The Psychology of Health Behaviors featuring Dr. Elliot Berkman

Two Knowbodies Talking

Elliot Berkman is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Oregon. His research is about the motivational and cognitive factors that contribute to success and failure real-world goals, as well as the neural systems that support goal pursuit. In addition to studying how goal pursuit works, Dr. Berkman’s research also seeks ways to facilitate health behavior change goals such as cigarette smoking cessation and dieting. His research combines the distinct strengths of several research methods including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), cross-sectional and longitudinal survey methods, laboratory experiments, and translational neuroscience randomized controlled trials. Click here for more information about his research. He teaches courses in statistics, neuroimaging, and social psychology. His research and teaching have been recognized with the Social-Personality Health Network Early Career Award, the Joseph A. Gengerelli Distinguished Dissertation Award, the UCLA Social Psychology Dissertation Award, the Arthur J. Woodward Peer Mentoring Award and the UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award. He received his PhD in 2010 from the University of California, Los Angeles. His blog, The Motivated Brain, is located at Psychology Today, and he tweets as @Psychologician.

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Show Notes:

• What is autonomous regulation and how do we set goals for ourselves?
• Are we at risk for being too passive with medical interventions, leaving an untapped level of autonomy and engagement on the table?
• The influence of language and transparency of choice
• Some key takeaways from a persons own narrative and gain deeper understanding about their decision making process
• Navigating a subjective story of tragedy and framing a story or plan of success
• What is an internal locus of control and how do external influences consume us
• Bucking against perceived restraint
• The future of behavior in our society and the influence of technology on our perception of reality
• Read about the awesome work of Jeremy Bailenson here: https://comm.stanford.edu/faculty-bailenson/