psychology – The Orbital

The Psychological Effects of Witnessing Cruelty to Animals on Social Media: An Interview with Dr Kieschnick and Dr Lawlor

17Feb

By Felix PoréeNo Comments

Lifestyle, News, Opinion

The Psychological Effects of Witnessing Cruelty to Animals on Social Media: An Interview with Dr Kieschnick and Dr Lawlor

By Felix Porée Royal Holloway graduate Felix Porée, who is studying for his MA in War Studies at Kings College London, recently collaborated with the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics to interview Dr Dustin Kieschnick and Dr Katie Lawlor. Dr Kieschnick holds a Doctorate of Psychology as a graduate of the PGSP-Stanford PsyD Consortium as well as being a licensed clinical psychologist, and Dr Lawlor holds a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Stanford and specialises in the human-animal bond, grief, and pet loss. Felix specialises in the studies of 19th-century German philosophy, ethics, and terrorism. More information can be found via his LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/felixporee/ In a discussion centred around animal cruelty and its links with social media, Felix, Dus...

24Feb

By Noelle SpillmannNo Comments

Features

The Psychology of Sexual Assault

A year after the #MeToo movement the question, ‘Why do people sexually harass people?’ is still ever present and just as complex as when the stories first hit. The movement shed light on sexual harassment in Hollywood – a realm that was formerly perhaps less of a consideration when examining sexual harassment by virtue of being overshadowed by celebrity culture and the ‘open secret’ dimension - and thus provided insight into the abuse of positions of power to coerce sexual relations. As the movement demonstrated, the power dimension of sexual harassment is by no means as unidimensional as it may seem. The relationship between power and sexual harassment is multi-facetted: lack or absence of power can lead to individuals being sexually aggressive, as can being in a position of power or do...

25Jan

By No Comments

Science & Technology

Why do we love the Sims?

When conjuring up the image of a ‘gamer’, what might come to mind is someone void of human interaction, sitting in a dark room wearing a headset shooting imaginary bad guys on a screen. While this may be a familiar portrayal for some of us, there was always another kind of game which held my attention, and that of many others, for hours on end, right from the release of the first version in the early 2000s until now, where I admit the shortcut still sits on my desktop. The Sims. You’ve probably heard of it, and I’ll venture a guess and say you’ve probably played it at least once. The concept is simple - an imagined, virtual world in which you can design virtual people and buildings, and then control every aspect of their virtual lives. However, far from the fantastical worlds of many...

1Nov

By No Comments

Lifestyle

Addict or Anomaly

Whether it is caffeine, cigarettes or chocolate are we all addicts? It would seem that we all crave something; that thing that triggers a pathway to the brain where we cannot control the urge but to indulge in that vice. For example, somebody that spends four to five nights out of the week drowning his or her liver in beer at the local pub then finds it difficult to sleep at night the other three to four nights of the week we would call an alcoholic. However, there are other less noticed forms of addiction such as sarcasm, exaggeration, anger and technology. These commonly fall under the category of OCD (obsessive, compulsive disorder). According to the DSM: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, addictions fall underneath two categories, substance related disorders ...