"Everybody knows psychology is not a real science": Public perceptions of psychology and how we can improve our relationship with policymakers, the scientific community, and the general public

The American Psychologist
Christopher J Ferguson

Abstract

In a recent seminal article, Lilienfeld (2012) argued that psychological science is experiencing a public perception problem that has been caused by both public misconceptions about psychology, as well as the psychological science community's failure to distinguish itself from pop psychology and questionable therapeutic practices. Lilienfeld's analysis is an important and cogent synopsis of external problems that have limited psychological science's penetration into public knowledge. The current article expands upon this by examining internal problems, or problems within psychological science that have potentially limited its impact with policymakers, other scientists, and the public. These problems range from the replication crisis and defensive reactions to it, overuse of politicized policy statements by professional advocacy groups such as the American Psychological Association (APA), and continued overreliance on mechanistic models of human behavior. It is concluded that considerable problems arise from psychological science's tendency to overcommunicate mechanistic concepts based on weak and often unreplicated (or unreplicable) data that do not resonate with the everyday experiences of the general public or the rigor of ot...Continue Reading

Citations

Apr 15, 2016·PeerJ·Chris H J HartgerinkMarcel A L M van Assen
May 25, 2016·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Jay J Van BavelDiego A Reinero
Jun 24, 2017·Journal of Youth and Adolescence·Christopher J Ferguson, M Brent Donnellan
Oct 13, 2017·Perspectives on Psychological Science : a Journal of the Association for Psychological Science·Scott O LilienfeldDonald R Lynam
Feb 7, 2017·Applied Cognitive Psychology·Bernice Andrews, Chris R Brewin
Aug 15, 2017·Behavioral Sciences·James GriceAdam Vest
Oct 25, 2017·Integrative Psychological & Behavioral Science·Marino Pérez-Álvarez
Jan 9, 2019·Frontiers in Psychology·Alexander Skulmowski, Günter Daniel Rey
Dec 8, 2020·Frontiers in Psychology·Llewellyn E van Zyl, Sebastiaan Rothmann
Nov 19, 2020·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Alon Zivony
Dec 18, 2020·Frontiers in Psychology·Craig P Speelman, Marek McGann

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