Types of Popular Psychology
Popular psychology commonly takes the form of:
- self-help books, for example The Road Less Travelled, by M. Scott Peck;
- advice dispensed through radio, TV, and print; for example Dear Abby, Dr. Phil and Dan Savage;
- myths such as "People use only about 10% of their brain's capacity";
- terminology that may have a basis in psychology, but which appears more frequently in the vernacular than in professional discourse—for example, inner child, left brain/right brain, emotional intelligence, Freudian slip, and enneagram;
- public perceptions about psychological methodologies that have not been scientifically validated, such as neuro-linguistic programming;
- urban legends such as "Psychologist B. F. Skinner raised his own daughter in a 'Skinner box' "
Read more about this topic: Popular Psychology
Famous quotes containing the words types of, types, popular and/or psychology:
“Our children evaluate themselves based on the opinions we have of them. When we use harsh words, biting comments, and a sarcastic tone of voice, we plant the seeds of self-doubt in their developing minds.... Children who receive a steady diet of these types of messages end up feeling powerless, inadequate, and unimportant. They start to believe that they are bad, and that they can never do enough.”
—Stephanie Martson (20th century)
“The bourgeoisie loves so-called “positive” types and novels with happy endings since they lull one into thinking that it is fine to simultaneously acquire capital and maintain one’s innocence, to be a beast and still be happy.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“The poet needs a ground in popular tradition on which he may work, and which, again, may restrain his art within the due temperance. It holds him to the people, supplies a foundation for his edifice; and, in furnishing so much work done to his hand, leaves him at leisure, and in full strength for the audacities of his imagination.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I was now at a university in New York, a professor of existential psychology with the not inconsiderable thesis that magic, dread, and the perception of death were the roots of motivation.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)