Donna L. Roberts, PhD (Psych Pstuff)
Bio
Writer, psychologist and university professor researching media psych, generational studies, human and animal rights, and industrial/organizational psychology
Stories (98)
Filter by community
The Great Neighborhood Debate of 1977
The Story The summer of 1977 was the summer of the great debate in my neighborhood. I was 11 years old. The controversy: Rocky vs Star Wars. It was divisive. You were on one side of this proverbial fence or the other. And while it didn’t end friendships (because the bonds of summer bike rides and swimming and camping in the back yard were too strong) it did spawn many an argument.
By Donna L. Roberts, PhD (Psych Pstuff)5 years ago in Families
Hope in New Orleans
Her name was Hope and that was just what I needed her to be. As I drew back the faded chintz curtain to the back room of Marie Laveau’s House of Voodoo, I expected to see a crystal ball, a black cat, and Hope sitting on a throne, donning a dark purple gothic robe covered with stars and moons. Instead, she was wearing a dowdy, flower print dress — the kind my grandma used to call a housedress. She looked up and saw me, slipping her Styrofoam plate of Chinese food under the plasticized cardboard table and putting away her Harlequin romance. With her beer belly and unkempt gray hair, she would have looked more at home sitting at a battered kitchen table in a trailer, drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes with the soaps blaring and a grandchild howling in a dirty playpen in the corner. If there were spirits from the netherworld here it seemed more likely they were of the trailer park trash variety than the supremely divine. It seemed more likely they might kick my city-girl butt just for fun than offer an aura of spiritual protection.
By Donna L. Roberts, PhD (Psych Pstuff)5 years ago in Humans
Mean Girls Aren’t Just in High School
The Story A childhood friend recently posted a nostalgic meme on Facebook that bore the caption “You never forget the neighborhood kids you grew up with.” She tagged a bunch of us from our old stomping ground. A smile came to my face as I saw my name there and the names of others who shared that special time and place. Instantly many fond memories came to mind. Based on the number of likes and comments it was clear that others were equally touched. Many posted specific memories and others chimed in with “OMG I forgot all about that!” There was a consensus that we were lucky to have grown up where and when we did.
By Donna L. Roberts, PhD (Psych Pstuff)5 years ago in Humans
Growing Up with Grandma
There’s a Facebook site dedicated to the town where I grew up. Recently someone posted this: Does anyone else remember the husband and wife cab company that operated out of their house on West Avenue? He drove a spotless black Buick and every time he dropped off a fare he'd drive back home and pull into the driveway. Instead of investing in a radio his wife would come out on the porch and shout the next address to him. I always found that humorous and a little endearing.
By Donna L. Roberts, PhD (Psych Pstuff)5 years ago in Families
I’m No Marie Kondo. Top Story - May 2021.
On the spectrum from Hoarder to Minimalist, let’s just say that Marie Kondo and I are not soul mates. Not. Even. Close. Now, I’m not on the verge of being featured on a reality show and I don’t need an intervention. But I do have a lot of stuff. A lot. More than most people. But it’s good stuff. I don’t have precarious piles of decades-old junk mail or garbage. I don’t save every plastic bag or newspaper. And there are no small pets or children buried under a deluge of flotsam and jetsam.
By Donna L. Roberts, PhD (Psych Pstuff)5 years ago in Lifehack
The complexities of addiction and recovery
Addiction is a concept that is variable, ambiguous and difficult to characterize. Webster defines addiction as "the process of giving oneself habitually or compulsively to something, such as alcohol or narcotics" (Soukhanov & Ellis, 1984, p. 77). While this description somewhat captures the desperate and sinister nature of this process, it remains an incomplete explanation. The Social Work Dictionary (Barker, 1987) refers instead to substance abuse or substance dependence and further describes the phenomena as " a disorder related to an unhealthy use of alcohol or drugs which includes related negative social, legal or vocational ramifications, a pattern of pathological use (episodic binges), psychological dependence including a desire for continued use and an inability to inhibit that desire, and symptoms of tolerance or withdrawal" (p. 160).
By Donna L. Roberts, PhD (Psych Pstuff)5 years ago in Psyche
Objects in Our Rear View Mirror
The popular rock personality “Meatloaf” is by no means a trained psychologist. Nor is he a qualified researcher in the social science arena. He has not attended graduate school. He has no clinical experience. His message is poetic and anecdotal rather than based upon statistical and psychometric standards. He is simply a musician. And yet, his lyrics “Objects in the Rear-View Mirror” tell the tale of the profound effects of traumatic life experience, specifically including child abuse, on later, even much later, adult functioning even more poignantly than the finest and most current publications in the field. Simply put, he argues that one does not simply “get over it”, but rather carries the pain and confusion of early hurts down the road of life for a very long time. This is, of course, something survivors know instinctively.
By Donna L. Roberts, PhD (Psych Pstuff)5 years ago in Psyche
Dear Dr. Donna - Dilemma: Am I a Helicopter Parent?
Dear Dr. Donna, Earlier in the week I attended my 4th grader’s parent-teacher conference. I was happy to learn that the teacher is satisfied with both his classwork and his behavior. It seems, my son it not a problem, but rather, I am! The teacher accused me of being a “helicopter parent.” When I arrived home that night, stunned from her accusation, my husband just laughed and said, “Yeah, you are.” Still distraught, I asked my girlfriend about it the next day at lunch. While she was kinder and gentler in her response, she too confirmed that I am guilty as charged!
By Donna L. Roberts, PhD (Psych Pstuff)5 years ago in Families
