Activites

Is that all there is? My life in soft psychology.
Professor Nicholas (Nick) Haslam

In this video, Prof Nick muse on his path through psychology in Australia, the USA and back again. Along the way he attempts to wring a few droplets of insight on the academic life from the faded dish towel of personal history.

Introduction to Experience Sampling Methods.
Dr. Elise Kalokerinos

Dr. Kalokerinos discusses when ESM is useful, when things can go wrong, and how to design and execute a good ESM study. Slides can be downloaded via Dr. Kalokerinos OSF page

Where are the self-correcting mechanisms in science?
Professor Simine Vazire.

We often hear the self-correcting mechanisms in science invoked as a reason to trust science, but it is not always clear what these mechanisms are.  Some quality control mechanisms, such as peer review for journals, or vetting for textbooks or for public dissemination, have recently been found not to provide much of a safeguard against invalid claims.  Instead, I argue that we should look for visible signs of a scientific community's commitment to self-correction.  These signs include transparency in the research and peer review process, investment in error detection and quality control, and an emphasis on calibration rather than popularisation.  We should trust scientific claims more to the extent that they were produced by communities that have these hallmarks of credibility.  Fields that are more transparent, rigorous, and calibrated should earn more trust.  Meta-science can provide scientists and the public with valuable information in assessing the credibility of scientific fields.

The Psychology of Secrecy.
Dr. Katie Greenaway.

Why do we keep secrets? To whom do we tell our secrets? What happens when we reveal a secret? These are only some of the questions that psychologists have begun to investigate on the topic of secrecy. The current state of the science suggests that secrecy has a negative psychological impact – but can nevertheless be positive; that confiding secrets hurts other people – but can also help them; and that revealing a secret can have bad outcomes – but also good ones.

Join as Dr. Greenaway explores these apparent contradictions in research on secrecy and a new psychology of secrecy is revealed.

Why we need pain to feel happiness.
Professor Brock Bastian.

Pain is bad, but is it all bad? Pain killing is a massive industry because we want our lives to be filled with pleasure and free of all pain, but is this approach to pain and happiness really working? In this talk Social Psychologist Brock Bastian asks us to reflect on the nature of pain, pleasure, and happiness. He urges us to reconsider what really makes us happy, and tells us why we need pain to experience any happiness in life at all.