Psychology on the Box...week beginning 20th September

Psychology relevant programmes cover a real mix of topics this week, Relationships, Memory and Forensic. All of them are useful for the new specifications too...

On Sunday (BBC2 9pm) there is a documentary about the effects of solitary confinement on prisoners. It’s called ‘This World: Life In Solitary’. Much of the footage is of prisons in the United States, but it still has relevance for the Forensic section of the new AQA spec, which has ‘Psychological effects’ of custodial sentencing named in its content.

On Monday ( Channel 4, 9pm) Derren Brown: Infamous comes to out screens in a show packed with hypnotism and feats of memory. Some of my students went to the show live and said it was ( and I use their words here) “Awesome”. I’m guessing your students will be similarly impressed. It’s also a great stimulus for strategies for memory improvement. He is, after all, the Master of Memory!

On Wednesday at 10pm on Channel 4 there is a documentary on polygamy. It is called ‘The Men with Many Wives’ and looks at the relationships between husbands and their (up to 4) wives. It is illegal to be married to more than one woman in this country and so the first wife is the legal one, whereas the others are married through a non-legal ceremony. If you cover Relationships at A2 then this gives some input into the section on ‘Effects of culture on adult relationships’.

Of course there’s always the non psych stuff to watch too, Great British Bake Off, X Factor, Strictly… maybe you can think of a way to incorporate them into lessons? Now there’s a challenge….