Cultural Evolution - Jeremy Burman

Today's guest is dr. Stephan Schleim, Associate Professor in Theory and History of Psychology at the Heymans Institute. We discussed why students should care about the development of a theory of (psychological) science, the changes in examination methods during the COVID-19 crisis, and how to deal with increasing performance and excellence demands in academia and education. Stephan also shared his personal movie and book suggestions, including his all-time favourite book and Graham Greene's book "A Burn-out case". As Stephan says, "I recently read this novel, because it is used by some scholars as an argument that burn-out always existed. I investigated how much burn-out as it is described in the novel corresponds with our present understanding of the syndrome." Cover Photo: Elsbeth Hoekstra

Our guest in this episode is Bertus Jeronimus, researcher at the Developmental Psychology department at UG. We touch upon the controversies related with defining such an ambiguous construct as personality. Going beyond classical theories in this field, we discuss the dangers of perceiving personality as fixed and the ways in which one may alter their personality and, therefore, well-being.

Our guest in this episode is Prof. Peter de Jonge. We are talking about how his background in Psychiatry shaped his research in developmental psychology, how a renewed understanding of psychological disorders could lead to more effective treatment, and discuss his plans for his new position as the head of research at the Heymans.

"I've got a degree - now what?" Good question - we were also curious and talked to some of our graduates. Join us and listen to their experiences ranging from saving lives in an ambulance to cooking in Paris. Learn about how they resolved the uncertainty of graduating and what they did with their degree.

Link to Florian's blog: https://flowalks.wordpress.com/ In this episode, Yavor meets up with Florian, who is a post-doc at the Psychology Department. He tells us about how it was to graduate three times from the University of Groningen, his PhD work on improving learning methods by using cognitive modelling, and his experiences of the Pacific Crest Trail (a ~4300 km hike through the USA). Link to our blog: https://mindwise-groningen.nl/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mindwisegroningen/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/mw_groningen Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mindwise.faces/

In this episode, we virtually visit Brazil, India, and Colombia, through the stories of Lukas, Alex, and Valentin. The holiday season is here! During this time, many of you may travel back home, or to distant (usually hotter) lands to celebrate New Year's eve. Johanna and Mindwise present to you the first ever Adventures podcast - a series of short and casual interviews with psychology students about their experience studying abroad. P.S. all interviews happened in Groningen, the Netherlands. Image source: https://www.flickr.com/people/joe57spike/?rb=1

In this episode we talk to Maarten Derksen about social constructionism, bringing arguments for but also against it. How do social constructionist theories differ from mainstream psychological ones? Why do constructionists take some constructs for given but question others? Tune in to find out!

Today we discuss reductionism of psychology to neuroscience with the newly appointed assistant professor at the Department of Theory and History, Markus Eronen. We touch upon arguments in favor and against reductionism, as well as how that translates into treatment of mental disorders.

In this podcast we talk to Jeremy Burman (@BurmanPhD on Twitter) about the topic of cultural evolution as taught in the Controversies in Psychology course. We get to know about the use of memes in the study of cultural evolution, interdisciplinary methodological importations, but also about a unified theory of cultural evolution and its implications for society.

In this podcast, we talk to Maarten Derksen about the Replicability Crisis in Psychology based on a lecture in the Controversies in Psychology course. We touch upon the pros and cons of direct versus conceptual replications, ethical principles of conducting replications, but also bullying in the academia and the impact it has on the way science is done.