PsychSessions: Conversations about Teaching N' Stuff

In this APA Publishing-PsychSessions paretner series, Garth Neufeld interviews Wendy Grolnick and Benjamin Heddy about their APA-published book (with Frank Worrel) Motivation Myth Busters. They discuss pervasive misconceptions such as believing some people simply aren't motivated, relying on rewards or pressure, and assuming people accurately know how good they are, emphasizing consequences like fundamental attribution error, resistance to coercion, and miscalibrated self-efficacy. They highlight research-based motivators tied to competence, autonomy, and relatedness; the importance of empathy, mastery-oriented environments, personal relevance, value (attainment/utility), and managing cost; and using structured choice rather than too much control or total freedom. They address students who coast, action creating motivation, structural inequities, and practical classroom uses including reflections, case studies, misconception assessments, and a motivation decision-tree tool.
Watch the webinar here.

In this episode Garth interviews Nick Epley from the University of Chicago in Chicago, IL. They discuss psychologists' migration to business schools and Epley's MBA course, "Designing a Good Life," an ethics-focused social psychology class that uses experiments on kindness, gratitude, and how doing good can feel good by increasing connection, competence, and autonomy. Epley describes his social cognition research on why people are "not social enough," underestimating how positive deep conversations, compliments, and reaching out to strangers can be; he recounts a robust demonstration in which participants predict awkwardness and low connection but experience the opposite. He notes that the calibration fades without routine practice and argues that missed connections stem from pessimism and the belief that others don't want to talk. He connects Mindwise to his new book, A Little More Social, advocating small, easy, routine social habits and "data-driven courage," illustrated by personal stories and deep canvassing.
[Portions of the show notes were generated by Descript AI.]

In this re-release episode, Garth sits down with members of the APA's Introductory Psychology Initiative (IPI) Working Group on Student Learning Outcomes & Assessment: Jennifer Thompson, Kristin Whitlock, Jane Halonen, Sue Frantz (not featured), and Eric Landrum. Together, they explore how the project took shape, the leadership behind it, the move toward a thematic revolution, and what it means to take a content-agnostic approach to teaching psychology.
Note. Portions of the show notes were generated by AI.

In this 250th episode of the flagship PsychSessions series, Garth interviews Claude Steele from Stanford University in Stanford, CA. Claude recaps "Whistling Vivaldi" as the story of how stereotype threat emerged in his research and describes "churn" as the psychological vigilance and uncertainty people feel in important, diverse settings where they may be judged through stereotypes. He explains how stereotype threat can impair performance when stakes are high and discusses experiments showing that Black students trusted critical feedback most when it conveyed high standards and confidence in their ability to meet them. He critiques some diversity trainings for heightening identity threat and argues for building trust and "beloved community," emphasizing that those with more power should offer trust first. He also shares brief autobiographical reflections on early college experiences and influential teachers.
[Note. Portions of the show notes were generated by Descript AI.]

In this Sidebar 32 episode Garth and Eric discuss what it means to reach the milestone of 250 episodes of the flagship series for PsychSessions. We reflect on choosing the podcast name and tagline, the value of longevity in building a brand, and the podcast's graphic identity, crediting designer Cale Livingston for the original pink figure-ground logo and newer circular logo used across our additional series. They discuss how the show enables more personal "n' stuff" conversations with colleagues than typical conference chats, recalling memorable moments that are preserved in audio. They introduce a "Re-release" series to reshare early episodes for new listeners and note their near-perfect every-other-Tuesday release schedule with one accidental blip. They highlight partnerships yielding 15–20 series and over 600 total episodes, their minimal editing approach (with occasional removal of "ums"), and the podcast's accidental role as historian for teachers of psychology.
[Note. Portions of these show notes were generated by Descript AI.]