Reality Test

By: Dr.s Kay & Ray
  • Summary

  • Psychologists talk RealiTV!
    Two licensed psychologists look at what we can learn about culture, societal oppression, social privilege, and ourselves from reality television. Grounded in their sociopolitical positions as relational, anti-racist, feminists, Dr.s Kay & Ray address the power dynamics; social (in)justice; intersecting oppressions, marginalizations, and privileges; and sociohistorical context present in numerous, popular reality television shows, while also celebrating the hope and empowerment that can be found.

    At the end of some of our first episodes (3, 4, & 8), and now as separate episodes, “Mental Health Check-Up” segments explore brief mental health interventions, self-help tips, or other concepts from psychology for us all to further noodle on!

    We hope to inspire further discussion about psychological and sociocultural aspects of our favorite reality tv shows, offering rough draft thoughts and ideas for us all to continue thinking about. After all, reality television ultimately provides an engaging format for learning about human behavior, mental health, and sociopolitical systems—let’s learn together!

    DISCLAIMER: In the context of this podcast, we are not acting as therapists, neither for you nor for the reality castmates we discuss. We are, instead, bringing in our whole human selves, supplemented by mental health and psychology knowledge. We both adhere to social constructionism, such that we believe all knowledge is co-constructed in the context of relationships and we all have our own reality, informed by our own biased memories and subjectivities.

    Despite realiTV making us all believe we know the castmates, we clearly do not, and we cannot ethically diagnose them or speak with certainty about their dynamics without conducting formal psychological assessments. Thus, our opinions will be merely (easily erroneous) opinions, informed by our biased perspectives, and while we may discuss diagnoses, we will avoid assigning them to castmates. We've spent years developing our professional roles as psychotherapists, professors, supervisors, and consultants, but we are new to podcasting--as you'll notice! Thank you in advance for your patience and feedback :) This will be an imperfect, but growth-fostering process, and we appreciate your engagement with it and with us! Thanks, y’all.

    © 2024 Reality Test
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Episodes
  • Double Prescience about Controlling Chock & Rascal Pascal | Recap of Season Finale ep.s (x3) | Golden Bachelorette
    Nov 21 2024

    Dr.s Kay & Ray begin by checking in about their responses (and self-care) in the wake of the election, before they recap ep.s 7-9--both parts of the season finale & The Men Tell All--of the inaugural Golden Bachelorette season.

    Dr. Kay has been consistently concerned with Chock’s crassly controlling & “chocky” comportment, concern that continues through the comprehensive collective of crowning chapters. Dr. Ray pulled out of primordial, patriarchal, precognition that Pascal may prefer pre-60s (pre-50s?) for his primary partners.

    A little, alliteration, as you’ll allow… :)

    Dr.s Kay & Ray explore their 8 psychology-focused segments while recapping the Golden Bachelorette finale episodes, including what they imagine producers would do differently, if they were psychologists, and the fact there is NO mention of therapy (??) despite this group being perfectly suited to grief work and self-exploration (among other clinical activities). Although cohort effects suggest these castmates are not as comfortable discussing or attending therapy as the generations that follow, that makes it all the more powerful for the Bachelor franchise to normalize seeking therapy--particularly as they waded through so many psychologically-painful, traumatic themes this season.

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    Reality testing is when we check an emotion or thought we’re having against objective reality.

    So, here in Reality Test, we’re going to be testing the thoughts, emotions, interactions, and producer antics of reality television against what we know, as licensed psychologists, about objective reality.

    Come Reality Test with us!

    Hosts: Dr. Kay & Dr. Ray
    Thank you to our sound extraordinaire, Connor!

    Instagram: @drkaypods @drraypods
    TikTok: @dr.realitv
    Facebook Page: Reality Test Pod
    YouTube Channel:
    @RealityTestPod
    Email:
    realitycheckpodding@gmail.com

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    1 hr and 42 mins
  • Repair, Whole-Object Thinking, & White-Presenting Privilege (bonus: Election!) | Award Show | Week of 11/4
    Nov 12 2024

    The Award Show is BACK, baby! After a few weeks of strictly recap episodes, Dr.s Kay & Ray bring back their realiTV awards! They review any and all of the reality TV they watched over the past few weeks, awarding moments and/or castmates with the same 6 awards (all with “test” in their titles)! The topics in the title came up in these episodes of reality television, providing us with fodder for accessible application of our understanding of them to funny and/or problematic interactions and representations.

    Dr.s Kay & Ray also discuss their emotions, thoughts, and self-care suggestions associated with the election last Tuesday for their check-ins portion at the beginning of the episode. Should you be happy with the outcome of the election, feel free to fast forward through the check-ins to about 20mins in.

    And the TESTosterboned (most patriarchal) award gooooes to… whom? Or, what? Hint: there seems to be a theme with the men in D.C.…

    What about the opposite award, the Bechdel TEST (most feminist)? Or the TESTimonial award (best confessional)? To which moments or whom did the remaining 4 awards go? To whom would you want them to go?

    Check out the episode to compare their choices to your own!

    This week, awards went to moments & castmates from the latest seasons of Love is Blind, Selling Sunset, Real Housewives of New York City, Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, and Golden Bachelorette, as well as past seasons of The Traitors and Summer House.

    —----------------------------------------------------------

    Reality testing is when we check an emotion or thought we’re having against objective reality.

    So, here in Reality Test, we’re going to be testing the thoughts, emotions, interactions, and producer antics of reality television against what we know, as licensed psychologists, about objective reality.

    Come Reality Test with us!

    And Happy Birthday to our sound extraordinaire, Conner!

    Hosts: Dr. Kay & Dr. Ray
    Thank you to our sound extraordinaire, Connor!

    Instagram: @drkaypods @drraypods
    TikTok: @dr.realitv
    Facebook Page: Reality Test Pod
    YouTube Channel:
    @RealityTestPod
    Email:
    realitycheckpodding@gmail.com

    Show more Show less
    1 hr and 26 mins
  • Misogyny & Victim-Blaming on the Reunion | Part 3 Recap of Love is Blind Season 7
    Nov 5 2024

    Dr.s Kay & Ray recap episodes 12-13, reviewing the weddings and the reunion of season 7 of Love is Blind. Tim saying, “Y’all want men to take you seriously and then act like this” (as if women don’t, at baseline, deserve to be treated equally), Nick Lachey telling Marissa not to date men who think her energy is too much (as if it were her fault that Ramses thought she was too much), Vanessa Lachey asking Monica if Steven’s cheating was a red flag (as if she should’ve known better than to date him, if she didn’t want him to do what he ends up doing), and all of the castmates repeatedly naming the cruel things Nick said about Hannah (while trying to get Nick to admit he said them, when there are other ways to hold him accountable) are just SOME of the problematic, victim-blaming & sexist statements that were made on the reunion.

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Reality testing is when we check an emotion or thought we’re having against objective reality.

    So, here in Reality Test, we’re going to be testing the thoughts, emotions, interactions, and producer antics of reality television against what we know, as licensed psychologists, about objective reality.

    Come Reality Test with us!

    Hosts: Dr. Kay & Dr. Ray
    Thank you to our sound extraordinaire, Connor!

    Instagram: @drkaypods @drraypods
    TikTok: @dr.realitv
    Facebook Page: Reality Test Pod
    YouTube Channel:
    @RealityTestPod
    Email:
    realitycheckpodding@gmail.com

    Show more Show less
    1 hr and 12 mins

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