Pre-Occupied

Maddy and Zenon talk to Sai Auelua-Toomey, a down-to-earth and deeply knowledgeable doctoral student at Stanford University. Sai gives us first-hand insight into his discoveries about romantic racism. We also discuss the role of identity in academia and research, Sai's cross-cultural research experiences, and the future of diversity on college campuses. Send us an email at hosts@pre-occupied.com! Follow us on Twitter @PreOccPodcast! Follow us on Instagram @preoccpodcast! Like us on Facebook! Visit us at pre-occupied.com!

Our intrepid hosts venture out of academia and into business to learn from Dr. Kizzy Parks, founder and CEO of several successful businesses and Ph.D. industrial organizational psychologist. Listeners will enjoy Dr. Parks's exciting life journey, inspiring perspective on life, and practical advice for anyone who wants to make a living by starting a business. Send us an email at hosts@pre-occupied.com! Follow us on Twitter @PreOccPodcast! Follow us on Instagram @PreOccPodcast! Like us on Facebook! Visit us at pre-occupied.com!

In this episode, Maddy and Zenon interview Dr. Francine Dolins, a professor of comparative psychology at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. Dr. Dolins shared experiences with us that ranged from pursuing an education in England to following lemurs through the jungles of Madagascar. We also discuss how Dr. Dolins's research on spatial cognition can relate to humans with spatial reasoning impairments. In our introduction, we discuss how cognition depends on our bodies, the various primate species that Dr. Dolins works with, and more!  Embodied cognition article: https://bit.ly/3e1K3GS Developmental topographical disorientation article: https://bit.ly/3nybJ9i Send us an email at hosts@pre-occupied.com! Follow us on Twitter @PreOccPodcast! Follow us on Instagram @PreOccPodcast! Like us on Facebook! Visit us at pre-occupied.com!

The hosts set the stage for upcoming episodes with a bit of background information about their own inclinations toward psychology, their friendship, and the podcast's conception.  Send us an email at hosts@pre-occupied.com! Follow us on Twitter @PreOccPodcast! Follow us on Instagram @PreOccPodcast! Like us on Facebook! Visit us at pre-occupied.com!

We each read and discussed a research article to review some recent research. Maddy talked about a study reviewing the perception of dark humor during and after the Hurricane Sandy crisis, and Zenon discussed an article about babies' moral expectations when watching bear puppets stealing from one another. Maddy read McGraw et al. (2014): https://doi.org/f575tt Zenon read Stavans and Baillargeon (2019): https://doi.org/fqsb Send us an email at hosts@pre-occupied.com! Follow us on Twitter @PreOccPodcast! Follow us on Instagram @PreOccPodcast! Like us on Facebook! Visit us at pre-occupied.com!

In Episode 18, Zenon and Maddy interview Dr. Myles Durkee, a warm, insightful professor at the University of Michigan and expert on the psychology of racial identity. Dr. Durkee shares his findings from his studies about "acting White" – what it looks like, why it happens, and its consequences. We also talk about what a more equitable field of psychology would look like and the role of psychology in social justice. Qualitative methods, structures of the peer-review process, and historical cases addressing racial inequality are also discussed. Send us an email at hosts@pre-occupied.com! Follow us on Twitter @PreOccPodcast! Follow us on Instagram @PreOccPodcast! Like us on Facebook! Visit us at pre-occupied.com!

Dr. Marie Waung, an engaging, funny, and deeply knowledgeable professor at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, returns to the show to share her experiences in I/O scholarship and academia. We discuss personality in the workplace, the science of resume building, balancing an academic career, and loving what you do. The Holland Code Assessment and a brief history of I/O psychology are also discussed. Send us an email at hosts@pre-occupied.com! Follow us on Twitter @PreOccPodcast! Follow us on Instagram @preoccpodcast! Like us on Facebook! Visit us at pre-occupied.com!

Maddy and Zenon come together over Zoom with Mrs. Krista Siefert to discuss the pathogen that's swept both the nation and the world over the past six months.  The novel coronavirus has affected not only the physiological health of millions of people, but also the psychological health of everyone in a country that's experiencing lockdowns or economic hardship. Mrs. Siefert tells us what it's like working in the school system during this time, working to address students who need additional support while everyone is staying home and staying safe. We also reviewed psychological research relevant to pandemics and isolation to bring some insight into the behavioral phenomena that occur during pandemics and how best to stay connected with others. Here are links to the articles we discussed in the episode: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200401-covid-19-how-fear-of-coronavirus-is-changing-our-psychology https://heterodoxacademy.org/social-science-liberals-conservatives-covid-19/ https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/29/sunday-review/zoom-video-conference.html https://theconversation.com/facing-the-coronavirus-crisis-together-could-lead-to-positive-psychological-growth-134289 Send us an email at hosts@pre-occupied.com! Follow us on Twitter @PreOccPodcast! Follow us on Instagram @preoccpodcast! Like us on Facebook! Visit us at pre-occupied.com!

Zenon and Maddy talk to Mrs. Krista Siefert, a school psychologist with Farmington Public Schools. We discuss special education, the diagnosis of ADHD, and violence prevention on the individual and district-wide level. We also discuss how school psychologists advocate for evidence-based change in a wider context. Send us an email at hosts@pre-occupied.com! Follow us on Twitter @PreOccPodcast! Like us on Facebook! Visit us at pre-occupied.com!

Maddy and Zenon talk to Dr. Sarah Tannenbaum of Harvard Medical School-affiliated Judge Baker Children's Center in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Tannenbaum gives us keen insight into the world of a child mental health expert. We talk about the doctoral journey, finding your drive, and what it means to be an advocate for mental health. We also discuss a few of the evidence-based practices used to treat children with mental illness at Judge Baker. Send us an email at hosts@pre-occupied.com! Follow us on Twitter @PreOccPodcast! Like us on Facebook! Visit us at pre-occupied.com!

Zenon and Maddy are back in Ann Arbor talking to Dr. Thad Polk, a cognitive neuroscientist and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor at the University of Michigan. His interdisciplinary research combines tactics from neuroimaging and computational modeling to better understand cognitive architecture. Dr. Polk and his team use innovative methods in cognitive neuroscience to create detailed, holistic mental maps to capture the complexity of one’s neural structures. We also discuss aging, technology, and the mysterious process of IRB approval. Dr. Polk’s stories (and North Carolinian twang) will leave you hanging on every word! Send us an email at hosts@pre-occupied.com! Follow us on Twitter @PreOccPodcast! Like us on Facebook! Visit us at pre-occupied.com!

Maddy and Zenon interview Dr. Laura Richardson of Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Richardson is an authentic, compassionate, and deeply insightful outpatient therapist. In this interview, we discuss the evolution of patient-therapist relationships, elaborate on the applications of attachment theory, and think critically about the importance of our connections with others. Send us an email at hosts@pre-occupied.com! Follow us on Twitter @PreOccPodcast! Like us on Facebook! Visit us at pre-occupied.com!

Maddy and Zenon talk to Scott Greenspan, a candidate in the University of Massachusetts-Amherst's PhD program in School Psychology and doctoral intern at Harvard Medical School-Affiliate Judge Baker Children's Center. Scott reveals what it's like to be a doctoral student balancing research, employment, self-care, and his personal life. We also discuss the intersection of physical exercise, LBTQ+ issues, and implementation of research in education. Send us an email at hosts@pre-occupied.com! Follow us on Twitter @PreOccPodcast! Like us on Facebook! Visit us at pre-occupied.com!

We got the opportunity to talk with Dr. Michelle Stein of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, a practicing psychologist and professor of psychiatry. The interview focused on what it's like to work as a psychologist in a hospital setting, her work on the SCORS-G, and the use of projective tests in clinical assessment.  Here is the SCORS-G manual from which we read the TAT interpretations. If you're curious, here's card 1 of the TAT, which we discuss in the episode. Send us an email at hosts@pre-occupied.com! Follow us on Twitter @PreOccPodcast! Like us on Facebook! Visit us at pre-occupied.com!

Maddy, Zenon, and Dr. John Porcerelli discuss defense mechanisms—what they look like, how we use them, and why we use them. Dr. Porcerelli is an engaging, sharp, and incredibly knowledgeable professor of psychology at The University of Detroit Mercy, where he directs the psychology clinic. He shares his winding path from apathetic high school student to pro boxer to accomplished researcher, professor, and therapist! He enlightens us about the integral role of defense mechanisms in clinical treatment and in our everyday lives. In the interview, Dr. Porcerelli mentions this 1894 paper in which Freud introduces the idea of defenses, titled The Neuropsychoses of Defense. In our discussion, we talk about some of the many defense mechanisms that people employ to handle emotional stressors. This PDF, a 7-page excerpt from the DSM-IV, contains the Defense Mechanism Rating Scale and list of 33 defenses that Dr. Porcerelli mentions during the interview. You can find all of Dr. Porcerelli's research on defenses at his ResearchGate page. Send us an email at hosts@pre-occupied.com! Follow us on Twitter @PreOccPodcast! Like us on Facebook! Visit us at pre-occupied.com!

We got to interview Dr. Jim Sexton, who holds Ph.D.s in Clinical and Social Psychology. He's currently a professor at George Washington University's Psy.D. program and a practicing clinician. His answers lent insight into a wide range of topics within the fields of both his Ph.D.s, such as building rapport with clients, identifying subconscious biases in oneself as a clinician, and the hidden history of social psychology.  In our intro, we talked about mirror neurons. Here's a video of Dr. Giacomo Rizzolatti, one of the researchers who discovered the function of these neurons, talking about that discovery and how it came about. Here's an interesting TED Talk from Dr. Amy Cuddy about what body language we use to express feelings of power and how that can affect ourselves and those around us. Send us an email at hosts@pre-occupied.com! Follow us on Twitter @PreOccPodcast! Like us on Facebook! Visit us at pre-occupied.com!

This is the second half of our interview with Ms. Andrea Broadwater, a therapist from Ann Arbor, Michigan with experience in clinical research, crisis care, and independent practice. In this episode, Ms. Broadwater talks about setting boundaries in therapy, giving back, tele-mental health, and the future of therapy. In the discussion, we talk about transference and countertransference, the subtle differences between "patient" and "client," and our own thoughts on teletherapy. After sifting through several YouTube videos, we determined that this one is the best explanation of transference and countertransference on the Internet. Enjoy the episode! Send us an email at hosts@pre-occupied.com! Follow us on Twitter @PreOccPodcast! Like us on Facebook! Visit us at pre-occupied.com!

This is the first half of our interview with Ms. Andrea Broadwater, a therapist from Ann Arbor, Michigan with experience in clinical research, crisis care, and independent practice. In this episode, Ms. Broadwater talks about her background, her current clinical work, self-care, and her theoretical orientation.  In our discussion, we talk about what therapy is, how change occurs in therapy, different theoretical models, and the research of two psychologists that Ms. Broadwater mentions during the interview. The definition of therapy we use comes from this book by Dr. Jerome Frank. Our discussion of behavioral change in therapy is based on this article by Dr. James Prochaska and Dr. Carlo DiClemente, with some added insight from a certain professor and some other online resources. If you want to learn more about Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy or other theoretical orientations, check out this module from the Noba Project. If you want to learn more about the research of Kristen Neff and Brené Brown, check out these resources: Kristen Neff's research Self-compassion exercises from Kristen Neff's website An infographic summarizing Kristen Neff's research on self-compassion Brené Brown's website Brené Brown's TED Talk: The Power of Vulnerability Send us an email at hosts@pre-occupied.com! Follow us on Twitter @PreOccPodcast! Like us on Facebook! Visit us at pre-occupied.com!

We talked with Dr. Caleb Siefert, a professor at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, personality researcher, practicing clinician, and former neuromarketing consultant. We got to ask him about the life of a consulting psychologist, how psychology informs marketing, and how his current roles as a professor, researcher, and clinician inform and benefit each other.  In our discussion, we gave a basic overview of persuasion theory and discussed some cool research. This article explains the studies on credit card logos as subliminal cues. The original articles can be found here and here. Here's the article about the halo effect. If you want to learn more about persuasion, check out this module from the Noba Project. Send us an email at hosts@pre-occupied.com! Follow us on Twitter @PreOccPodcast! Like us on Facebook! Visit us at pre-occupied.com!

We got to talk to Dr. Daniel Weissman of the University of Michigan about a wide variety of topics, including choosing a career path, research with dolphins, computational modeling, and much more. We also got to hear about Dr. Weissman's own research on attention and the methods he uses to measure attention.  If you want to learn more about attention, check out this module from the Noba Project. It does a great job of explaining the theory that attention research is based on, and most of the research we discussed in this episode can be found there.  Send us an email at hosts@pre-occupied.com! Follow us on Twitter @PreOccPodcast! Like us on Facebook!