[Content note: racism] In news that should surprise absolutely no one, conservatives have once again embarrassed themselves by attempting to “prove” with “science” that people of color are stupider than white people. Yup, again. You’ve probably read this story elsewhere so I’ll make my recap brief: It has come to light that Jason Richwine (I’m …
Tag Archive: psychology
May 10 2013
Self-Diagnosis and Its Discontents
There’s a certain scorn reserved for people who diagnose themselves with mental illnesses–people who, based on their own research or prior knowledge, decide that there’s a decent chance they have a diagnosable disorder, even if they haven’t (yet) seen a professional about it. I understand why psychologists and psychiatrists might find them troublesome. Nobody likes …
May 05 2013
[blogathon] Does Anyone Deserve to be Stigmatized?
This is the third post in my SSA blogathon! Don’t forget to donate! Last quarter I took a psychology class called Social Stigma. Social stigma, to quote the great Wikipedia, is: the extreme disapproval of (or discontent with) a person on socially characteristic grounds that are perceived, and serve to distinguish them, from other members …
May 01 2013
Does Sexist Humor Matter? A Review of the Research
[Content note: sexual assault] When people call out sexist humor, they’re often informed that “it’s just a joke.” While some seem to believe that humor inhabits a special dimension of the universe in which things don’t “really mean” anything, psychologists tend to disagree. There are many, many reasons sexist humor matters. It hurts people, first …
Apr 14 2013
Lessons I Learned From Depression
[Content note: depression] People struggling with mental illness (or any sort of illness, or anything crappy, really) are constantly exhorted by well-meaning people to find the “silver lining” in their experience. This often takes the form of tropes about “learning who your real friends are” or “learning how to fully appreciate life” or “understanding what’s …
Apr 03 2013
Busting Myths About Feminism With SCIENCE!
Well, Monday’s April Fool’s joke left such a bad taste in my mouth that I was compelled to hurry up and write this post, which I’ve wanted to write for a while. Feminist activists are invariably compelled to respond to silly, derailing claims about feminists’ supposed appearance, personalities, sex lives, attitudes towards men. You know …
Mar 31 2013
How To Get People To Care When It’s Not Personal: On Rob Portman
I’m going to talk about Rob Portman now even though that bit of news is pretty old at this point. (Hey, if you want to read about stuff in a timely manner, go read the NYT or something.) Brief summary: Portman is a Republican senator from Ohio (yay Ohio!) who used to oppose same-sex marriage but changed …
Mar 14 2013
Does Telling People to “Think Positive” Actually Help? An Informal Survey and Some Protips
Positive thinking is the bane of my existence. Not because I can’t do it, but because I’ve so often been exhorted to do it in the most unhelpful of ways. I’m someone who prefers to talk mostly about the neutral or negative aspects of my life to friends and family because I don’t want to …
Mar 12 2013
On “Sincerely Held Religious Beliefs” and Being a Counselor
Via JT, here’s a new bill that recently passed in the Tennessee State Senate Education Committee by a 7-2 vote: Republican state Sen. Joey Hensley encouraged fellow senators to pass SB 514 to “prevent an institution of high education from discriminating against a student in the counseling, social worker, psychology programs because of their religious beliefs.” Hensley’s bill …








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