Geoffrey W. Sutton PhD, Psychology and Culture

There's little doubt that children love sweets and show an interest in adults who provide them.  But many parents work hard to keep their children on healthy diets.  And some children require special diets. I was thinking of the care shown to donkeys at Carisbrooke Castle. The staff reminded guests not to feed them. Most of us have seen signs advising us not to feed animals because of their special diets. As I read various reports on research it is clear that many children and adults consume much that is unhealthy. I have joked about diet options such as the variety of chocolates one can choose (my photo of chockies at the outlet in Portsmouth above). But, health is no joking manner. Perhaps parents need to post signs saying: "Do Not Feed the Children," and explain that they are on a special diet. Cheers to parents who provide their children with healthy foods in sufficient quantities. And set limits on high calorie treats. Extra che...

On Palm Sunday 2017 I was in the chapel at Carisbrooke Castle built in  recognition of Charles I and veterans. I  was reminded of other features of the early Palm Sunday by palms in the nearby garden and a donkey easily coaxed into walking a treadmill that provided water from a well years ago. The gospels illustrate parallels between the everyday life and one full of spiritual significance. We can find many lessons about humanity that make the Palm Sunday story so relevant. For me, the palms and the donkey were mostly cues to remember the day. Of course, my Christian heritage provided a connection that others might not make. But the stories of Jesus and Charles I remind me of the religious component in the speeches and violent acts of people whose loyalties are often tested in extreme ways. People have the capacity to draw on faith to celebrate both peace and war. Disagreements among the religious still lead to death and destruction.  Fair trials are ...

Coventry Cathedral 2002/ by Geoff W. Sutton On a cold winter’s day Sarah sat across from me in the restaurant and declared, “I’m an atheist.” We were at a conference and her friends had left to go somewhere—I forget where. Sarah is a brilliant young woman with a bright future. I don’t know her well but she made some good points during a conference presentation. She knows I write about the psychology of religion so I’ve asked her about her opinions. Sarah was raised as an Evangelical Christian—a bit on the fundamentalist spectrum, I guess. She doesn’t like the Old Testament—too much murder, too many rules. I ask about the “Sermon on the Mount.” She thinks that’s ok. She likes Jesus’ moral teaching. She’s left of center politically and socially. She’s about to graduate from a Christian university. Somewhere along the line she lost her faith. She’s not come out as an atheist—except to a few people. She’s aware of the risks. She can’t doubt outloud. Her litany of complaints focus ...

We may assume the obvious that statues of people are installed in public places by those who revere something about the person.  Dictators and other men who ruled with iron hands have been toppled and decapitated years after their death when their nefarious deeds were considered more evil than any good they might have done. And times changed making it safe to destroy an old emperor's image without losing one's own head. The recent protests about the statues of the Confederate States are not new as Gillian Brockwell explains in her WP post from 17 August. I have been tempted to draw on the culture of honour theories put forth by Richard Nisbett and Dov Cohen ( 1996 ) following some quite creative studies showing the tendency of Southerners to react quickly to perceived challenges to their honor compared to Northerners. (I always had research students read the article-save it for later if you are busy.) However, there is a warning about going too far beyond the lab d...

What I call the SCOPES model is an organization of and an elaboration on the way many psychologists conduct comprehensive assessments for patients. I find the approach helpful because it guides us in thinking about ourselves and others in terms of multiple dimensions rather than just one or two labels that can lead to misunderstanding or worse. SCOPES is an acrostic for five dimensions of human nature within a social context.  SCOPES is also a metaphor for looking with an intent to carefully observe people in a richer and more diverse way than we do with a cursory glance. Once I name the six dimensions you will see how they reflect the common ways we speak about ourselves and others. What makes this aapproach uncommon is that it takes effort to look beyond that which is immediately evident and consider multiple dimensions before making “snap” judgments. A camera metaphor may help. People are like cameras operating on default settings. Modern cameras have multi...

I used Autofocus to capture this tiger in India News reports documenting the killing of children tug deeply at our most basic impulse to care for the young and vulnerable. Many of us identify unfair treatment and at least give a nod of support to those who seek to remedy injustice. It is no secret that people disagree about the right way to solve social problems. Matters of right and wrong are the stuff of morality. And matters of right and wrong often connect people with similar religious and political beliefs. I have drawn upon the research of Jonathan Haidt and his colleagues when writing about moral perspectives as formulated in moral foundations theory. The six moral foundations provide a useful way to consider various social-moral issues. In this post, I review the six moral foundations. In A House Divided , I applied these six foundations to show how different tribes of Christians argue about such divisive issues as birth control, abortion, and sex education. ...

I’ve had some time to think about honoring mothers on Mother’s Day. My mother lived until she was 93. And my wife has been a mother and grandmother for some years (I'm being careful here). I’ve written about Mother’s Day before ( 2014 ,  2015 ) but this year I have been asked to talk about Ephesians 6 the week after the US Mother’s Day so I’ve been thinking about Mother’s Day from the perspective of this text about honor. One of the interesting things about this well-known phrase, “Honor your father and your mother” is that it appears eight times in the Bible (Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 5:16; Matthew 15:4 & 19:19; Mark 7:10 & 10:19; Luke 18:20; Ephesians 6:2). Apparently, it was important to repeat this command. People over a span of centuries needed reminders. Maybe we do too. Here are my thoughts on this ancient text codified into a cultural norm for several decades. Words Aren’t Good Enough Christian honor required children to use their resource...