PsychSessions: Conversations about Teaching N' Stuff

E2: Motivation Myth Busters, with Wendy Grolnick and Benjamin Heddy

May 20, 2026

In this APA Publishing-PsychSessions paretner series, Garth Neufeld interviews Wendy Grolnick and Benjamin Heddy about their APA-published book (with Frank Worrel) Motivation Myth Busters. They discuss pervasive misconceptions such as believing some people simply aren't motivated, relying on rewards or pressure, and assuming people accurately know how good they are, emphasizing consequences like fundamental attribution error, resistance to coercion, and miscalibrated self-efficacy. They highl...

E251: Nick Epley: Social courage, bridging gaps, and the gift of connection

May 19, 2026

In this episode Garth interviews Nick Epley from the University of Chicago in Chicago, IL. They discuss psychologists' migration to business schools and Epley's MBA course, "Designing a Good Life," an ethics-focused social psychology class that uses experiments on kindness, gratitude, and how doing good can feel good by increasing connection, competence, and autonomy. Epley describes his social cognition research on why people are "not social enough," underestimating how positive deep convers...

E012: RE-RELEASE: APA Introductory Psychology Initiative: The Student Learning Outcomes & Assessment Group

May 12, 2026

In this re-release episode, Garth sits down with members of the APA's Introductory Psychology Initiative (IPI) Working Group on Student Learning Outcomes & Assessment: Jennifer Thompson, Kristin Whitlock, Jane Halonen, Sue Frantz (not featured), and Eric Landrum. Together, they explore how the project took shape, the leadership behind it, the move toward a thematic revolution, and what it means to take a content-agnostic approach to teaching psychology. Note. Portions of the show notes were g...