Here is a video in which I consider a commonplace and apparently straightforward activity, note-taking, and try to show its strangeness and potential. What are we doing when we take notes? Are we simply keeping a record of what we have heard or read, or can note-taking become part of the process through which we…
Category: Education
How to Write a Literature Review: 5 Steps for Psychology Students
In this video, I discuss a few ideas about writing literature reviews, especially for students and early-career researchers in psychology and the social sciences. I begin with the distinction between a research topic and a research question, and I consider how that distinction can guide our reading, our selection of sources, and the organization of…
Anne Dufourmantelle’s “Power of Gentleness: Meditations on the Risk of Living”
Power of Gentleness: Meditations on the Risk of Living by Anne Dufourmantelle, translated by Katherine Payne and Vincent Sallé The following quotations are meant to offer a small sample of the book. Not included are Dufourmantelle’s discussions of sensuality (with multiple chapters devoted to “Sensory Celebration”), trauma, animality, and psychoanalytic practice. “Gentleness does not belong…
Phones versus Play: What Jonathan Haidt Means by the Great Rewiring of Childhood in ‘The Anxious Generation’
In The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, Jonathan Haidt contrasts two fundamentally different ways of growing up: a play-based childhood versus a phone-based childhood. The shift from physical, open-ended play to structured, screen-driven interaction has changed how children explore the world and socialize, with significant…
Re-Discovering the Richness of Everyday Life
Over the past two years, I have created a series of videos based on the book, Qualitative Inquiry in Everyday Life by Svend Brinkmann. I posted the final part a few days ago. In this post, I want to discuss the book’s importance and who can benefit from it. Why is this book important? First,…