50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions about Human Behavior

Overview

The book is a guide to critical thinking about psychology . It discusses a number of most widespread and believed myths of popular psychology — a type of psychology that is not based on scientifically proven facts, but are well known by the general public — and helps people learn how identify false claims.

My top 40 myths

1. Most People Use Only 10% of Their Brain Power
2. Humans have an invisible “body energy” that can cause psychological problems when blocked.
3. Subliminal Messages Can Persuade People to Purchase Products
4. Playing Mozart’s Music to Infants Boosts Their Intelligence\
5. Humans have five senses.
6. Adolescence Is Inevitably a Time of Psychological Turmoil
7. Most People Experience a Midlife Crisis in Their 40s or Early 50s
8. Old Age Is Typically Associated with Increased Dissatisfaction and Senility
9. Human Memory Works like a Tape Recorder or Video Camera, and Accurately Records the Events We’ve Experienced
10. The memory of everything we’ve experienced is stored permanently in our brains, even if we can’t access all of it.
11. Hypnosis is Useful for Retrieving Memories of Forgotten Events
12. Individuals Commonly Repress the Memories of Traumatic Experiences
13. Extremely intelligent people are more physically frail than other people
14. IQ scores are unrelated to school performance.
15. There’s a close link between genius and insanity
16. Very high levels of motivation usually help when solving difficult problems.
17. The best means of maintaining a behavior is to reward every response.
18. Small class sizes consistently promote better student achievement.
19. Intelligence Tests Are Biased against Certain Groups of People
20. If You’re Unsure of Your Answer When Taking a Test, It’s Best to Stick with Your Initial Hunch
21. Students Learn Best When Teaching Styles Are Matched to Their Learning Styles
22. Researchers Have Demonstrated that Dreams Possess Symbolic Meaning
23. Falling asleep the moment one’s head hits the pillow is a sign of a healthy sleeper.
24. Transcendental meditation is a uniquely effective means of achieving relaxation.
25. Women have better social intuition than men.
26. Living in modern Western society is much more stressful than living in undeveloped countries.
27. Beauty is entirely in the eye of the beholder.
28. People who are prone to good moods tend to have fewer bad moods than other people.
29. Positive self-affirmations (“I like myself ”) are a good way of boosting self-esteem
30. Depression has been demonstrated to be due to a “chemical imbalance” in the brain
31. Ulcers Are Caused Primarily or Entirely by Stress
32. Opposites Attract: We Are Most Romantically Attracted to People Who Differ from Us
33. Men and Women Communicate in Completely Different Ways
34. It’s Better to Express Anger to Others than to Hold It in
35. The Fact that a Trait Is Heritable Means We Can’t Change It
36. Low Self-Esteem Is a Major Cause of Psychological Problems
37. Most psychopaths are out of touch with reality.
38. Large groups make less extreme decisions than individuals
39. “Brainstorming” new ideas in groups works better than asking people to generate ideas on their own.
40. The best way to change someone’s attitude is to give him or her a large reward to do so.