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Questions related from Paul F Cook
This year it has sometimes been hard to avoid thinking about distressing things, whether that's the pandemic, the economy, politics, justice, or natural disasters. My blog post this week explores...
01 January 1970 8,134 1 View
My latest blog is a note from your friendly neighborhood psychologist on how to stay sane in these challenging times, based on ideas from two minds theory: https://sites.google.com/view/two-minds/blog
01 January 1970 4,161 2 View
This week's blog post features a just-published article by my nursing honors student Linda Driscoll Powers. Linda's most interesting finding is that people with a childhood history of physical...
01 January 1970 7,891 4 View
This week's blog post is about a surprising recent trend in mental health treatment: psychedelic drugs are making a comeback. Far from the trippy image of the 1960s, these medications are now the...
01 January 1970 8,757 6 View
This week's blog post is on a subject near to my heart: psychotherapy research. In it I take a look at the "common factors" argument for why therapy works, from a two-minds perspective....
01 January 1970 3,034 3 View
Your friends matter for your health. This week's blog post takes a look at social support as a factor that can either help or hinder health behavior change:...
01 January 1970 8,428 0 View
You have seen the image of someone with an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other, representing ambivalence. Did you know that this particular metaphor is nearly 2000 years old? My blog...
01 January 1970 3,713 1 View
This week's blog post takes a look at smartphone apps designed to help people change their behavior. I break down some commonly used tools based on their underlying principles of behavior change,...
01 January 1970 3,868 0 View
This week’s blog post describes results from a new study where we looked at when and why adolescents interact with continuous glucose monitors (CGM), and which of those patterns predict successful...
01 January 1970 7,846 0 View
This week's blog post is about the speeches that people give at graduations. I noticed an interesting contrast between my reaction to these addresses as a parent, and my reaction as a younger...
01 January 1970 8,396 0 View
This week's blog post has an organizational leadership focus, looking at how leaders might need to re-adjust their thinking with the official end of the national and international COVID-19...
01 January 1970 2,711 2 View
Much has been made of the notion that conspiracy beliefs are "irrational," resulting from people paying too much attention to emotions or other aspects of the Intuitive mind. In this week's blog...
01 January 1970 4,478 3 View
My latest blog post is about the cognitive aspects of mania, which is the "up" phase of bipolar mood disorder. One of the interesting things about mania is that it shows a seasonal pattern --...
01 January 1970 4,484 0 View
This week’s blog post is about different methods we have tried in creating tailored messages for intervention studies. Soon healthcare professionals will probably be able to send you automatic...
01 January 1970 3,598 4 View
Here’s my last blog post of the year, on the topic of hope: https://sites.google.com/view/two-minds/blog
01 January 1970 4,859 0 View
This week my blog post is about a new publication from our mental health team at CU Nursing. It describes a grassroots effort to support nursing students' mental health during the COVID-19...
01 January 1970 298 3 View
This week's blog post is about our 2021 study of traumatic stress symptoms among back country search and rescue workers in Colorado. Outdoor recreation is a $11 billion industry in our state, but...
01 January 1970 9,446 2 View
This week's blog post discusses a new article from our research team, about the reasons people do or don't exercise: https://sites.google.com/view/two-minds/blog We found support for the Two Minds...
01 January 1970 5,419 0 View
I have previously written about new year’s resolutions for health behavior, so for my first blog post this year I took a different tack. I looked at whether it’s possible to improve one’s ethical...
01 January 1970 8,211 0 View
This week's blog post tells a story about a big fish. It describes a personal encounter that I had with the Intuitive mind while studying the Regenerating Images in Memory (RIM) approach....
01 January 1970 6,155 0 View
Do you feel like life is harder than before the pandemic? This week's blog post is about Long COVID, and whether its cognitive and emotional effects might explain many recent changes in society....
01 January 1970 8,559 0 View
My latest blog post describes the concept of “situational awareness” and how it relates to self-management of chronic diseases. I’m working with colleagues on a new study that will hopefully help...
01 January 1970 3,462 0 View
People often talk about social media or other technology use as an "addiction," but is that accurate? This week's blog post takes a look at our unhealthy technology use and what we can do about...
01 January 1970 2,100 0 View
This week's blog post is on split-brain phenomena: a line of research that has been misinterpreted to support the "neuromyth" that people can be either left-brained (i.e., logical) or...
01 January 1970 9,281 1 View
This would normally be my off week, but I wrote a bonus blog about the legacy of Dr. Daniel Kahneman, the Nobel-prize-winning psychologist who died on March 27th:...
01 January 1970 9,608 0 View
This week's blog post is a technology-focused one, titled "should your boss manage your emotions?" Enough said ... https://sites.google.com/view/two-minds/blog
01 January 1970 5,321 0 View
This week's blog post is on the psychology of Mardi Gras, in which I attempt to answer the question "why does it make sense to start a season of self-denial with a wild party?" I use Baumeister's...
01 January 1970 2,714 0 View
Continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) are increasingly popular as a new way to gain sensor data about one's health. Is a CGM worthwhile if you don't have diabetes? That's the topic of this week's...
01 January 1970 6,716 0 View
This week's blog post is about diet change. In comparison to medication adherence, exercise, or sleep, diet is one of the hardest health behaviors to change. Here's a look at some possible reasons...
01 January 1970 1,922 2 View
This week’s blog post is about loneliness as a health risk factor. A new body of research says that it can be as important as other factors like diet and exercise....
01 January 1970 7,492 0 View
This week’s blog post highlights another behavior-change strategy, the humble checklist. This nearly 4000-year-old technology is still a highly effective tool to motivate and sustain behavior....
01 January 1970 7,679 0 View
This week's blog post (which I'm a little late in sharing) is about "genius," the development of extraordinary abilities. We have a great cultural ambivalence about this type of ability, wanting...
01 January 1970 8,228 0 View
This week's blog post is an important one for an election year: How to detect lies based on verbal ambiguity. It's one important way that the Intuitive Mind keeps us from making costly mistakes!...
01 January 1970 5,939 0 View
Cognitive therapist Donald Meichenbaum said that "a lapse doesn't have to become a relapse, and a relapse doesn't have to become a collapse." This week's blog post looks at the role of relapses in...
01 January 1970 5,957 0 View
Here's my latest blog post, about "monitoring effects" in health care: https://sites.google.com/view/two-minds/blog It's common knowledge that people behave differently when they know they are...
01 January 1970 1,515 0 View
In this week's blog post, I revisit possible explanations for the documented link between bipolar disorder and artistic creativity -- the subject of my Master's thesis many years ago!...
01 January 1970 667 0 View
This week's blog post combines two topics, technology and mental health, to look at whether we could really be fooled by a simulated reality, as in the "Matrix" movies. The evidence suggests that...
01 January 1970 7,199 0 View
There was a new blog post out last week while I was away: It offers various explanations for the finding that Intuitive-Mind factors are important in diabetes self-management. I of course view...
01 January 1970 8,184 0 View
I have another blog post on AI this week (seems to be a theme this year). In this one I take a look at some important examples of AI "misbehavior," such as algorithms telling people to harm...
01 January 1970 5,796 1 View
This week's blog post is about multitasking. The Narrative Mind can't really do it, but the Intuitive Mind does it all the time. This post dives into some of the subsystems that are always running...
01 January 1970 7,885 7 View
This week's blog post is about the fast pace of development in artificial intelligence, and some of the risks highlighted in a recent report. Sorry -- I know there's enough else to worry about....
01 January 1970 5,710 3 View
The topic of this week's blog post is "theory of mind" -- what we believe about what's happening in someone else's head. To explore this, I look specifically at our mental theories about robots,...
01 January 1970 2,350 2 View
This week's blog post is about the concepts of stress and coping. Can you imagine a time when "stress" wasn't a thing people talked about? Richard Lazarus and Susan Folkman invented the idea. (I...
01 January 1970 849 0 View
I’m excited to share this week’s blog post, about a just-published study where we used EEG brainwave measurement to understand people’s experiences during a psychotherapeutic process called...
01 January 1970 1,446 2 View
I heard someone say "the despair is palpable" this week. Best not to go there: My new blog post about managing stress might help. https://sites.google.com/view/two-minds/blog
01 January 1970 8,509 1 View
Not sleeping well lately? (Lots of us aren't). Here's a timely look at the effects that fatigue can have on functioning, including different effects on the Narrative and Intuitive Minds. I also...
01 January 1970 1,888 0 View
Last year I wrote about the Theory of Planned Behavior (https://twomindstheory.blogspot.com/2024/05/health-beliefs-versus-health-behaviors.html), focusing on this model's Narrative-mind focus and...
01 January 1970 778 2 View
This week's blog post is about Self-Determination Theory. It has become widely known in connection with Motivational Interviewing, but like other models associated with MI it evolved independently...
01 January 1970 6,122 1 View
This week's blog post is about the negative effects of social media on kids and adolescents, through the lens of Jonathan Haidt's 2024 book: https://sites.google.com/view/two-minds/blog (A friend...
01 January 1970 3,024 0 View
This week’s blog post is about a new article from one of my students, Linda Driscoll Powers. Although adverse childhood events are known to predict future health problems, much less is known about...
01 January 1970 7,411 1 View
I have a 2-part blog series this month, looking at candidates that have been suggested as a “universal language” across cultures, a way that we all communicate because it’s part of the way our...
01 January 1970 860 3 View
This week's blog post is about the "cookie jar effect," a phenomenon used by vendors to sell more product based on packaging, but that also affects us all as consumers. It is a tendency to use...
01 January 1970 2,384 0 View
The world is increasingly scientific and technological, and college students are overwhelmingly choosing STEM majors to the detriment of liberal arts. Colleges around the country are closing down...
01 January 1970 9,648 2 View
Is depression the result of a chemical imbalance in the brain? Even drug companies now admit that this popular explanation was never more than "a metaphor." My blog post this week explores the...
01 January 1970 9,713 0 View
This week's blog post looks at another theory, Leventhal's dual-process or "common sense" model. It was another inspiration for Two Minds Theory, although I suggest that the research emerging from...
01 January 1970 5,460 0 View
The Dunning-Kruger effect does _not_ mean that people with limited expertise can't be reasoned with. It instead implies a need to build trust before imparting new information. In this week's blog,...
01 January 1970 7,546 0 View
Out of all the concerning Federal government actions in the past month, my colleagues and I are talking most about the administration's attempts to control language. My latest blog post is about...
01 January 1970 7,772 1 View
Philosopher Eric Schwitzgebel has proposed that the U.S. as a whole is a conscious entity. In this new blog post, I try to think like America's therapist in interpreting the recent election...
01 January 1970 4,124 0 View
We hear a lot about the youth mental health crisis in the U.S., but this week's blog post looks at a successful program that is addressing the problem using resources from both the Narrative and...
01 January 1970 3,294 0 View
For my final regular blog of the year, here's something fun about octopi! They are a fascinating example for psychology, with high intelligence based on behavior, but nervous systems that are...
01 January 1970 3,275 0 View
