82 - Phobias: A Year 12 Psychology Exam Crash Course

This episode we’ve put together a crash course on phobias. We know phobias are on the VCE psychology exam and we have covered the main topics and theories covered in the course. The episode is pitched at Australian year 12 psychology students (and for their parents wanting to understand what this psychology garbage is).

We don’t assume any prior psychology knowledge so this means that it is good episode for anyone who want to understand about psychological theory and treatment. Understanding phobias and their treatment brings together a lot of core psychological concepts. Listen in for easy to understand definitions, examples and how it all fits together to understand the case of Ron Weasley’s arachnophobia.

We can’t promise we have talked about everything on the exam but it should be a good way to brush up pre exam.

Looking for something specific?
01:20 Definitions
13:50 Prevalence
16:20 The 4 P’s & the biopsychosocial model: A case study of Ron Weasley
25:00 Classical conditioning
37:00 Operant conditioning
48:00 GABA dysfunction
51:10 Stress response system
55:45 Cognitive biases
1:01:30 Triggers
1:04:00 Transtheoretical model of change
1:09:00 Treatment

If you liked the episode please rate/review us or tell someone about the show.

You can access your free Calabash talk at https://calabash.courses/twoshrinkspod

74 - Do Lockdowns Cause Suicide?

It is late October 2021, Melbourne is emerging from a 77 day lockdown and we’ve just earned the dubious title of most locked down city in the world. Throughout, this difficult situation has been made harder by constant media and political pressure to end lockdowns, often with the argument that lockdowns cause suicide.

We wanted to dig into this properly and find out from the data whether this actually was the case? In this episode we take a look at suicide statistics in four Western countries, talk through the factors that can lead to suicide and provide some tips for how to respond if you or someone you care about is feeling suicidal.

Supports (for Australian listeners):

• If you are in immediate danger: 000

• For crisis support 24/7: Lifeline 13 11 14 or
  Suicide call back service (24 hour phone & online support): 1300 659 467
  or online www.suicidecallbackservice.org.au

• To access local crisis team support, call your state’s contact number: https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/crisis-management

• To access private psychologists: see a GP for a mental health care plan or contact local private practices. Your GP may know of local clinics with availability or shorter wait times.

  Research and data:

• Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data: https://www.aihw.gov.au/suicide-self-harm-monitoring/data/suspected-deaths-by-suicide/data-from-suicide-registers

• Victorian coroner’s court data: https://www.coronerscourt.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-01/Coroners%20Court%20Monthly%20Suicide%20Data%20Report%20-%20December%202020.pdf

• NZ coroner: https://coronialservices.justice.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Publications/Chief-Coroner-Suicide-Stats-2020-Media-Release.pdf

• NZ symptoms: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34313158/

• UK suicide rates: https://www.ons.gov.uk/releases/deathsfromsuicidethatoccurredinenglandandwalesbetweenaprilandjuly2020

• US suicide minorities: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33290944/

• US suicide data: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2775359

• America’s health rankings (data from all states): https://www.americashealthrankings.org/explore/annual/measure/Suicide/state/ALL?edition-year=2020

70 - Therapy with the Breakfast Club

The Breakfast club - five teenagers in detention, each struggling and assuming everyone else has their life together. But what would happen if they were referred for therapy instead?

Join us for a Two Shrinks look at Claire, Bender, Principal Vernon, Allison, Andy & Brian as we talk through how we’d make sense of these characters and what they’d need in the therapy room.

The Molly Ringwald article we reference can be found at: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/personal-history/what-about-the-breakfast-club-molly-ringwald-metoo-john-hughes-pretty-in-pink

68 - The Seven Deadly Sins

To kick off 2021, two shrinks is getting sinful. Thanks to a suggestion from psychiatrist Dr Jackie Rakov (@psychwrite on twitter), we’re taking a look at the psychology behind the seven deadly sins. Do we find people more attractive when we’re primed with lust? Does envy make us more likely to harm others? Is pride different from straight-up narcissism? Listen in to for a light-hearted but in depth look at whether the sins really are that bad.

Timepoint/Articles:
05:30 Envy https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0146167219897660
14:30 Pride - https://europepmc.org/article/med/33180528
26:25 Gluttony - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24411760/
40:58 Sloth - https://www.prdb.pk/article/prevalence-of-academic-procrastination-and-reasons-for-acade-8348

47:30 Lust - https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00224545.2014.933158
58:51 Wrath - https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/bjso.12357
01:14:27 Greed - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0191886918305130

Media clips drawn from: Se7en (sins), Winnie the Pooh (gluttony), The Simpsons (Sloth), U2 (pride) Pride & Prejudice (pride), How I Met Your Mother (lust), Wallstreet (greed) and Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan (wrath)

Hunter’s bonus I can’t believe it’s not sloth articles:
(from 35:00-40:58 mins)
Sloth bears: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2019-05979-001
Bridges: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1369847820304125

Teaser: Does Anakin Skywalker have Borderline Personality Disorder?

Ahead of our 60th episode “Diagnosing the Skywalkers: Mental Health in the Star Wars Universe” we decided to give you some pre-listening (reading?) to get you ready (hey don’t judge, we did do a lot of university study). Hunter covers a series of academic articles that discuss whether Anakin Skywalker has Borderline Personality (links below). This is a snippet from our 10th episode recorded way back in 2017 before The Last Jedi was released.

If you want to know more about Borderline Personality we covered symptoms and theory in Episode #25: (listen here through the website or apple podcasts); the treatment of BPD with Dialectical Behaviour Therapy in Episode #26 (website or apple podcasts) and the impact of BPD on family members in Episode #49
(website or apple podcasts)

See you in a couple of weeks to geek out on psychology & Star Wars!

Anakin Skywalker articles :

Part one - Bui et al. (2011) - Is Anakin Skywalker Suffering From Borderline Personality Disorder?

Part two - da Rocha et al. (2012) - Revisiting the Anakin Skywalker Diagnostic: Transcending the Diagnostic Criteria

Part three - Bui & Rodgers (2012) - Response to da Rocha et al.

Part four - Tobia et al. (2015) - Darth Vulcan? In support of Anakin Skywalker suffering from borderline personality disorder.

59 - Healthcare workers’ challenges during COVID-19

How are health care workers coping during COVID? On our final episode of the COVID series, we take a look at the issues facing healthcare workers. For the first time in many workers’ careers, we’re dealing with an issue that impacts everyone, including ourselves. Tune in for a discussion about issues like coping under crisis conditions, providing mental health treatment remotely, and what happens when your personal values or worries are different to those you treat.

As always, to wrap up we finish with a lighter chat about things we came across - what we’ll miss from lock down and how we knew we’d been in lock down too long.

Special thanks to the doctors who helped us prepare for this episode by sharing their experiences and concerns: Dr Eric Levi (@DrEricLevi), Dr Vyom Sharma (@drvyom), Dr Andy Tagg (@andrewjtagg) and Dr Lachie Hayes.