Jump to content

50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology

Featured Replies

This book is great; however, I suspect the lack of scientific evidence and reasoning for each debunked myth. But that is my opinion, and it is a good book to pass the time. I recommend you guys to read it.

 

 

 

 

51cKnBbHQVL._SX330_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

 

 

The following is a quote from the introductory.

 

Many of us leap to the conclusion that because A precedes B, then A must cause B. But many events that occur before other events don’t cause them. For example, the fact that virtually all serial killers ate cereal as children doesn’t mean that eating cereal produces serial killers (or even “cereal killers”—we couldn’t resist the pun) in adulthood.

I love psych, and in fact minored in it as an undergrad. Thanks for the heads up on this book, it looks to be interesting and I'll see if my campus library can get a copy I can check out.

 

I hope it's not to basic, btw. Not as basic, as, and I mean no offense, your example about serial killers eating cereal. That was middle school level logic that there is a huge difference between something being a causal or a corrolary factor.

 

Thanks, Goat!

  • 11 months later...

I suspect the key to the character of the book lies in it's title - Popular Psychology. If you consult the prospectus of any well regarded university psychology department you will find they cover many branches of psychology. I doubt popular psychology is one of them.

I interpret Popular in this context to be equivalent to - "what I half understood from a History World documentary", "what I gathered from watching some of the CIS programs", "well it's Skinner and Freud and Jung and all those guys, isn't it?" etc. "Here's another crazy idea I have because I couldn't be bothered to do some serious study", "my uncle's bipolar so I understand these things".

But that's all suspicion and the book may be the best thing since sliced avocado.

 

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.

Configure browser push notifications

Chrome (Android)
  1. Tap the lock icon next to the address bar.
  2. Tap Permissions → Notifications.
  3. Adjust your preference.
Chrome (Desktop)
  1. Click the padlock icon in the address bar.
  2. Select Site settings.
  3. Find Notifications and adjust your preference.