Popular Psychology

Popular Psychology

The pop psychology phenomenon refers to the popular interpretation anddemonstrations of the social science that studies the mind and behavior. In recent years, the practice has gained increasing popularity with relatedtelevision shows, such as Lie to Me orDr. Phil. While the methods do resemble, psychologists and pseudopsychologists do use surveysand other questionnaires, the scientific methodology is rigorously respected only inthe former. College and university students majoring in psychology often hear that the behavioral science is anomnipresent part of human life, day-to-day existence and operations, sincemost of us solve psychological dilemmas on a daily basis (e.g. how to let acoworker know they have a stain on their lower back, how to courteously let anemployee know that they ought to produce better work or how to humanely end anunpleasant relationship)…

Sound of silence. Subtle changes. Image: © Megan Jorgensen (Elena)

Nonetheless, social scientists, researchers and experimenters have to follow explicitlyoutlined methodology, which remains ensured by a qualified peer review process. Without permissions granted by this commission and ethics committees, scholarlyauthors fail to be published. Still, other professionals deplore the flaws ofthe review mechanism, stating that within a narrow area of research, all tend toknow each other, and thus less than a hundred percent accuracy andobjectivity appear as a likely outcome. Objectivity (a disinterested, non subjective approach), reliability (dependability),generalizability (applicability to the general population), replicability(international colleagues must be able to replicate the findingsobtained) and validity (whether a test or experiment measures what it wasdesigned to measure) are among the most important qualities or criteria inresearch methods.

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