All posts tagged: understanding

Understanding incel culture – and if schools should be responsible for addressing it

Understanding incel culture – and if schools should be responsible for addressing it

Published by Daniella Wilson

Incels – involuntary celibates – believe they have been unconditionally excluded from the dating market and are doomed to remain virgins. This has negative implications for their mood and self-esteem, as well as the women and girls they grow to resent. For this reason, schools in England are now required to address incel communities, among other sources of online misogyny, in relationships, sex and health education. This is a challenging task when many teachers are already overstretched, and schools are increasingly expected to deal with problems that begin beyond the school gates. Addressing gender based discrimination and violence requires experts who are well prepared and able to support discussion around these sensitive topics in a manner that does not further stigmatise young people. Many young people worry about falling behind their peers socially and sexually. Sociological research shows this pressure is observable from high school onward, with pupils mocking each other if they do not appear sufficiently experienced or interested. Survey data finds inexperienced adults are seen as less desirable, even by those who share …

Understanding algorithms — and how to make them work for you

Understanding algorithms — and how to make them work for you

Published by Miika Tikkanen

Algorithms are incredible tools. When run by computers, they can fly airplanes without human pilots. They can figure out how much insulin a teen with Type I diabetes needs minute to minute. They even decide what social media shows you — and billions of other people.  Your brain creates algorithms, too. It uses them to decide where to stand on the soccer field when you’re playing defense. Or map the best bike route to school. Or choose between multiple-choice options on a test. “An algorithm is just a fairly precise list of instructions to accomplish a specified task,” says Noah Giansiracusa. He’s a mathematician at Bentley University in Waltham, Mass. Algorithms have been around since the beginning of human history. Hammurabi’s Code, for example, is a list of 282 rules from almost 4,000 years ago. A Babylonian king named Hammurabi laid out these rules for his subjects. They included things like the punishment for stealing an ox. (You had to pay back 30 times its value.) Those rules are perhaps the first “algorithm for justice,” …

Neuroscientists just upended our understanding of Pavlovian learning

Neuroscientists just upended our understanding of Pavlovian learning

Published by José Betancourt

A recent study published in Nature Neuroscience suggests that the brain learns to associate a specific signal with a reward based on the amount of time that passes between rewards, rather than the sheer number of repetitions. This challenges a century-old assumption about conditioning, providing evidence that total learning over a given period depends entirely on timing. These findings could shift our understanding of both animal and human learning. For over a hundred years, scientists have generally accepted that associative learning operates through trial and error. Associative learning is the process by which a human or animal learns to link a specific signal with a specific outcome, like a dog learning that a bell means dinner is ready. The prevailing thought has been that more practice leads to better learning. Scientists previously developed a mathematical model suggesting that animals learn by looking backward in time to identify the causes of meaningful effects. In this framework, the brain does not try to predict the future effects of a cue, but rather works backward from a reward …

Understanding How Medication and Psychotherapy Work Together

Understanding How Medication and Psychotherapy Work Together

Published by Jenni Sidey

While the primary focus of this blog will be skills training and targeting problems with psychodynamic psychotherapy (Busch, 2022), I thought it would be useful to begin with a discussion about how medication and psychotherapy work together. Many studies and wide-ranging clinical experiences have found that a combination of medication and psychotherapy is often more effective than either treatment alone for depressive and anxiety disorders (Cuijpers et al., 2019; Cuijpers et al., 2024). Recent guidelines have recommended that combination treatment is particularly valuable for depression that is moderate to severe or recurrent (American Psychiatric Association, 2023; National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), 2022), and similarly useful for anxiety that is severe, persistent, or recurrent (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), 2011). It is also common for patients to start either medication or psychotherapy alone and then have the other treatment added if symptoms persist (Guidi et al, 2021). Explanations for the combined effectiveness include that medication leads to a reduction of pervasive mood and anxiety symptoms, improving energy, sleep, and concentration, …

Understanding Scrupulosity

Understanding Scrupulosity

Published by Jenni Sidey

What is scrupulosity? Scrupulus is the Latin word for “a small sharp stone” or “a tiny pebble,” often used to describe a sharp stone in a sandal that caused constant, persistent discomfort. Cicero and other Romans used scrupulus metaphorically to describe a source of anxiety or a “pricking of the conscience,” likening a moral dilemma to a small stone in one’s shoe that bothers you until it is removed. Scrupulosity is now known as a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) characterized by persistent and excessive concerns about moral or religious correctness. Individuals with scrupulosity often experience intrusive thoughts about whether their actions, intentions, or beliefs are ethical or spiritually appropriate, leading to significant distress and anxiety. What do we know about people with scrupulosity? Epidemiological studies suggest that scrupulosity is relatively uncommon compared to other OCD subtypes, but it can significantly impact individuals within religious communities or those with strong moral convictions. Scrupulosity affects 1 in 20 of Western OCD sufferers; in some cultures, more than half of OCD sufferers have some sort of religious …

Understanding and Addressing Limited Health Literacy

Understanding and Addressing Limited Health Literacy

Published by Jenni Sidey

Adult literacy advocate Toni Cordell recounts the story of feeling comforted when her doctor told her that her medical concern could be solved with an easy surgery. She agreed to proceed without asking further questions and didn’t understand the medical consent forms because she didn’t read well. At a follow-up office visit a couple of weeks after the procedure, Cordell was shocked when the nurse asked, “How are you feeling since your hysterectomy?” Cordell thought to herself, “How could I be so stupid as to allow somebody to take part of my body, and I didn’t know it?” She admits that although she graduated from high school, she only had a fifth-grade reading level, which she had always tried to hide from others. Cordell’s story is unfortunately all too common, and it reflects the widespread and well-known problem of limited health literacy. Other examples of health literacy difficulties include incorrect use of medicines, filling out medical forms incompletely, failure to carry out health care instructions, and making unhealthy lifestyle choices like smoking, poor diet, and …

Understanding the ‘Ins’ and ‘Outs’ of Comedy: What Goes In…

Understanding the ‘Ins’ and ‘Outs’ of Comedy: What Goes In…

Published by Jenni Sidey

This is Part 1 of a series. Over the past few decades, and the past four-plus years especially, I’ve made mental notes on tens of thousands of examples of amusing content, from sitcoms, movies, standup routines, online videos, physical play, practical jokes, amusing signs—virtually every way in which laughter is inspired. I was reminded of a certain recurring pattern while working on my next book, a deep dive into the humor of the Seinfeld series. That is, why do we so often laugh at the process of placing various things into our bodies, as well as expelling various things out of our bodies? And, more importantly, how might the Mutual Vulnerability Theory account for such a pattern? As the name suggests, the Mutual Vulnerability Theory promotes the central premise that amusement is the desire to affirm a sense of shared, or mutual, vulnerability. Although at lower intensities it can be expressed with smiles, above a certain threshold intensity, amusement’s most definitive outward expression is that of laughter. (Newcomers can find a more complete description of …

Understanding a Suicidal Identity and Creating an Aspirational Identity

Understanding a Suicidal Identity and Creating an Aspirational Identity

Published by Jenni Sidey

In my lab, we watch dozens of videos of clinicians participating in five randomized controlled trials (RCTs) investigating the effectiveness of the “Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality” (CAMS) developed in the SPL (Jobes, 2023). Among the ongoing RCTs, I have some observations to share from two particular multisite RCTs that are funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The first one is a study of college students who are suicidal and seeking counseling center care at the University of Oregon, the University of Nevada-Reno, Duke University, and Rutgers University (Blalock et al., 2025). The second is a “CAMS-4Teens” RCT investigating adolescents who are suicidal in Seattle, Washington and Columbus, Ohio (Adrian et al., 2023). Our deep immersion in these trials, providing adherence coding and feedback to clinicians, along with holding weekly case consultation calls with study providers, offers some interesting observations about contemporary teenagers and college students today. While there are always exceptions, I am aware of a distinct subgroup of youth who are clearly attached to the concept of suicide. They …