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

79 - Sarcasm

This time on 2SP we’re taking a look at sarcasm through 4 research articles. How does it develop in childhood? Are some cultures really more sarcastic? Can make us more creative? And, can emojis help avoid awkward misunderstandings of sarcasm when we text?

After a delightful break with some sparkling shiraz, Hunter laments the impact of clutter on productivity and Amy talks about whether people feel more safely attached to their pets or their partners.

Sarcasm Research

The highest form of intelligence: Sarcasm increases creativity for both expressers and recipients (Huang et al, 2015)

Saying what you don’t mean: a cross-cultural study of perceptions of sarcasm (Blasko et al, 2021)

Emoji as a tool to aid the comprehension of written sarcasm: evidence from younger and older adults (Garcia et al, 2022)

Development of children’s ability to distinguish sarcasm and verbal irony (Glenwright & Pexman, 2010)

TWCA

Romantic partners and four-legged friends: an extension of attachment theory to relationships with pets (Beck & Madresh, 2015)

The impact of office clutter on remote working: “I can’t work with all this stuff!” (Ferrari et al, 2021)

77 - The 2021 Wrap Up

For our last episode of the year we’re looking back over 2021. We chat about the episodes of the year with a dash of new research, a new therapy portrayal in Mare of Easttown and a nostalgic look at our favourite episodes. To really get things off our chests, we wrap up with the Gripe List - a random assortment of things that have pissed us off in 2021.

As always, thank you for listening. We’ll be back at the start of 2022

76 - How to help your anxious kid

This episode we’re giving a crash-course for parents on how to help your child when they’re anxious. Amy talks us through what kids’ anxiety looks like, how to begin to calm things down and when to call in the experts. Listen for practical, doable tips on what to do when your kid’s anxiety is overwhelming them or you. To finish up, Hunter talks about and Amy is inspired by Twitter to talk through drop bear survival.

Parent resources:

Best bubble solution with a wand that’s attached to the lid: https://www.bigw.com.au/product/ultra-premium-amazing-bubbles-6-pack/p/789862
Books: The Whole Brained Child, Parenting from the Inside Out
Australian parenting programs: Tuning in to Kids, Bringing up Great Kids
ACF free parenting booklets: Connected Parenting, Mindful Parenting
A book for kids about anxiety & what’s happening in their brain: Hey, Warrior

Things we came across:
Holiday spending
Drop bear tracking

73 - Why do we laugh?

This week we’re returning to an everyday psychology topic and pondering why we laugh. In classic Two Shrinks style, we talk through four pieces of research: preschoolers laughing with their friends, personality and laughter, ridicule in family and funeral workers’ use of laughter.

As always we finish up with things we came across: Amy freaks out about robot-human interaction and Hunter delights in a letter to the editor.

Research:

Social Facilitation of Laughter and Smiles in Preschool Children

Do extraverts ‘like to laugh’︁?: An analysis of the Situational Humor Response Questionnaire (SHRQ)

An Initial Study on How Families Deal with Ridicule and Being Laughed at: Parenting Styles and Parent–Child Relations with Respect to Gelotophobia, Gelotophilia, and Katagelasticism

I Nearly Died Laughing: Humor in Funeral Industry Operators

TWCA:

Robot Humor: How Self-irony and Schadenfreude Influence People's Rating of Robot Likability

Narratives with Robots: The Impact of Interaction Context and Individual Differences on Story Recall and Emotional Understanding

Development and Testing of Psychological Conflict Resolution Strategies for Assertive Robots to Resolve Human–Robot Goal Conflict

Designing Social Interactions with a Humorous Robot Photographer

Hunter’s book recommendation: In Moonland by Miles Allinson

Letter to the editor

72 - Why do we cry?

We’re back after an unexpected break with a classic Two Shrinks question, why do we cry?

Why is it that something painful, emotional or even joyful makes us tear up? How does it help us communicate, share with others, process how we feel? We’ll talk through why music makes us cry, what babies expect to happen when they cry, who cries in therapy and when it helps. To wrap up, we finish with the all important play behaviours of octopuses/octopi/octopodes and some research into whether little Albert actually became scared of white rabbits.

Join us next time for an episode on laughter.

If you need to take the time for a good cryve (cry while driving), let us set the mood we have a Cryving playlist up on Spotify.

Songs to Cryve to (Spotify playlist) :https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2qBqylXVS9QddK5gDR1wwF?si=75bdb78ec9c74dcc

Crying Research:

• Feeling Like Crying When Listening to Music: Exploring Musical and Contextual Features

• Young Infants Expect an Unfamiliar Adult to Comfort a Crying Baby: Evidence from a Standard Violation-of-Expectation Task and a Novel Infant-Triggered-Video Task

• Patient Crying in Psychotherapy: Who Cries and Why?

• Patients’ Crying Experiences in Psychotherapy and Relationship with Working Alliance, Therapeutic Change and Attachment Styles

• When and for Whom does Crying Improve Mood? A Daily Diary Study of 1004 Crying Episodes

TWCA:

• When Do Octopuses Play? Effects of Repeated Testing, Object Type, Age, and Food Deprivation on Object Play in Octopus Vulgaris

• Did Little Albert Actually Acquire a Conditioned Fear of Furry Animals? What the Film Evidence Tells us

Music featured in the episode:

Ave Maria - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_5bYNqpEFU
Beethoven’s 9th symphony - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdWyYn0E4Ys
Skinny love - Bon Iver
On my own - Samantha Banks
O children - Nick Cave
It’s quiet uptown from Hamilton
Someone great - LCD Soundsystem
Somewhere over the rainbow - Israel Kamakawiwo’ole

Thanks to listeners for contributing their songs - the playlist above includes all of our favourites.