.
 
Neuroscience of Listening: Studies utilizing fMRI scans have unveiled a significant correlation between the synchronization of brain activity in both speaker and listener and the effectiveness of communication. This phenomenon underscores the profound influence of our social interactions on cognitive processes. Attachment theory sheds light on this, suggesting that our capacity for listening and forming connections in adulthood is deeply rooted in early experiences. From the moment we are born, there exists an innate desire for our brains to sync with others, laying the foundation for how we perceive, think, and react based on the individuals we listen to and connect with throughout our lives. Our upbringing undoubtedly shapes our initial approach to relationships, but it does not determine our destiny. Through conscious effort and practice, people can improve their listening skills.
 
Challenges of Listening: Defining listening proves challenging, but curiosity emerges as a crucial element. Securely attached individuals exhibit curiosity and a greater openness to new information and experiences, mitigating loneliness. In long-term relationships, there's a tendency for individuals to lose their curiosity about each other, leading to a lack of attentive listening. Assumptions often act as barriers, hindering genuine understanding. True listening goes beyond mere nods or surface-level responses; it involves providing descriptive and evaluative feedback. It's a skill that requires awareness, focus, and experience to decipher the underlying messages effectively.
 
Obstacles to Effective Listening: The speech-thought differential highlights our tendency to think faster than others speak, leading to mental distractions during conversations. Effective listening involves constantly evaluating the validity of others' messages and understanding their motivations. Listening to opposing views triggers a response similar to being chased by a bear, as evidenced by brain scans showing heightened activity in threat-response regions. Individuals with an overactive amygdala find it particularly difficult to engage in careful listening. However, embracing opposing views is essential for personal growth. Coping with contradictory ideas and gray areas is essential for personal growth and understanding.
 
Self-Listening and Internal Dialogue: The way you engage in internal dialogue significantly influences how you perceive and interpret others' words. Individuals with a critical inner voice may interpret external communication differently from those with a tendency to blame others internally. Despite its importance, people often avoid introspection. Cognitive behavioral therapy offers strategies to modify self-talk, thereby enhancing interpersonal understanding and communication. When someone shares their feelings, it's important to provide support rather than solutions. Good listeners understand the value of asking meaningful questions and recognize that individuals reveal their true selves through their words and actions.
 
Physical and Emotional Aspects of Listening: The interplay between auditory processing, attention spans, and social dynamics reveals the intricate relationship between communication, distraction, and interpersonal connections in modern society. The right-ear advantage highlights the complexities of language comprehension and emotional perception. While, distractions, exemplified by declining attention spans and incessant device usage, undermines meaningful communication. Embracing silence emerges as a counterbalance, with cultures like Japan and Nordic countries valuing it as a sign of deeper relationships.
 
In conclusion, the skill of listening, often neglected in today's digital age, holds immense transformative power. Through genuine listening, individuals can combat loneliness, foster understanding, and deepen connections with others. Developing exceptional listening skills requires awareness, patience, and consistent practice akin to honing a sport or musical instrument. While total mastery may be unattainable, everyone can benefit from the effort!
 
Other Related Resources
Author’s Website
https://www.journalistkatemurphy.com/
BookLab by Bjorn- 7 Key Lessons from You’re Not Listening by Kate Murphy | Book Review
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Biw7NUJVo84
The Guardian- You’re Not Listening by Kate Murphy review – a modern epidemic of self-absorbed talk
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/11/youre-not-listening-kate-murphy-review

Psychological Concepts and Figures
Judith Coche
Charles Darwin
Sigmund Freud
Carl Jung
Daniel Kahneman
Jean Piaget
Carl Rogers
Oliver Sacks
Amos Tversky
Robert Zajonc
 
Active listening
Algorithms
Amygdala
Auditory cortex
Closeness-communication bias
Cognitive behavioral therapy
Cognitive complexity
Cohort
Collective monologue
Confirmation bias
Conversational sensitivity
Couples group therapy
Dopamine
Dunbar’s number
Expectancy bias
fMRI
Focused interview
Linguistic relativity
McGurk Effect
Qualitative research
Quantitative research
Secure attachment
Self-monitoring
Social exchange theory
Vestibular system
Wernicke’s area

The Science of Learning: 99 Studies That Every Teacher Needs to Know, 2nd Edition
Authors: Edward Watson and Bradley Busch 
ISBN-13: 978-0367620790
​
APA Style Citation
Busch, B, and Watson, E. (2020). The Science of Learning: 99 Studies That Every Teacher Needs to Know (2nd ed.). Routledge.

Buy This Book
https://www.amazon.com/Science-Learning-Studies-Every-Teacher/dp/0367620790

​

Book Description
The Science of Learning explores research in educational and cognitive psychology and how it can be applied to help students learn better. It points out that despite the vast amount of research in this area, teachers often need help finding and interpreting lengthy and complex academic papers.
 
For example, the results of one study in the book looked like this in the journal:

Authors Edward Watson and Bradley Busch aim to spark and inform discussions about the science of learning and its application in classrooms. They provide practical insights for teachers' professional development, including specific examples such as adjusting teaching methods based on research findings, implementing retrieval practices, and incorporating regular breaks for improved focus and energy.
 
The book's layout simplifies complex research, making it accessible to educators and students. Understanding the research is essential, but implementing it is another challenge. The authors take a study and delve deeper into practical implementation methods and potential obstacles and challenges teachers may encounter.
 
The book presents essential research findings from various fields relevant to education, each structured like an episode of the TV show "Friends," such as "The one about how much we forget" or "The one about cognitive load." Each study includes detailed sections comprising a short description of the study, main findings, related research, and classroom implications. Many studies also feature quantitative and qualitative data displayed in graphs, charts, and images to enhance understanding.
 
Additionally, the book offers separate sections titled "Tips for improving memory," "Tips for improving mindset, motivation, and resilience," "Tips for improving self-regulation and metacognition," "Tips for students," "Tips for teachers' attitudes, expectations, and behaviors," "Tips for parents," and "Tips for overcoming thinking biases." These sections provide practical strategies based on the research findings to support educators, students, and parents in various aspects of teaching and learning.
 
Furthermore, the book includes a section titled "When the Science of Learning Meets the Art of Teaching," which delves into key topics such as retrieval practice, creating a growth culture, developing independent learners, managing mobile phones, mastering classroom management, fostering a home environment that aids learning, and enhancing self-awareness through self-reflection.
 
Finally, the book concludes with a complete reference list of all studies cited, providing readers access to further information and resources. Through its engaging presentation and actionable insights, "The Science of Learning" will help students review and apply research in psychological science. For teachers of AP Psychology, this book is an excellent source to help students develop science practices related to research methods, statistics, and data interpretation. 

​Other Related Resources
Author’s website
https://www.innerdrive.co.uk/about-us/who-we-are/
 
InnerDrive Blog
https://blog.innerdrive.co.uk/
 
InnerDrive Education Resources
https://www.innerdrive.co.uk/education-resources/
 
Video describing the author’s five favorite educational studies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SDGPmWciAE
 
Psychological Figures and Concepts
Academic buoyancy
Cognitive load
Dunning-Kruger effect
Effort contagion
Forgetting curve
Growth mindset
IKEA effect
Impostor syndrome
Interleaving
Köhler effect
Metacognition
Mindset
Motivation
Planning fallacy
Primacy effect
Proactive interference
Pygmalion in the classroom
Resilience
Retrieval practice
Retroactive interference
Schema theory
Self-fulfilling prophecy
Self-regulated learning
Social rejection
Spacing effect
Spotlight effect
Talent bias
Transfer of learning
Working memory
 
 

Book Description
Chip and Dan Heath have made a name for themselves in the field of decision-making with books like Switch, Made to Stick, and The Power of Movement. In Upstream, Dan Heath goes it alone (but dedicates the book to his brother) to address how to identify and defuse problems before they grow and become unmanageable. Health incorporates many of the topics from their other books to help identify problems. The book is broken into three main sections: the factors that force people into downstream thinking, the questions upstream leaders must ask, and ways in which to identify new problems and push even further upstream.
 
 
Health opens with a story about the travel site Expedia. In 2012, the company received 20 million calls regarding travel itineraries. This cost the company $100 million, and they needed to find a way to get customers what they needed while also decreasing call volume and these costs. They used a three-pronged approach: an automated telephone option to resend a travel itinerary, change how emails were sent to avoid spam filters and make the website more user-friendly so customers could solve the problem on their own. 
 
Expedia decreased the percentage of callers from 58% to 15%. Health explains this as an upstream solution to a problem, rather than continuing to wait for the calls. Expedia found a way to reduce call volume, thereby saving the company millions of dollars each year.  Similarly, police and medical personnel spend most of their time engaged in reactive behaviors when time could be spent “upstream” to prevent criminal activity or health conditions before they occur or before they become dangerous.
 
Health calls out the field of psychology for only intervening after individuals are experiencing a mental health episode, using drugs, or experiencing trouble in a relationship. He proposes that we should identify those who might be at risk early and then create interventions so that the problems never arise. The average expense related to health care in most countries is $1 spent upstream to $2-3 spent downstream. In the United States, the ratio is 1 to 1, making our system far more reactive (downstream) and thus far more expensive because medical conditions are not treated until they become full-blown problems. In Norway, for example, a family will pay nothing for the prenatal visits or the birth of a child, making visits more accessible and resulting in less high cost and dangerous complications at birth. 
 
When problems are identified early proactive interventions can help improve peoples. So much time is spent trying to repair what is broken, but Heath recommends looking to the source, and fixing that to make and even larger impact.
 
Other Related Resources
Author’s website
https://heathbrothers.com/books/upstream/
 
Video: Dan Health Upstream Heros
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Edoj7cF5QKs
 
Podcast: Upstream thinking and moment making
https://www.goodlifeproject.com/podcast/dan-heath/
 
Psychological Figures and Concepts
Availability heuristic
Functional fixedness
Inattentional blindness
Habituation
Mental set
Selective attention
 

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
Author: Bessel Van Der Kolk, M.D.
ISBN-10: 0143127748
ISBN-13: ‎978-0143127741
 
APA Style Citation
Van Der Kolk, B. (2014). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. Penguin Books.
 
Buy This Book
https://www.amazon.com/Body-Keeps-Score-Healing-Trauma/dp/0143127748
​

Book Description
Traumatic events are disturbing experiences that create negative emotions and reaction. Trauma not only affects those directly exposed to it but also those around the individuals who have experienced trauma. Research reveals that trauma leads to physiological changes in the brain and body. This newfound knowledge offers potential avenues to prevent and perhaps reverse the damage caused by trauma. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma serves as a guide to understanding trauma and urges us to acknowledge its impact on lives and encourage the development of treatments and prevention strategies.
 
The text begins with a look back on the rediscovery of trauma. Many lessons have been learned about trauma, including from the return of Vietnam veterans, the American Psychiatric Association’s diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder, and the use of brain imaging tools. We have also learned from research on learned helplessness in dogs, research on stress hormones, and the pharmacological and neuroscience revolutions. Each advancement in various scientific fields teaches us more about how trauma impacts our lives.
 
The brain and body are impacted by trauma. The author summarizes the function of specific brain parts and provides appropriate analogies. For example, the limbic system acts as the cook withing the brain. The thalamus stirs the input into an autobiographical soup and then passes it on the amygdala and frontal lobes. During trauma the floodgates are open, which can lead to sensory overload. The amygdala is the brain’s smoke detector and identifies whether incoming information is important for survival. If threatened, it messages the hypothalamus to activate the stress hormone system in the autonomic nervous system to set off a whole-body response. The medial prefrontal cortex, in the frontal lobe, is the watchtower that offers a view from above and tries to warn when not to react to false alarms of stress. Bottom-up regulation can adjust the autonomic nervous system, through breath, movement, or touch. Top-down regulation, such as through mindfulness and yoga, can enhance the watchtower’s oversight of the body’s sensations. This knowledge is central to better understanding and treating traumatic stress. Being stuck in survival mode, energy is spent on unseen enemies with little room left for nurturing, care, imagination, planning, playing, or learning. New approaches to treatment need to engage the safety system of the brain before trying to promote new ways of thinking.  Many traumatized patients report not feeling whole areas of their body and a lack of self-awareness. The author walks through the explanation of why this is happening and the connection to the brain. The body keeps the score and mind-body communication is central to emotion regulation. 
 
The author goes on to explain the minds of children and trauma. He carefully reviews disorganized attachment, memories, and the flood of sensations. With further research, a better understanding began to unfold. As the DSM III was being revised, the author conducted even more research and presented the results to the work group responsible for suggesting revisions for the new addition.  Even though the work group voted to create a new trauma diagnosis, it was not added to the DSM III. The author feels as if an entire group of abused and neglected children were being ignored just as many of our veterans were before PTSD was introduced back in 1980.  Soon after, a large study of adverse childhood experiences, now known as the ACE study, revealed that traumatic life experiences during childhood and adolescence are far more common than expected. It also found that adverse experiences were interrelated, even though they were usually studied separately. High ACE scores correlated with higher workplace absenteeism, financial problems, high-risk activities, and greater chances of suffering from any of the 10 leading causes of death in the United States. Ongoing stress on the body keeps taking its toll. The surgeon general's report on smoking and health in 1964 started a legal and medical campaign that forever changed daily life and long-term health for millions. Yet, the findings from the ACE study have not had similar results. Those experiencing trauma are in the same circumstances and receiving the same treatments as they were decades ago. 
 
Developmental trauma is a hidden epidemic.  The author points out the need to correctly define what is going on and do more than develop new drugs or focus on finding the gene responsible. In 2001, the National Child Traumatic Stress Network was set up and has grown to be a collaborative network with hundreds of centers nationwide.  But 82% of the traumatized children seen in the Network do not meet the diagnostic criteria for PTSD.  Their behaviors often lead to diagnoses, such as Oppositional Defiant Disorder and ineffective treatments, such as medication, behavioral modification, or exposure therapy. A core work group began to draft a proposal for an appropriate diagnosis called developmental trauma disorder (DTD) for the DSM-5, but once again was met with resistance. Feedback received included “...no new diagnosis was required to fill a missing diagnostic niche.” Shortly after the APA rejected DTD for inclusion in the DSM, thousands of clinicians from around the country sent small contributions to the trauma center to conduct a field trial to further study DTD.  That support allowed for the interviewing of hundreds of kids, parents, foster parents, and mental health workers at five different Network sites with scientifically constructed interview tools.  
 
Traumatic memories are different. The marks left by traumatic experiences are organized not as cohesive, rational stories, but rather as fragmented sensory and emotional pieces encompassing images, sounds, and physical sensations. The author explores the history and scientific interest regarding trauma. He explains the origins of the talking cure, WWI soldiers and shell shock, Nazis, false memory syndrome, repressed memory, and remembering the trauma with all of the associated effects. Recovery from trauma includes dealing with hyperarousal, mindfulness, and building relationships. Learning how to breathe calmly and remaining in a state of relative relaxation, even while accessing painful memories is an essential tool for recovery. It would make an enormous difference if those working with children, especially teachers and parents were trained in emotional regulation techniques. Traumatized individuals need to enhance their executive functioning and self-regulation. There is no one treatment of choice for trauma. The author explores sensory motor therapy, parent-child interaction therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, flooding, virtual reality therapy, systematic desensitization, medication, EMDR, yoga, internal family systems therapy, psychomotor therapy, and neurofeedback.
 
Even though there have been great advances in understanding and treating trauma, it is still a public health issue. The author argues it is one of the greatest threats to our nation’s well-being. The most promising prospect for children who have experienced trauma, abuse, or neglect lies in receiving a quality education within schools where they are acknowledged and understood. In such schools, they can develop a sense of control over their lives and learn the important skills of self-regulation, self-awareness, and communication. Schools have a pivotal role in fostering resilience and offering secure connections that are essential for meaningful lives. Resiliency stems from knowing that what you do makes a difference. Activities like sports, music, dance, and theater not only foster a sense of agency and community but also immerse children in novel challenges and unfamiliar roles. Just like adults, children should grasp the satisfaction of pushing their abilities to the limit.
 
Many individuals who have experienced trauma have gained strength and learned to survive. They have entered loving relationships, gained employment, and become role models in their communities. Some of the greatest political and social advancements have grown from trauma. Trauma is a public health issue and the author urges us to respond by acknowledging its impact on lives and encouraging the development of treatments and prevention strategies.
 
Other Related Resources
Author’s Website
https://www.besselvanderkolk.com/resources/the-body-keeps-the-score
 
What is Trauma? The author of “The Body Keeps the Score” explains | Bessel van der Kolk | Big Think
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJfmfkDQb14
 
Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2023/08/02/body-keeps-score-grieving-brain-bessel-van-der-kolk-neuroscience-self-help/

​Psychological Concepts and Figures
John Bowlby
Charles Darwin
Paul Ekman
Sigmund Freud
Joseph LeDoux
Henry Murray
Ivan Pavlov
Jean Piaget
Martin Seligman
Richard Soloman
 
Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE)
Amygdala
Brain waves
Cognitive-behavioral therapy
Cortisol
Depersonalization
Desensitization
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM)
Diagnostic labels
Dissociative identity disorder (DID)
Endorphins
Epigenetics
Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EDMR)
Flooding
Learned helplessness
Medical model
Mindfulness
Mirror neurons
Neurofeedback
Neuroplasticity
Pharmacology
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Prozac
Reciprocity
Repressed memory
Resilience
Self-awareness
Thematic apperception test (TAT)
Trauma
Virtual-reality therapy
Yoga

How Do We Know Ourselves: Curiosities and Marvels of the Human Mind
Author: David G. Myers
ISBN: 976-0-374-60195-9
 
APA Style Citation
Myers, D.G. (2022). How do we know ourselves: Curiosities and marvels of the human mind. Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, New York, N.Y.
 
Buy This Book 
https://www.amazon.com/How-Do-Know-Ourselves-Curiosities/dp/037460195X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=132R4UVO8UGHD&keywords=How+Do+We+Know+Ourselves%3A+Curiosities+and+Marvels+of+the+Human+Mind&qid=1685917569&sprefix=how+do+we+know+ourselves+curiosities+and+marvels+of+the+human+mind%2Caps%2C230&sr=8-1
​

​David Myers is well known for his contributions to research and raising awareness for those with hearing differences. He is also known for his best-selling textbooks in both the college and high school markets. Myers has used money from the sales of his textbooks to provide ongoing professional development in the area of psychology and has given countless hours to present at conferences, speak with students and faculty, and generally promote the discipline of psychology. How Do We Know Ourselves: Curiosities and Marvels of the Human Mind displays Myer’s expertise in social psychology and describes the many ways in which psychology shapes our day-to-day life. 
 
The book is organized into short chapters that each feature a singular psychological phenomenon such as the self-fulfilling prophecy, overconfidence, well-being, generosity, and many more. The book is a wonderful introduction to the field and would work well to assign in an introductory class. These small digestible chapters are a great way to introduce students to new psychological concepts and begin to see the impact of psychology in their everyday life.
 
Myer’s endless positivity can be seen throughout the book, although he does not shy away from challenging and timely topics. For example, Myers tackles the issue of increasing social isolation in his chapter titled; Friends or Phones. Myers introduces the word “phubbing” to describe feeling snubbed when talking with their partner because their partner keeps glancing at their cell phone. He describes the “evolutionary mismatch” between close relationships and smartphones and the feeling of isolation people are reporting even when they are around others. People feel disconnected when they are trying to engage with others in a face-to-face setting and people are distracted by their phones or other technology. Myers is careful to point out the many benefits that smartphones have brought, including the ability to video with distant family and friends anytime. In order to enjoy these benefits, while not experiencing or making someone else feel “phubbed,” he recommends some simple modifications for interacting with one another, here are a few:
            –At social events, leave phones in another room.
            –If someone else is distracted by their phone, stop talking until they are finished.
–At a dinner, pile up phones in the center of the table and the first person to reach for their phone pays for dinner.
 
Another timely and controversial topic that Myers tackles is that of the “replication crisis” in the field of psychology. While many would describe this as a problem with methodology in the field, Myers points out that this can also be a positive reflection of the ways in which society has changed since many of these “non-replicable” studies have been conducted. Myers provides a three-point rebuttal to those who are willing to dismiss psychological science because some studies, such as the facial-feedback hypothesis or Marshmallow test, have not found the same results as earlier trials. First, he responds that this is how science works. When we find out new information we adjust and teach accordingly, we need not accept that a study from 40 or 50 years ago will necessarily yield the same results today. Humans and societies are ever-changing, and some results may be reflective of these changing norms. Second, some phenomena are genuine, but situation specific. He uses the example of the facial-feedback hypothesis and reports that people who are being videotaped do not display the same characteristics as those who are not. Third, he claims that what endures are many research studies in the field that have been replicated and that is what we teach. He poses that we can encourage critical thinking, while also being careful not to dismiss the field outright because a few popular studies have not replicated the same way as earlier studies have reported. In some cases, this was fraud or misrepresentation but in others, society has changed for the better.
Myers’ positive outlook provides new light to psychological phenomena yet again. This is a book that can introduce people to the field of psychology or enrich those already entrenched in its research. As always, Myers’ approachable writing style is engaging and enriching.
 
Other Related Resources
WGN News: Interview with David Myers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDyZx4vCQa0
 
Society for the Teaching of Psychology: This is how I teach
https://teachpsych.org/page-1703896/4962005
 
Psych Sessions Podcast: Interview with David Myers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17WFtvZVbr0
 
Three Life Lessons from the Sage of Psychology: Psychology Today
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/sex-murder-and-the-meaning-life/202211/three-life-lessons-great-sage-psychology
 
Seize the Moment Podcast with David Myers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOaXdTZ5hd0
 
Next Big Idea Club Podcast
https://nextbigideaclub.com/magazine/know-curiosities-marvels-human-mind-bookbite/38437/
 
 
 
Psychological Figures and Concepts
Roy Baumeister
Robert Cialdini
Hans Eysenck
Sigmund Freud
John Gottman
Jonathan Haidt
Daniel Kahneman
Stanley Milgram
David Rosenhan 
Oliver Sacks
Muzafar Sherif
Norman Triplett
Jean Twenge
Robert Zajonc
 
Automatic processing
Availability heuristic
Behavioral genetics
Confirmation bias
Blindsight
Dual-processing
Dunning-Krueger effect
Equity
fMRI
Group polarization
Groupthink
Heritability
Hindsight bias
Implicit bias
Loss aversion
Mere exposure effect
Minority influence
Narcissism
Overconfidence
Partial reinforcement schedule
Representativeness heuristic
Self-disclosure
Self-fulfilling prophecy
Self-serving bias
Similarity
Social comparison
Social facilitation
Social identity
Social inhibition
Spotlight effect

​Study Like A Champ: The Psychology-Based Guide to ‘Grade A’ Study Habits
Author: Regan A.R. Gurung and John Dunlosky
ISBN: 978-1-4338-4017-3

​APA Style Citation
Gurung, R. A. R., & Dunlosky, J. (2023). Study like a champ: the psychology-based
guide to grade A study habits. American Psychological Association. 

Book Description
This book is a must-read for high school and college students and educators alike. Study Like a Champ opens with a research-based answer to the frequent student question, “What do I need to do to get an A?” Written by psychology professors and longtime advocates for high school psychology. Regan A.R. Gurung, Ph.D., a​nd John Dunlosky Ph.D. The book is packed with practical tips for studying smarter, not harder, and lays out a method for students to plan, monitor, and evaluate their learning for optimal success. The book debunks many firmly held myths about how to study commonly held by students and illustrates effective and empirically based methods for improving study habits and academic results. The authors also address commonly held teacher myths, including the learning pyramid that proposes the amount of learning by students is correlated with the instructional strategy used. Lecture is depicted as having the worst outcomes for student learning retention. This myth causes teachers to avoid lectures out of concern for decreased student learning. Like many methods, lectures can be effective or ineffective depending on the quality and topics discussed. The authors discuss how active learning, such as teaching others or discussion, can sometimes be successful but also how many versions of active learning, such as group work and problem-solving out loud, can harm learning.

Throughout the text are numerous surveys that students can take to evaluate their practices and suggestions for how to utilize scaffolding to build better study habits. This is based on current research conducted by the authors. Each chapter ends with Key Training Tips to stick your landing and Go for the Gold recommendations highlighting advanced reading related to the topics presented.
Chapter one, titled, So You Think You Know How to Study? Let’s FoK About it, challenges students to evaluate their study habits to determine and compare them with evidence-based best practices. Fok, according to cognitive psychology, is a feeling of knowing that exists for any class, assignment, or topic and can be strong or weak. Unfortunately, cognitive science finds that FoKs are often inaccurate. Individuals can feel that they know something well and find out from an assessment that it was not the case or vice versa. This chapter has an excellent survey for students to evaluate their current study habits, Start Now: How Are Your Study Habits? The chapter then lays out in a compare/contrast style what helps learning based on research as opposed to what does not help learning based on research. The authors help students who use habits less supported by research improve those habits. Although highlighting and rereading (commonly used student study habits) do not support learning, even these habits can be improved. The authors suggest having students highlight strategically by indicating the areas they want to study more and following up on those areas using other methods. Rereading should not be a major strategy and works best if it is part of distributive study.
Subsequent chapters help students plan, monitor, and evaluate their learning and apply specific strategies to their classes and busy schedules. Important methods discussed in the book include self-assessments of metacognition, tools for utilizing class time, effective notetaking, spaced or distributive study, retrieval practice methods, interleaving, worked examples, and winning strategies for combining specific tactics. These practical methods are tied to supporting research, effective graphics, and student self-evaluations throughout each section.
The final chapter is an essential discussion of healthy behaviors and how to cope effectively with the rigorous course schedule and additional commitments modern students face. This book is an excellent tool for teachers that can be used to help students apply findings from psychological science to improve their learning.

Other Related Resources
 
Speaking of Psychology: American Psychological Association Podcast --
“How to Learn Better Using Psychology, with Regan Gurung, Ph.D., and John Dunlosky, Ph.D.”

Psych Sessions Podcast: Convos About Teaching N’ Stuff  Gurung and Dunlosky: Study Like a Champ

​Follow @studychamp22 on Instagram or TikTok — Practical science-based tips from the book to help students study more effectively. The feed includes many compelling graphics to use to highlight research on studying.https://www.instagram.com/studychamp22/https://www.tiktok.com/@studychamp22Inside the Mind of a

Master Procrastinator, TED Talk — Show students this engaging TED Talk by writer Tim Urban after they take the survey in the Open Your Class with This Today activity to get a sense of their current relationship to the topic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arj7oStGLkU
 
Top 20 Principles for Pre-K to 12 Education ­­
This booklet, produced by the American Psychological Association, clearly outlines the most effective methods for teaching and learning.
The Top 20 are categorized into five areas of psychological functioning:
Thinking and learning: How do students think and learn?
Motivation: What motivates students?
Social-emotional learning: Why are social context, interpersonal relations, and emotional well-being important to student learning?
Classroom management: How can classroom behavior best be managed?
Assessment: How can teachers effectively assess student progress?
Link to Top 20

Psychological Figures and Concepts
Hermann Ebbinghaus
John Hattie
William James
Walter Mischel

Avoidant coping
Blocked practice
Burnout
Conceptual knowledge
Cornell method
Cued recall
Distributed/spaced practice
Encoding
Emotion-focused coping
Flashcard plus method
Feeling of knowing (FoK)
Homeostasis
Hypothalamus
Interleaving
Key-word mnemonics
Massed practice
Matrix method
Meditation
Mental health
Meta-analysis
Method of loci
Mindfulness
Mindset (growth v. fixed)
Motivation
Multitasking
Overconfidence
Pomodoro method
Problem-focused coping
Procrastination
Retrieval practice
Rumination
Test-enhanced learning
Transfer tests
 

Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before?
Author: Julie Smith
ISBN-10: 0063227932
ISBN-13: 978-0063227934
 
APA Style Citation
Smith. J. (2022). Why has nobody told me this before? Harper One.
 
Buy This Book
https://www.amazon.com/Why-Nobody-Told-This-Before/dp/0063227932
​

Book Description
Dr. Julie Smith has been a clinical psychologist for over ten years and shares her knowledge of how to deal with difficult situations in healthy ways. She is known for making short videos (under 60 seconds) talking about mental health and sharing life skills. These videos offering advice in bite-size and tangible ways are grabbing everyone’s attention. Now, Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? explains the advice in a little more detail, and offers suggestions of how to put these research-based concepts to immediate use. The book is a mental health toolbox ready for use as you navigate whatever comes your way in life. Each tool takes practice and becomes more powerful the more you use it.
 
Dr. Julie tackles topics such as low mood, motivation, emotional pain, grief, self-doubt, fear and anxiety, stress, and finding a meaningful life. Each chapter has “toolkit” exercises, “try this” question and reflection prompts, and a chapter summary. She wants to pass on what the science says and what works for others. The research-based concepts are easily explained and the “science” is accessible to any reader. The advice is compact, organized, and easy to return to when you need it. There is power in establishing the basics of exercise, sleep, nutrition, routine, and human connection. Knowing how your mind works and believing you have the power to change goes a long way to leading a healthy lifestyle.
 
Other Related Resources
Dr. Julie Smith's Website
https://doctorjuliesmith.com/

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/drjulie/?hl=en

Twitter
https://twitter.com/drjuliesmith?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Tik Tok
https://www.tiktok.com/@drjuliesmith?lang=en

YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCI8TEoIOnMq_5ntJOYMq-Zg

The Guardian- Dr. Julie Smith: "Mental health is no different to physical health. No one is immune."
https://www.guardian.com/science/2022/feb/12/dr-julie-smith-mental-health-tiktok-why-has-nobody-told-me-this-before

​Psychological Figures and Concepts
Thomas Gilovich
John Gottman
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
 
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Stress
All-or-nothing thinking
Anxiety
Attachment types
Attention
Awe
Burnout
Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT)
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT)
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
Egocentrism
Emotional reasoning
Emotions
Gratitude
Grief
Meditation
Metacognition
Mindfulness
Motivation
Overgeneralization
Perfectionism
Positive psychology
Reframing
Resilience
Rumination
Self-compassion
Spotlight effect
Tend-and-befriend

​Book Description
In her follow-up to Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, Susan Cain begins Bittersweet with a quote from her favorite musician Leonard Cohen. “There is a crack, a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.” Cain describes her love for Cohen’s music and the melancholic yearning it creates when she listens. While some might be inclined to move away from these feelings. Cain feels quite the opposite. She believes that feelings of pain can be transformed into art, passion, and creativity just as with Cohen’s music. 
 
Cain describes an instance in which her family had to put down their beloved pet as a child. As a family, they cried together and felt deep sorrow, but as Cain recalls the event many years later, she is overcome by the love in the room that was felt through her family’s common suffering. Cain proposes that those drawn to serious movies and thought-provoking books are honest with the pain that exists in the world and can appreciate these vulnerable moments when people allow themselves to emote in a truly authentic way. Cain uses the example of walking a child down the aisle at a wedding ceremony where a parent acknowledges the happiness their child is stepping into and the bittersweet sadness of sending the child into the next phase of their life. Many individuals who experience this bittersweet world are more sympathetic in response to the suffering of others. Humility is one of the most important components in empathizing with others, as we will not experience empathy if we believe we are better than others.
 
Because those who live in the bittersweet arena do not believe that the world is perfect, they do not expect a world of perfection. For example, they do not expect to find their “one true soulmate”; they know that relationships will be work and will involve both beautiful highs and miserable lows. They may have more reasonable expectations about their interactions in work, love, and socialization. Cain contends that this longing has always existed with the Greek myth describing two brothers, Pathos (longing) and Himeros (desire). They also describe Eros (love). The Germans have a word “Sehnsucht” that combines words meaning yearning and an obsession or addiction. Cain also describes many religious ceremonies as a transition between happiness and sorrow. The songwriter-poet Nick Cave describes longing as his “ultimate muse” driving his creative works.  Much of the Sufi religion is based on ideas of longing, for union, for God. 
Cain cites a study by psychologist Marvin Eisentadt that found an incredible number of highly creative people were orphans. Of the 573 creatives studied, 25% had lost one parent by age 10, 345 by age 15, and 45% by age 45. Could it be that this grief and sadness drove their creativity?
 
Sometimes these bittersweet moments are not ones that should last in time but can still create a sense of longing. For example, a short-lived romantic rendezvous or the end of a long friendship. Cain suggests it might be best to remember fondly what was, but it would not likely be the same again. Cain suggests taking solace in the love you once experienced rather than the love that was lost. It is our job to recognize love in its new form. She also warns about the danger of living in a world of false smiles and social media posts in which it seems that everyone’s life is better and happier than it actually is. One of the many challenges to this false front is to make those experiences grief, sadness or challenging emotions feel alone. Often individuals experiencing anxiety or depression feel that nobody could possibly understand what they are experiencing. Cain speaks with students at Princeton who describe the need to feel “effortless perfection, “to look great, perform great, and be happy all of the time without seemingly trying to achieve any of this. This causes the students to feel inferior or to experience a sense that they do not belong because they must work at their happiness and success.
 
This ability to accept difficult emotions is linked to long-term thriving. Recognizing and acknowledging these negative feelings can help people feel less alone in their suffering. The suffering of others may also spur us into action. After the national tragedy of 9/11, people moved into careers as firefighters, healthcare workers, and teachers. Cain suggests one way to deal with pain or sorrow and loss may be loving-kindness meditation, derived from ancient Buddhist practices. This practice attempts to develop empathy by emphasizing the similarities between the individual and another person. The benefits of this practice include a decrease in migraines, PTSD symptoms, chronic pain, and increased feelings of awe, joy, and gratitude. Other people find comfort in journaling to express anger, frustration or sadness and find it cathartic to release these emotions rather than to keep them bottled up.  Cain also suggests that bittersweet music may also fulfill this need and even offers a song list on her website. Cain suggests we embrace the pain and sorrow of the world as a way of living a more content and real life.
 
Other Related Resources
Author’s Website for Bittersweet
https://susancain.net/book/bittersweet/
 
TED Talk: The Power of Sad Songs and Rainy Days
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G2U0R0hOCU
 
The Psychology Podcast: Interview with Susan Cain, The Beauty of Bittersweet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abwczDuDCNs
 
Bittersweet Quiz
https://susancain.net/bittersweet-quiz-intro/
 
Bittersweet Playlist
https://susancain.net/wp-content/uploads/Screen-Shot-2022-02-24-at-1.35.13-PM.png
 
The Next Big Idea Podcast
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bittersweet-an-audio-e-course-by-susan-cain/id1482067226?i=1000584069778
 
Greater Good Science Center
https://ggsc.berkeley.edu/who_we_are/our_people
 
Quizzes from the Greater Good Science Center
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/quizzes
 
Big Head Todd and the Monsters: Bittersweet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wyd9OcI37AY
 
Psychological Figures and Concepts
Charles Darwin
Paul Ekman
 
Catharsis
Empathy
Introversion
Meditation
Mind-body interaction
Mindfulness
Neuroscience
Prosocial behavior
Psychopharmacology

Never Enough: The Neuroscience and Experience of Addiction
Author: Judith Grisel
ISBN-10:‎ 0525434909
ISBN-13: 978-0525434900
 
APA Style Citation
Grisel, J. (2020). Never enough: The neuroscience and experience of addiction. Anchor.
 
Buy This Book
https://www.amazon.com/Never-Enough-Neuroscience-Experience-Addiction/dp/0385542844
​

Book Description
Never Enough: The Neuroscience and Experience of Addiction talks of the epidemic and catastrophic effects of addiction. Author, Judith Grisel, shares her story as someone with a substance use disorder and a behavioral neuroscientist. She went from addiction in 7th grade, to using drugs for about a decade, to being clean for decades, to earning her Ph.D. in behavioral neuroscience. She is now an expert in neurobiology, chemistry, genetics, and addictive behavior.

Dr. Grisel defines drug addiction and provides a strong biological explanation for the reader. She explains how drugs of abuse stimulate both the mesolimbic dopamine system and nigrostriatal pathways. This is what makes  the experience pleasurable and why drugs of abuse are sought after. There is also an explanation of endorphins and how they are released in response to a wide range of environmental signals. In addition, the more predictable and frequent the dosing, the more addictive a drug will be.
 
The three general laws of psychopharmacology that apply to drugs are explained in detail. First, all drugs change the rate of what is already going on. They either speed up or slow down neural activity and act similarly to neurotransmitters at the receptor site. Second, all drugs have side effects. Unlike natural neurotransmitters, they are not targeted in their delivery but are delivered in the bloodstream and found in mostly uniform levels throughout the nervous system. For example, natural serotonin release targets particular cells to influence sleep, eating, etc. However, a drug enhancing serotonin acts in all these places simultaneously, often producing side effects in other motivated behaviors than its intended use. Third, the brain adapts to all drugs by counteracting the drug's effects. When drugs are used regularly, the brain adapts to compensate for the changes made by the drug. The brain responds to a drug by doing the opposite and returning to homeostasis. An addict doesn't drink coffee because she is tired. She is tired because she drinks coffee. For regular users to feel normal, they need to take the drug.
 
Richard Solomon and his student John Corbitt explained how the concept of homeostasis could be applied to emotion in what is known as the opponent-process theory. This theory helps the current understanding of addiction. Any feeling (e.g., good, bad, happy, depressed) that disrupts our balance will elicit a response by the brain that is exactly opposite to the effect of that stimulus. The brain counteracts the stimulus by producing its own opposite effect. The brain’s ability to respond and anticipate events is part of plasticity. For addiction, this is known as “acute tolerance.” The first cigarette of the day can be the most pleasing because after the brain site activates for nicotine, they become insensitive to additional exposures. For some drugs, such as SSRIs, adaptation is the point. The goal is to change the set point so that being depressed is no longer the patient’s normal state.
 
The middle part of the book devotes a specific chapter to each of the main drugs of abuse, including THC, opiates, alcohol, tranquilizers, stimulants, psychedelics, and others. Each chapter provides specifics while tying the drug to neuroscience. It is readable and relevant. While many other sources provide a great overview of symptoms and statistics, Dr. Grisel provides the connections many teachers want for a psychology class.
 
As the book draws to a close, Dr. Grisel explores how drug addictions form. There are numerous genetic and environmental contributions involved. She explains genetics, epigenetics, early exposure, and addictive personalities. However, some factors are vague and hard to quantify. Furthermore, because multiple influences interact, it is challenging to identify a root cause.  In addition, there is no current objective measure to use for addiction. The Diagnostic Statistic Manual (DSM) has changed the name and criteria, but we still have a long way to go to understand drug addiction.

Dr. Grisel provides this bottom line, "Despite small advances in understanding addiction, rates of addictive disorders are increasing." The field of neuroscience is still in its infancy. The author feels that recovery is a process of expansion and freedom, not restriction. She believes treatment is most effective when it combines a slow reduction and social support. The answer may be in the brain and social contacts. What caused Dr. Grisel to change her behavior was not a tragedy but rather human love and connection. Dr. Grisel states, "While we are at it, instead of wringing our hands, we might try reaching for another's."
 
Other Related Resources
NPR- A Neuroscientist Explores The Biology Of Addiction In 'Never Enough' https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/02/12/693814827/a-neuroscientists-explores-the-biology-of-addiction-in-never-enough

Never Enough: The Neuroscience and Experience of Addiction / Judy Grisel /
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnt1eb9vQxA&t=8s

Judith Grisel, Ph.D.: "Never Enough: The Neuroscience and Experience of Addiction" (02/25/19)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOkh9xC-dSg

Chemistry World- Never Enough: The Neuroscience and Experience of Addiction
https://www.chemistryworld.com/review/never-enough-the-neuroscience-and experience-of-addiction/4011008.article
Psychological Concepts and Figures
Walter Cannon
James Olds and Peter Milner
Richard Solomon and John Corbitt
 
ADHD
Alcohol
Amphetamines
Analgesia
Antagonists
Barbiturates
Benzodiazepines
Caffeine
Cocaine
Cognitive dissonance
Dependence
Dopamine
Ecstasy (MDMA)
Endorphins
Epigenetics
Evolutionary perspective
Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)
GABA
GHB
Glutamate
Homeostasis
Human Genome Project (HGP)
LSD
Psilocybin
Marijuana
Medical model of addiction
Mescaline
Mesolimbic pathway
Methadone
Methamphetamine
Nicotine
Nucleus accumbens
Opiates
Opponent-process theory
Placebo
Plasticity
Polymorphic genes
Positive and negative punishment
Positive and negative reinforcement
Psychedelics
Psychopharmacology
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)
Serotonin
Set-point
Spice
Suboxone
Synapse
THC
Tolerance
Tranquilizers
Vesicles
Withdrawal

Building a Life Worth Living: A Memoir
Author: Marsha M. Linehan, Ph.D.
ISBN: 9780812984996
 
APA Style Citation
Linehan, M. (2020). Building a life worth living: A memoir. Random House.
​

 Buy This Book
​Building a Life Worth Living – Amazon.com

Book Description
Marsha Linehan’s memoir, Building a Life Worth Living, is her personal story and the journey that led her to develop a life-saving therapy to treat highly suicidal individuals. She tells the story of how she went from a popular and successful teenager to a suicidal young woman who spent years in a psychiatric facility (The Institute of Living). During her stay in the psychiatric facility, her diagnosis of schizophrenia was treated in the manner typical of the 1960s, including psychotropic medications (e.g., Thorazine, Librium), electroconvulsive treatment (ECT), cold blanket treatments, and isolation. Dr. Linehan states that, in hindsight, a diagnosis of borderline personality would have been more accurate. During her treatment, she became increasingly more troubled, engaging in more and more severe forms of self-harm. She attempted to kill herself numerous times, including cutting and diving headfirst from her bed in an isolation area onto the concrete floor.  The popular and highly functional girl from high school was replaced by “one of the most disturbed patients in the hospital,” according to clinical notes. Marsha vowed that if she ever made it out of the institute and out of the emotional hell in which she was living, she would find a way to help others escape and create a life worth living.
After her release from the psychiatric facility where she spent two years, she worked hard to put herself through night school and college while living in a YMCA and taking odd jobs to pay for her basic needs. Ultimately, she graduated college and earned a Ph.D. in psychology with a focus on behavioral therapy. Her primary motivation and research interest remained to help develop effective therapies for highly suicidal individuals, including those with multiple severe mental illnesses (comorbidity). Her work eventually led her to dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), a method considered to be a major milestone in behavior therapy that has saved the lives of many and helped develop a treatment for individuals whom therapists often avoid or refuse to treat because they are high-risk.
The book covers her work on the clinical trials for DBT, her submissions to the Archives of General Psychiatry, and the initial rejections, highlighting the long process of developing a new evidence-based treatment. In clinical trials, DBT, which does not involve medications, dramatically reduced self-harm in individuals with borderline personality disorder and the number of days they spent in the hospital. Many insurance companies typically would not cover treatment for borderline personality disorder unless it involves DBT because of the efficacy of the treatment.
DBT involves building a series of key skills and requires patients and therapists to balance numerous contradictions (dialectics). Therapists must accept their patients as they are (angry, confrontational, in pain) yet guide them in changing disruptive thought and behavior patterns. Patients need to replace their black-and-white thinking patterns and learn to accept contradictions, including that their challenges will never completely disappear but that they can learn to cope and manage their negative feelings.
Despite developing Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Dr. Linehan kept her personal experiences with mental illness private for most of her career. DBT has helped individuals with depression, borderline personality disorder, and other mental illnesses cope with and overcome suicidal thoughts, but Linehan did not publicly share her experiences with suicidal thoughts. She told her story of suicidal behavior for the first time at the Institute of Living, the Harford Connecticut clinic, where she was treated at the age of 17 when she was 68. According to Linehan, she was sometimes questioned by her patients, “Are you one of us? Because if you were, it would give all of us so much hope”, potentially as a result of the faded scars and burns on her arms.” According to Linehan, “many people have begged me to come forward, and I just thought – well, I have to do this. I owe it to them. I cannot die a coward.”
Marsha Linehan founded the Behavioral Research and Therapy Clinics (BRTC) at the University of Washington, where she led research on developing and improving methods to help individuals with treatment resistance mental illnesses, especially those with high suicidal risk. Her work has focused on helping individuals with PTSD, addiction, and borderline personality disorder through DBT.
In 2018, Marsha Linehan was included in a special issue of Time Magazine: Great Scientists: Geniuses and visionaries who transformed our world. She was listed alongside Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, Stephen Hawking, and Charles Darwin. The section in the Time issue devoted to social scientists included Marsha Linehan, Sigmund Freud, Wilhelm Wundt, Margaret Mead, Alfred Kinsey, E.O. Wilson, and Albert Ellis. Despite her enormous contributions to treatment through the development of DBT for highly suicidal individuals, she does not appear in many introductory psychology textbooks. Marsha Linehan is a visionary who should be highlighted alongside other key contributors to treatment, such as Ellis, Beck, Wolpe, and Cover-Jones. Psychologist Angela Duckworth commented on Linehan’s memoir by calling it “ Throughout her extraordinary scientific career, Marsha Linehan remained a woman of deep spirituality. Her powerful and moving story is one of faith and perseverance. Linehan shows, in Building a Life Worth Living, how the principles of DBT really work—and how, using her life skills and techniques, people can build lives worth living.
SEE LESS
A brilliant memoir by one of the greatest pioneers in psychotherapy history… Marsha Linehan holds absolutely nothing back, making good on the vow she made as a young woman to escape hell and help others do the same. This book—in its fierce honesty and, for the careful reader, its practical advice—will help anyone who has struggled to build a life worth living.”

Other Related Resources
Author's Website- Marsha M. Linehan, Ph.D., ABPP – the University of Washington
https://depts.washington.edu/uwbrtc/our-team/marsha-linehan/

Author's Website – founder of Behavioral Tech
https://behavioraltech.org/about-us/

The University of Washington Q and A series with Marsha M. Linehan
https://depts.washington.edu/uwbrtc/resources/qa-with-marsha-linehan/

National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI) article honoring Dr. Masha Linehan. 
https://www.nami.org/blogs/nami-blog/october-2015/nami-honors-dr-marsha-linehan%2C-the-creator-of-dia#%3A~%3Atext%3DMarsha%20Linehan%2C%20The%20Creator%20of%20Dialectical%20Behavior%20Therapy%2C-OCT

The University of Washington Center for Behavioral Technology 
​https://depts.washington.edu/uwbrtc/our-team/marsha-linehan/
 
Background information about suicide prevention from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/suicide-prevention
 
Background information on suicide and suicide rates from the World Health Organization (WHO). https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/themes/mental-health/suicide-rates

Psychological Figures and Concepts
Albert Bandura
Aaron Beck
Sigmund Freud
Arnold Lazarus
Walter Mischel
Carl Rogers
Philip Zimbardo
Behavior therapy
Borderline personality disorder
Cognitive-behavioral treatment
Depression
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
Eating disorders
Electroconvulsive shock therapy
Endorphins
Implicit bias
Marshmallow experiment
Meditation
Mindfulness
National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Obsessive-compulsive disorder
Personality disorders
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Self-injury
Social learning theory
Suicidal thoughts and behavior
Suicide prevention
Sympathetic nervous system

​When Men Behave Badly: The Hidden Roots of Sexual Deception, Harassment, and Assault
Author: David M. Buss
ISBN: 978-0-316-41935-2
 
APA Style Citation
Buss, D.M. (2021). When men behave badly: The hidden roots of sexual deception, harassment, and assault. Little Brown, Spark, New York, N.Y.
 
Buy This Book
https://www.amazon.com/When-Men-Behave-Badly-Harassment/dp/0316419354
 

​Book Description
David Buss, a well-known evolutionary psychologist, tackles the challenging subject of conflict between the genders based on natural inclination and desires for reproductive success. Men generally need to know women for a shorter period of time before they are ready to have a physically intimate relationship. Women would generally prefer to wait to get to know the person better before taking a relationship to the physical level. Buss contends that this delay is because women want to be certain that their potential child has a father who can provide for potential offspring. Buss explains these behaviors as a cost-analysis system. A woman must invest time to carry a child to their birth and provide nourishment after birth. A man, however, can never be entirely certain that a child is his (without genetic testing). To improve the chances of passing his genes to the next generation, he may want to create many possibilities to pass his genes along; this is how Buss explains that men tend to have more intimate partners than women. These different approaches create conflict between the sexes and often need clarification about what people want in a relationship. Buss is careful not to excuse any behavior but rather explain, based on an evolutionary lens, why these conflicts may occur. 
 
Buss warns that men with what he deems the “Dark Triad” characteristics may take these behaviors to a dangerous and sometimes violent level. The Dark Triad personality characteristics include narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Narcissists care only about themselves and their wishes and will go to great lengths to satisfy their own desires. Machiavellianism is marked by the desire to exploit and manipulate others. Psychopathology involves a lack of empathy and indifference to the suffering of others. These traits exacerbate differences between sexes. Men with these characteristics are often smooth and are often portrayed as “the bad boy.” While women may initially be drawn to confident and poised individuals, this can quickly go downhill. These characteristics often lead to flattery, deception and exploitation of their partners. The Dark Triad characteristics are more likely than other personality characteristics to lead to violence in relationships. Buss explains that these behaviors still exist because it is a way to draw in a partner and then keep them by manipulation and exploitation. Once again, Buss is careful not to condone these behaviors but rather explain why they exist and have persisted.
 
Cross-cultural research demonstrates that men prefer more sexual partners (desired average 1.87 over the next month) than women (.078 over the next month). Biological sex was more important than sexual orientation in the results of this study. While most assume that people of similar levels of attractiveness are likely to wind up with one another, Buss finds that men tend to overestimate their attractiveness. This misperception can lead to disappointment when things do not work out as they expect in the dating market. Research in attraction has long demonstrated that individuals of similar physical attractiveness often partner with one another. When men are unrealistic about their own levels of attractiveness, they are often disappointed by their potential mates, and they are then more likely to treat relationships as a casual and perhaps not exclusive relationship. Women generally try to mate with the top 20% of males, which allows these males to have multiple relationships because of the number of options for relationships. This also leaves many men without any mating partners. Much of what is discussed in introductory psychology courses regarding evolutionary psychology dates back to Charles Darwin and the mating of finches. David Buss is one of the most well-known evolutionary psychologists of the modern era and presents much evidence that evolutionary factors regarding mating are very much present today.
 
Other Related Resources
Podcast: The Michael Shermer Show: Interview with David Buss
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/181-david-buss-when-men-behave-badly-the-hidden-roots/id1352860989?i=1000521802892
 
 
Psychological Figures and Concepts
Dan Ariely
David Buss
Charles Darwin
 
Post-traumatic stress disorder
 

Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art
Author: James Nestor
ISBN:  976-0-7352-1361-6
 
APA Style Citation
Nestor, J. (2020). Breath: The new science of a lost art. Riverhead Books.
 
Buy this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Breath-New-Science-Lost-Art/dp/0735213615
​

​Book Description
We breathe thousands of times per day, but according to James Nestor, at least half of the population is doing it wrong. Nestor is a science writer who has been studying the research behind breathing better. He has found endless evidence dating back thousands of years and proposes some simple approaches to modifications in breathing that can lead to living with fewer ailments, diseases, and sleep disorders.
 
Primarily, and perhaps, most importantly, Nestor recommends breathing through the nose whenever possible. The nose serves as a filter and humidifies the air as it travels toward the lungs. Those who breathe through the mouth are more susceptible to illnesses and respiratory problems. Long-term mouth breathing can even change the shape of the face by narrowing the mouth and making it more difficult to breathe deeply. Mouth breathing can also lead to crooked teeth and a slack jaw. This slack jaw creates problems, such as snoring and sleep apnea. Over many generations, human faces have become longer and narrower, which often limits the air that comes into the body. Further, some people undergo plastic surgery procedures that slim their nose and nasal passages, inhibiting their ability to breathe well. Wide faces and broad jaws help facilitate larger airways and smoother breathing. 
 
While it is more difficult to breathe through the nose, it leads to 20 percent more oxygen than breathing through the mouth. Nestor examines skulls from all over the world and notices the differences between modern skulls and ancient skulls. The teeth of modern peoples no longer fit into their mouths as faces have gotten thinner. While this might be aesthetically pleasing, it is not beneficial for our health. Orthodontists indicate the thinning of the mouth increases the necessity for teeth straightening. Nestor notes that ancient skulls all had straight teeth because there was more room in the mouth, which also led to more room in the air pathways.
 
Nestor uses himself as a subject with Stanford sleep researchers. In the first part of the study, he lives for two weeks with silicon balls placed in his nasal passages, forcing him to become a mouth breather. Nestor’s partner in the study is Anders Olsen, from Sweden, who has long been interested in research on breathing. Each day the two take their pulse and other vitals and wear a device that measures oxygen in the blood and heart rate. The men try to go about their normal day but feel sluggish and tired when forced to mouth breathe. Nestor also records any sleep apnea episodes and audio throughout the night, along with a night vision security camera to track his movements. On the first night of the mouth breathing study, Nestor’s snoring increased by 1300 percent, and his sleep apnea increased four times. 
 
In the second part of the study, Nestor tapes his mouth shut while he sleeps to keep his nasal breathing continuing while he sleeps. While this is difficult at first, it becomes more and more of a habit as he gets used to leaving the tape on his mouth night after night. Within a day of changing to nose breathing, Nestor’s and Olsen’s vital signs returned to normal. Nestor explains that when we are mouth breathing, we are placing undue strain on our bodies and causing ailments that could easily be prevented.
 
Nestor recommends practicing breathing better by breathing in the nose for 5.5 seconds, holding the breath for as long as possible, and then exhaling for 5.5 seconds. With practice, these long, deep breaths become more of a habit. When we breathe deeply, we activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which helps calm the body. This is in contrast to short, shallow breaths, which occur when somebody is hyperventilating or experiencing an asthma attack. In this case, the sympathetic nervous system causes a fight-or-flight response, causing the body to panic. We should use all of our lungs to take deep, long breaths, and we should expel all of that air before intaking new air. Nestor encourages counting when breathing in, holding the air as long as possible, and then counting to five or six while expelling that air. Again, he emphasizes the importance of breathing in using the nose 
 
This slow breathing is also known as resonant breathing and has many of the same health benefits as meditation. Some Olympic swimmers and marathon runners have significantly improved their performance using this method. Alternate nasal breathing is another method used in many ancient yoga practices. Hold one side of the nose closed while breathing deeply, holding the breath, and then letting go. Sitting upright by elongating the spine and trying to touch the shoulder blades will open up the chest. Each technique that Nestor recommends comes from years of research and is backed by science. The book ends with many recommendations for better breathing and, thus better health. Practice can make these breathing techniques them become routine over time. Nestor recommends we do this for the myriad of short- and long-term health benefits.
 
Other Related Resources
James Nestor Website
https://www.mrjamesnestor.com
 
Breathing Exercises with James Nestor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itlRu-nTd9s
 
The Guardian: How one hour of slow breathing changed my life: James Nestor
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/jul/26/every-breath-you-take-the-lost-art-of-breathing
 
Lewis Howes Podcast: The truth about breathing and why you are doing it wrong.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD2PNVzzoZY
 
CBC Sunday Magazine: How we breathe has major impacts on our body, James Nestor’s recommendations for improving it.
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/sunday/the-sunday-magazine-for-january-17-2021-1.5874646/how-we-breathe-has-major-impacts-on-our-body-james-nestor-has-recommendations-to-improve-it-1.5874681
 
Stephanie’s business books: Three lessons from James Nestor’s book breath
https://medium.com/stephs-business-bookshelf/three-lessons-from-the-book-breath-by-james-nestor-272c9f56b7a8
 
 
Psychological Figures and Concepts
Anxiety
Autonomic nervous system
Fight-or-flight
Neuropsychology
Parasympathetic nervous system
Sleep apnea
Stress
Sympathetic nervous system

The Undoing Project
Author: Michael Lewis
ISBN: 978-0-393-35477-5
 
APA Style Citation
Lewis, M. (2017). The undoing project. W.W. Norton & Company.
 
Buy This Book
https://wwnorton.com/books/The-Undoing-Project

Book Description
This story starts with two brilliant men on their own, who become an inseparable pair, and finally experience a tragic breakup. Author Michael Lewis, shares the remarkable story of Danny Kahneman and Amos Tversky in The Undoing Project. The story leaves the reader rooting for the pair at times, and struck at other times by the human nature of self-doubt and competitiveness that kept these two apart.
 
Danny Kahneman’s story starts with the German occupation of Paris and his family’s move to Palestine in 1946. It was in Israel that Danny built his own identity. After graduating from Hebrew University with a degree in psychology, he was required to serve in the Israeli army. He was assigned to the psychology unit. Danny was responsible for evaluating candidates for officer training school. The interview method of new recruits often led to a general impression, and he wanted to avoid human judgment. He created a personality test and the scores on the personality test predicted the recruit’s success at any job. The results became known as the “Kahneman score.” With minor adjustments it is still used today. He also helped the Israeli Air Force train fighter pilots and taught a course on perception. Danny was known as a genius in the classroom, but outside of the classroom, he was insecure. His mood was volatile and criticism often set him off. In 1965, he went to the University of Michigan for postdoctoral study. He was going to return to Hebrew University, but when his tenure was refused, he went to Harvard. He eventually put his feelings aside and returned to Hebrew University and studied attention.
 
Amos Tversky was an Israeli paratrooper, who was well-respected by his peers. When Hebrew University forced him to pick a concentration, he chose psychology. He rarely took notes and often taught himself. While in school, he came across a paper on the economic theory of decision-making that sparked his interest. In 1961, he left for the University of Michigan due to a lack of teachers at Hebrew University. In 1966, Amos returned to Israel with a wife and new interests.
 
Even though Amos and Danny were both at the University of Michigan at the same time, they rarely crossed paths. They didn’t seem to mix well together and often argued. The two met for a few lunches, but then went their separate ways. In 1969, both had returned to Hebrew University and in a twist of fate became inseparable. Two people with totally different personalities became soul mates. Danny thought he was always wrong, and Amos was sure he was right. Danny’s office was a mess, while Amos had a pencil on his desk. As they wrote together, you could hear laughter coming from the room. Amos helped Danny feel confident. They also taught a class together at Hebrew University, but it didn’t go very well from Danny’s point of view. They either finished each other’s sentences or were competing with one another. Their relationship was intense.
 
In 1973, Arab countries attacked Israel. Despite being abroad at the time, Amos and Danny headed back home to fight another war. They were both assigned to the psychology field unit where they were tasked to improve morale. With enthusiasm, they headed out to the battlefield. Danny would jump from the car and question people. He had the gift of finding solutions to problems when others failed. They analyzed the garbage left by the soldiers and supplied them with what they really wanted (canned grapefruit). They also looked at how tank drivers learned better in small bursts of time. Amos helped create a questionnaire to diagnose psychological trauma. While they were both excited about decision-making before the war, they lost faith in decision analysis after the war. How could the Israeli intelligence fail to anticipate the attack? Danny was beginning to realize decisions were made on stories, not numbers.
 
Soon after, Danny and Amos appear to have lose their way. They went back and forth on ideas and struggled to follow through. At one point Danny remembers Amos declaring, “We’re finished with judgement. Let’s do decision making.” By 1975, the two were working on risk-value theory. This was Amos’s field, so he did most of the talking. They explored the isolation effect and framing. It was during this time that Danny left his family and declared his love to Anne Treisman. Anne refused to move to Israel, so Danny moved to take a position beside her in Vancouver. Amos and Danny’s relationship began to crack.
 
For most of the 1980s, Amos was a professor of behavioral science at Stanford University and Danny was at the University of British Columbia. They agreed to take turns flying to visit each other on weekends. Danny was working on new ideas, and while Amos seemed interested, he didn’t contribute. Danny shared his new work on the rules of undoing and was excited about receiving the glory. When asked after a talk about where the ideas came from, Amos said, “Danny and I don’t talk about these things.” To Danny this was the beginning of the end of them. When asked about Amos, Danny said they were no longer working together. Danny began to collaborate with someone else on a paper. Meanwhile, Amos was sprinting around giving his own lectures and talking with the Soviet Union. Amos was interested in Danny’s thoughts, but they were no longer in the same room. With the separation, ideas became more personal, which was not the case when the two began working together. There was tension and they struggled to collaborate.
 
In 1983, the two were approached by a Harvard psychiatrist, Miles Shore, who was writing a book on people who worked together for at least five years and produced interesting work. Danny shared how it was hard since he got married and moved to North America. Amos was vague, but many of the problems had happened since leaving Israel. Danny admitted feeling like he was in Amos’s shadow. However, it was believed that the worst was behind them, and they would move forward together. In 1984, Amos received the MacArthur “genius” grant. Even though the work was done with Danny, his name was not mentioned. Amos was the brilliant one and Danny was the careful one. Danny noticed the sole attention Amos was receiving for their joint work.
 
Throughout the 1980s, they appeared to be still working together. Their work was being criticized, but it failed to bring them together. Danny disliked conflict and would not review papers that made him angry. Amos embraced conflict. He wanted to write an article, to demonstrate the power of heuristics. His favorite vignette was about Linda (see activity). Danny gave the “Linda problem” to 12 students at his university, and all fell for it. When giving participants just the two alternatives being tested, 85% still insisted Linda was more likely to be a bank teller in the feminist movement. They wrote a paper and ended the argument about whether the mind reasoned probabilistically. The paper was jointly written, but it was painful for the two.
 
In 1986, Danny moved to Berkley and soon after went into a depression. He saw Amos often, but it was causing more pain. He wrote a letter to Amos acknowledging their relationship had changed. Danny wanted Amos to correct the perception that they were not equal partners. However, Amos lashed out and hurt Danny deeply when he shared that Harvard had wanted only him and not the both of them.  Danny left Berkley for Princeton and wanted Amos out of his mind. Amos was hurt and couldn’t understand the need for the distance. Amos still wanted to write a book together, but in Danny’s mind, they were over.
 
In 1993, Amos asked Danny to help him silence a critic. Danny was more sympathetic and wanted to reason with the critic. He agreed to help as a friend, but was soon miserable. Danny was staying with Amos in New York when he had a dream that he was told he only had six months to live and he didn’t want to be working on this garbage. When he told Amos of the dream, he scolded him and said he would expect him to finish this with him. Shortly after this incident, Danny read a list of new members of the National Academy of Sciences, to which Amos belonged for nearly a decade, and his name was still not on the list. Danny was hurt and walked out on his friend. Three days later, Amos called and told him he had malignant melanoma. He had six months to live. In May, he gave his final lecture at Stanford and few even guessed that he was ill. Danny spoke to Amos almost daily leading up to his death. They were writing together, but Amos died before they could finish their last project. He died on June 2, 1996.
 
In 2002, Danny won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his work in applying psychology to economics, especially in the areas of judgment and decision-making under uncertainty. The two disciplines of psychology and economics have struggled to work together. But from the work of these two greats came the discipline “behavioral economics.” In addition, the US government has become sensitive to framing and loss aversion. The food pyramid turned into MyPlate and Americans could more easily see a healthy diet thanks to psychology. Amos and Danny’s work showed economists and policymakers the importance of psychology. It had practical importance and was not just stuff done in a lab.
 
Note: If recommending this book to students, be aware there is a limited amount of swear words used in the book.
 
Other Related Resources
New York Times- From Michael Lewis, the Story of Two Friends Who Change How we Think About How We Think
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/06/books/review/michael-lewis-undoing-project.html
The New Yorker- The Two Friends Who Changed How We Think About How We Think
https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-two-friends-who-changed-how-we-think-about-how-we-think
Psychological Concepts and Figures
Sigmund Freud
Danny Kahneman
Kurt Lewin
George Miller
Walter Mischel
B.F. Skinner
Edward Thorndike
Amos Tversky
 
Algorithm
Anchoring adjustment
Aptitude tests
Behaviorism
Behavioral economics
Cognitive bias
Cocktail party effect
Framing
Gambler’s fallacy
Gestalt psychology
Halo effect
Heuristics (availability and representativeness)
Hindsight bias
Hypnosis
Isolation effect
Mϋller-Lyer optical illusion
Myers-Briggs personality test
Peak-end rule
Reference point
Purkinje effect
Regression to the mean
Reinforcement
Sample size
Similarity
Selective listening
Subliminal perception

Give and Take: Why helping others drives our success
Author: Adam Grant
ISBN: 978-0-670-02655-5
 
APA Style Citation 
Grant, A. (2013). Give and take: Why helping others drives our success. Penguin Book.
 
Buy This Book
https://www.amazon.com/Give-Take-Helping-Others-Success/dp/0143124986
​

​Book Description
Adam Grant discusses the potential benefits and drawbacks of being a giver, matcher or taker. We can all think of individuals who fall into each of these given categories, and Grant sets out to determine how each of these types of individuals fares in a competitive environment. What he finds is somewhat surprising. Grant examines students in the first year of medical school and finds that those who are identified as “givers” wind up at the bottom of their medical school class. In large part, this occurs because they are spending time helping others instead of focusing on their own work. Takers, on the other hand, wind up on top because they are utilizing their most generous classmates to help them prepare for exams. Matchers wind up in the middle as they will help others if they believe that in the future, that favor can be returned. These results may cause you to believe that givers are often taken advantage of to their own detriment. Grant does find evidence that givers make, on average, 14 percent less than takers, who are far more likely to aggressively negotiate their salaries. 
 
Givers however, often have unseen advantages. They are likely to benefit from dormant ties, having done a favor for someone years before, when the giver needs something in return, people are more than happy to help out. Givers do not help others out with this intention in mind, and that becomes clear to others who appreciate their genuine assistance. Givers are willing to provide with no expectation of reciprocity. Matchers, on the other hand, let reciprocity drive their decisions to help (or not) others. Conversely, takers often “kiss up and kick down.” They look for ways that others can help them get ahead and often treat those who cannot give them an advantage with disdain. Samuel Johnson once wrote, “The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.” Grant gives the example of the disgraced former CEO of Enron Kenneth Lay, who filled his company’s annual reports with photos of himself. His leadership at Enron became about himself (a telltale sign of a taker) rather than the company and how the company could do good for others and benefit its shareholders. Takers burn bridges over time, looking out only for themselves and seeking out others whom they can use to their own benefit and then discard after those benefits no longer bear any returns. 
 
Famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright is a classic taker. He took advantage of clients, charging them exorbitant amounts of money to build what he wanted, disregarding their requests. He had his associates do most of the work but rarely gave them credit and often did not pay them, believing the opportunity to work with him was payment enough. Eventually, people stopped working with him, and he earned fewer and fewer commissions over time, leaving him nearly destitute. Grant indicates that takers may be geniuses, but givers are genius makers.
 
Givers are happy to rely on the expertise of others and give them recognition without fearing that the abilities of others poorly reflect on themselves. The taker wants to claim all of the credit for themselves and often put others down both privately and publicly. Givers enjoy mentoring, they like finding diamonds in the rough and helping smooth out the edges. Givers are also more likely to demonstrate grit and recognize it in others, they, on the whole, work harder and longer than matchers and takers.
 
There are downfalls to being a giver, and Grant points to the potential for burnout, but givers often thrive when helping others, and the five-minute rule is one that many high-powered givers practice. If helping someone out takes less than five minutes it should be done almost immediately. This short time commitment can serve a great benefit to others and can be executed quickly by the giver. Much research has now demonstrated that helping others is a main factor in increasing happiness, so these small actions serve as a win-win for both the giver and the person they are helping. A bit more work from givers provides benefits for both themselves and others.
 
Givers may be more prone to being taken advantage of, so they must recognize agreeable takers who seem sincere but are only looking out for themselves. Givers often initially give more than they receive but do not seem bothered by this. Once they figure out where to best focus their energies and can identify people who may be taking advantage of their generosity they fare better. In some cases, givers must be more assertive to stand up to unrelenting takers. However, successful givers are happy to stop helping takers when they realize it takes away from helping those who can genuinely benefit and do good for others because of their assistance. Givers advance themselves without cutting others down and find ways to expand the pie so that everyone benefits. 
 
Grant returns to the medical school in the fifth year and finds, at this point, the givers are on top of the class. Over the many years, medical students spend together, they realize whom they can count on for help and who is in it just for themselves. This causes the takers to be rejected and isolated, whereas the givers benefit from their generosity towards others and people are more than happy to return a favor or help them out. Givers create a ripple effect of success around them, and while they may seem to lose out in the short run, it often serves to the advantage of both themselves and others in the long run. It takes time for people to understand what givers have to offer, and Grant likens it to losing the 100-yard dash but winning the marathon. 
 
Other Related Resources
Adam Grant’s Webpage for Give and Take
https://adamgrant.net/book/give-and-take/
 
Give and Take Quiz by Adam Grant
https://adamgrant.net/quizzes/give-and-take-quiz/
 
YouTube Are you a Giver or a Taker? 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyXRYgjQXX0
 
Why should you be a giver?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl-jqIoAxEw
 
Psychological Figures and Concepts
Dan Ariely
Elliot Aronson
Susan Cain
Raymond Cattell
Robert Cialdini
Angela Duckworth
Jonathan Haight
Daniel Kahneman
Daniel Pink
Robert Rosenthal
Herbert Simon
Frans De Waal
 
Cognitive dissonance
Commoner’s dilemma
Common identity
Empathy
Fight-or-flight
Grit
Motivation
Reciprocity
Responsibility bias
Self-fulfilling prophecy
Sunk-cost fallacy
 
 
 
 
 

Brain Hacks:  Life-Changing Strategies to Improve Executive Functioning
​Author: Lara Honos-Webb, PhD
ISBN number: 13. 978–1641521604
 
APA Style Citation
Honos-Webb. (2018). Life-changing Strategies to Improve Executive Functioning. Althea Press.
 
Buy This Book
BRAIN HACKS: Life-Changing Strategies to Improve Executive Functioning: Honos-Webb PhD, Lara: 9781641521604: Amazon.com: Books

Book Description
According to the APA dictionary, executive function refers to a wide range of high-level cognitive processes (planning, decision-making, problem-solving, action sequencing, task assignment and organization, effortful and persistent goal pursuit, inhibition of competing impulses, flexibility in goal selection, and goal-conflict resolution. These skills often involve language, judgment, abstraction, concept formation, logic, and reasoning). They are related to neural networks in the frontal lobes and especially the prefrontal cortex.
 
Although there is no definitive set of executive functions (researchers define them differently), in Brain Hacks, the author focuses on five specific areas of executive functioning: focus and attention, planning and organization, cognitive flexibility, emotional regulation, and impulse control. Each of the areas is interconnected, and increasing one ability will improve the others. The author is a practicing clinical psychologist who shares her ideas for improving executive functioning across multiple areas. The text begins with short yes/no questionnaires for each of the five executive functioning areas.
 
Sample Questions from the Organization and Planning Executive Function Assessment

• Do you have multiple calendars or apps to manage your time, yet use them infrequently?
• Do you miss out on opportunities because you forget to follow up or track important contacts you have made?
• Do friends, teachers, or family members complain that your space is sloppy?

 
By counting the number of yes responses, students will have a general idea of which of these areas of executive functioning are the most likely sources of challenges or problems. The areas with lower numbers of yes responses are areas of greater strength.    
 
The book provides specific exercises and methods to improve each area of executive functioning, which can be incorporated into classroom activities and projects. Improving in these areas of functioning, according to author Lara Honos-Webb increases personal, academic, and professional success. Improving executive functioning also can lead to increased work-life balance, reduced stress, and improved relationships. The exercises emphasize how small, continual efforts over time create meaningful growth. 
 
Each chapter emphasizes a separate area of executive functioning, provides a summary and background information, including psychological and biological influences, and ends with a bulleted list of key takeaways. There is also a series of exercises, tips, and special “brain hacks” to improve executive functioning. Brain hacks are tips for using the mind’s innate abilities to learn and improve to the greatest advantage. The book is designed as a tool to be used continually instead of being read once as inspiration and is laid out efficiently to find ways to increase functioning in everyday life mindfully. In the psychology classroom, the “brain hacks” and exercises can become engaging classroom activities and projects that allow students to apply what they learn in a personal manner. These activities can be spread across various units in a psychology course, including motivation and emotion, stress and health, neuroscience, memory, clinical, and developmental to increase student engagement and build metacognitive skills.

Psychological Figures and Concepts
Cognitive flexibility
Emotional regulation
Executive functioning
Exposure therapy
Fixed mindset
Focus and attention
Growth mindset
Impulse control
Metacognition
Motivation
Multitasking
Neuroplasticity
Planning and organization
Prefrontal cortex
Resilience
Working memory

​Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning
Authors: Peter C. Brown, Henry Roediger and Mark A. McDaniel
ISBN: 978-0-674-72901-8
 
APA Style Citation
Brown, C.B., Roediger, H., & McDaniel, M. (2014). Make it stick: The science of successful learning. Harvard University Press.
 
Buy This Book
https://www.amazon.com/Make-Stick-Science-Successful-Learning/dp/0674729013
 

Book Description
Peter Brown, Henry Roediger, and Mark McDaniel set out to give practical advice on strategies to study more efficiently and effectively. Often, students spend hours poring over material while using rote memorization to cram information into their memories before a large exam. Cognitive science has demonstrated that these strategies are ineffective, but change has been slow to move to more effective strategies. Make it Stick sets out to dispel myths of learning that many use but to little effect, and instead replace these methods with more effective strategies that have been vetted and supported by research.
 
Educators hope that students remember content for exams, but more generally, almost any educator will speak to the importance of applying the content to practical situations and critical thinking skills. This book is for any student or educator who wants to implement successful study strategies that lead to long-term retention.
 
The interleaving process allows students to see how seemingly disparate topics are related. If a psychology class teaches parts of the brain in the biological bases of behavior chapter, they can review these concepts in the memory chapter and again in the clinical chapter. By reviewing the content and finding the relationship between concepts, students understand that information does not exist in silos, and that the information can be applied in multiple settings. Interleaving can also occur when practicing skills, recursive skills applied in different ways can help students transfer these skills to novel situations. If an educator practices the skill of writing an FRQ, students can practice mini-FRQs at the start of the course, complete verbal FRQs via short videos, and apply the same FRQ skill in partners or small groups.
 
Information can be layered and reviewed until students master both content and skill.
Students often sit in class and claim to understand what the teacher says. They can look at flashcards and read their notes, but when it comes time to take the exam, they often still struggle to retrieve the content. Retrieval practice must involve the testing effect in which students actually test themselves on what they know or do not know. Teachers can conduct class discussions in which students take notes but test themselves at the end of the class and write down everything they can remember. What they cannot recall will guide their studying as they have a clear path and focus on what they still need to study. This can also be done electronically with online quizzing sites or paper and pencil exit slips. These tests need not be extensive; a few questions can often allow both instructor and student to understand better where students need extra support in their learning. Using mnemonics can also support student learning by serving as a quick retrieval cue to bring back the information to be remembered. Buzz words or visual analogies are also helpful to achieve this goal. 
 
Once a major assessment has been given, time should be provided to reflect on what students have or have not mastered. They should examine the incorrect questions and review the options to determine the correct response. They should write down what confused them and then continue to explain how they will remember this concept in the future. This metacognition alone has been demonstrated to improve student understanding of the material. Learning is taking place by focusing on what still needs to be understood and thinking deeply about how that can be achieved.
 
Students should also be careful to check their biases, such as confirmation bias or overconfidence, that may now allow them to understand and process all available data. 
Multitasking is a tremendous suck of time, and changing between tasks necessitates that the student reorientates themselves around the task at hand. The Pomodoro method asks students to set a timer for 25 minutes in which they are solely focused on a singular task. This efficiency should allow for more concentration, and the effect will be to create a better project in less time than if multitasking. After the 25 minutes are up, the student can take a break, text a friend, have a snack, or engage in another activity that they enjoy. 
 
We know that when students use rote memorization to recall information, it is ineffective. Instead, they should try to make the material relevant to their own lives. This semantic encoding provides a deeper processing level and leads to long-term information retention. Any opportunity to demonstrate how material is relevant to the individual (self-referent effect) will create a deeper level of understanding.
 
Finally, students who cram for an exam may remember information the next day for a test, but they will find that this information is not retained in the long term. Distributed practice or studying in small chunks is an effective way to transfer information into long-term memory. All things being equal, a student who spends 4 hours studying in 30-minute chunks should perform better and remember information longer than if they were to study for 4 hours straight.
 
Make It Stick provides learning strategies that are backed by cognitive science and that have been demonstrated to be effective. These strategies can be applied or amended to apply to all content areas and across all grade levels. 
 
Psychological Figures and Concepts
Carol Dweck
Howard Gardner
William James
Daniel Kahneman
B.F. Skinner
Robert Sternberg
Paul Tough
 
Confirmation bias
Consolidation
Context-dependent learning
Distributed practice
Effortful processing
Elaboration
False consensus effect
Feedback
Fluid Intelligence
Flynn effect
Framing effect
Free recall
Forgetting curve
Hindsight bias
Information processing model
Interleaving
Metacognition
Misinformation effect
Mnemonic devices
Neurogenesis
Overconfidence
Repetition
Retrieval practice
Self-fulfilling prophecy
Spaced practice
Synaptic pruning
Systems 1 and 2
Testing effect
Trial and error
Varied practice
Working memory
 
 
Other Resources
Book Website
https://www.retrievalpractice.org/make-it-stick
 
APA Blog: Takeaways from Make it Stick
https://blog.apaonline.org/2020/02/19/takeaways-from-make-it-stick-the-science-of-successful-learning/
 
Online Learning Insights
https://blog.apaonline.org/2020/02/19/takeaways-from-make-it-stick-the-science-of-successful-learning/
 
Experience Life: Make it Stick: How to Learn Effectively
https://blog.apaonline.org/2020/02/19/takeaways-from-make-it-stick-the-science-of-successful-learning/
 
The Scope of Science: 3 Study Tips from the Book Make it Stick
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyHAjVJlGFo
 

Generation Sleepless: Why Tweens and Teens Aren’t Sleeping Enough and How We Can Help Them
Author: Heath Turgeon and Julie Wright
ISBN-10:‎ 0593192133
ISBN-13:‎ 978-0593192139
 
APA Style Citation
Turgeon, H. & Wright, J. (2022). Generation sleepless: Why tweens and teens aren’t sleeping enough and how we can help them. Penguin Random House LLC.
 
Buy This Book
https://www.amazon.com/Generation-Sleepless-Tweens-Sleeping-Enough/dp/0593192133
​

​Book Description
What if you could easily enhance your focus, remember more, make stronger decisions, control your emotions and interact better with others, and get sick less often? All it takes is sleep! The benefits of sleep are endless. The father of sleep medicine, William Dement, once described sleep as life’s mood music. If you get good sleep, your background music is positive, and the world is seen through an optimistic lens. However, when sleep deprived, your background music becomes negative, and the world becomes dark and gloomy. We know that sleep is important for babies and children, but what about teenagers? The answer is, yes! Sleep is necessary for the important reconstructive processes of pruning and myelin formation. We have all heard the stereotype that teens are lazy and unmotivated. However, teens’ sleep clock starts to change in middle school. They generally can’t fall asleep until 11 p.m., and want to sleep until at least 8 a.m. Contrary to negative stereotypes, it has nothing to do with laziness. In addition, they have been accused of spending too much time on screens and are struggling with mental health issues. Yet, these symptoms are also associated with a lack of sleep. The first part of Generation Sleepless: Why Tweens and Teens Aren’t Sleeping Enough and How We Can Help Them focuses on the science of the teenage brain and sleep. Teens today are the most sleep-deprived we have ever seen. By some estimates, only five percent of teens get the necessary sleep on school nights.
 
The book’s second part provides the tools to improve teens’ sleep. Teenagers can start to regain their sleep loss by simply adding 30 minutes a night, totaling 2.5 hours by the end of the school week. The book provides lots of helpful hints to becoming a sleep-forward family. One of the greatest sleep predictors of adolescent sleep is the family’s sleep habits. Adolescents with parent-set, earlier bedtimes have the best indicators of positive mental health.
 
Teens simply do not get enough sleep! It might be due to the perfect storm of their shifting biology, technology, academic pressure, early high school start times, and the myth that sleep is a luxury rather than a necessity. Teens need 9-10 hours of sleep, not the current average of 6.5 hours of sleep they are typically getting on a school night. When teens sleep for only 6 hours, they are missing a quarter of their night’s sleep and half their REM sleep. The problem is often that we don’t see the issues associated with sleep loss. Instead, we see anxiety, depression, ADHD, apathy and underperformance, and drug use. Many teens and parents don’t recognize sleep loss as a problem. Sleep deprivation is a real problem and the signs include: waking up more than once a week, sleeping two hours or more on weekends, falling asleep quickly during passive events or morning hours, having low energy, being irritable, having a lack of interest, drinking caffeine or vaping, and late-afternoon or evening naps. A study found almost 10% of seniors in the U.S., say they have fallen asleep behind the wheel.
 
Middle childhood (6-10 years) is the ideal time for good sleep. But by middle school, many have lost their healthy sleep habits, and by age 15 most are sleep deprived. The child’s brain is known for its growth period, but the adolescent brain is going through an equally important stage of growth. During adolescence, the brain is beginning a new wave of brain reorganization. The prefrontal cortex is becoming stronger and efficient. Thanks to pruning, the unused neural connections are dying off and others are strengthening. While pruning is in process, myelin encases the pathways and increases speed. The authors use the analogy of how a town with small roads over time lays down major highways connecting places that are frequented. The flashy, billion-dollar upgrade happens largely while asleep. Brain cells in the frontal lobe are connecting to the limbic system during sleep. Many scientists believe that sleep deprivation during adolescence may permanently alter brain development and behavior. When you are not getting enough sleep it raises the risk of mental health issues, increases stress levels, decreases memory storage, and hampers learning and academic success. With less sleep, there are more risky behaviors. The higher powers of reasoning and impulse control are compromised. Teens, especially 15 to 16-year-olds, feel dopamine more intensely, leading to thrill-seeking and addictive behaviors. When you are getting enough sleep, neurotransmitters are released to increase positive emotion and focus, hormones strengthen and repair muscles, and the immune system works properly. Proper sleep leads to a healthy metabolism, positive eating behaviors, and weight management. Sleep is necessary to encode information from short-term memory to long-term memory.
 
Sleep is controlled by the circadian rhythm or the “master clock” that keeps time and creates the 24-hour cycle. Kids have a natural cycle of falling asleep by 8 p.m. and waking by 6 a.m. But the teenager has a “sleep phase delay” of two hours or more. It is hard for many teens to fall asleep before 11 p.m. Sleep is also controlled by the homeostatic sleep drive that increases the pressure to sleep, the longer you are awake. As adenosine, the by-product of burning energy, levels increase, you are more likely to sleep. The circadian rhythm works to give you a burst of energy late afternoon to help counteract the homeostatic sleep drive and keep you away into the evening. This is why you feel drowsy mid-afternoon and then get a second wind. Not only is the teen circadian rhythm delayed, but the sleep pressure builds more slowly across the day and the teen’s second wind happens around 9 p.m. The teen’s biology is working against the schedule created for them.
 
Teens are faced with several additional factors that contribute to their sleep problems. Teens suffer from a social jet lag, where their brain’s clock and the outside world are not aligned. When students sleep on different schedules during the school week and break, it is equivalent to flying cross-country twice a week. They face similar side effects of feeling hungry, tired, and out of sorts. Some additional symptoms include: daytime fatigue, weight gain, concentration issues, digestive problems, moodiness, negative thoughts, chronic health conditions, insomnia, and family conflict. In 2011, the smartphone gained popularity, and now over 95% of teens have smartphones or access to them. While many studies are finding a negative correlation between digital media and well-being, the fine print is also showing that screen time is connected to sleep loss. Sleep debt is a consequence of too much technology and the two share the same symptoms. The light from the screen tricks the body into keeping you awake. Technology also creates flow and keeps teens engrossed where they lose track of time. Smartphones have become the new teddy bear. Around 90% of teens have at least one device in their sleep environment. A final piece to the puzzle is early school start times and academic overload. Currently, over half of the public schools in the U.S. start during the 7 a.m. hour. When teens wake up at 5 a.m. to get ready for school, it is equivalent to an adult waking up at 3 a.m. Research has shown that when schools shift to later start times, students continued to go to bed at the same time, but had more time to sleep in the morning. There is resistance to changing school start times, but the benefits have been proven.
 
So, what can you do? While it may feel like there is no possibility for change, there is! The authors use the second part of the book to help teenagers and families create a plan of action. At home, teens can choose to limit time on homework, rethink commitments, understand sleeps benefits, and remember the power of a FOND family. The acronym stands for family rituals, open play, nature, and downtime. Parents set the example for their children. The authors go further by providing examples of how to take a sleep-forward approach as a family. They talk about how to use family meetings to set up an environment and schedule for success. They also provide the five habits of happy sleepers. Individuals can create a sleep bubble with the five habits that spell SLEEP. First, Set your sleep times. Regularity is important. Second, Lay out your three routines. Select two routines before sleep, and one after sleep to provide a cushion around your sleep bubble. Third, Extract your sleep stealers. Identify what is stealing your sleep and remove them, while also paying attention to environmental cues that enhance sleep. Fourth, Eliminate light and make your bedroom a cave. A wind-down time of decreased light an hour before bed can be especially helpful. Fifth, Practice a sleep-friendly daytime. What happens during the day impacts your night. Pay attention to early sunlight, exercise, daytime foods, caffeine, alcohol, bedtime snacks, and smart napping. This advice sounds amazing and you want teens to implement it right away, but it is important to recognize the need for teen motivation and independence. Instead invite teens to learn, brainstorm, and problem-solve around their own sleep issues. Point out the value of good sleep to students and let them decide to make the changes on their own. The authors provide a more clear and effective communication method called ALP. Attune- pause, listen, and lead with empathy. Limit-set- set and hold reasonable limits on a consistent basis. Problem-solve- help teens come up with their own solutions. Sleep is easy to dismiss because we are unconscious when it happens. However, it is a very important process for teens. Give the five habits, all five, a try for two weeks to create a sleep bubble that promotes natural sleeping powers.
 
Other Related Resources
Authors’- Press
https://www.thehappysleeper.com/press
 
Authors’ Website- Happy Sleeper
https://www.thehappysleeper.com/
 
Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School- Resources section
https://sleep.hms.harvard.edu/resources
 
Psychological Concepts and Figures
William Dement
Ivan Pavlov
 
Adenosine
Adolescence
Amygdala
Circadian rhythm
Cognitive-behavioral therapy
Creativity
Delayed gratification- Marshmallow experiment
EEG
Evolutionary perspective
Excitatory vs. inhibitory
Flow
Frontal lobes
Glial cells
Habits
Homeostatic sleep drive
Hormones- Leptin, Ghrelin
Immune system
Learned helplessness
Light therapy
LTP
Melatonin
Memory
Mental health
Myelin sheath
Negative reinforcement
Neurotransmitters- Serotonin, Dopamine
NREM
Paleo-sleep
Plasticity
Prefrontal cortex
Pruning
Puberty
Punishment
Rebound sleep
REM
Reticular activating system
Sensitive period
Sleep bubble
Sleep debt
Sleep deprivation
Sleep disorders
Sleep spindles
Social jet lag
Suprachiasmatic nuclei
Unconditional positive regard

Cultural DNA: The Psychology of Globalization
Author: Gurnek Bains
ISBN-10: ‎ 9781118928912
ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1118928912
 
APA Style Citation
Gains, G. (2015). Cultural DNA: The psychology of globalization.
 
Buy This Book
https://www.amazon.com/Cultural-DNA-Globalization-Gurnek-Bains/dp/1118928911
​

Book Description
How can humanity be alike and different at the same time? Humans express similar fears, challenges, desires, and motivations. However, if we oversimplify with stereotypes or assume that everyone is the same, these assumptions can become problematic. Humans do have different behaviors and preferences, and seeing the individual for who they are is helpful. But exaggerating these differences is also problematic. Author, Gurnek Baines, explores the cultural DNA of eight regions around the world, including North America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East, India, China, Europe, Latin America, and Australia. He explains cultural DNA as “the deeply grained aspects of culture that are replicated over generations rather than biological differences.” While he acknowledges biological factors, he points out the environmental challenges that each culture faced historically. He uses primary data, secondary sources of information, and explanatory research as his evidence. While the discussion of culture can be a sensitive topic, his exploration of the main regions has the reader analyzing culture on a deeper level. He hopes to foster empathy and respect and have readers question their implicit bias.
 
Each chapter of the book explores a particular region more in-depth. Baines describes the founders and their effects. In his “looking ahead” section of each chapter he summarizes the gifts each culture offers the world and some attributes to be addressed so the gifts do not hold them back in a changing world.
 
America- The Change-Makers
Gifts

• Culture of change-makers, embrace the new
• Positivity and optimism, tolerance of plurality, preparedness to take risks, functionality

 
Sub-Sahara Africa: Under Nature’s Shadow
Gifts

• Energy, daily joy, laughter, intellectual flexibility, creativity, live in the moment
• Human relationships are valued, interdependence
• Desire to control the environment, used to nature being extreme and unpredictable

 
India: Beyond this World
Gifts

• Preference for thinking, talking, and perceiving, as well as looking within
• Diversity and nonviolence
• Business strengths in IT, pharmaceutical research, finance

 
Middle East: Ambivalence and Uncertainty in the Modern Age
Gifts

• Intellectualism, openness to learning, respect for knowledge
• Commercial instinct and skills

 
China: The Seekers of Harmony
Gifts

• A striving for balance and harmony
• Introverted

 
Europe: The Equal Society
Gifts

• Deep sense of equality, tolerance of individuality, rigorous and systematic approach to thinking
• Environmental mastery and resulting dynamic creativity

 
Latin America: The Ever-Changing Melting Pot
Gifts

• Challenging power and rebellion; movement to more open, balanced, and transparent systems
• Resourcefulness, flexibility, creativity, collaboration

 
Australia: Mateship in a Far-Off Land
Gifts

• Practical-mindedness, pulling together, incredible resilience in difficult conditions

 
Other Related Resources
Gurnek Bains- CEO and Founder of Global Future
https://ourglobalfuture.com/about-us/

People Matters-Big Interview with Gurnke Bains
https://www.peoplematters.in/article/strategic-hr/big-interview-gurnke-bains-11601
 
Psychological Concepts and Figures
Charles Darwin
Sigmund Freud
Carl Jung
Abraham Maslow
Walter Mischel
 

Tales From Both Sides of the Brain: A Life in Neuroscience
Author: Michael S. Gazzaniga
ISBN-10: ‎0062228803
ISBN-13: 978-0062228802
 
APA Style Citation
Gazzaniga, M.S. (2015). Tales from both sides of the brain: A life in neuroscience. HarperCollins.
 
Buy This Book
https://www.amazon.com/Tales-Both-Sides-Brain-Neuroscience/dp/0062228803
​

Book Description
Michael Gazzaniga stated, “Science results from a profoundly social process.” Tales From Both Sides of the Brain: A Life in Neuroscience is an autobiography about his research, but also the friendships, opportunities, and professional moves Dr. Gazzaniga made as he changed how we think of the brain. He shares his story of how scientists are a blend of both scientific and personal life experiences. The book focuses on six split-brain patients that helped change much of what is known in cognitive neuroscience. As he quickly points out, while much of scientific work is routine, the discoveries are still exciting! His story is one with a beginning and middle, but no end.
 
Gazzaniga’s early days started at Caltech, under Dr. Roger Sperry. While Gazzaniga was the novice, Sperry was the pro in split-brain research. Most of Sperry’s work was done with cats, but he was a great surgeon and fiercely competitive. Under Sperry’s guidance, Gazzaniga moved from studying animals to human patients in 1962. Their first human patient was William (Bill) Jenkins. They had to figure out the basics of how to test someone with a split brain. The left half of the body sends MOST information about touch to the right hemisphere. However, the mere presence or absence of being touched goes to both hemispheres. They used the visual system because it was simple and highly lateralized. The two had their differences, but when Sperry won the Nobel Prize in 1981, Gazzaniga wrote an appreciation article for him published in Science magazine.
 
Research shows that the left brain specializes in speech and language processes, while the right brain specializes in visual tasks. However, many split-brain patients used external self-cueing to help unify some of their disconnected information. Most eventually gained control of their ipsilateral (same-side) arm. It was this dual control of both the contralateral (opposite-side) and ipsilateral (same-side) that made it hard to evaluate the specialization of the left and right brains. Gazzaniga had no idea how rich split-brain research would become until more cases were added to the pool, and these newer cases were complicating. Like an old married couple…subtle cueing between the two is going on all the time. Similarly, half of the brain is living next to the other half and the ability of split-brain patients to look as if they were integrated develops over time. The two mental systems were being forced to share the same resources, and somehow, they worked it out.  This made it hard to do the research.
 
Gazzaniga’s professional career involved many moves. Wanting his own lab, he moved to the University of California, Santa Barbara. He was both a teacher and researcher, and quickly moved up to department chair. It was here that he began his closest lifelong friendship with David Premack. During this time, he also led his first interdisciplinary forum. Dr. Gazzaniga wanted to be associated with a medical center to see a wider range of neurological patients and with a little east coast fever, he moved to New York. There he set up a weekly lunch with Leon Festinger for the next 20 years. It was his friendships with Premack and Festinger that helped him continually reassess his and Sperry’s claim that there were two minds in one brain. Once again, Gazzaniga was on the move. This time to Dartmouth. His graduate student was Joseph LeDoux and they created a mobile lab to go to the patients. It was a time of new patients, discoveries, and insights. It was discovered that the left brain was an interpreter. When the left brain had no clue what was going on, it would try to explain it away. Gazzaniga moved again to Cornell University Medical College and convinced LeDoux to join him. Together they continued to complete critical experiments to understand the brain. It was in New York that Gazzaniga met up with George Miller. While he found him and his office intimidating, they quickly became friends and together launched cognitive neuroscience, the study of how the brain creates the mind. An important part of Gazzaniga’s academic life was holding special meetings in special places. He led an annual, weeklong conference. When he moved back to Dartmouth, he brought with the Cognitive Neuroscience Institute and created the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. But the west coast was calling and Gazzaniga moved to the University of California, Davis. His patients traveled to him and he did a PBS special hosted by Alan Alda. Dr. Gazzaniga continued his training of the next generation by holding an annual conference, and publishing their work in one large reference book. He also helped with efforts to build a database for brain imaging experiments done around the world. He requested researchers submit data in order to be published in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. It ended up not working out, but was a great step for more public communication.
 
While science has always been important to Gazzaniga, he is also interested in many other issues. Early on as a graduate student, he hosted a political debate on campus that garnered much attention. He credits this first experience to his ability to organize future scientific meetings and help translate complicated topics for public communication. Over the next several decades, Gazzaniga and his second wife, Charlotte, hosted somewhere around 300 dinner parties. These social gatherings played a significant role in the field of cognitive neuroscience. He also talked his friend, the political commentator, into interviewing his friends (e.g., B.F. Skinner, Premack, Festinger) on his show Firing Line. He became interested in public affairs and wrote on the problem of crime prevention. Gazzaniga also served on the President’s Council of Bioethics and worked to help answer the embryo question- when human life begins? Pursuing diverse issues has always been important to him.
 
Gazzaniga’s story is one of science, people, and experiences. He concludes with reminding the reader the story has not ended. While some of the easy, low-hanging fruit, has been picked in neuroscience, there are still more answers to find.
 
Other Related Resources
Author's Website- University of California, Santa Barbara
https://people.psych.ucsb.edu/gazzaniga/michael/
Lessons Learned from a Life in Science
https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/lessons-learned-from-a-life-in-science

Psychological Figures and Concepts
Paul Broca
Noam Chomsky
Leon Festinger
Clever Hans
David Hubel
Daniel Kahneman
Karl Lashley
Joseph LeDoux
Kurt Lewin
Margaret Mead
George Miller
Daniel Pinker
David Premack
Stanley Schachter
B.F. Skinner
Roger Sperry
Endel Tulving
Robert Zajonc
 
Attention
Basic research
Bioethics
Blindsight
Brain plasticity
Cognitive dissonance
Cognitive neuroscience
Confabulation
Contralateral vs. ipsilateral control
Corpus callosum
EEG
Embryo
Episodic memory
fMRI
Global aphasia
IRB
Korsakoff’s syndrome
Lateral ventricles
MRI
Parallel processes
Semantic memory
Split-brain research
Synesthesia
Syntax
Theory of mind
Top-down vs. bottom-up processing
WAIS