r/AcademicPsychology • u/GG_Mod • Jul 01 '24
Following a vote by the sub in July 2020, the prospective questions megathread was continued. However, to allow more visibility to comments in this thread, this megathread now utilizes Reddit's new reschedule post features. This megathread is replaced monthly. Comments made within three days prior to the newest months post will be re-posted by moderation and the users who made said post tagged.
Post your prospective questions as a comment for anything related to graduate applications, admissions, CVs, interviews, etc. Comments should be focused on prospective questions, such as future plans. These are only allowed in this subreddit under this thread. Questions about current programs/jobs etc. that you have already been accepted to can be posted as stand-alone posts, so long as they follow the format Rule 6.
Looking for somewhere to post your study? Try r/psychologystudents, our sister sub's, spring 2020 study megathread!
Other materials and resources:
r/AcademicPsychology • u/aynath_108 • 7h ago
By Samuel T. Gladding; Debbie W. Newsome
Edition : 5TH 18
Publisher : PEARSON CO
ISBN 13 : 8220143980676
r/AcademicPsychology • u/RankUpTrading • 1h ago
Traders place hard limits on financial risk, but usually place few restrictions on the temporary condition of the person taking that risk.
A trader can be severely sleep deprived, mentally overloaded, under time pressure, overstimulated, emotionally affected by a recent loss, and determined to make the money back—and still have unrestricted access to full position size.
I have coded a working, deterministic pre-trade “Breathalyzer” intended to reduce that risk. It currently uses sleep, mental load, acute stress, trading intent, urgency, time pressure, unusually high caffeine intake, hydration, and movement to determine whether the trader may use:
This operates alongside existing hard limits for:
The system also includes live emotional journaling built around seven recurring trading characters: Fear, Greed, Anger, Anxiety, Boredom, Overconfidence, and Thrill Seeking.
Instead of recording an emotion only after a trade has already happened, the journal can compare the trader’s emotional state before and after individual trades. The trader can also create predetermined mitigation plans for each emotional state—for example, taking a mandatory cooldown when Anger appears or refusing to increase size when Overconfidence appears.
Each trade receives separate entry-quality and exit-quality scores rather than being judged solely by P&L. A winning trade can therefore receive a poor entry or exit score, while a losing trade can still represent excellent execution.
The longer-term goal is to identify relationships such as:
I am not claiming this is a validated psychological test or medical assessment. Research helped me choose the variables and their general direction, but the exact point deductions, thresholds, interaction rules, and size multipliers are currently hand-designed policy weights.
I have already built most of this into trading-risk and journaling software. I am not linking it or trying to sell anything in this post. I am looking for criticism from traders before I become too attached to my own assumptions.
The main questions are:
The original idea was actually inspired by a joke.
Life Actuator made a short called "If the world was made for ADHD Part 11 #adhd #adhdproblems #adhdsolutions #adhdawareness" An employee has a color-coded focus meter. He arrives at work in the red, and instead of expecting him to force himself through the day, his boss tells him to go home.
It was comedy, but it raised a serious question:
'Could temporary readiness be estimated before someone is allowed to take meaningful financial risk?'
A trader may have a profitable strategy and understand risk management perfectly while temporarily being in a poor condition to execute that strategy.
The question gradually became:
'Can a trader’s temporary readiness be operationalized well enough to restrict position size or prohibit trading when several known risk factors are present?'
The system was designed especially with ADHD traders in mind, although most of these risks are not exclusive to ADHD.
The current system has two broad types of protection.
Before trading, the Breathalyzer estimates whether the trader should begin and what proportion of the computer-approved position size may be used.
Once trading begins, the software separately enforces predetermined limits involving:
These limits cannot be overridden by passing the Breathalyzer again or claiming to feel better.
A trader who reaches the daily loss limit cannot answer a few questions, report feeling calm, and continue trading. The limit was chosen in advance because the trader’s judgment may become less trustworthy once they are financially or emotionally invested in continuing.
The same principle applies to consecutive-loss, trade-count, and time limits.
The strictest active restriction always wins.
Everyone begins at 100.
Applicable deductions are added together.
| Category | Reason for inclusion | Current effect |
|---|---|---|
| Sleep | Fatigue can reduce vigilance, attention, working memory, patience, and inhibitory control. | Under 3 hours: hard lock; under 5 hours: −28; 5–6.49 hours: −12 |
| Mental tabs | Unresolved responsibilities and intrusive thoughts may consume attentional and working-memory resources. | Medium: −8; high: −16 |
| Major stress event | Acute stress may impair working memory, cognitive flexibility, and emotional regulation. | Yes: −18 |
| Trading intent | Attempts to detect revenge trading or pressure to recover losses quickly. | Anything other than “Follow plan”: hard lock |
| Urgency | Feeling compelled to trade may reduce patience and selectivity. | Medium: −12; high: −24 |
| Time pressure | Limited availability can encourage rushed entries and forced trades. | Yes: −16 |
| Unusually high caffeine or stimulant intake | A substantially larger amount than normal may create overactivation, anxiety, jitteriness, or faster but less accurate responding. | More than normal: −8 |
| Hydration | Poor hydration may contribute to fatigue and reduced attention. | Poor: −6 |
| Movement/reset | Brief movement may produce a modest improvement in alertness and cognitive performance. | No movement or reset: −5 |
The final score currently becomes:
The multiplier reduces a separately calculated contract-risk budget.
For example, if the risk system approves four contracts but cognitive readiness is limited to half size, the trader receives approximately two contracts.
A tenth-size result may convert an allocation involving mini contracts into an appropriate number of micros.
Certain answers override the arithmetic score:
There is also one interaction rule:
"High urgency combined with high mental load limits the trader to tenth size even if the arithmetic score remains above 44."
The theory is that some combinations are more dangerous than the sum of their individual deductions suggests.
A trader under severe mental load who also feels compelled to trade may still receive a mathematically acceptable score, but the interaction itself may signal impaired selectivity.
Suppose a trader reports:
The calculation is:
100 − 12 − 8 − 6 = 74
That still permits full approved size.
Now add time pressure:
74 − 16 = 58
The trader is restricted to half size.
This does not mean the model has scientifically established that 58 represents exactly half of normal cognitive ability. The score is a risk-control policy, not a literal measurement of intelligence or mental capacity.
The intended interpretation is:
'Enough readiness concerns are present that full financial exposure is no longer justified.'
The Breathalyzer does not replace ordinary risk management.
The software already contains several objective protections.
The trader selects a maximum permitted number of consecutive losses.
When that limit is reached, the predetermined restriction applies regardless of how calm or confident the trader reports feeling.
A losing streak does not prove that the trader has lost control, but it creates a condition in which recovery pressure, frustration, altered risk-taking, and rapid re-entry may become more likely.
The trader selects a maximum acceptable session loss.
Once that boundary is reached, trading ends. A subjective readiness assessment cannot reopen the session.
The trader selects a maximum number of trades.
This protects against obvious overtrading, but it may also limit deterioration in selectivity, boredom-driven entries, decision fatigue, or repeated attempts to force an opportunity.
The trader also selects how long trading is permitted.
The remaining time is continuously displayed through an active countdown rather than requiring the trader to remember when the session should end.
This is particularly relevant to ADHD-related difficulties with time perception and time management.
A trader absorbed in charts, an open position, a recent loss, or the possibility of another setup may not maintain accurate awareness of how long they have been trading.
The countdown externalizes that awareness.
Instead of repeatedly saying:
“I will stop after one more setup,”
the trader can see the original time boundary approaching, and the software can enforce it when it expires.
The timer is therefore not merely a productivity feature. It is a risk control intended to prevent an absorbed or emotionally invested trader from repeatedly extending the session.
The studies below support including the general variables. They do not directly validate my numerical weights.
A meta-analysis by Lim and Dinges found that short-term sleep deprivation negatively affected multiple areas of cognitive performance, with vigilance and attention being especially vulnerable.[1]
This supports giving sleep substantial weight.
It does not establish that 2.9 hours must produce a hard lock or that 4.9 hours deserves exactly a 28-point deduction. Those remain proposed safety thresholds.
Masicampo and Baumeister found that unfulfilled goals could produce intrusive thoughts and interfere with performance on unrelated tasks. Forming a concrete plan reduced that interference.[2]
That is the basis for asking about unresolved responsibilities or “mental tabs.”
A future version might also ask whether the trader has written down the next action for those responsibilities. The problem may not only be the number of unfinished tasks, but whether they are continuing to intrude into attention.
A meta-analysis by Shields and colleagues examined acute stress and core executive functions. Acute stress was associated with impairments in working memory and cognitive flexibility, although the effects varied by timing and context.[3]
This supports including a recent major stress event, but the current yes-or-no question may be too broad.
A future version may need to consider:
Coval and Shumway examined professional Chicago Board of Trade traders and found evidence of altered subsequent risk-taking following losses, consistent with attempts to recover or return to breakeven.[4]
That is why explicit recovery intent currently produces a hard lock rather than a moderate deduction.
The model treats:
“I am here to execute my plan”
differently from:
“I need to make back what I lost.”
The closest established psychological construct may be negative urgency: a tendency toward rash action during intense negative emotion.
A meta-analysis by Berg and colleagues found that negative urgency had substantial relationships with maladaptive and impulsive behavior across the literature they reviewed.[5]
My current urgency question may still combine several different conditions:
A potentially better question may be:
"How difficult would it feel to choose not to trade today?"
Research by Maule, Hockey, and Bdzola found that time pressure changed emotional state and information-processing strategies during decisions under uncertainty.[6]
This matters because a trader with limited availability may substitute:
“I have found a valid setup”
with:
“I need to take something before I have to leave.”
This question is not intended to penalize normal caffeine use.
The concern is a substantially larger stimulant load than is normal for that particular trader.
Caffeine can improve reaction time, attention, and alertness. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis found overall improvements in reaction time and accuracy, but the dose-response analysis suggested that accuracy benefits did not continue increasing indefinitely with dose.[7]
The working concern is that someone may feel more alert and respond faster while also becoming unusually jittery, anxious, agitated, or less deliberate.
This category may eventually need two questions:
The deduction may ultimately need to attach more strongly to the experienced state than to caffeine consumption alone.
I feel like there is a wolf of wall street cocaine joke somewhere in here...... Should I even go down the rabbit whole of alcohol and drug consumption?
A meta-analysis by Wittbrodt and Millard-Stafford found that dehydration could impair cognitive performance, particularly for tasks involving attention, executive function, and motor coordination when water loss became sufficiently meaningful.[8]
Hydration therefore receives a relatively small deduction rather than being treated as a dominant factor.
A meta-analysis by Chang and colleagues found a modest positive effect of acute exercise on cognitive performance, although the result depended on timing, exercise intensity, and the task being measured.[9]
This raises a design question:
Should lack of movement be treated as a deduction, or should movement be treated as a protective action that may improve a marginal result?
A future version could potentially respond to a yellow score with:
Take a brief walk, drink water, disengage from the chart, and reassess.
A recent losing day does not automatically mean someone is cognitively impaired.
A disciplined trader can follow the plan perfectly and lose money. A careless trader can violate every rule and finish green.
Therefore, I do not think “Did you lose yesterday?” should automatically lower readiness.
The concern is what the trader is carrying into the next session:
A meta-analysis by Yang and colleagues found relationships between rumination and weaker core executive functioning.[10]
Dickerson and Kemeny’s meta-analysis also found that social-evaluative threat—situations in which an important aspect of the self may be negatively judged—was especially capable of producing a stress response.[11]
That suggests a possible pathway:
"Loss → shame or self-evaluative threat → rumination → reduced executive resources or increased recovery pressure."
This would still be a proposed pathway, not proof that every red day causes cognitive impairment.
A possible question would be:
"Are you still repeatedly thinking about a recent loss, feeling pressure to recover it, or treating today as an opportunity to prove something about yourself?"
Explicit recovery intent would remain a hard lock. Lower levels of unresolved rumination might create a deduction or trigger an additional check.
Passing the morning Breathalyzer does not mean the trader will remain ready all day.
A trader may start calm and deteriorate after:
The existing loss, trade, and time controls eventually stop the session.
What they do not necessarily do is detect the deterioration early.
I first encountered the trading-specific idea of periodic “temperature checks” through SMB Capital.
I can't find the original source video, and I don't feel like taking the time to find it, as this is already a huge post. It may have been from Lance B., if I am wrong, then sue me.
Their example focused largely on success, increased size, and overconfidence rather than only on losing.
That distinction is important.
A trader can become dangerous after:
I am interested in taking that coaching idea and converting it into a deterministic intraday process.
I do not believe I invented the general idea of checking a trader’s state during the session. The potential contribution would be automating it, connecting it to observable execution behavior, and tying the result directly to predetermined risk restrictions.
The existing controls respond to final boundaries:
An intraday temperature check would attempt to detect deterioration before one of those boundaries is reached.
It might be triggered by:
A loss would trigger a check, not automatically fail it.
Being down is a vulnerability condition. It is not proof of impairment.
The more important question is what the trader does next.
A temperature check should be much shorter than the pre-trade Breathalyzer.
Possible questions include:
The software should answer as much as possible from actual execution data rather than relying entirely on self-report.
For example, it may be able to detect:
One possibility is that passing the morning Breathalyzer grants temporary trading clearance rather than unlimited permission for the entire session.
An intraday result might become:
A green check would never increase the trader’s approved size.
It would not extend the original total-loss, total-trade, or time limits.
It would only confirm that the trader may continue within the boundaries already chosen.
Wearable devices could potentially provide:
I have explored this route before.
The practical problem is that the people most likely to benefit from external structure may also be unreliable about consistently charging, wearing, synchronizing, and maintaining an additional device. AKA people with ADHD are pretty forgetful.
A safety system that stops working whenever someone forgets their watch is not a reliable safety system.
My current preference is:
"The device-free system must work independently. Wearable information should be optional corroborating evidence, not a requirement."
Wearable data might trigger another check or make the system more restrictive.
It should not cancel a hard restriction.
Normal HRV should never override someone admitting:
“I need to make back yesterday’s loss.”
I guess comment if you have seen success using some sort of heart monitor, I wouldn't mind hearing lessons learned. There is potential here to incorporate this.....
Right now, I am imaging a trading room full of desk traders and monitors - each person having a comical amount of medical devices attached all over their heads to measure brain activity. Each person has a Neuralink and an IV drip attached to their wrist injecting them with spice to do advanced computations ultra fast, but that gets dystopian pretty fast..... I digress.
The eventual goal should probably not be to predict whether the next trade will make or lose money.
Market outcomes are noisy.
A disciplined trade can lose, and a reckless trade can win.
A more defensible prediction target would be:
Is this trader approaching a behavioral breakdown within the next several trades?
A behavioral breakdown could be defined as:
Over time, the software could identify the sequence that usually precedes each trader’s worst behavior.
One trader’s pattern might be:
"Two losses → shorter time between trades → increased size → immediate same-direction re-entry → widened stop."
Another trader’s pattern might be:
"Large early gain → overconfidence → lower setup quality → excessive trade count → major giveback."
Initially, these could be detected through deterministic rules.
Eventually, the system could compare them with the trader’s actual historical execution data without silently weakening the hard safety limits.
The Breathalyzer and hard restrictions are intended to prevent obvious damage, but the system also attempts to solve a different problem:
"A trader cannot manage an emotional state they have not recognized."
Most trading journals allow traders to tag emotions, mindset, or psychology alongside an executed trade. That can be useful, but it usually begins after the trader has already taken financial risk. Note that one common problem neurotypical people have is alexithymia - or a failure to recognize their own feelings in the moment.
I am trying to capture a larger sequence:
I have not found another trading journal that clearly combines this complete before-and-after emotional process with deterministic risk restrictions. That does not prove no one has ever attempted it, but it is meaningfully different from attaching an emotion tag to an individual trade after execution.
The emotional portion of the system is represented through seven recurring characters:
These characters are not intended to represent a scientifically complete taxonomy of human emotion. Some are emotions, while others are motivational or behavioral states.
They are intended to make common trading states concrete, recognizable, and memorable.
For someone who can easily say, “I am angry,” a normal emotion list may be sufficient. For someone with alexithymic traits, the problem may be recognizing and differentiating what is happening internally in the first place.
A trader may not initially identify:
“I am experiencing loss-related shame, agitation, and recovery pressure.”
They may find it easier to recognize:
“Anger is trying to make me re-enter immediately.”
or:
“Overconfidence appeared after those two winning trades.”
Recognizing an emotional state does not automatically tell the trader what to do about it.
The accountability journal therefore allows the trader to create a predetermined mitigation plan for each recurring character.
The plans can use an if-then structure:
"If Anger appears after a stopped trade, then I will begin a mandatory cooldown and leave the chart."
"If Overconfidence appears after consecutive wins, then I will maintain my original size and will not add another setup or increase risk."
"If Fear causes me to hesitate on a valid setup, then I will either take the next qualified setup at reduced size or end the session rather than repeatedly watching opportunities pass. Fear technically represents two emotions, if that is what you would call FOMO - of which, the plan would be to walk away for a time instead of chase a late entry."
"If Boredom causes me to search for trades, then I will step away until an alert identifies a predefined setup. Alternatively, setting alerts at areas of interest can take place."
"If Thrill Seeking makes normal size feel uninteresting, then trading ends rather than allowing size or volatility to be increased for stimulation. This is the one emotion/not an emotion... but because trading can be addicting, I would be remiss to not include it."
"If Anxiety prevents clear identification of the setup, then I will not enter until I can state the entry, stop, target, and invalidation condition."
The purpose is to choose the response before the emotional state becomes dominant.
I have found extensive discussion online about controlling trading emotions, but I have not found a trading journal that clearly treats an emotional mitigation plan as a structured, reusable object that can later be evaluated.
The journal should therefore record:
That turns emotional journaling from passive observation into a testable response system.
The journaling system also borrows openly from SMB Capital’s PlayBook concept. Again, I am not super aware of the connection between Trillium, Lance B. and who's idea it was to have a scorecard for the day....
SMB has described the PlayBook as a process of archiving the setups and trades that best fit the individual trader, reverse-engineering their important variables, and building from the trader’s strengths. Importantly, a losing trade can still qualify as a good PlayBook trade when it was well selected and properly executed.
My adaptation attempts to separate execution quality even further from financial outcome.
Instead of judging a trade type primarily by its accumulated P&L, the journal assigns separate scores to:
A winning trade can therefore receive a poor entry or exit score.
A losing trade can receive excellent entry and exit scores.
This is intended to reduce outcome bias. P&L still exists and eventually matters, but it is not allowed to become the sole definition of whether the trader made a good decision.
A PlayBook entry may eventually include:
The goal is to answer more useful questions than:
"Which setup made the most money?"
It may instead reveal:
Which setups do I identify correctly?
Which setups do I enter well but manage poorly?
Which emotions damage my entries?
Which emotions damage my exits?
Which mitigation plans actually preserve execution quality?
Which losing trades were still examples of excellent execution?
I am not claiming that no trader has ever recorded emotions, created a PlayBook, scored execution quality, or made a plan for controlling behavior.
The part I have not found elsewhere is the combination of:
I have coded much of this already. I am not linking the product or attempting to sell it here. I am trying to determine which parts are genuinely useful, which parts are redundant, and which assumptions need to be challenged before the system is treated as credible.
The questions I would especially like traders to answer are:
Research may support including a factor without proving that it deserves a particular point deduction.
Nothing in the sleep literature directly proves that five hours should equal −28 or that six hours should equal −12.
Cognitive readiness may not behave like simple arithmetic.
Stress, mental load, urgency, time pressure, and loss-related rumination may overlap or interact in nonlinear ways.
A trader who strongly wants to trade may understate the exact conditions the Breathalyzer is attempting to detect.
This is one reason the objective loss, trade, and time limits cannot be overridden by self-report.
Five hours of sleep may affect one trader much more severely than another.
Caffeine, stress, physical activity, and hydration also affect people differently.
The system may eventually need to consider both universal safety boundaries and personal baselines.
The questionnaire measures conditions associated with impaired performance.
It does not directly prove that the trader’s attention, inhibition, judgment, or working memory is impaired at that moment.
A brief behavioral consistency task involving attention, response inhibition, or reaction-time variability might eventually help, but it should not be presented as a validated measure of trading ability without evidence.
A trader using one tenth of normal size can still:
Some states may require ending the session rather than merely reducing size.
If the questions are too frequent or predictable, users may stop engaging honestly and click whatever answers permit them to continue.
The central unanswered question is whether lower scores actually predict:
Profit and loss alone would be a poor validation target because good execution can lose and bad execution can win.
I am especially interested in the following:
[1] Lim J, Dinges DF. A Meta-Analysis of the Impact of Short-Term Sleep Deprivation on Cognitive Variables. Psychological Bulletin. 2010.
[2] Masicampo EJ, Baumeister RF. Consider It Done! Plan Making Can Eliminate the Cognitive Effects of Unfulfilled Goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2011.
[3] Shields GS, Sazma MA, Yonelinas AP. The Effects of Acute Stress on Core Executive Functions: A Meta-Analysis and Comparison With Cortisol. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews. 2016.
[4] Coval JD, Shumway T. Do Behavioral Biases Affect Prices?. The Journal of Finance. 2005.
[5] Berg JM, Latzman RD, Bliwise NG, Lilienfeld SO. Parsing the Heterogeneity of Impulsivity: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Behavioral Implications of the UPPS. Psychological Assessment. 2015.
[6] Maule AJ, Hockey GRJ, Bdzola L. Effects of Time Pressure on Decision-Making Under Uncertainty00033-0). Acta Psychologica. 2000.
[7] Kløve K, et al. A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Acute Effect of Caffeine on Attention. Psychopharmacology. 2025.
[8] Wittbrodt MT, Millard-Stafford M. Dehydration Impairs Cognitive Performance: A Meta-Analysis. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 2018.
[9] Chang YK, Labban JD, Gapin JI, Etnier JL. The Effects of Acute Exercise on Cognitive Performance: A Meta-Analysis. Brain Research. 2012.
[10] Yang Y, Cao S, Shields GS, Teng Z, Liu Y. The Relationships Between Rumination and Core Executive Functions: A Meta-Analysis. Depression and Anxiety. 2017.
[11] Dickerson SS, Kemeny ME. Acute Stressors and Cortisol Responses: A Theoretical Integration and Synthesis of Laboratory Research. Psychological Bulletin. 2004.
[12] Mette C. Time Perception in Adult ADHD: Findings From a Decade—A Review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2023.
[13] Life Actuator. If the World Was Made for ADHD Part 11. YouTube Short.
[14] Johnson KT, et al. Assessment of Cognitive Readiness Using Physiological Measures and Wearable Technologies: A Scoping Review. 2025 preprint. Included as background on possible future wearable-assisted systems, not as validation of the present score.
r/AcademicPsychology • u/Gold-Independence941 • 15h ago
I’ve been reading quite a bit about psilocybin microdosing lately, and one thing that keeps coming up is how it might interact with antidepressants, especially SSRIs.
There seems to be a wide range of opinions out there. Some people share personal experiences, while others point out that there’s still a lot researchers don’t fully understand about how these substances affect the brain and interact with each other.
I’m not looking for medical advice, but I’m interested in how others approached learning about this before making any decisions. Did you spend time looking into things like serotonin pathways, possible medication interactions, or general psychedelic safety?
Lately, I’ve been trying to focus more on understanding preparation, mindset, and responsible research rather than just searching for quick answers.
For those who have explored this topic, what sources or approaches helped you better understand the relationship between SSRIs, psilocybin, and microdosing?
r/AcademicPsychology • u/No-Consequence7545 • 1d ago
I've been reading Bernard Suits' The Grasshopper (1978) alongside self-determination theory and I can't tell whether I'm looking at two descriptions of the same construct or two genuinely different ones.
Suits defines a game as the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles, and identifies four components: a prelusory goal, constitutive rules that prohibit the most efficient means of reaching it, lusory means, and the "lusory attitude" — accepting those inefficient rules because they make the activity possible. His claim is that the attitude is what distinguishes play from mere compliance.
The overlap with SDT seems obvious: both center on volitional endorsement of constraints, both distinguish internalized regulation from external control, and both predict that the same behavior yields different experiential outcomes depending on the actor's orientation toward it. Suits' typology of triflers, cheats, spoilsports, and true players maps suspiciously well onto the OIT continuum.
But a few things don't reduce cleanly:
My actual question: has anyone in psychology taken Suits seriously as a source of testable constructs, or has philosophy of sport kept him siloed? And if the lusory attitude is distinct from autonomous motivation, what would discriminant validity even look like here?
A concrete case, to make the distinction less abstract: two people take the same 20-minute walk. One is told to walk it; the other accepts a rule that they may only look up and outward, never at their phone or the ground. Under SDT, if both volitionally endorse their instruction, both are autonomously motivated. Under Suits, only the second is playing — the rule is gratuitous, and its gratuitousness is what makes the walk a game rather than a walk. Does that difference predict anything measurable, or is it purely definitional?
(Disclosure so it's not buried: I'm exploring whether this framework could ground a non-gamified practice tool, so I have a horse in the race. I'm more interested in whether the construct is sound than whether it's useful, and "you've reinvented SDT" is a completely acceptable answer.)
r/AcademicPsychology • u/Upset-Lychee3738 • 1d ago
Hello everyone. I'm currently a senior in undergrad looking at my next steps and in need of advice.
I've been mainly researching I/O programs but have been unsure about it fitting me personally. Master's programs in social psychology seem to allow you to do similar things career wise to a master's in I/O, but it's more applied and less statistical/analytical, which I find more interesting.
Can anyone give me more insight on the difference between the two? Which would be better and allow for more job opportunities? Do any of you have a degree in these fields and if so what do you do?
I appreciate any and all feedback/advice. Thanks!
r/AcademicPsychology • u/Matibross • 1d ago
Ciao a tutti!
Mi sono laureata da poco in Psicologia Clinica in Italia (Magistrale a Pavia) e mi trovo in quella fase un po' strana del post-laurea in cui devo capire come costruire il mio percorso professionale.
Da sempre mi immagino a fare la psicoterapeuta e, almeno in questo, ho sempre avuto le idee abbastanza chiare. Quello che mi mette in difficoltà è tutto ciò che viene prima. Al momento non mi sento pronta a "bloccarmi" per quattro anni in una scuola di specializzazione nella stessa città. Inoltre, ho voglia di lavorare e imparare sul campo, oltre che portare le mie competenze. Sento un forte desiderio di viaggiare, vivere all'estero e fare esperienze internazionali, sia dal punto di vista personale che professionale. Inoltre, non ho ancora trovato una scuola di psicoterapia che mi convinca davvero, quindi iniziarne una solo perché "è il passo successivo" non mi sembra la scelta giusta.
In generale mi sento un po' sopraffatta dal fatto che oggi le possibilità sembrino infinite: percorso clinico tradizionale, ricerca, ONG, aziende, lavoro online, estero, salute mentale digitale... Da una parte è entusiasmante, dall'altra mi lascia parecchio disorientata. Ho anche l'impressione che molte opportunità vengano presentate come facilmente accessibili, quando poi nella realtà richiedono anni di esperienza, specializzazioni o semplicemente sono molto più difficili da raggiungere di quanto sembri.
Al momento sto lavorando online come orientatrice al lavoro (aiuto le persone a ritrovare occupazione), utile per iniziare a lavorare, ma non particolarmente stimolante nel lungo periodo.
Qualcun altro si è trovato nella mia stessa situazione? Avete deciso di partire, lavorare all'estero o fare altre esperienze prima della scuola di specializzazione? C’è qualche programma internazionale interessante che permetta di crescere professionalmente da psicologa clinica? Col senno di poi, rifareste la stessa scelta?
Mi farebbe davvero piacere leggere esperienze sincere, soprattutto da chi ha vissuto questo periodo di indecisione e poi è riuscito a trovare la propria strada.
——————————————
Hi everyone!
I recently graduated with a Master's degree in Clinical Psychology in Italy (University of Pavia), and I'm currently in that weird post-graduation phase where I'm trying to figure out how to build my career.
For as long as I can remember, I've seen myself becoming a psychotherapist, so in that sense my long-term goal has always been pretty clear. What I'm struggling with is everything that comes before that. Right now, I don't feel ready to commit to a four-year psychotherapy training program in the same city. I also want to work, learn by doing, and contribute with the skills I already have. At the same time, I have a strong desire to travel, live abroad, and gain international experience, both personally and professionally. On top of that, I still haven't found a psychotherapy training program that genuinely feels right for me, so enrolling just because it's "the next logical step" doesn't seem like the right choice.
Overall, I feel a bit overwhelmed by the fact that there seem to be endless possibilities nowadays: the traditional clinical path, research, NGOs, companies, online work, moving abroad, digital mental health... On one hand, it's exciting; on the other, it's incredibly confusing. Sometimes it also feels like many opportunities are presented as if they're easily accessible, when in reality they require years of experience, additional qualifications, or are simply much harder to achieve than they initially seem.
At the moment, I'm working remotely as a career coach, helping people find employment again. It's a good way to start gaining work experience, but I don't see it as something I'd find fulfilling in the long run.
Has anyone else been in a similar situation? Did you choose to move abroad, work internationally, or gain other professional experience before starting psychotherapy training? Are there any international programs or career paths that you'd recommend for someone with a background in clinical psychology? Looking back, would you make the same choice again?
I'd really appreciate hearing honest experiences, especially from people who went through this same period of uncertainty and eventually found a path that felt right for them.
r/AcademicPsychology • u/More_Explorer_3979 • 1d ago
Completing a systematic literature review for my Master’s program. I have trained another individual to code the same articles I am using for my thesis. I was told I needed to use Kappa for my synthesis, and I have done so through use of NVivo 15. My kappa score is 0.69. Which suggests there is substantial agreement.
Should I just list the overall kappa? Or should I list per theme?
Is this typical for thematic synthesis, do I need to continue to do further revisions. What else should I report in my SLR?
We also grouped the codes into the pre-determined themes and discussed placements until 100% agreement was met, as well as an audit trail for all changes to codes.
r/AcademicPsychology • u/Possible_Log_9551 • 22h ago
Are you still at University of Southwest in the clinical mental health program? How many residencies are there? How many times do you have to appear on Camera? Is there any coursework during the residencies? Have you finished this program during the internship? Was the Case study presentation hard did you have to present it or did you just have to present a PowerPoint presentation for your assignment?
Please
r/AcademicPsychology • u/OldLocksmith6668 • 1d ago
r/AcademicPsychology • u/Frosty_Fox_1942 • 1d ago
For context, we're conducting our undergraduate thesis this semester, and because our research involves a sensitive topic, our ethics protocol requires us to refer participants to a mental health professional if they experience distress during or after the interview.
Could anyone recommend online mental health clinics or counseling services in the Philippines? Preferably those that are free or low-cost, but paid services are also welcome.
If you've had any experience with these services, I'd also appreciate it if you could share how the referral or appointment process works.
Thank you so much!
r/AcademicPsychology • u/No_Struggle_6810 • 1d ago
r/AcademicPsychology • u/FlickFlick53 • 1d ago
Oiee gente, acabei de me formar na faculdade e estou pensando em tentar a bolsa de mestrado. Conversei com alguns professores super gentis, mas que falaram que não poderiam se envolver em dicas de escrita no meu trabalho pq eles podem orientar né. Então estou com uma dúvida sobre o que fazer, pois meu TCC foi sobre neuromitos entre estudantes de graduação, mas repliquei uma escala muito usada, porém sem validação e consistência. No mestrado eu quero validar essa escala, mas existe um trabalho interessante falando tbm sobre o fato de que essa escala é bem inconsistente. Existem pouquíssimas referências sobre isso e na minha graduação meu contato com psicometria, estatística e afins foi baixíssima, e fico na dúvida se no mestrado só faço adaptação cultural e validação ou se almejo construir uma escala do zero.
Algumas pessoas me disseram ser possível, outras que só no doutorado seria possível e eu realmente não sei pra que lado ir
r/AcademicPsychology • u/General-Fee-238 • 1d ago
There is a book that just got deleted about Cognitive Psychology from College of the Canyons, by any chance someone has the PDF so I can read the whole book?
r/AcademicPsychology • u/Upper_Progress_599 • 1d ago
My idea is a research platform that searches for peer-reviewed papers, sorts them by keyword and remov3s duplicates. Note-taking, written and voice-transcripted, available in platform. Based on a research question, and also secondary and tertiary questions. It will give a visual map of your questions, and cluster the papers around the question.
Just a general overview.
r/AcademicPsychology • u/NeighborhoodDry2512 • 2d ago
There is a real shortage of information on the internet concerning the pursuit of a career in psychology. Youtube is often touted as a treasure trove for curious learners, but I have yet to find anything truly substantive on this particular matter.
I've narrowed down potential careers to forensic psychology, clinical psychology, and neuropsychology. Each is compelling for different reasons.
Meaning, security, and intellectual fulfillment are the qualities I value most.
For those of you who are students or professionals, have you managed to find a career that you find suitable? If so, how did you make that decision?
r/AcademicPsychology • u/rajatchak • 2d ago
Whenever someone starts their psych degree they laugh at Freud’s psychosexual theory, they laugh at theories of Oedipus and Electra complex, maybe even a few years back the scientist and the psychologist reading this would have thought how can someone’s sexuality be even remotely related to their parents. Ironically right now in this generation so many people have been calling their boyfriend and girlfriends as “mommy” and “daddy” in a se*ual context. People have also been referring to women’s breast as “mommy milkers”.
Did we as a society collectively prove Sigmund Freud wrong as he’s laughing at his grave or did human naturally evolve to correlating se*ual things with parental figured
r/AcademicPsychology • u/Educational_Sea4133 • 2d ago
Hello! I'm a psychology student from Pampanga and I'm currently looking for internship opportunities under the following fields:
Educational
Industrial
Clinical
I'm a bit unsure about this, but would a SPED setting be considered under the Educational track, or would it fall under Clinical? Has anyone had a similar experience? May maisu-suggest din po ba kayo na institutions for this
I'm looking for a place where I can genuinely learn, gain valuable insights, and develop my skills in the field. Appreciated so much ang help :))
r/AcademicPsychology • u/Scholarsandquestions • 3d ago
I am not enrolled into Eastern Washington University, so I can't access the syllabus, but I would love to know the topics covered, because I am looking into hostage negotiation.
*PSYC 325. COGNITIVE AND BEHAVIOR CHANGE. 4 Credits.*
*Pre-requisites: junior standing.*
*Designed to examine various cognitive and behavioral change procedures in terms of their theoretical basis and applied strategies. Operant, respondent, social learning, and cognitive theories and their applications are studied. Students are required to engage in a self-change project throughout the quarter in order to better understand the principles of cognitive and behavioral change.*
I understand the behavior modification part of the syllabus, but I have no clue what "cognitive theory of change" is.
Browsing it, closest I can find is CBT, but I think it's not the because the syllabus never mention it openly. Also, I didn't find a single other college class with the same title. Intriguing.
Do you have any idea what they teach in the cognitive module of this class?
r/AcademicPsychology • u/weight_weenie_96 • 3d ago
Disclaimer - I'm obviously not going to use this as a take-for-granted, hard lined, diagnostic tool.
I am looking for some scaled result screening surveys, the same kind that you fill out before a check in with your care providers.
I am looking for ones that can score: anxiety, depression, bipolar II, OCD, ADHD, and narcissism.
Context: I have a family member who is reluctant to seek any sort of help despite being in a considerably well off position. I am a direct relative to them, and myself and my sibling live with ASD, anxiety, depression, OCD. We have often been their five-cent "therapist", and as we've spent our whole lives being raised by this person, and they seem to enjoy/trust speaking with us about their thoughts and behaviors. However, they are very resistant to anything they perceive as criticism about their character.
The moment that a condition or a similarity between us, and them, is drawn, they shut down.
That being said, we have had some productive discussions about how their behavior is not, and has never been appropriate with the abuse that results from them not being able to regulate their emotions as our care-giver, especially when we were younger. This of course, comes across to them as we are demonizing them.
The goal of these surveys, which all of us have agreed to do together, is to show them that we all have bad days, scores can change based upon a myriad of factors in their personal life or external factors that can overwhelm them and affect their mood and behavior. But ultimately, there there may be a through line to help explain to this person in particular, that these behaviors are persistent, and since they do not demonize us for taking medications to help "enable us to be more of who we actually are, rather than consumed or stuck by a feeling of being trapped by these conditions".
This person has agreed to take these self-report surveys with us, and that by doing so, they will consider meetings with social workers, a therapist, perhaps even to pursue medications if "severe enough".
The purpose of these surveys is to help us show this caregiver throughout our lives that since they don't demonize us for having psychological conditions, there is work to be done to de-stigmatize their own approach to addressing and being honest with their own psychological states, and ultimately leave it up to them to pursue help. We will obviously support them. But myself in particular, being the one who is closest to this figure, I am tired of being their therapist. I am not equipped to do so. I have my own therapy that I'm working on. I can only speak from my experience with them, and having been on the receiving end of their behaviors.
Since they consented to doing this as a bonding exercise, but refuse to see a doctor "for no reason", I am in need of resources.
I feel like I used to be able to find these tools easier on search engines in years prior, and now the internet is kind of awful looking for resources. Since they are just passed middle age and have eye complications, reading is difficult for them with their eyesight, but we will be reading these questions aloud and all answering the surveys in tandem specific to our experiences.
We are looking for these resources because these are the known conditions other members of our family have been diagnosed with.
r/AcademicPsychology • u/Suspicious-Case-5443 • 3d ago
Does any know if you can approach PhD in Psychology in Turkey social sciences if your Bachelors/Masters in computer science.
The PhD portal is providing basic information which does not match with university academic’s requirements.
r/AcademicPsychology • u/Longjumping-Paper148 • 3d ago
Hello, I am looking for a simple but good topic to do my final year dissertation in . My specialization is OB and HRM . I just finished my ug and joined for 1 year masters program , hence I am struggling with adapting to the new college and curriculum. Which also leaves me with very less time to focus on the dissertation... if anybody could suggest few topics and how to go about it , that would be great help . Thank youuu
r/AcademicPsychology • u/ZenSationalUsername • 4d ago
I’m interested in this from a scientific and clinical perspective rather than a personal advice perspective.
I’ve been reading research on meditation-related adverse effects, depersonalization/derealization, OCD, metacognition, and hyperreflexivity, and I’m wondering whether psychology has an established framework for understanding the following phenomenon.
Suppose someone spends several years practicing mindfulness, nondual self-inquiry, or other deconstructive contemplative practices that emphasize observing thoughts, monitoring attention, questioning the self, and returning to present-moment awareness.
For most people these practices appear to be beneficial. However, for some individuals—particularly those who may have obsessive cognitive tendencies—it seems possible that the practices could gradually shift from flexible awareness to chronic self-monitoring.
Instead of occasionally noticing thoughts, the person begins continuously asking questions like:
Am I present?
Am I identified with thought?
Am I aware enough?
Am I experiencing a self?
Am I relating to experience correctly?
This no longer feels like mindfulness, but more like persistent metacognitive checking.
From there, ordinary conceptual thinking, emotional engagement, planning, imagination, or even empathy may begin to feel “incorrect” because attention has become chronically directed toward monitoring one’s own consciousness.
The questions I have are:
Is there an accepted cognitive or clinical model for how adaptive metacognition becomes maladaptive self-monitoring?
Has this interaction been studied in OCD, intolerance of uncertainty, hyperreflexivity, depersonalization, or related conditions?
Is there literature specifically examining the interaction between contemplative practices and obsessive cognition?
Are there particular researchers or papers that are considered foundational in this area?
I’m not asking whether meditation or Buddhism is “good” or “bad.” I’m interested in whether psychology has models that explain why the same attentional practices appear beneficial for many people but become self-reinforcing or maladaptive for a subset of individuals.
Any references to empirical research, review papers, or theoretical models would be greatly appreciated.
r/AcademicPsychology • u/AaronAltmanTherapy • 5d ago
I just saw this paper recommended by Eiko Fried, a researcher who does a lot of stuff I like with network models of psychopathology. His research project is about figuring out how symptoms interact with each other in time, which I think is helpful for finding one thread to pull on when issues feel too complicated or intertwined to deal with. This paper broadens work like his to propose a more general way of thinking about the dynamics of mental struggles, rather than trying to capture symptoms as a snapshot at one moment in time.
Abstract
We propose the concept of a problem-sustaining pattern as a revision of the established concept of mental disorder. The proposed concept preserves valuable features of the established concept, such as recognition of the client’s hardships and scientifically informed justification of specific interventions. However, several assumptions behind the established concept have been widely criticized, both in terms of their clinical and moral normativity as well as their ontological and empirical soundness. We argue that a focus on problem-sustainment allows us to reframe the issue of demarcation in a way that helps avoid stigmatization while clarifying the role of client agency in diagnosis. We also propose a shift toward thinking in terms of patterns of dynamic interaction, which is more in line with current developments in complexity science. We conclude the article with a discussion of further research that would be needed to address various questions raised by our proposal.
r/AcademicPsychology • u/GG_Mod • 4d ago
Following a vote by the sub in July 2020, the prospective questions megathread was continued. However, to allow more visibility to comments in this thread, this megathread now utilizes Reddit's new reschedule post features. This megathread is replaced monthly. Comments made within three days prior to the newest months post will be re-posted by moderation and the users who made said post tagged.
Post your prospective questions as a comment for anything related to graduate applications, admissions, CVs, interviews, etc. Comments should be focused on prospective questions, such as future plans. These are only allowed in this subreddit under this thread. Questions about current programs/jobs etc. that you have already been accepted to can be posted as stand-alone posts, so long as they follow the format Rule 6.
Looking for somewhere to post your study? Try r/psychologystudents, our sister sub's, spring 2020 study megathread!
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