Dictionaries & Encyclopedias : 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology Shattering Widespread Misconceptions about Human Behavior
Psychology (5th Edition) | 
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- ISBN13: 9781405131124
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 Very effective review of some of the most commonly held misconceptions in the field of psychology
As a psychologist who has a clinical practice, I sometimes find it irritating when others assume that the work I do is just some form of common sense advice-giving. But then I see a book like this one, and I am reminded that the general public is filled with so-called "common sense" misconceptions about the entire field of psychology. Luckily, authors Scott Lilienfeld, Steven Lynn, John Ruscio, and the late Barry Beyerstein, all professors of psychology, have challenged some of these most commonly-held beliefs with solid, research-based evidence from a multitude of leading psychology journals and other seminal works in the field.
In their Introduction, the authors talk about "Psychological Science and Common Sense" and offer tools for myth-busting, including ten of the mostly likely reasons why myths develop. Here they discuss factors such as selective perception and memory, confusing correlation and causation, the influence of the media, and problems with terminology (it appears that some of the other reviewers may have skipped this section and/or would benefit from rereading this information). The main body of the book is divided into 11 chapters, each organized around a specific topic area--for example, "Myths about Memory," "Myths about Emotion and Feeling," "Myths about Psychological Treatment," etc. Each chapter contains 4-6 specific myths; about 4-6 pages is devoted to each individual myth. Finally, at the end of every chapter, the authors have listed "Other Myths to Explore." Here they simply provide statements of "Fact" and "Fiction" (anywhere from about 12 to 30) without any accompanying research backup.
In simply perusing the chapters prior to starting to read the book, I was happy to see that none of the myths came as a great surprise to me. In fact, I'd actually argued several of these points myself in the past, including that the expression of anger to others isn't always better and that electroconvulsive therapy isn't violent or harmful. This doesn't mean that I completely agreed with the authors about everything, however. One of the myths listed is "A positive attitude can stave off cancer." No, a positive attitude might not be able to "stave off" cancer, but in psychologist Martin Selgiman's work with optimism, he HAS shown some excellent effects, including improved survival rates, in teaching optimism to cancer patients (see Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life). I also had a question about the derivation of one of the statistics included in one of the "Other Myths to Explore" sections. I emailed the three living authors about this, and two of them responded almost immediately to say that they would research the exact origin of this number so that they could confirm its accuracy for the second edition of the book (currently in development).
The fact that I had a few disagreements with the authors did not alter my main impression--i.e., this is an excellent book which was extremely well-researched. As a clinical psychologist, I was trained in the classic scientist-practitioner model, and part of this training involved learning how to 1) recognize whether something has appropriate research backing, and 2) review that research with a healthy skepticism. Like the myths that it addresses, this book of course should be approached with a critical eye. However, in doing so, what one is likely to find is an engaging, extremely readable challenge to some commonly-held popular psychology myths written by experts in the field. Highly recommended for anyone within the disciple of psychology or simply those with an interest in the topic.
Summaries of peer-reviewed studies
This is a very good book. The writing is clear, consise, and all of it is based on scientific psychology research - complete with citations and references in APA style. More than "a read" - it is a type of reference book for these many common phenomena. Don't be fooled by the title "popular" - the items are all well known, and in that sense they are popular. But this is not "pop psychology" - this is a well-written list about summaries of published peer-reviewed studies. Highly recommended to non-psychology readers and useful as a reference or for review for serious psychology students. Great job!
Questioning psychology and science
It is good to know the faults of science and psychology. This book highlights a good number of notions that have been accepted within the field of psychology and its general readership that are false. It leaves you (in a good way) asking "What else?"
A skeptics toolbox for debunking psychological notions
This is a fun, easy to read book that will shatter the preconceived notions of even the most skeptical and erudite reader. The authors tackle some dogged psychological notions that for some reason or other have persisted. Some of the psychological notions shattered will be a bit of a surprise and shock to the readers, which makes this book all the more interesting. One caveat though is that after reading this book you will notice friends, family and colleagues confidently spouting one of these debunked psychological notions and you will have to decide if you want to be the know-it-all or let the remark slide. But if a particularly egregious comment is rendered, this book will provide you the information and the references to spread the truth. The notions in this book should be spread far and wide, so we can get rid of some of the cherished garbage our society takes for granted. The one problem I have with this book is that they often try a little too hard to be controversial and to destroy sacred cows. This doesn't mean that they are inaccurate in their dismissal, just that their debunking will not be as profound as the title of the chapter will imply and they often do battle with imagined strawmen while avoiding the subtleties of the argument. But that is a minor quibble with only a few of the chapters. For a fun, interesting read you can access a toolbox of psychological notions to debunk in this book. Highly recommended.
Clarifies misconceptions
As a graduate student in educational psychology, I've heard my share of myths about thinking, cognition, emotion, and the human brain. "The average person only uses 10% of their brain." "If a teacher matches their teaching style to a child's learning style, then the child will learn more." "Clinicians make decisions just as accurately as tests do." This book demolishes those inaccurate beliefs and over 40 more.
In addition to the factual content, I appreciate several aspects of this book. First, it is written in an accessible style and could serve as a supplementary text in a high school or introductory college psychology class. Second, it comes with a moderate amount of citations--not too many to seem overwhelming, but not so few that you feel like you're just reading the author's opinion. Also, the authors explore possible origins for many of the myths and why they're so popular, which sometimes gives clues in how to "defuse" them in the public.
My biggest complaint about the book is with some of the 250 one-sentence long supplemental myths. Some of these are overly simplistic or may perpetuate other misconceptions (although these misconceptions are usually not as widespread as the main 50 myths). One example is the myth that ability grouping (the practice of arranging classrooms or learning groups by the children's academic aptitude) is ineffective. While true that the mere physical arrangement of classroom students does not improve learning, it would be more correct to say that ability grouping paired with differential instruction (i.e., instruction appropriate for each group's cognitive level) is highly effective for ALL ability levels. In fact, this is one of the most robust (and politically unpopular) findings in education. To see the Lillenfeld and his coauthors dismiss this fact in one sentence is disappointing.
But overall, I approve of this book. Even though I'll graduate with my doctorate next year, it's definitely staying on my shelf and I'll probably refer to it periodically. I found it to be an entertaining read and overall an accurate rebuttal to those things that many people seem to believe, but that just aren't true.
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