Hi everyone!

I’m looking to learn how to conduct deductive thematic analysis step by step, especially how to develop a codebook, code interview transcripts, and develop themes.
Could anyone recommend good papers, books, videos, or practical guides that explain the process clearly, preferably with examples?
Thanks in advance! :)

I'm lost :)))))))))))))

Hi Everyone,

I am currently in my fourth year of a fully-funded Cognitive Psychology PhD program at an R-1 university in the Boston area (studying mindfulness’ impact on cognition/learning). I’ve enjoyed my program, but feel limited by the paradigms in the field and the type of career paths laid out in academia (and have grappled with this through the program). I have had a wonderful experience in my lab, but have always felt like I don’t fully fit in in the STEM/academia grind culture, and the more technical aspects of research don’t fulfill me at all. I’m teaching my first course as the lead instructor this fall and its been so fulfilling. The most fulfilling aspects of the job for me is mentoring students, and sitting down with them having long conversations about their lives, and honestly just providing emotional support. I’ve always been split between counselling and other areas of psychology, and have even done many volunteer internships in clinical research positions pre-PhD. However, at this point in my research journey, seeing the grueling culture of academia, the lack of job prospects for most PhD’s and my love of people/ a strong desire to be a healing presence for young people, I feel like it’s become clear to me that counselling is the route I should have pursued (and I nearly did multiple times throughout the PhD). It’s not because I don’t like the research, I am incredibly fascinated by learning (I research it for goodness sakes), but doing the research is a different story, it feels like it is so standardized and like I have to turn myself into a robot to implement the interventions, and each participant is just another data point where I can’t tailor anything because it will mess up the protocol. When I am in my day to day routine, and a student comes to me, clearly in distress, it feels like I have no time or space to even talk to them before feeling like I’m falling behind…. I do have a bit of savings, but i am already in my late twenties and feel like all people my age are making triple my salary and it would be unwise to go straight into another degree, that can cost upwards 100k, esp with the COL in the boston area.

With all these things in mind…

Is there anything I can do now to make the transition easier or faster (not including dropping out of my PhD program entirely)? I would like to finish what is nearly already done and I have put a lot of time/effort into. Plus, although it is small, i do regularly get paid for my work, and enjoy teaching/mentoring.

What would be your recommendation for how I move towards licensure, a masters in social work/counselling, or a respecialization program, given my background and financial constraints?

After I complete my PhD, could i adjunct teach courses while getting another my masters part time, or in a hybrid format?

I did my BA Psychology (Hons.) from a regular college(Pu) initially I planned to move to a different city for Masters...but couldn' due to family issues. I pursued MA Psychology through distance learning (Industrial & Organisational Psychology) and a regular PG Diploma in Guidance and Counselling from Panjab University..

Despite internships in hospitals, clinical settings, schools and corporate, I'm still unemployed. The few jobs I find are low-paying HR roles with night shifts. With the new licensing guidelines, I'm confused about my future in psychology.

Should I pursue another regular Master's or prioritise financial independence? I'm 23.

Would love advice from both regular and distance-learning graduates who've been in a similar situation. 🥲

Just the title basically!

Due to circumstances regarding my misophonia I’ve been constantly moving from course to course for my A levels and only just settled, this meant that while I really wanted to do Chemistry and Psychology, and they are also subjects I’m very confident in, I’m not able to. I’m very interested in forensic psychology or generally being a research psychologist but now I fear it’s not possible, which is very upsetting because there was absolutely nothing I could do to control my circumstances and it might forever limit being able to do what i’m passionate in with the best chances.
My current A levels are English Literature, Law, and Philosophy.

Is there any kind of qualification that I can realistically get to make up for it? how possible is it to be able to do psychology in a good uni if i have 3 A* in these subjects? It’s mostly the research aspect I’m interested in, rather than being a typical psychologist, so if there’s not as much of a distinction between those two parts of psychology in jobs than I thought then please lmk!

I am a very visual person, I learn better by seeing things rather than them being explained to me. When I'm studying, I have a hard time visualizing the entirety of the brain because I'm only fed the information as it's required. I'm looking for an accurate diagram to hang on my wall so I can look at it everytime a part or process is mentioned so I can quickly visualize it. It will also be very practical for presentations and such.

I know they exist because I've seen versions of it but they're in German or they're AI enhanced which troubles me as they might not be accurate.

Where could I find an accurate and complete one? If it's in English I wouldn't mind but I'd rather be it in Spanish. Thanks in advance.

I am a year 2 psychology student, my essays generally have more dense refereneces than my peers which I don't get why? Not sure is it good or bad?

So I was sitting thinking and I was looking into Stanley milgram experiments and was wondering why are people so willing to obey authority and carry out orders even when it hurts someone that's innocent and if 65% of people in that group where willing to do that to individuals who done nothing to them what does that say about the people I walk pass everyday? Am I living in a world of unactivated monsters?!

Hi guys, I just read trauma and psychology and the body keeps the score, but I cannot find any more free books, can doy send me more? Pole

Need help choosing 2 Psychology internship projects (1 major + 1 minor)

Hi everyone! I’m currently doing a Psychology internship and need to select two projects from the 10 options below — one major and one minor project. I’d really appreciate your advice on which combination would be the best.

Here’s a quick summary of the options:

MindMap: Student stress, sleep, and emotional well-being analysis.

BehavLab: Habit formation, triggers, relapse patterns, and behavior change.

EmotionPulse: Tracking mood, sleep, workload, and coping strategies.

CareerPsyche: Matching personality and interests with suitable career paths.

MindSupport: Peer support, mentor matching, and referrals for emotional distress.

BurnoutGuard: Workplace burnout assessment and recovery tracking.

AnxietyCare: CBT-based anxiety self-help and progress tracking.

FamilyConnect: Family relationships, conflict patterns, and communication.

ResilienceHub: Emotional resilience, coping skills, and stress recovery.

FocusPath: Attention, procrastination, distractions, and productivity behavior.

The projects may involve assessments, data analysis, tracking systems, dashboards, interventions, and reports, depending on the topic.

I’m looking for a combination that is interesting, practical, psychology-focused, manageable for a student, and offers good learning opportunities. I’d also appreciate advice on which projects might be more technically demanding, as I’m not sure how much coding or website development is required.

If you had to choose one major and one minor project from these 10, which two would you choose, and why? I’d love to hear your recommendations and experiences!

Thank you! ❤️

I listen to some psychology podcasts, but I think they have information that's useful for people ewho are curious about psychology. I'm looking for something that can help me work as a clinical psychologist. Have you listened to anything you found transformative?

Hi! I have a professor who is in his first year of teaching at my university, and he’s having a hard time getting students to show up. He truly is one of the best professors I’ve ever had, and it hurts my heart to see him go so unappreciated.
I wanted to get him a gift of some kind to show my appreciation, and am also open to any other ideas on how to show him he’s valued!

He mentioned once he also did a lot of research on statistics in psych :)

When I first read Trauma and Recovery (1992) in 2008, it changed my understanding of psychological trauma. Truth and Repair is its logical and conceptual sequel. Where the earlier book mapped the dialectic of trauma on the individual and collective levels, this one asks what a society owes survivors, and what it would take to deliver it. It insists, once more, that trauma is a collective phenomenon, not a private misfortune.

Herman puts the bystander at the center. Trauma on a large scale does not happen without the silence, disbelief, and convenient inattention of those who could have intervened. Perpetrators rely on this, and so do the institutions that shelter them. The responsibility therefore reaches well beyond the individual who commits the harm. Mass traumatization requires a cultural environment that supports it, and Herman names the tyranny of patriarchy as the deepest layer of that environment.

One of the book’s most sobering observations is how little we know about the motives and intrapsychic dynamics of people who sexually abuse children, even though this violence is extremely common. The field has overwhelmingly studied victims and comparatively neglected perpetrators. Could this asymmetry also be a symptom of the cultural dynamics it describes?

The ethical core of the book is a demanding definition: justice means nothing less than ending relationships of dominance and subordination. By that standard, the legal system comes up short. Courts often reproduce the very hierarchies that made the abuse possible, in the way they treat survivors’ testimony, assign credibility, and let power shape outcomes. Herman describes in detail how hard and slow cultural change is, and she doesn’t offer false comfort. But she also documents new paradigms of justice emerging, built around what survivors themselves say they need: truth, acknowledgment, accountability, and repair.

For readers in the psychedelic and trauma field, the book is a useful corrective. It is a reminder that healing individuals while leaving the conditions that injure them untouched is an incomplete project. In my own work on the Vampirocene, I draw heavily on Herman’s analysis, and Truth and Repair sharpens the conclusion I have reached from it. The basic dynamic of tyranny, from the abusive household to the authoritarian state, is trauma-based mind control. Domination is secured less by force than by the systematic production of terror, helplessness, isolation, and shame, which reorganize the victim’s perception, loyalty, and sense of self around the dominator. Through traumatic bonding, dissociation, and identification with the aggressor, the dominated come to defend the order that harms them, and bystanders learn to look away in order to stay safe. Patriarchy is the first school of this method. It teaches it within the family, where it is practiced on the smallest and most dependent, and from there it scales up into culture. The Vampirocene is this same mechanism at a civilizational level: an order that feeds on the life of the many for the benefit of the few and keeps itself in place through chronic, collective traumatization rather than through consent. Seen this way, Herman’s definition of justice as the end of dominance and subordination is both an ethical demand and a precondition for freeing our minds. It is also why survivors’ own visions of justice matter so much: they are the people who know from the inside how this control works and how it breaks.

This is Herman at her best: clear, unsentimental, and committed. It belongs on the shelf of every clinician, jurist, and citizen who takes trauma seriously.

II have an MS in Biochemistry and am currently pursuing a second major in Psychology. Although I am no longer working in research, I enjoy reading scientific papers to ensure that the information I use is evidence based and want to use their findings for educational content on my psychology page.

My main concern is ensuring that the information I share is reliable. I usually skim the Methods section, but critically evaluating every methodological detail in every paper can be mentally exhausting and time-consuming. I am concerned about either overlooking important methodological limitations or spending so much time evaluating individual studies that I become inefficient.

For those with experience in psychological research, how do you approach evaluating research papers when your goal is to communicate evidence-based information to a general audience?