Top Ten Myths of Popular Psychology.

[mr blur]

Virtually every day, the news media, television shows, films, and Internet bombard us with claims regarding a host of psychological topics: psychics, out of body experiences, recovered memories, and lie detection, to name a few. Even a casual stroll through our neighborhood bookstore reveals dozens of self-help, relationship, recovery, and addiction books that serve up generous portions of advice for steering our paths along life’s rocky road. Yet many popular psychology sources are rife with misconceptions. Indeed, in today’s fast-paced world of information overload, misinformation about psychology is at least as widespread as accurate information. Self-help gurus, television talk show hosts, and self-proclaimed mental health experts routinely dispense psychological advice that is a bewildering mix of truths, half-truths, and outright falsehoods. Without a dependable tour guide for sorting out psychological myth from reality, we’re at risk for becoming lost in a jungle of “psychomythology.

http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/10-09-01/

[LeftishBrit]

1. Great article...

and I would add to those the popular theory that the left and right hemispheres of the brain represent different personalities; that the right hemisphere is 'the creative hemisphere' and that creativity results from releasing the right hemisphere from the 'inhibitions' of the left hemisphere. If this were so, then the right hemispheres of split-brain patients should be particularly creative; they are not. The phrase 'right-brained thinking' in particular is guaranteed to result in steam coming out of my ears!

Another myth is that there is a 'critical period' for just about everything, and that if you don't learn things as soon as possible you will be permanently disadvantaged in learning them. There ARE critical periods for some things, notably first language learning and some perceptual skills (e.g. children who have a squint that isn't corrected in the first two years are likely to have permanent impairments in binocular vision, even if vision in each eye is normal). However, this is only true of a few areas of ability, and usually these are areas that develop in a universal way given a normal environment, but become impaired if the environment isn't 'normal'. It is rarely the case for school-taught or otherwise highly culture-dependent abilities such as reading and arithmetic. This myth is damaging, as it can lead to excessive 'hothousing' and undue pressure on children and parents: 'little Johnny is nearly 6 and he hasn't learned to read - that means he never will! - PANIC!'

[realisticphish]

2. oh man

I hate this SO FUCKING MUCH. Bunch of pseudo-Freudian bullshit about "inhibitions from the left brain"

[charlie]

4. Speaking of split brains...

I have to put this here, because it's wild:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFJPtVRlI64
(2min 22sec)

It's a short video of Dr V Ramachandran recounting an interrogation of a split-brain patient, where questions were posed to each hemisphere separately. When he got to the big one -- do you believe in God -- the right side said YES, the left side said NO.

[Nevernose]

3. FWIW, the article is taken from a book

And the book is awesome. 50 detailed myths and misunderstandings, and ~200 more listed, all sourced. Worth the Amazon price.

[frogmarch]

5. Fascinating!

I get eSkeptic articles on Facebook, but I hadn't see this one before.

[woo me with science]

6. Great article. Thanks.

It's especially nice to see recovered memories mentioned.