Symptom - Syndrome - Disorder

When we talk about health there are some words like disease, syndrome, symptom, disorder. Not all these words belong in the clinical psychology. I would like to talk to you about three words.

Who or what are psychologists, psychotherapists and psychiatrists?

Psychologist? - Psychotherapist? - Psychiatrist? Some of you may have questioned the difference between these figures. Can they do the same thing? Is one better than the other one? What did they study? If you didn’t understand the difference between these three, perhaps reading this post will help you.

Can you discriminate a line?

In my last post, we discussed how groups function differently from individuals. But, how are groups formed? And, how do stereotypes (attributions of characteristics to a group) and prejudices (attitudes towards a group) arise? Tajfel and Wilkes addressed these topics through a unique experiment.

Stanford prison experiment

Do you know the Stanford prison experiment? I bet you do. It is famous, also because it has been depicted in several films. Have you seen the movie "Das Experiment"? Let me tell you about it.

Cookie cutters

In a book called "Great Scientific Experiments: 20 Experiments that Changed Our View of the World," there’s one about cookie cutters. Are you curious?

Anthony reads the post:

Do you feel guilty? Not at all!

Reflecting upon my last two posts it seems evident that human beings do not always act according to moral standards. In psychology, we use the expression “mechanisms of moral disengagement”, there are justifications that allow us to abandon moral standards (so that we can have unkind or reprehensible behaviour) without feel guilty. The psychologist Albert Bandura classified 8 mechanisms. Would you like to see them?

Anthony reads the post:

Shoot out! Yes, sir

Do you do everything that you are told to do? Do you do everything that your boss asks of you? These are two similar questions, but probably with different answers. Why is it different if the order is given by someone representing authority? Let’s see why you end up saying yes to your boss.

Anthony reads the post:

Can you help me? Eh... maybe

Helping a stranger is not a man’s instinctive behaviour. We help someone we don’t know if we know that he or she depends on us. Helpful behaviour in Psychology is called altruistic behaviour. Let us try together to understand why it is not so spontaneous to help others.

Anthony reads the post:

I read that research of the University of...

How many times have you read or heard that the researchers from a specific University discovered that... and then followed news that appeared useless. As an example, consider the relationship between how you hang toilet paper and your personality! Here there is a problem of scientific dissemination (as well as use of public money), to explain scientific facts to people who may have little or no knowledge about a subject. 

Cathy reads the post:

Freud. Psychology or Psychoanalysis?

I bet if I said the word Psychology, one of the first three words that you would think of, would be the name "Freud". What if I told you that Freud hadn't ever dealt with Psychology? What would be your reaction? Let’s take it step by step. Freud was a neurologist and, starting from the works of other authors, (Charcot and Janet) he developed an unconscious mind theory. Freud’s unconscious mind theory provides an explanation of behaviours that we are not aware of.

Anthony reads the post: