Laura Freberg’s Wonderful Psychology Blog

Laura's site is a big hit!

My wife Laura’s web site has been around in one form or another since 1995 and has evolved from something her students could use to a site that encompasses: her text book, current issues in Psychology, student participation and development and areas of personal interest… like family, hobbies, her psychology library and a few favorite wonderful recipes.

Although we are somewhat outside of the academic calendar,  Laura’s site  has continued to demonstrate wide interest around the world. The map above shows some of the many hits — grouped in frequency– just over the past 3 days.

Congratulations, Laura.

Roger Freberg

“Snakes in Suits”… are everywhere!

Snakes in Suits... are in education, tooFor a long time, many people have followed the corporate disasters of “Eron” and the many ‘lapses in judgment’ in the corporate arena and wondered — not always silently — why these folks weren’t behind bars?

Publisher’s Weekly offers a candid review of the effort… and here is an excerpt:

“Psychopaths are described as incapable of empathy, guilt, or loyalty to anyone but themselves; still, spotting a psychopath isn’t easy. Babiak, an industrial and organizational psychologist, and Hare (Without Conscience), creator of the standard tool for diagnosing psychopathology, present a study of the psychopath in the corporate landscape. A common description of psychopathology states that subjects “know the words but not the music;” Babiak and Hare state that “a clever psychopath can present such a well-rounded picture of a perfect job candidate that even seasoned interviewers” can be fooled.”

 You can purchase a copy rather inexpensively on  Amazon.com.

Personally, I have noticed that psychopaths tend to be attracted to money, power and the control over other lives to benefit themselves. This covers a lot of ground — an in my humble opinion — the corporate environs are not the only hallowed halls that are infected with self serving psychopaths. One only has to look into academia itself… following the university president who takes his entire staff on a holiday cruise to the Mediterranean and there is much much more… but then I am sure that would be a subject of another book.

worth reading,

 Roger Freberg

PS. other interesting books on related topics : the Sociopath next door, Psychopath: emotion and the brain; Emotional Vampires

Roadtrip to Tennessee!

Karen's New home in Knoxville, Tennessee 

Well, for the past ten days we traveled to Knoxville, Tennessee from little San Luis Obispo, California ; then we found Karen an apartment, moved her in and then drove back! Helping our kids move is our pleasure.

Whew!

Dad celebrating with a BLOOMIN ONION!

All this work needed some reward including: a trip to the  “Texan” in Amarillo,  the  “Marketplace” in Arkansas  and an  Outback in Tennessee!  I enjoyed my “Blooming Onion.”

Well,  Jenny Craig,  I still lost weight!

Roger Freberg

Paul Turner of Harvard passes away

Karen and Hrvard University's Coach Paul Turner

Track & Field Coach Paul Turner of Harvard University  was one of those very rare breed of men that — if you are very fortunate — you may meet in life. A young coach could do far worse than follow in his thoughtful footsteps.

Paul was a coach who sincerely put the needs of the athlete over his personal ambitions. He worked — whether an athlete agreed with him or not —  to help determine a future for themselves beyond their athletic efforts… sometimes that meant changing universities. The challenges of division 1 sports often leave athletes unprepared for their own future, and in my observation, Paul helped many folks think beyond the next season.

Our family will miss him… I only wish there were more like Paul.

Roger Freberg

PS. If you knew Paul, You can leave your thoughts here