Many factors contribute to stigma in mental illnesses but an important one involves assumptions made when two people experience the same circumstances. It is natural to assume that if we both stub our toes, we will experience similar pain, or if we both lose our jobs we will both have the same reaction. In reality, [...]
Category Archives: Human nature
Unnatural acts
Human beings act, think and feel. These three dimensions pretty well sum up our psychological experiences. So what then do we target when things are bothering us? When I first trained as a psychologist, we were taught to work with thoughts and behaviours, hence the term Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy. But what of emotions? Are they not [...]
Am I smarter than a lab rat?
One of the talks I like to give is called Human Nature 101. It discusses a number of classic studies in psychology and relates them to day to day experiences. The talk used to be called Simple and Profound. I called it that because simple principles can often have a profound affect on us. We [...]
The evolution of personality
Not too long ago, I was interviewed by a number of media outlets on the subject of the trapped Chilean miners – What were they going through while trapped? What will they go through after their rescue? Were there risks of violence associated with trapping so many men together for so long? How will their [...]
I think I jinxed my rabbit’s foot
Why do we knock on wood or carry around a rabbit’s foot? It certainly isn’t because these things will prevent us from experiencing a disaster. What they do, however, is make us feel as if they will. “Don’t Jinx It,” my last column before my usual August break, dealt with superstitious behaviour. (For a real [...]
It gnaws at me!
“I’m like a fish out of water / a cat in a tree /I got a big chain around my neck / and I’m broken down like a train wreck / well it’s over, I know it but I can’t let go.” – Lucinda Williams from the song “Can’t Let Go” When you’re thinkin’ of things [...]
The hidden meaning behind the insignificant
One of my pet peeves is the tendency to read meaning into everything we do. It isn’t that there isn’t a reason behind our behaviours. It’s just that the reasons are either banal (basic instincts and human motivation) or are so prone to both misinterpretation and over-interpretation that most attempts to explain them will be [...]
Toilet paper wars
There are no two ways about it. Some people are able to let thinks go while others are obsessive nutcases. Actually those two types of people may reside inside the same individual. After all, don’t we all have have our own little obsessions. For example, I know lots of crazy wine lovers. They go on [...]
What made me so happy?
What question teaches us more: “What went wrong?” or “What went right?” “What the hell happened there?” is a question I often find myself asking when the golf ball I just hit goes sailing off into the forest. More often than not I just scratch my head and really have no idea. On the other [...]
Spurious correlations and you
One of the interesting things in life is in how we make use of observations. We all try to understand why things happen and when we observe a connection – or more accurately, what we BELIEVE is a connection – we feel as if we have gained a sense of control over our lives. Knowing [...]
