Episode 121: A New Paradigm for Psychology?

Yoel is joined by a mysterious pseudonymous duo called Slime Mold Time Mold, who are proposing a new paradigm for psychology based on principles from cybernetics. This means thinking of the behavior as the result of "governors" (think drives) that are trying to reduce the distance between a set point and the state of the world by motivating you to do stuff. So when you are thirsty, you are highly motivated to drink, and when you need to pee, you are highly motivated to find a toilet. Those are simple examples, but can we use the same principles to explain more complex phenomena like emotion, motivation, personality, mental illness, and more? That is what my guests on this episode are proposing. Special Guest: Slime Mold Time Mold.

You can listen to Episode 121: A New Paradigm for Psychology? online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Episode 121: A New Paradigm for Psychology? is an episode from Two Psychologists Four Beers by Yoel Inbar, Michael Inzlicht, and Alexa Tullett.

This episode is 1:23:52 long.

This episode was published on Jul 7, 2025.

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