Popular psychology
Encyclopedia
The term popular psychology (frequently called pop psychology or pop psych) refers to concepts and theories about human mental life and behavior that are purportedly based on psychology
and that attain popularity among the general population. The concept is closely related to the human potential movement
of the 1950s and '60s.
The term "pop psychologist" can be used to describe authors, consultants, lecturers and entertainers who are widely perceived as being psychologists, not because of their academic credentials, but because they have projected that image or have been perceived in that way in response to their work.
The term popular psychology can also be used when referring to the popular psychology industry, a sprawling network of everyday sources of information about human behavior.
The term is often used in a dismissive fashion to describe psychological concepts that appear oversimplified, out of date, unproven, misunderstood or misinterpreted; however, the term may also be used to describe professionally produced psychological knowledge, regarded by most experts as valid and effective, that is intended for use by the general public.
industry.
According to Fried and Schultis, criteria for a good self-help book include "claims made by the author as to the book's efficacy, the presentation of problem-solving strategies based on scientific evidence and professional experience, the author's credentials and professional experience, and the inclusion of a bibliography."
Three potential dangers of self-help books are:
.
Sometimes psychological jargon
is used to dress up sales pitches, self-help programs, and New age
ideas to lend these endeavors a respectable scientific appearance. Other times, people use psychological terminology to describe everyday, normal experiences in a way that medicalizes a normal behavior, such as feeling sad after a loss, by suggesting that unpleasant emotions are a type of psychopathology
, like major depressive disorder. People may use psychobabble because they believe that complex, descriptive or special esoteric terms more clearly or more dramatically communicate their experiences of social and personal situations, or because they believe that it makes them sound more educated.
Some terms that have an origin in psychological terminology and are typically misused include co-dependent, dysfunctional, meaningful relationship
, narcissistic, and synergy
.
, Americans including James Mckeen Cattell
, G. Stanley Hall
, William James
, and others helped to formalize psychology as an academic discipline in the United States. Popularity in psychology grew as the public became more aware of the field. In 1890, James published Principles of Psychology
, which produced a surge of public interest. In 1892, James wrote Psychology: The Briefer Course as an opportunity for the public to read and understand psychological literature. In a similar attempt in 1895, E. W. Scripture, another American psychologist, published a book, called Thinking, Feeling, Doing, that was adapted for the average reader.
Thus, regardless of the mass interest in psychology, an accurate account of psychology for the layman
was rare. Many psychologists became concerned that their profession was failing appropriately to reach the public.
In 1893, Joseph Jastrow
and Hugo Münsterberg
led a public exhibit on psychology in the World's Columbian Exposition
in Chicago as an effort to celebrate psychology, offer information to the public, and correct popular misconceptions. The exhibit provided catalogs of information on equipment, research topics, and purposes of psychology. (For the actual catalogs, go to these websites: http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Jastrow/section.htm and http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Munster/Lab/) In a similar attempt to inform the public, the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition
in St. Louis included (among others) presentations from G. Stanley Hall, Edward B. Titchener
, Mary Whiton Calkins
, John B. Watson
, and Adolph Meyer
. The exhibits also included public testing and experimentation.
Although admirable, the attempt to seek public approval failed to make a significant impact and psychologists became more concerned about their public image. In 1900, Jastrow wrote a book entitled Fact and Fable in Psychology that aimed to resolve popular psychological misconceptions by clearly discerning fact from fable. In preface to his book, Jastrow states, "It is a matter of serious concern that the methods of genuine psychology, that the conditions of advance in psychology, that the scope and nature of its problems should be properly understood." (vii)
that popularity in psychology grew to affect people's everyday lives. The work of G. Stanley Hall in educational psychology
led changes in the approaches of teaching and the Child-Study movement, supported in experimental psychology, guided educational reform.
Several critics warned that applying experimental psychology to education may be problematic. In 1898, Münsterberg wrote a controversial article entitled "The Danger from Experimental Psychology" in which he claims the impossible transfer of experimental results into successful teaching practices.
Despite the disagreements, popular culture
grasped onto the implications in the field of applied psychology with the hope that the research could improve their lives. Early applications included clinical psychology
, business
, industrial psychology, and the psychology of advertising
. Furthermore, the onset of World War I
led to advances in psychology brought about by its application in military psychology
.
The media
provided the public more accessible psychological information through the publication of countless books and popular magazines including Harpers, Forum, Atlantic Monthly, and Colliers. After WWI, demand grew for a more frequent source of popular psychology and newspapers became a primary source of public information. In fact, newspaper columns were so well-received that professional psychologist Jastrow had a column entitled Keeping Mentally Fit that appeared in more than 150 newspapers in the 1920s.
Soon, public demand for psychological services and information grew so fierce that the availability of legitimate research and real psychologists became insufficient. Consequently, nonprofessionals began to offer their services under the guise of psychologists.
The American Psychological Association
(APA) responded with an effort to establish official certifications for trained psychologists. However, popular interest overlooked the qualifications and eagerly sought to apply popular psychological science regardless of its validity.
Short-lived, the excitement over useful psychology was curbed by articles warning of the exaggerated and false claims made by popular psychology. Stephen Leacock
described the changing popularity in psychology in 1924, stating,
Others authored similar cautions to the public and, among the most recursive, was that of Grace Adams who, in her 1928 article, wrote
After the Depression
hit in 1929, popular literature began to decline while scientific publications in periodicals increased. This discrepancy between the public sector and academia
supported the popular belief that professional psychologists were not interested in solving America's problems. The lack of professional participation provided pseudoscientific and unprofessional psychological literature to become very popular. In the 1930s, self-help books and the publication of three magazines (Modern Psychologist, Practical Psychology Monthly, and Psychology Digest) became part of a popular psychology movement.
World War II
gave professional psychology another chance to prove its value as a science with an increase in professional opportunities. In the article "Don't They Understand Us? A history of Psychology's Public Image", Benjamin describes the direction of psychology at the time:
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
and that attain popularity among the general population. The concept is closely related to the human potential movement
Human Potential Movement
The Human Potential Movement arose out of the social and intellectual milieu of the 1960s and formed around the concept of cultivating extraordinary potential that its advocates believed to lie largely untapped in all people...
of the 1950s and '60s.
The term "pop psychologist" can be used to describe authors, consultants, lecturers and entertainers who are widely perceived as being psychologists, not because of their academic credentials, but because they have projected that image or have been perceived in that way in response to their work.
The term popular psychology can also be used when referring to the popular psychology industry, a sprawling network of everyday sources of information about human behavior.
The term is often used in a dismissive fashion to describe psychological concepts that appear oversimplified, out of date, unproven, misunderstood or misinterpreted; however, the term may also be used to describe professionally produced psychological knowledge, regarded by most experts as valid and effective, that is intended for use by the general public.
Types of popular psychology
Popular psychology commonly takes the form of:- self help books, for example The Road Less Travelled, by M. Scott PeckM. Scott PeckMorgan Scott Peck was an American psychiatrist and best-selling author, best known for his first book, The Road Less Traveled, published in 1978.-Biography:...
; - adviceAdvice columnAn advice column is a column in a magazine or newspaper written by an advice columnist . The image presented was originally of an older woman providing comforting advice and maternal wisdom, hence the name "aunt"...
dispensed through radio, TV, and print; for example Dear AbbyDear AbbyDear Abby is the name of the advice column founded in 1956 by Pauline Phillips under the pen name Abigail Van Buren and carried on today by her daughter, Jeanne Phillips, who now owns the legal rights to the pen name....
, Dr. PhilDr. Phil (TV series)Dr. Phil is a reality/talk television show hosted by Phil McGraw. After McGraw's success with his segments on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Dr. Phil debuted on September 16, 2002...
and Dan SavageDan SavageDaniel Keenan "Dan" Savage is an American author, media pundit, journalist and newspaper editor. Savage writes the internationally syndicated relationship and sex advice column Savage Love. Its tone is frank in its discussion of sexuality, often humorous, and hostile to social conservatives, as in...
; - mythsMythologyThe term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...
such as "People use only about 10% of their brain's capacity"; - terminology that may have a basis in psychology, but which appears more frequently in the vernacular than in professional discourse—for example, inner childInner childInner child is a concept used in popular psychology and Analytical psychology to denote the childlike aspect of a person's psyche, especially when viewed as an independent entity. Frequently, the term is used to address subjective childhood experiences and the remaining effects of one's childhood...
, left brain/right brainLateralization of brain functionA longitudinal fissure separates the human brain into two distinct cerebral hemispheres, connected by the corpus callosum. The sides resemble each other and each hemisphere's structure is generally mirrored by the other side. Yet despite the strong anatomical similarities, the functions of each...
, emotional intelligenceEmotional intelligenceEmotional intelligence is a skill or ability in the case of the trait EI model, a self-perceived ability to identify, assess, and control the emotions of oneself, of others, and of groups. Various models and definitions have been proposed of which the ability and trait EI models are the most...
, Freudian slipFreudian slipA Freudian slip, also called parapraxis, is an error in speech, memory, or physical action that is interpreted as occurring due to the interference of some unconscious , subdued, wish, conflict, or train of thought...
, and enneagramEnneagram of PersonalityThe Enneagram of Personality is a model of human personality which is principally used as a typology. Principally developed by Oscar Ichazo and Claudio Naranjo, it is also partly based on earlier teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff...
; - public perceptions about psychological methodologies that have not been scientifically validated, such as neuro-linguistic programmingNeuro-linguistic programmingNeuro-linguistic programming is an approach to psychotherapy, self-help and organizational change. Founders Richard Bandler and John Grinder say that NLP is a model of interpersonal communication and a system of alternative therapy which seeks to educate people in self-awareness and effective...
; - urban legendUrban legendAn urban legend, urban myth, urban tale, or contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true...
s such as "Psychologist B. F. SkinnerB. F. SkinnerBurrhus Frederic Skinner was an American behaviorist, author, inventor, baseball enthusiast, social philosopher and poet...
raised his own daughter in a 'Skinner box' "
Popular psychology and self-help
Popular psychology is an essential ingredient of the self-helpSelf-help
Self-help, or self-improvement, is a self-guided improvement—economically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a substantial psychological basis. There are many different self-help movements and each has its own focus, techniques, associated beliefs, proponents and in some cases, leaders...
industry.
According to Fried and Schultis, criteria for a good self-help book include "claims made by the author as to the book's efficacy, the presentation of problem-solving strategies based on scientific evidence and professional experience, the author's credentials and professional experience, and the inclusion of a bibliography."
Three potential dangers of self-help books are:
- people may falsely label themselves as psychologically disturbed;
- people may misdiagnose themselves and use material that deals with the wrong problem;
- people may not be able to evaluate a program and may select an ineffective one;
Psychobabble
The misuse and overuse of technical psychological terms is called psychobabblePsychobabble
Psychobabble is a form of prose using jargon, buzzwords and highly esoteric language to give an impression of plausibility through mystification, misdirection, and obfuscation. The term implies that the speaker of psychobabble lacks the experience and understanding necessary for proper use of a...
.
Sometimes psychological jargon
Jargon
Jargon is terminology which is especially defined in relationship to a specific activity, profession, group, or event. The philosophe Condillac observed in 1782 that "Every science requires a special language because every science has its own ideas." As a rationalist member of the Enlightenment he...
is used to dress up sales pitches, self-help programs, and New age
New Age
The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...
ideas to lend these endeavors a respectable scientific appearance. Other times, people use psychological terminology to describe everyday, normal experiences in a way that medicalizes a normal behavior, such as feeling sad after a loss, by suggesting that unpleasant emotions are a type of psychopathology
Psychopathology
Psychopathology is the study of mental illness, mental distress, and abnormal/maladaptive behavior. The term is most commonly used within psychiatry where pathology refers to disease processes...
, like major depressive disorder. People may use psychobabble because they believe that complex, descriptive or special esoteric terms more clearly or more dramatically communicate their experiences of social and personal situations, or because they believe that it makes them sound more educated.
Some terms that have an origin in psychological terminology and are typically misused include co-dependent, dysfunctional, meaningful relationship
Interpersonal relationship
An interpersonal relationship is an association between two or more people that may range from fleeting to enduring. This association may be based on limerence, love, solidarity, regular business interactions, or some other type of social commitment. Interpersonal relationships are formed in the...
, narcissistic, and synergy
Synergy
Synergy may be defined as two or more things functioning together to produce a result not independently obtainable.The term synergy comes from the Greek word from , , meaning "working together".-Definitions and usages:...
.
Pop psychologists
Some figures characterized at varying times as exponents of pop psychology include:- Werner ErhardWerner ErhardWerner Hans Erhard is an author of transformational models and applications for individuals, groups, and organizations...
- Robert Anton WilsonRobert Anton WilsonRobert Anton Wilson , known to friends as "Bob", was an American author and polymath who became at various times a novelist, philosopher, psychologist, essayist, editor, playwright, poet, futurist, civil libertarian and self-described agnostic mystic...
- Dale CarnegieDale CarnegieDale Breckenridge Carnegie was an American writer, lecturer, and the developer of famous courses in self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking, and interpersonal skills...
- Phil McGrawPhil McGrawPhillip Calvin McGraw best known as Dr. Phil, is an American television personality, author, former psychologist, and the host of the television show Dr. Phil, which debuted in 2002...
("Dr Phil")
History
Early movements in the history of American psychology can explain the importance our culture places on the field at large.The rise of psychology in the United States
Beginning late in the 19th century, and largely influenced by German scholar Wilhelm WundtWilhelm Wundt
Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt was a German physician, psychologist, physiologist, philosopher, and professor, known today as one of the founding figures of modern psychology. He is widely regarded as the "father of experimental psychology"...
, Americans including James Mckeen Cattell
James McKeen Cattell
James McKeen Cattell , American psychologist, was the first professor of psychology in the United States at the University of Pennsylvania and long-time editor and publisher of scientific journals and publications, most notably the journal Science...
, G. Stanley Hall
G. Stanley Hall
Granville Stanley Hall was a pioneering American psychologist and educator. His interests focused on childhood development and evolutionary theory...
, William James
William James
William James was a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher who was trained as a physician. He wrote influential books on the young science of psychology, educational psychology, psychology of religious experience and mysticism, and on the philosophy of pragmatism...
, and others helped to formalize psychology as an academic discipline in the United States. Popularity in psychology grew as the public became more aware of the field. In 1890, James published Principles of Psychology
Principles of Psychology
The Principles of Psychology is a monumental text in the history of psychology, written by William James and published in 1890.There were four methods in James' psychology: analysis , introspection , experiment The Principles of Psychology is a monumental text in the history of psychology, written...
, which produced a surge of public interest. In 1892, James wrote Psychology: The Briefer Course as an opportunity for the public to read and understand psychological literature. In a similar attempt in 1895, E. W. Scripture, another American psychologist, published a book, called Thinking, Feeling, Doing, that was adapted for the average reader.
Popular misconceptions and the effort to counteract
Despite the various publications, the general public had minimal understanding of what psychologists did and what psychology was all about. Many believed psychology was "mind reading and spiritualism" and that it had no real application in everyday life. Whereas, in reality, psychology was more about studying normal human behaviors and experiences that could very well have strong applications to everyday life.Thus, regardless of the mass interest in psychology, an accurate account of psychology for the layman
Layman
A layperson or layman is a person who is not an expert in a given field of knowledge. The term originally meant a member of the laity, i.e. a non-clergymen, but over the centuries shifted in definition....
was rare. Many psychologists became concerned that their profession was failing appropriately to reach the public.
In 1893, Joseph Jastrow
Joseph Jastrow
Joseph Jastrow was an American psychologist, noted for inventions in experimental psychology, design of experiments, and psycho-physics. Jastrow was one of the first scientists to study the evolution of language, publishing an article on the topic in 1886...
and Hugo Münsterberg
Hugo Münsterberg
Hugo Münsterberg was a German-American psychologist. He was one of the pioneers in applied psychology, extending his research and theories to Industrial/Organizational , legal, medical, clinical, educational and business settings. Münsterberg encountered immense turmoil with the outbreak of the...
led a public exhibit on psychology in the World's Columbian Exposition
World's Columbian Exposition
The World's Columbian Exposition was a World's Fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. Chicago bested New York City; Washington, D.C.; and St...
in Chicago as an effort to celebrate psychology, offer information to the public, and correct popular misconceptions. The exhibit provided catalogs of information on equipment, research topics, and purposes of psychology. (For the actual catalogs, go to these websites: http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Jastrow/section.htm and http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Munster/Lab/) In a similar attempt to inform the public, the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition
Louisiana Purchase Exposition
The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the Saint Louis World's Fair, was an international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States in 1904.- Background :...
in St. Louis included (among others) presentations from G. Stanley Hall, Edward B. Titchener
Edward B. Titchener
Edward Bradford Titchener, D.Sc., Ph.D., LL.D., Litt.D. was a British psychologist who studied under Wilhelm Wundt for several years. Titchener is best known for creating his version of psychology that described the structure of the mind; structuralism...
, Mary Whiton Calkins
Mary Whiton Calkins
-Early life:Mary Whiton Calkins was born on March 30, 1863 in Hartford, Connecticut; she was the eldest of five children. She moved to Massachusetts in 1880 with her family to live for the rest of her life; this is also where she began her education. In 1882, Calkins entered into Smith College as...
, John B. Watson
John B. Watson
John Broadus Watson was an American psychologist who established the psychological school of behaviorism. Watson promoted a change in psychology through his address Psychology as the Behaviorist Views it which was given at Columbia University in 1913...
, and Adolph Meyer
Adolph Meyer
Adolph Meyer was a member of the U. S. House of Representatives representing the state of Louisiana. He served nine terms as a Democrat from 1891 until his death in office in 1908.-Biography:...
. The exhibits also included public testing and experimentation.
Although admirable, the attempt to seek public approval failed to make a significant impact and psychologists became more concerned about their public image. In 1900, Jastrow wrote a book entitled Fact and Fable in Psychology that aimed to resolve popular psychological misconceptions by clearly discerning fact from fable. In preface to his book, Jastrow states, "It is a matter of serious concern that the methods of genuine psychology, that the conditions of advance in psychology, that the scope and nature of its problems should be properly understood." (vii)
Popularization of psychology
It was not until the more powerful movement of applied psychologyApplied psychology
The basic premise of applied psychology is the use of psychological principles and theories to overcome problems in other areas, such as mental health, business management, education, health, product design, ergonomics, and law...
that popularity in psychology grew to affect people's everyday lives. The work of G. Stanley Hall in educational psychology
Educational psychology
Educational psychology is the study of how humans learn in educational settings, the effectiveness of educational interventions, the psychology of teaching, and the social psychology of schools as organizations. Educational psychology is concerned with how students learn and develop, often focusing...
led changes in the approaches of teaching and the Child-Study movement, supported in experimental psychology, guided educational reform.
Several critics warned that applying experimental psychology to education may be problematic. In 1898, Münsterberg wrote a controversial article entitled "The Danger from Experimental Psychology" in which he claims the impossible transfer of experimental results into successful teaching practices.
Despite the disagreements, popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
grasped onto the implications in the field of applied psychology with the hope that the research could improve their lives. Early applications included clinical psychology
Clinical psychology
Clinical psychology is an integration of science, theory and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically-based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and personal development...
, business
Business
A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...
, industrial psychology, and the psychology of advertising
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
. Furthermore, the onset of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
led to advances in psychology brought about by its application in military psychology
Military psychology
Military psychology is the research, design and application of psychological theories and experimentation data towards understanding, predicting and countering behaviours either in friendly or enemy forces or civilian population that may be undesirable, threatening or potentially dangerous to the...
.
The media
Media (communication)
In communications, media are the storage and transmission channels or tools used to store and deliver information or data...
provided the public more accessible psychological information through the publication of countless books and popular magazines including Harpers, Forum, Atlantic Monthly, and Colliers. After WWI, demand grew for a more frequent source of popular psychology and newspapers became a primary source of public information. In fact, newspaper columns were so well-received that professional psychologist Jastrow had a column entitled Keeping Mentally Fit that appeared in more than 150 newspapers in the 1920s.
Soon, public demand for psychological services and information grew so fierce that the availability of legitimate research and real psychologists became insufficient. Consequently, nonprofessionals began to offer their services under the guise of psychologists.
The American Psychological Association
American Psychological Association
The American Psychological Association is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States. It is the world's largest association of psychologists with around 154,000 members including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. The APA...
(APA) responded with an effort to establish official certifications for trained psychologists. However, popular interest overlooked the qualifications and eagerly sought to apply popular psychological science regardless of its validity.
Short-lived, the excitement over useful psychology was curbed by articles warning of the exaggerated and false claims made by popular psychology. Stephen Leacock
Stephen Leacock
Stephen Butler Leacock, FRSC was an English-born Canadian teacher, political scientist, writer, and humorist...
described the changing popularity in psychology in 1924, stating,
As part of the new researches, it was found that psychology can be used... for almost everything in life. There is now not only psychology in the academic or college sense, but also a Psychology of Business, Psychology of Education, a Psychology of Salesmanship, a Psychology of Religion... and a Psychology of Playing the Banjo. In short, everybody has his.
Others authored similar cautions to the public and, among the most recursive, was that of Grace Adams who, in her 1928 article, wrote
a vociferous attack on applied psychology [and] argued that psychology had forsaken its scientific roots so that individual psychologists might achieve popularity and prosperity.
After the Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
hit in 1929, popular literature began to decline while scientific publications in periodicals increased. This discrepancy between the public sector and academia
Academia
Academia is the community of students and scholars engaged in higher education and research.-Etymology:The word comes from the akademeia in ancient Greece. Outside the city walls of Athens, the gymnasium was made famous by Plato as a center of learning...
supported the popular belief that professional psychologists were not interested in solving America's problems. The lack of professional participation provided pseudoscientific and unprofessional psychological literature to become very popular. In the 1930s, self-help books and the publication of three magazines (Modern Psychologist, Practical Psychology Monthly, and Psychology Digest) became part of a popular psychology movement.
World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
gave professional psychology another chance to prove its value as a science with an increase in professional opportunities. In the article "Don't They Understand Us? A history of Psychology's Public Image", Benjamin describes the direction of psychology at the time:
The praise psychologists received from government, industry, and the military provided a tremendous boost for the public image of psychology... Yet many contemporary psychologists are concerned that the current image is far from acceptable and that the science and profession of psychology continues to suffer because of that image.
Current status of popular psychology
In his Presidential Address to the APA in 1969, George Armitage Miller was hopeful for psychology's future stating, "that the real impact of psychology will be felt, ... through its effects on the public at large, through a new and different public conception of what is humanly possible and what is humanly desirable."Further reading
- Jarzombek, MarkMark JarzombekMark Jarzombek is a US-born architectural historian, author and critic. Since 1995 he has served as Director of the History Theory Criticism Section of the Department of Architecture at MIT, Cambridge MA, United States....
. The Psychologizing of Modernity. Cambridge University Press, 2000. - Justman, Stewart. Fool's Paradise: The Unreal World of Pop Psychology. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2005. ISBN 1-56663-628-0.
- Cordón, Luis A. Popular Psychology: An Encyclopedia. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2005. ISBN 0-313-32457-3.
- Scripture, E. W. Thinking, Feeling, Doing. The Chautauqua Century Press, 1895. http://ia311519.us.archive.org/0/items/thinkfeelingdoin00scririch/thinkfeelingdoin00scririch.pdf
- Jastrow, J. 1900. Fact and Fable in Psychology. Houghton, Mifflin and Company. The Riverside Press, Cambridge. http://books.google.com/books?id=xPiiv3SCOacC