EP 177: Why You Hate Psychology - Media Bias and Misunderstandings about How Science Works episode artwork

EPISODE · Jun 24, 2012 · 25 MIN

EP 177: Why You Hate Psychology - Media Bias and Misunderstandings about How Science Works

from Psychology in Everyday Life: The Psych Files · host Michael Britt

In this follow-up to episode 176 I discuss two more reasons why I believe some people either don't like or just distrust psychology: 1) the belief that it is not a science, and 2) the belief - created by the media - that psychologists make a lot of money for giving out common sense advice.  I hope you'll see that psychology is not unlike other sciences in that we study something extremely complex and yes, sometimes our findings are contradictory and they change over time.  Also, the media focuses - as usual - on only the most unlikely behavior of psychologists (like having sex with patients) or portraying them as having messed up personal lives.  Let's find out the truth (well, at least from one psychologist's perspective).

In this follow-up to episode 176 I discuss two more reasons why I believe some people either don't like or just distrust psychology: 1) the belief that it is not a science, and 2) the belief - created by the media - that psychologists make a lot of money for giving out common sense advice.  I hope you'll see that psychology is not unlike other sciences in that we study something extremely complex and yes, sometimes our findings are contradictory and they change over time.  Also, the media focuses - as usual - on only the most unlikely behavior of psychologists (like having sex with patients) or portraying them as having messed up personal lives.  Let's find out the truth (well, at least from one psychologist's perspective).

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EP 177: Why You Hate Psychology - Media Bias and Misunderstandings about How Science Works

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In this follow-up to episode 176 I discuss two more reasons why I believe some people either don't like or just distrust psychology: 1) the belief that it is not a science, and 2) the belief - created by the media - that psychologists make a lot of...

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