Rethinking Psychology by Eysenck, Michael W.;

Short description:

Can subliminal messages motivate behaviour? Can you train your brain to increase your intelligence? Does parenting style affect personality?

Psychologists and non-psychologists looking to understand human behaviour and cognition are forced to contend with a number of complexities unique to the field. Not least amongst these is the fact that psychology lacks the superficially attractive precision of theories in the hard sciences. It is inevitable, then, that non-psychologists are susceptible to numerous psychological myths.

In this thought-provoking exploration of 43 of the most common psychological myths, Michael W. Eysenck examines the complexity of psychological science as well as the distortion of data, not only through the media, but also by researchers, textbook writers, and individuals themselves. He challenges the notion that the substantial progress made by psychology has provided enough convincing experimental evidence to successfully demolish these inaccuracies and explores the ways in which psychological research should be systematically improved so that psychology can take its place as a robust scientific discipline. Highly engaging, this is an informative read for psychologists at all levels, as well as members of the general public interested in challenging their own psychological understanding.

Long description:

Michael W. Eysenck graduated from University College London. He then moved immediately to Birkbeck University of London as a lecturer where he did his PhD on the von Restorff and ‘release’ memory effects. His research for several years focused on various aspects in memory (e.g., levels of processing; distinctiveness). Since then, his main focus has been on anxiety and cognition (including memory) in healthy populations and patients with anxiety disorders. Some of this research has focused on cognitive biases especially those affecting attentional and memory processes. Theoretically, he proposed his influential attentional control theory of anxiety in 2007 based on the assumption that anxious individuals’ problems with cognitive processing often revolve around impaired attentional control. Most of this research and theorising was carried out at Royal Holloway University of London where he was Professor of Psychology between 1987 and 2009 (Head of Department, 1987-2005) and where since 2013 he has been a fellow. He continued this research during the period 2010-2020 at the University of Roehampton. He has published 67 books in psychology (many relating to human memory) including two research monographs on anxiety and cognition. He has been in Who’s Who since 1989.

Table of Contents:

Preface

Chapter 1: Is psychology a science?

“Psychology is an inferior kind of science”

Reproducibility and the ‘replication crisis’

Highly controlled experimental conditions

Clearly defined terminology

 Predictability and testability: the ‘theory crisis’

What should psychologists do?

Psychology is a different kind of science

 Myths in psychology

Chapter 2: Visual perception

Myth: subliminal messages can motivate people’s behaviour without their awareness

Myth: we generally detect changes in objects

Myth: visual perception provides us with very rich and accurate information about the environment at a glance

Myth: everyone agrees on the colour of a dress (or