Geoffrey W. Sutton PhD, Psychology and Culture

Why I don’t post about religion on my personal page.   I  have friends who have various religious beliefs or none at all on all continents except Antarctica. I respect their cultural traditions and I want the same respect. Friendship is about good relationships. I enjoy sharing news about family and friends, experiences we have in common like places we lived or schools we attended, and interesting places to see or visit. I’ve never cared for intrusive salespeople— religious or otherwise. If I want advice, I will do my own research or ask a friend. Perhaps that's why I like shopping online--I never liked sales people trying to push me into buying something I didn't really want. It's so damned annoying! It's worse when religious people want to force their books and pamphlets on you at your home or in your face in public spaces. The whole problem is one of disrespect. I have an interest in religion and I write about that. Interested friends can read my blogs about Cu...

At this point, the research supports the value of wearing a face mask plus taking other precautions like eye protection, physical distancing, and hand hygiene. Masks alone are not enough.  Meta-analysis Study published in    The Lancet June 27 2020    What they did: The research team examined virus transmission among people on six continents. Here's a quote from the article: We did a systematic review of 172 observational studies in health-care and non-health-care settings across 16 countries and six continents; 44 comparative studies were included in a meta-analysis, including 25 697 patients with COVID-19, SARS, or MERS.    Conclusions so far: The risk for infection is highly dependent on distance to the individual infected and the type of face mask and eye protection worn. From a policy and public health perspective, current policies of at least 1 m physical distancing seem to be strongly associated with a large protective effect, and distances of 2...

The death of children and adults reminds us that violence continues to be an unsolved problem in the US. Fox News  ( McKay ) reported the deaths of children in Chicago in a week-- 3 children shot dead. In the  CNN story, they report that on Father's Day weekend, 67 were shot and 11 killed. So far, there have been 268 murders in Chicago by mid-July, which is up 22% over last year. While several other crimes were average or lower, gun violence was up 33% from last year. In April, mass shootings were down 24% in the US, which reasonably appears linked to people staying home and many places being closed ( Bloomberg ). CBS reported that March was the first March without a school shooting in 18 years. Researchers can find data on injury deaths and homicides at healthypeople.gov T ips for staying safe from violent crime are available from the  National Crime Prevention Council. Protecting children - Save the Children Safe Schools NASSP Understanding work...

  QUESTION :    So, who will miss out on Independence Day? ANSWER :        The over 700,000 residents of Washington DC.  The residents of DC are not part of an independent state, but in 2020, the House voted to create the 51st state. Facts About DC and the Vote for Statehood Washington DC is not a state and therefore has no voting senators or representatives. Ironically, DC has one NONVOTING member in the House of Representatives. What good is a representative who lacks a vote? June 26, 2020, was the first time the House of Representatives voted for DC to become a state. Nearly half the population is Black- 46%. How did the House vote go? 232 in favor, 180 against. Mostly along party lines. What would be the name? Douglass Commonwealth (named for abolitionist Frederick Douglass) To become a state, 60 Senate votes are required. How likely is it for DC to become a state? Low . Statehood is oppose...

Reality is breaking in on my work in an incredibly powerful way. I am writing about racism and sexism in a book about counseling Pentecostal Christians, which I started early in the Covid Spring of 2020. Then along came the horrible videos of violence against Black Americans.  Then, as I am searching for examples of the reality of the lived experience of Black Christians, I read an interview with Dr. Estrelda Y. Alexander that captured so much of the same issues I am trying to convey to young counselors. This post tells about what I learned from Dr. Alexander. Here's the context. Counselors are supposed to be aware of, and knowledgeable about, the culture of their clients. So, I write about Pentecostal cultures. And I find out Alexander shares similar comments with her interviewer. I also want counselors to be aware that race matters and there is a history of racism in Pentecostal churches. Alexander says that too and has a book on the subject! Fortunately, I had ment...

The first memorial service honoring George Floyd was held June 4, 2020 at North Central University (NCU), A Pentecostal Christian university in Minneapolis, Minnesota ( StarTribune) . Mr. Floyd was brutally murdered May 25, 2020 when a police officer knelt on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds until he died.   Ten years ago, Dr. Renea Brathwaite, a recent Dean for Professional Studies at NCU, was a PhD candidate. He wrote an essay about racial reconciliation from “An Afro-Pentecostal Perspective.”   I reread his essay and find it more current than ever.  In the essay,  Brathwaite tells the story of the interracial revival in the early years of American Pentecostalism—notably the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles. Early on, there was excitement over the crossing of the “color line.” Unfortunately, in the spirit of the times, Blacks and Whites went their separate ways and established congregations and eventually denominations or fellowships along ...

The news about a college closing got my attention. I had a friend who attended the soon-to-be-closed MacMurray ( CNBC ). The cost of a college degree has consumed more and more of the limited budgets available to all but wealthy Americans. In recent years, student loans were cheap and easy to come by. And the payback of loans seemed so far away as undergraduates embarked on four years of fun— often not affordable by their parents or grandparents who attended local colleges or none at all. Of course, there always were serious students who needed a college degree to enter their chosen career. We'll still need higher education as along as advanced knowledge and skills are necessary to success in one career or another. INFLATED ENTRY REQUIREMENTS The idea of career entry requirements has been inflated as though those making the rules for licenses and certifications were connected to higher education and stood to profit from them. Take my profession of psycholog...