In this episode of The Psychology Undergrad, we dive into one of the most powerful and complex topics in social psychology — prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination. Using real-world examples like the Ferguson divide, we unpack how bias forms, why it persists, and what the science says about reducing it.

We explore the cognitive roots of inequality through prospect theory, status quo bias, and social identity theory, showing how our minds are wired to defend the systems we live in — even when they’re unfair. You’ll also learn about the glass ceiling, tokenism, implicit bias, and the shifting standards model, which reveals how subtle discrimination can hide behind seemingly fair judgments.

Finally, we look at what actually works to reduce prejudice — from meaningful intergroup contact and re-categorization to collective guilt, cognitive retraining, and social influence.

🎓 Topics Covered:
• Status quo bias and zero-sum thinking
• Gender stereotypes and the glass ceiling
• Implicit bias and the bona fide pipeline
• Social identity, in-group favoritism, and minimal groups
• Contact hypothesis and reducing prejudice

This episode helps make sense of how bias operates in everyday life — and how we can start to challenge it.

#PsychologyUndergrad #SocialPsychology #Prejudice #Stereotypes #Discrimination #ImplicitBias #GroupDynamics #PsychologyPodcast #HumanBehavior

In this episode of The Psychology Undergrad, we explore how your relationships shape your motivation and even your romantic decisions. This isn’t just theory — it’s research that connects your need to belong with how you achieve, learn, and love.

Part 1 dives into achievement motivation and attachment theory, revealing how a secure base of support frees you to take risks, grow, and thrive. Part 2 shifts into the psychology of attraction, where a groundbreaking speed dating study shows how simply changing who walks across the room can erase long-assumed gender differences in selectivity.

If you’ve ever wondered why feeling supported changes how hard you try, or why social norms still influence who we’re drawn to, this episode is for you.

🎓 Topics Covered:
• How affiliation and love shape achievement
• Secure vs. insecure attachment and motivation
• Fear of failure and conditional acceptance
• Gender roles, agency, and attraction research
• How small social scripts can reshape confidence and choice

#PsychologyUndergrad #AttachmentTheory #Motivation #SocialPsychology #PsychologyPodcast #HumanBehavior #AchievementMotivation #SpeedDatingStudy

Welcome to The Psychology Undergrad! This special episode is your complete Social Psychology exam review podcast — packed with every major term, theory, and concept you’ll need to know for your final.

We break down the big ideas — from attribution theory and cognitive dissonance to conformity, obedience, groupthink, and more — explaining each in plain language and giving quick, memorable examples to help you remember them.

This isn’t a listen-start-to-finish episode — it’s your study companion. Pause, test yourself, and come back as you prepare for your exam. Whether you’re reviewing for a midterm or the big final, this episode turns dense material into something you’ll actually remember.

#psychologyundergrad #socialpsychology #examreview #psychologystudyguide #psychologyfinal #psychologyrevision #studywithme #psychologypodcast #undergraduatepsychology #examcram

Welcome back to The Psychology Undergrad! In this episode, we finally tackle one of the trickiest and most important ideas in statistics — variability. The hosts break down why just knowing the average isn’t enough and how understanding the spread of data tells the real story.

Through relatable examples like unpredictable commutes, rat maze experiments, and even pizza slice analogies, the discussion walks step by step through range, interquartile range (IQR), variance, and standard deviation. You’ll learn about the “zero problem,” why we square deviation scores, and how degrees of freedom (n–1) fix the bias when using samples.

By the end, you’ll understand why variability matters so much in psychology — it’s what tells us how consistent behaviour is, how much error to expect, and whether our theories are actually explaining anything.

Simple, clear, and packed with practical explanations — this episode turns a complex topic into something that finally clicks.

#psychologyundergrad #statistics #variability #standarddeviation #variance #range #IQR #degreesoffreedom #researchmethods #psychologypodcast

Welcome to The Psychology Undergrad! In this episode, the hosts tackle one of the most essential topics in statistics: measures of central tendency. They walk through how to take a messy list of scores and boil it down to a single number that represents the group accurately — the mean, median, or mode.

You’ll learn not just how to calculate them, but why each one matters. From the balance-point idea of the mean, to the midpoint stability of the median, and the real-world practicality of the mode, the discussion breaks down which measure to use depending on the shape of your data. They even explore tricky concepts like weighted means, skewed distributions, and bimodal patterns, showing how outliers and distribution shape can change what “average” really means.

This is the go-to episode for mastering central tendency — simple, clear, and filled with practical examples that make exam prep way less intimidating.

#psychologyundergrad #statistics #centralTendency #mean #median #mode #researchmethods #datainterpretation #skewness #bimodal #psychologypodcast

Welcome to The Psychology Undergrad! Today’s episode takes you right to the foundation of statistics: turning raw, messy data into something you can actually understand. The hosts walk through how to organize data using frequency distributions, relative frequencies, percentile ranks, and grouped frequency tables—then show how to visualize them with histograms, polygons, and bar graphs.

They use fun, real examples like a study on Fast & Furious movie releases and speeding tickets to show why organization matters before any statistical analysis begins. Along the way, they break down common pitfalls like misreading axes, forgetting zero frequencies, or losing precision when grouping data.

It’s practical, easy to follow, and designed for undergrads learning how to take chaos (raw scores) and turn it into clarity (meaningful data).

#psychologyundergrad #statistics #descriptivestats #frequencydistribution #percentilerank #dataanalysis #researchmethods #psychologypodcast #datavisualization #histogram

Welcome to The Psychology Undergrad! In this episode, we strip statistics down to what they actually mean — not endless formulas, but a way of making sense of human behaviour. From understanding why context matters (yes, even in laundry) to breaking down populations, samples, and that mysterious thing called sampling error, this episode makes stats feel less like math torture and more like decoding the mind with numbers.

The hosts walk through real-world examples like political polls, moral beliefs, and even how we measure unseeable constructs like guilt or intelligence. They connect psychology’s building blocks — descriptive vs. inferential stats, operational definitions, and scales of measurement — to everyday ideas in religion and society: how we judge, compare, and interpret what can’t be seen directly.

By the end, you’ll see how stats are more than math — they’re a philosophy of clarity. They help us find meaning in messy data, structure in chaos, and maybe even purpose in all that number crunching.
#psychologyundergrad #statistics #behavioralscience #researchmethods #datamindset #cognitivescience #operationaldefinition #scientificthinking #psychologypodcast

In this episode of The Psychology Undergrad, we tackle one of the most talked-about ideas in modern social psychology — implicit bias. From presidential debates to viral news stories, this term has become part of our cultural vocabulary. But what does it really mean?

The hosts break down the difference between explicit and implicit bias, using real-world cases like the Starbucks incident and insights from the Implicit Association Test (IAT). They explore aversive racism, intergroup anxiety, and why even people who see themselves as fair can unknowingly treat others differently.

The conversation moves from psychology labs to classrooms, workplaces, and hospitals — showing how hidden attitudes affect hiring, policing, and even healthcare decisions. The hosts also draw parallels to moral psychology and religion, asking what it means to confront the “sin beneath awareness” — the biases we never chose but still carry.

You’ll leave this episode thinking differently about fairness, self-image, and what real change looks like — not just awareness, but redesigning systems so bias has nowhere to hide.

#socialpsychology #psychologyundergrad #implicitbias #aversiveracism #IAT #cognitivedissonance #socialperception #systemicbias #psychologypodcast #mindscience

Why didn’t desegregation work the way everyone hoped? In this episode of The Psychology Undergrad, we unpack the social psychology behind one of the most important — and disappointing — experiments in real life: the aftermath of Brown v. Board of Education. The hosts walk through Gordon Allport’s Contact Hypothesis, explaining why simply putting students from different backgrounds in the same classroom didn’t erase prejudice or raise self-esteem.

From failed “equal status” classrooms and competitive learning environments to the breakthrough of Elliot Aronson’s Jigsaw Classroom, this episode digs into how cooperation and interdependence can reshape prejudice, empathy, and self-concept. Along the way, the hosts draw parallels to modern workplaces, online collaboration, and even spiritual ideas about unity and interdependence — showing that empathy isn’t just learned, it’s structured.

If you’ve ever wondered why good intentions fall flat in social reform, this episode breaks it down with humour, insight, and heart — reminding us that proximity isn’t the same as connection.#socialpsychology #psychologyundergrad #contacthypothesis #prejudice #empathy #education #jigsawclassroom #cooperation #behaviorchange #psychologypodcast

In this episode of The Psychology Undergrad, we take a step back and ask: what is social psychology really about now? It’s no longer just the study of social influence or group behaviour — it’s a full-blown investigation into what it actually feels like to be human.

We explore three massive ideas that reshape the field:

1. The Science of Felt Experience — how psychology is edging closer to philosophy in trying to study subjective awareness.

2. The Adaptive Unconscious — the hidden engine that drives thought, preference, and personality without us even realizing it.

3. The Corrective Era — how the replication crisis pushed psychology to confront its own flaws and rebuild with transparency and rigour.

From introspection failure to conceptual replication, from P-hacking to the strange paradox of studying consciousness with imperfect tools, this conversation hits the big tension: can science ever truly measure what it feels like to be alive?

#socialpsychology #psychologyundergrad #replicationcrisis #adaptiveunconscious #introspection #qualia #behavioralscience #psychologypodcast #mindscience #strangerstoourselves

If you’ve ever told someone they should do better — or been on the receiving end of that message — this episode of The Psychology Undergrad will make you rethink everything you know about motivation. We unpack the 1975 Miller, Brickman, and Bolen study that flipped traditional persuasion on its head, showing that lasting change doesn’t come from telling people what to do, but from affirming who they already are.

Through experiments with kids on littering and math performance, this episode breaks down the difference between persuasion (“You should try harder”) and attribution (“You are a hardworking student”). The findings are wild: affirming identity changes behaviour more effectively — and longer — than rules, threats, or even praise.

We also touch on the ethical tension this creates: when is affirming someone’s potential just smart psychology, and when does it cross into manipulation?
Whether you’re studying for an exam or just curious how identity shapes action, this one gives you the tools to understand why self-concept may be the most powerful motivator of all.

#socialpsychology #psychologyundergrad #selfconcept #behaviorchange #attributiontheory #persuasion #motivation #psychologypodcast #identity #mindscience

In this episode of The Psychology Undergrad, we dig into one of social psychology’s most fascinating paradoxes — why people often say they care but still don’t act like it. From drought campaigns and littering studies to the classic UCSC shower experiment, this deep dive explores the hypocrisy effect — the point where our actions and identity collide.

We unpack how cognitive dissonance works, why self-persuasion is more powerful than external persuasion, and how reflecting on our own inconsistencies can trigger real, lasting change. You’ll learn how public commitment, self-reflection, and moral tension combine to make behavior change stick — and why this same force can backfire in polarized times.

Whether you’re studying psychology or just curious why we struggle to “practice what we preach,” this episode breaks it down clearly, conversationally, and with plenty of real-world examples.

#socialpsychology #psychologyundergrad #cognitivedissonance #selfpersuasion #attitudechange #behaviorchange #hypocrisyeffect #psychologypodcast #mindscience #socialinfluence

Ever met someone and thought, “I’ve got them all figured out”—only to realize later you were completely wrong? In this episode of The Psychology Undergrad, we break down why humans are so bad at reading others and how social perception really works. From body language and facial expressions to attribution errors and impression management, this conversation takes you deep into how we form (and often misform) our impressions of others. We’ll talk about why nonverbal cues leak truth, how biases like the fundamental attribution error shape our thinking, and why even a single word like “warm” or “cold” can flip how we see someone entirely.

If you’ve ever wondered why first impressions stick—or why they’re sometimes dead wrong—this episode gives you the psychology behind it.

#socialpsychology #psychologyundergrad #firstimpressions #nonverbalcommunication #attributionerror #bodylanguage #psychologypodcast #mindscience #socialperception #psychfacts

Ever wonder why people say they care about climate change but still drive gas cars? Or why implicit biases shape our actions even when we believe we’re fair?

In this episode of The Psychology Undergrad Podcast, we unpack the hidden psychology of attitudes — exploring why our beliefs and behaviors often don’t align. Drawing from social psychology, we dive into implicit bias, cognitive dissonance, and the power of self-persuasion.

By the end, you’ll understand how attitudes form, how they influence behavior, and why changing them takes more than just information.

🎧 Based on material from undergraduate social psychology courses and open-access texts.