Lilienfield, Scott O

Lynn, Steven Jay

Namy, Laura L

Woolf, Nancy J

Jamieson, Graham

Haslam, Nick

Slaughter, Virginia

2011

Every day, each of us encounters a host of questions that challenge our understanding of ourselves and others. In many ways, these are the same fascinating questions about the mind and brain that psychologists confront in their research, teaching and practice. As you begin your study of psychology, it is crucial to understand that we are all psychologists. We need to be. We are incessantly bombarded with a bewildering variety of claims from the vast world of popular psychology. Whether it is from the internet, television programs, talkback radio shows, movies, self-help books or advice from friends, our daily lives are a continual stream of information - and often misinformation - about intelligence testing, parenting, romantic relationships, mental illness, drug abuse, psychotherapy and a host of other topics. Although often relevant to our everyday lives, a great deal of this psychological information comes across as conflicting or confusing. It is no surprise that we find claims regarding memory- and mood-enhancing drugs, the usefulness of lie detector tests, IQ tests and personality assessments, and the causes of psychiatric disorders - to name a few examples - to be difficult to evaluate because these and other topics are the subject of much current research, which is both complex and constantly being updated. Media reports claiming to 'expose the truth' about these things usually contain only part of the whole story, at best, and as a result of the media's often misleading coverage, most of us hold misconceptions regarding many everyday psychological claims. For example, because many of us mistakenly believe that memory operates like a tape or DVD recorder, we may find it difficult to accept findings that some recovered memories of child abuse are false. What is more, because the popular psychology industry rarely provides us with the tools for evaluating both ordinary and extraordinary claims about everyday life, most us are left to our own devices to sort out what is true from what is not. Throughout this text, in our end-of-chapter review sections (called Think Again ...) and in our online MyPsychLab tool, we strive to teach you to think in a way that reflects how psychologists use science to test popular assumptions.

1442539828

9781442539822

https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/10774

en

Pearson Australia

1

Psychology: From Inquiry to Understanding

Book

Publication