Psychology

The Department of Psychology at Bowdoin examines contemporary perspectives on principles of human behavior in areas ranging from cognition, language, development, and behavioral neuroscience to interpersonal relations and psychopathology.

Barbara Held Delivers American Psychological Association’s Staats Lecture
Clinical and philosophical psychologist Barbara Held presented the Arthur W. Staats Lecture in Washington, DC, as part of having received the award by the same name from the American Psychological Foundation of the American Psychological Association.
Eric Gaze Debunks Dunning-Kruger Effect
The idea that the least skilled among us overestimate their abilities more than anyone else is the gist of what’s known as the Dunning-Kruger effect, something that has appeared in headlines in connection with everything from work to why Donald Trump was elected president. Eric Gaze, director of quantitative reasoning and senior lecturer in mathematics, suggests the mathematical approach used to show the Dunning-Kruger effect may be incorrect.
Piece of Mind: There’s No Escaping Psychologist Barbara Held’s Opinions
Clinical and philosophical psychologist Barbara Held has opinions, and thanks to op-ed pages near and far, readers across the country are privy to her professional insights—no couch or copay required.