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Have you always suspected that psychology is nothing more than common sense? Do you agree with critics who argue that psychologists only answer a question with a question? As it turns out, psychologists know much more than simple common sense would dictate. Psychologists also don't need to rely on evasive tactics when someone asks them questions. We have a well-established fund of knowledge including well-established findings that can prove useful in everyone's life.
If you've studied psychology, you undoubtedly have acquired a fair amount of knowledge about the field. Even if you haven't, by reading Psychology Today you are definitely keeping up to date. Many people also acquire their knowledge about psychology in the popular media more generally, including movies and television. As well versed as you may be in the topic, though, I'd venture to guess that there are a few facts from psychology's inner reserves that you haven't quite tapped. My objective in writing this blog is to share some of these with you and, at the same time, reinforce the knowledge you didn't even realize you already have.
Secret #1. Therapy works, and it doesn't need to last indefinitely. The misconceptions about therapy are rampant in the media but the most important fact of all, the fact that therapy works is rarely advertised. At the same time, misconceptions about therapy portray it as an interminable process that can go on for years, if not decades (we have Woody Allen to thank for this). For therapy to be effective, certain elements must be present, particularly what's called the "therapeutic alliance." Secondly, short focused therapeutic interventions lasting 10-12 weeks are used successfully to treat symptoms ranging from mood and anxiety disorders to many types of addictions.
Secret #2. Six Degrees of Separation was a concept invented by a psychologist. This secret qualifies as a bit of psychology trivia. The play, the movie, and even the "Six Degrees of Separation from Kevin Bacon" game are all based on a study conducted by none other than the late Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram, known more commonly for his research on obedience to authority. Milgram's studies, familiarly called the Small World Experiment, used a type of chain-letter method to establish that the average length of chains between supposedly random people in the U.S. was about six.
Secret #3. It doesn't take a lie detector to determine if someone is lying. Want to know if your friend is making up a white lie to cover up a cancelled date or whether a co-worker has talked about you behind your back? No need to set up a polygraph machine. Psychologists have established that lying shows up not in your breathing rate, your blood pressure, or even the sweating of your hands, but the most readily detectable way of all-- in your face. The so-called "micro-expressions" of fear in a liar's face are almost impossible to disguise. So if you know where to look, you should be able to spot the deception, particularly if the other person doesn't make a profession out of being a liar. You can also use psychology to sniff out an online liar, using slightly different principles.
Secret #4. If you don't encode you can't retrieve. A large number of memory failures aren't due to the fact that people actually forget what they once knew, but because they never knew the information in the first place. This fact is easily demonstrated by the so-called "penny" experiment. Try to recall all the details on a penny. Where is the date? What's on the back? If you're like the average non-coin collector, you'll readily be stumped. The problem is that we don't pay attention to what's going on around us. If you're trying to remember where you put something that you've lost, the best strategy is to think about what you're doing at the moment you put away that item. An extra second's worth of your attention at encoding will pay off in minutes or even hours when you're unsuccessfully trying to dredge the long-gone information from your long-term memory.
Secret #5. Most life crises are over-rated. Adolescents go through painful and destructive rebellions, right? Middle-aged adults are stressed by mid-life crises, burdened by being in the "sandwich generation," aren't they? Babies spend their early lives missing their mommies and daddies, and are unable to cope with separation- true? All of these life crises certainly can occur, but the fact is that they don't. Popular psychology's disaster mentality over-emphasizes the extent to which people navigate their lives in an adaptive manner. Psychology research shows that most infants are securely attached, and therefore able to withstand separation, that adolescents quietly explore life alternatives, and that the middle-aged don't feel sandwiched or despondent.
Secret #6. Psychological studies rarely involve deception. In Secret #2, I mentioned Stanley Milgram, known for his studies on obedience to authority in which participants believed they were actually shocking another human being. They didn't find out until the experiment was over that they weren't. This study is perhaps the most famous psychological investigation involving deception, and it's true that a number of social psychology studies today couldn't be carried out unless there was some deception involved. However, the majority of psychology experiments are almost completely transparent in their purpose. The American Psychological Association's Ethics Code spells out in exceptional detail the conditions that psychologists must abide by when they conduct experiments on humans and other animals. One of these conditions with humans involve informed consent in which risks and benefits, among other conditions, are explained prior to the study's beginning. Another is debriefing, which requires that researchers reveal the entire purpose of the study after it's completed. Institutional Review Boards at universities, hospitals, and other institutions in which sponsored research is carried out may specify additional ethical conditions that protect all participants.
Secret #7: The saltier the soup, the harder it will be to taste a difference when you add more salt. According to the psychological principle known as Weber's Law, the difference threshold between two levels of a stimulus are harder to detect the stronger the initial value of the stimulus. There is actually a mathematical function that describes the relationship between stimulus intensity and the "difference threshold" indicating when people can detect changes from one stimulus to the next. This is why when you have a soup that's already salty, you'll have to add much more salt to sense it as saltier than when you start with a completely salt-free broth. The same is true of lighting (a match in a dark room is easy to see, but not one in an already lit room) and sound (if music is already loud, you'll have to turn the volume up much more than if it is soft to hear the difference). Weber's Law further reinforces what psychology knows about sensation and perception; namely, that our senses don't simply record the objective nature of a stimulus on a one-to-one basis. Instead, our brain interacts with our eyes, ears, nose, and taste buds (among other sense organs) to influence the way we perceive "reality."
Secret #8: You need to use it or you'll lose it. This phrase, originally coined by sex researchers Masters and Johnson, when talking about aging and sexuality, applies to many areas of life outside the bedroom. Researchers who study the aging process have demonstrated repeatedly that you're more likely to hang onto, if not improve, your cognitive abilities by exercising your mind. The kinds of mental gymnastics that work don't even have to involve much strain, but they do have to kick your brain into higher gear than normal. These mental gymnastics can take many forms, including video games, if you're so inclined, but word teasers, board games, chess, and bridge can also do the trick. Of course, if you want to benefit your body as well as your mind, take advantage of strategies such as aerobic workouts (including dance). If that's too strenuous, even a decent walking workout can give you the required dose of "using it." Psychology's secret to keeping your brain in top shape can help you stay on top of your mental game, no matter what your age.
Secret #9: We are not as logical as we think we are. Demonstrating the illogic of the human mind is, to psychologists, as easy as shooting fish in a barrel. Social psychology, cognitive psychology, personality psychology, and even behavioral economics all contain plentiful examples of the errors in our thought waves. For example, everyone "knows" (at some level) that newspaper horoscopes couldn't possibly predict the detailed daily lives of everyone sharing the same birthday range. Yet, through the "Barnum Effect," we tend to believe generic predictions from these horoscopes, the feedback from magazine self-help quizzes, and the supposed mind-reading experiments conducted by stage magicians. Our logical abilities are challenged beyond recognition by even relatively simple tests that require us to use the cognitive skill of falsification because we are so biased toward seeking confirmatory evidence. When it comes to making decisions about what to eat, we are readily fooled by such obvious cues as the size or color of a plate. Yes, we should know better, but we don't.
Secret #10: Correlation can equal causation (if the right techniques are used). It's a well-known fact within the scientific method that only experimental studies can demonstrate causation. So, what's up with this secret? As it turns out, correlational statistics underwent a major retooling some years ago. It's now possible to use sophisticated mathematical modeling techniques to perform such miracles as controlling for "confounding" variables, drawing arrows to indicate directionality of effects, and charting complex relationships over time. It's true that simple correlational studies will always be flawed. A simple correlation of hostility with blood pressure can be accounted for by any number of intervening variables (smoking, strained personal relationships, perhaps even genetics). However, when you throw those other variables into a sophisticated stats program and, even better, study that relationship over time, you may actually be able to overcome the correlational study's chief limitation. We'll never be able to manipulate a person's hostility level or blood pressure in true experimental form, but we can definitely improve on the problem of plotting one against the other with no additional controls built into the design. The next time you learn the results of a correlational study, you may find yourself regarding the findings with a little more respect, as long as the study was properly conducted.
If you enjoyed learning about these secrets, feel free to explore these postings, which will further inform you about the many practical ways you can apply psychology in your everyday life:
25 Surprising Facts About Psychology
15 Great Psychology Quotes and What Makes them Great
Making sense of psychology headlines.
Let's Play Psychology Jeopardy!
We've Come a Long Way Since Pavlov
Why It's Worth Taking Intro Psych
5 Amazing Psychology Magic Tricks
Follow me on Twitter @swhitbo for daily updates on psychology, health, and aging. Feel free to join my Facebook group, "Fulfillment at Any Age," to discuss today's blog, or to ask further questions about this posting.
Copyright Susan Krauss Whitbourne, Ph.D. 2012
