Some psychological myths are not completely false. They are exaggerations of statements that contain the grain of truth. For example, it is almost certain that many of us do not realize our true intellectual potential. However, this fact does not mean that most of us use only 10% of our intelligence, as many people mistakenly think. It is most likely true that at least a few differences in interests and personality traits between love partners can "add gloves" to their relationships. Because life with someone who agrees with you in everything can make your sexual relationship harmonious, but it will also be hopelessly boring. Opposites are not always attracted. Other myths imply exaggeration of some minor differences. For example, although men and women tend to be slightly different in style, some popular psychologists, especially John Gray, have brought this grain of truth to the extreme.
Terminological confusion
Some psychological terms denote erroneous judgments. For example, the word "schizophrenia", invented in the early 20th century by the Swiss psychiatrist Eugene Bleuler, literally means "split personality". As a result, many people mistakenly believe that schizophrenics have several personalities. Indeed, we often hear the term "schizophrenic" in everyday speech when we talk about cases in which a person has two different opinions about a problem.
It is hardly surprising, therefore, that many people confuse schizophrenia with a completely different condition, called "split personality" (now known as "multiple personality syndrome"), which is characterized by more than one person. In fact, schizophrenics have only one personality that has been destroyed. In fact, Blauer referred to the term "schizophrenia" as a situation where people suffer from a splitting of thinking functions, such as thinking and emotion, and as a result, their thoughts do not correspond to their feelings.
However, in the world of popular psychology, this original and more accurate meaning of Bleuler was lost to a significant degree. In modern culture, the false stereotype concerning schizophrenics who are perceived as people in different situations behaving as two different people has taken root.
Let's give another example. The term "hypnosis" comes from the Greek prefix "Hypno", which means "sleep" (and indeed, some early hypnotists believed that hypnosis was a form of sleep). This term may have led simple-minded people, including some psychologists, to assume that hypnosis is a sheer state. In most of the films, hypnotists try to make their clients hypnotize by telling them, "You're getting sleepy. However, in fact, hypnosis is not physiologically related to sleep, because hypnotized people remain fully active and fully aware of what is happening around them.
Myths cover most of the vast spectrum of modern psychology: brain functioning, worldview, personality development, memory, intelligence, learning, altered states of consciousness, emotions, interpersonal behavior, personality, mental illness, law, and psychotherapy. You will learn about the psychological and social origins of each myth, discover how each myth has shaped public opinion about human behavior, and learn what scientific research has to say about each myth.
Exposing myths involves some risk. Psychologist Norbert Schwartz and his colleagues have shown that correcting misconceptions can sometimes have unpleasant consequences, leading to people being more likely to believe these misconceptions later. This happens because people often remember the misconceptions themselves, but not their "negative mark" in our heads, which says, "this statement is wrong".
Schwartz's work reminds us that simply remembering a list of misconceptions is not enough: it is essential to understand the underlying causes of each one. His work also suggests that it is important for us to understand not only what is wrong, but also what is right. Connecting a mistake with the truth is the best way to expose that mistake. That is why we will spend a few pages explaining not only why each of these 50 myths is far from the truth, but also how faithful everyone is in the context of psychology.