Our final chapter (at least for now)! In this episode, Paul and David discuss the science of happiness. We cover the difficulty of defining happiness (or the good life in general), the rise of 'positive psychology', the various factors that we know are related to happiness (genes, money, age, having children), and the question of why we can't just choose to be happy. We end with a discussion of pleasure and pain, and some puzzling findings about our memory of painful experiences.

Read the book that inspired the podcast: "Psych: The Story of the Human Mind" [amazon.com]

Email us with your psychology questions for a future episode!: askpsychpod@gmail.com

Paul and David go further beyond their areas of expertise than usual and discuss the field of clinical psychology--the part of psychology interested in understanding and treating psychological dysfunction. What are mental illnesses? How do we come up with the categories of various psychopathologies? Are mental illnesses the same sort of thing as other diseases, or is the term "disease" more like a metaphor? Are disorders like schizophrenia best understood as discrete categories (either you have it or you don't) or are they continuous? How should we understand personality disorders? Finally, are we making progress on understanding and treating mental illness?

Read the book that inspired the podcast: "Psych: The Story of the Human Mind" [amazon.com]

Email us with your psychology questions for a future episode!: askpsychpod@gmail.com

Paul and David step away from the study of psychological universals to discuss the ways in which we are different from one another. What is our best theory of personality? How is personality assessed? Do personality tests predict behavior? What does it mean to be intelligent? Do IQ tests measure anything important? What sorts of things does IQ predict? Are there multiple intelligences? Finally we dip our toes into behavioral genetics. What is heritability? How heritable are psychological traits? Finally, can parents really shape the personality or IQ of their children?

Read the book that inspired the podcast: "Psych: The Story of the Human Mind" [amazon.com]

Email us with your psychology questions for a future episode!: askpsychpod@gmail.com