Psychology Blog

Last year, I was honored to be a finalist in the 2007 Weblog Awards in the Individual Blogger category. I didn’t win, but it was a lot of fun to be included.

This year’s voting is now open.  I’ve yet to check out all the contestants (this is a great way to find new blogs to read), but our friend John Grohol’s World of Psychology is a finalist in the Medical/Health category. Good luck to John!

You can vote once a day–Vote early and often!

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Vote for the 2008 Weblog Awards Now

In our ongoing discussions of Cacioppo and Patrick’s Loneliness, our daughter Kristin shared some of her thoughts about the disconnect experienced by soldiers, particularly as they deploy and return home again.

Kristin gave a radio interview about the topic:

click to listen to the interview

Our friends at Ashworth University, which serves many students in the military, also found the interview interesting.

Although our experience can hardly compare with that of soldiers stationed abroad, we are missing our Kristin this holiday season. There is a distinct sense of guilt as we enjoy the comforts we have here, knowing that she is in a very different place. We are making long lists of things to do when she returns for the 2009 holiday season. We send packages of homemade goodies and warm socks and even a guitar, hoping to make her deployment a little more comfortable. We luck out on occasion and grab a quick chat with her on Facebook (the time difference is a bit challenging).

Kristin uses some rare downtime to practice her guitar playing

I thought it was a very nice touch to receive a handwritten Christmas card from Kristin’s superior officers. I’m sure these guys are plenty busy, and have families of their own that they were missing, but we really appreciated their taking the time to do this.

Not all soldiers have families who can step forward and help, and it’s just so important that all feel appreciated and supported.  If you want to help soldiers, here are some places to start:

Soldiers’ Angels

This site’s motto is “May No Soldier Go Unloved.” If you want to get involved in supporting the troops, this site gives you many ways to do so.

The USO

West Point Parents

This site has a lot of useful links about everything from how to store a vehicle for 12 months to advice about how to interact with a soldier home on mid-tour leave.

Yes, many of us are facing challenges–financial and otherwise–but these seem trivial compared to the challenges facing soldiers. As Cacioppo and Patrick point out, “extending ourselves” will make us feel better, too!

This is the largest yellow ribbon formation so far–can you beat it?

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Loneliness and Deployed Soldiers

Merry Christmas to all of my Christian readers. At the holidays, people often wax especially nostalgic for times gone by. The American Heritage Dictionary defines “nostalgia” as a “sentimental yearning for the past.” Some definitions make nostalgia sound sad, as in “homesickness” and “bittersweet.”

Nostalgia can apparently be helpful, though, especially to people who are lonely. This is not too surprising, given what we know about loneliness. Xinyue Zhou and Ding-Guo Gao from Sun Yat-Sen University, along with Constantine Sedikides and Tim Wildschut from the University of Southampton found that their loneliest participants appeared to be the most nostalgic [1]. Even more interesting, when these researchers induced feelings of nostalgia in participants, the result was increased feelings of social support.

The Intrepid Competitors Take the Field

I am blessed with a wonderful family, and even though we can’t always be together (Kristin is currently stationed in Iraq), I feel a lot of social support. We are missing my mom, who passed away last March, and my brother, who passed away in August, so yes, the bittersweet aspects of nostalgia are there as we consider Christmases past.

We enjoy some traditions (we have our childhood stockings hung at the fireplace), but we like to start new ones, too. Some of these are food related, like the blueberry raisin cinnamon rolls we had for Christmas breakfast last year and decided to do annually. Yesterday, we tried out another new tradition–a family shot put contest. Okay, that’s not something you see everyday, so some explanation is in order. Mr. F was a track and field All-American at UCLA and had their discus record for some ten years, Kristin threw the shot and discus in high school and at West Point, and Karen was a 4-time All-American and holds the shot records for the USC Trojans. So I was at a bit of a disadvantage. Karla was throwing a 12 lb. shot (I was using the women’s standard 4k), and she beat me anyway! Nonetheless, the competition was heroic. Yes, I did come in last, but it was great fun! Now if we can start a minigolf classic, I might have a chance! And maybe memories of these times together will get our children over a rough bump or two down the road.

1.  Zhou, X., Sedikides, C., Wildschut, T., & Gao, D-G. (2008). Counteracting loneliness: On the restorative function of nostalgia. Psychological Science, 19(10), 1023 - 1029.

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Nostalgia Makes You Happy

I was pleased to see that this month’s APA Monitor featured an article by Rebecca Clay on psychology bloggers, including yours truly. The article also featured several members of our symposium on psych blogging at last May’s APS conference in Chicago:  Greta and Dave Munger, who publish Cognitive Daily, and John Grohol, who publishes World of Psychology. Our symposium also featured Wray Herbert, who publishes We’re Only Human for APS.

Meet Psychology's Bloggers

As was the case with our symposium, I am impressed with the different goals and approaches each of us has for our blogs. It would be truly boring if everyone were doing the same things.  Maybe more psychologists reading this article will be inspired to try a blog, too! There’s no such thing as too many in this business. If you are interested in writing a blog, Rebecca has a second article in the same issue, Think Before You Post. Good advice, always.

Originally posted here:
APA Monitor Article Features Psych Bloggers

A few weeks ago, the daughter of one of my long-time friends asked me to help her with a video she was doing for high school on fear and anxiety. I was supposed to record my answers to a list of questions she provided. Today, the end result was posted, and I was very impressed! Not so much with my performance, which represents my first efforts at taking a video of myself with a MacBook, but with Krista’s and JJ’s creativity.

Gaining a Better Understanding for Teleprompters

The students had some interesting footage of an interview with one of the producers of Fear Factor. They also interviewed some classmates listing the things they feared. I was happy to hear that they received a perfect 100% for their project!

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What are YOU afraid of?