Myths and Misconceptions About Psychology

Download as pdf or txt
Download as pdf or txt
You are on page 1of 2

Myths and Misconceptions About Psychology 45 unambiguous operational definitions of each variable, which are published along with

ns of each variable, which are published along with research results. As


in any other scientific field, work is open for rigorous peer review to ensure the validity of the research.

Several common misperceptions lead people to believe that psychology is not a science. For example, in a TITLE 5:
recent survey only 30 percent of the respondents agreed that psychologists attempt to understand how Another common misconception surrounding the field of psychology is the idea that all psychologists are
people behave through scientific research (APA, 2010). Below are some issues that lead to commonly held therapists. Although it is true that many psychologists work in fields traditionally related to therapy (e.g.,
misconceptions. 50 clinical and counseling psychology), the aims and interests of psychological science extend well beyond
therapy and issues of mental health. The APA has 54 affiliated divisions representing a wide range of
5 TITLE 1: subject areas including experimental psychology and cognitive science, quantitative and qualitative
One such misconception is that knowledge in psychology is just common sense; that psychological research methods, developmental psychology, applied experimental and engineering psychology,
is not necessary to establish something that everyone knows. However, common sense is often psychopharmacology and substance abuse, health psychology, and clinical neuropsychology; less than one
contradictory. For example, everyone knows that opposites attract, yet we’ve also been taught that birds of 55 fifth of the APA divisions’ specialties directly involve providing some aspect of therapy to clients (APA,
a feather flock together. These contradictory beliefs often exist because there is anecdotal evidence to 2019). Just as all biological scientists are not physicians, all psychological scientists are not therapists. It
10 support both sides. Only controlled research can help us determine under what circumstances one is true is important to note though that all psychologists, even those who work in clinical setting, apply the
and under what circumstances the opposite is true. scientific method to their work, and most clinicians have been trained as scientist-practitioners.
In addition, many people do not realize that psychological research has demonstrated that some commonly
believed “truisms” are false, such as the belief that “You only use 10 percent of your brain” (Lilienfeld, TITLE 6:
Lynn, Ruscio, & Beyerstein, 2010). Psychological research has also demonstrated findings that may be 60 Sigmund Freud looms large over the public’s perception of psychology. Many individuals incorrectly
15 counterintuitive. For example, due to the bystander effect, you can expect less help when you are in a large assume that Freud’s theories dominate psychological science. In most psychological research, Freud’s
crowd than when there are only a few people present (Darley & Latané, 1968). influence is limited and is primarily of historical interest. One recent study showed the principles of
psychoanalysis were more likely to be taught in departments other than psychology, often in regard to
TITLE 2: literary and art criticism (Redmond & Shulman, 2008). In short, the public’s familiarity of Freud’s name
Many people are unaware of or skeptical regarding psychology’s status as a science. Other people believe 65 and work often lead him to be an easily recalled figure in the field, even though the most contemporary
that because they are social scientists that their results are somehow less scientifically rigorous than the research and practice is cognitive, behavioral and neuroscientific (Spear, 2017).
20 results of other scientists (Ferguson, 2015). Popular media depictions may portray psychologists primarily
in clinical or counseling settings, rather than engaged in activities that match stereotypical ideas of what
science looks like in practice. In fact, psychologists are scientists trained to systematically study thought Source: https://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/topss/science/myths-misconceptions
and behavior. (March 2019)
The distinctions that are sometimes drawn between social science and natural science, or between “hard
25 science” and “soft science,” relate more to the subject matter being studied than they do to the core of
methodological and statistical tools used by all scientists.

TITLE 3:
Good science requires replication, an issue of importance across sciences ranging from biology (Lighgow, VOCABULARY: mis- (prefix)
Driscoll, & Phillips, 2017) to computational science (Peng, 2011) to high energy physics (Chen et al., 2019).
30 For example, biomedical research successfully replicates less than 25 percent of the time (Begley & This prefix is added to the beginning of a verb or word formed from a verb, to show that the action referred
Ioannidis, 2015). In 2015, psychologist Brian Nosek published findings from the Reproducibility Project to by the verb has been done wrongly or badly.
(Open Science Collaboration, 2015). He and his colleagues reported that in the attempts to replicate 100
published psychological studies, only ⅓ reproduced the original findings. Scientists don’t all agree on the e.g.: conception (Noun) = an idea  misconception (Noun) = an idea that is wrong
severity of this problem, but psychological scientists are working to resolve the issue (Gilbert, King,
35 Pettigrew, & Wilson, 2016). While this debate continues, it is important to recognize that reproducibility Find at least 5 other words starting with mis- and their root words. Then, look for their meanings in a
issues are relevant to many domains, such as biomedical science. For example, only 6 out of 53 classic dictionary. Don’t forget to mention their grammatical natures and underline the underline the stressed
cancer studies have replicated (Ioannidis, 2005). All sciences struggle with these issues because when syllable.
investigators are at the boundaries of knowledge, uncertainties exist and conclusions are always provisional.
Mis-word Gram. nature Meaning Root word Gram. nature Meaning
TITLE 4: an idea that is
misconception Noun conception Noun an idea
40 One misconception about the scientific rigor of psychology is that psychological phenomena such as wrong
behavior or emotions cannot be quantified and therefore cannot be reliably measured and studied (Berezow,
2012). The perception may be that psychologists use arbitrary scales or do not clearly define a variable
before making observations. Some of the variables studied by psychologists can be difficult to measure.
For example, how do you measure happiness? However, psychological research always involves
GENRAL COMPREHENSION:

Read the text and place the following titles where appropriate:
- Reproducibility
- Measurement of Psychological Variables
- Freud’s Influence
- Scientific Methods and Psychology
- Psychology and Therapy
- Psychology and Common Sense

DETAILLED COMPREHENSION:

1) Vocabulary: Translate into English.


a. la recherche scientifique
b. Les scientifiques sont des chercheurs

2) What is common sense? Give a definition in your own words.

3) What does “truisms” (l.13) mean?

4) What does “counterintuitive” (l.15) mean? How is the word built?

5) Match up the fields of research (column 1) with the type of science they belong to (column 2). There
may be several possibilities.
chemistry hard science
psychology soft science
biology social science
sociology natural science
physics

6) Explain why reproducibility is important in science?

7) Explain in your own words what variables are.

8) What process does the scientific community use to ensure the quality of a publication in psychology?
Describe how it works.

9) Provide a synonym for “physician” (l.56).

10) True or False? Justify by quoting the text.


a. Classic scientific cancer studies have the highest rate of reproducibility.
b. In the examples given in the text, hard science has the highest rates of reproducibility.
c. All the psychologists are therapists.

You might also like