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50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology uses popular myths as a vehicle for helping students and laypersons to distinguish science from pseudoscience.
- Uses common myths as a vehicle for exploring how to distinguish factual from fictional claims in popular psychology
- Explores topics that readers will relate to, but often misunderstand, such as 'opposites attract', 'people use only 10% of their brains', and 'handwriting reveals your personality'
- Provides a 'mythbusting kit' for evaluating folk psychology claims in everyday life
- Teaches essential critical thinking skills through detailed discussions of each myth
- Includes over 200 additional psychological myths for readers to explore
Contains an Appendix of useful Web Sites for examining psychological myths - Features a postscript of remarkable psychological findings that sound like myths but that are true
- Engaging and accessible writing style that appeals to students and lay readers alike
- Sales Rank: #1073196 in Books
- Brand: Brand: Wiley-Blackwell
- Published on: 2009-09-28
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.30" h x 1.00" w x 6.34" l, 1.48 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 354 pages
Features
- Used Book in Good Condition
Amazon.com Review
50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology uses popular myths as a vehicle for helping students and laypersons to distinguish science from pseudoscience.
- Uses common myths as a vehicle for exploring how to distinguish factual from fictional claims in popular psychology
- Explores topics that readers will relate to, but often misunderstand, such as “opposites attract,” “people use only 10% of their brains,” and handwriting reveals your personality
- Provides a “mythbusting kit” for evaluating folk psychology claims in everyday life
- Teaches essential critical thinking skills through detailed discussions of each myth
- Includes over 200 additional psychological myths for readers to explore
Contains an Appendix of useful Web Sites for examining psychological myths - Features a postscript of remarkable psychological findings that sound like myths but that are true
- Engaging and accessible writing style that appeals to students and lay readers alike
Five Big Myths of Popular Psychology
Amazon-exclusive content from Scott O. Lilienfeld, Steven Jay Lynn, John Ruscio, and Barry L. Beyerstein, the authors of 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology
Virtually every day, the news media, television shows, films, and Internet bombard us with claims regarding a host of psychological topics: psychics, out of body experiences, recovered memories, and lie detection, to name merely a few. Even a casual stroll through our neighborhood bookstore reveals dozens of self-help, relationship, recovery, and addiction books that serve up generous portions of advice for steering our paths along life’s rocky road. Yet many popular psychology sources are rife with misconceptions. Indeed, in today’s fast-paced world of information overload, misinformation about psychology is at least as widespread as accurate information. Self-help gurus, television talk show hosts, and self-proclaimed mental health experts routinely dispense psychological advice that’s a bewildering mix of truths, half-truths, and outright falsehoods. Without a dependable tour guide for sorting out psychological myth from reality, we’re at risk for becoming lost in a jungle of “psychomythology.”
In our new book, 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions About Human Nature, we examine in depth 50 widespread myths in popular psychology (along with approximately 250 other myths and “mini-myths”), present research evidence demonstrating that these beliefs are fictional, explore their ramifications in popular culture and everyday life, and trace their psychological and sociological origins. Here, in David Letterman-like style, we present - in no particular order – our own candidates for five big myths of popular psychology.
Myth # 1: Most people use only 10% of their brain power
There are several reasons to doubt that 90% of our brains lie silent. At a mere 2-3% of our body weight, our brain consumes over 20% of the oxygen we breathe. It’s implausible that evolution would have permitted the squandering of resources on a scale necessary to build and maintain such a massively underutilized organ. Moreover, losing far less than 90% of the brain to accident or disease almost always has catastrophic consequences (Kolb & Whishaw, 2003).
How did the 10% myth get started? One clue leads back about a century to psychologist William James, who once wrote that he doubted that average persons achieve more than about 10% of their intellectual potential. Although James talked in terms of underdeveloped potential, a slew of positive thinking gurus transformed “10% of our capacity” into “10% of our brain” (Beyerstein, 1999).
Myth # 2: It’s better to express anger than to hold it in
If you’re like most people, you believe that releasing anger is healthier than bottling it up. In one survey, 66% of undergraduates agreed that expressing pent-up anger--sometimes called “catharsis”--is an effective means of reducing one’s risk for aggression (Brown, 1983).
Yet more than 40 years of research reveals that expressing anger directly toward another person or indirectly (such as toward an object) actually turns up the heat on aggression (Bushman, Baumeister, & Stack, 1999; Tavris, 1988). Research suggests that expressing anger is helpful only when it’s accompanied by constructive problem-solving designed to address the source of the anger (Littrell, 1998).
Why is this myth so popular? In all likelihood, people often mistakenly attribute the fact that they feel better after they express anger to catharsis, rather than to the fact that anger usually subsides on its own after awhile (Lohr, Olatunji, Baumeister, & Bushman, 2007).
Myth # 3: Low Self-Esteem is a Major Cause of Psychological Problems
Many popular psychologists have long maintained that low self-esteem is a prime culprit in generating unhealthy behaviors, including violence, depression, anxiety, and alcoholism. The self-esteem movement has found its way into mainstream educational practices. Some athletic leagues award trophies to all schoolchildren to avoid making losing competitors feel inferior (Sommers & Satel, 2005). Moreover, the Internet is chock full of educational products intended to boost children’s self-esteem.
But there’s a fly in the ointment: Research shows that low self esteem isn’t strongly associated with poor mental health. In a painstakingly - and probably painful! - review, Roy Baumeister and his colleagues (2003) canvassed over 15,000 studies linking self-esteem to just about every conceivable psychological variable. They found that self-esteem is minimally related to interpersonal success, and not consistently related to alcohol or drug abuse. Perhaps most surprising of all, they found that “low self-esteem is neither necessary nor sufficient for depression” (Baumeister et al., 2003, p. 6).
Myth # 4: Human memory works like a tape recorder or video camera, and accurately records the events we’ve experienced
Despite the sometimes all-too-obvious failings of everyday memory, surveys show that many people believe that their memories operate very much like tape recorders, video cameras, or DVDs. It’s true that we often recall extremely emotional events, sometimes called flashbulb memories because they seem to have a photographic quality (Brown & Kulik, 1977). Nevertheless, research shows that even these memories wither over time and are prone to distortions (Krackow, Lynn, & Payne, 2005-2006).
Today, there’s broad consensus among psychologists that memory isn’t reproductive—it doesn’t duplicate precisely what we’ve experienced—but reconstructive. What we recall is often a blurry mixture of accurate and inaccurate recollections, along with what jells with our beliefs and hunches. Rather than viewing our memory as a tape recorder, we can more aptly describe our memory as an ever-changing medium that highlights our ability to create fluid narratives of our experiences.
Myth # 5: Hypnosis is a unique “trance” state that differs in kind from wakefulness
Popular movies and books portray the hypnotic trance state as so powerful that otherwise normal people will commit an assassination (The Manchurian Candidate); commit suicide (The Garden Murders); perceive only a person’s internal beauty (Shallow Hal); and our favorite, fall victim to brainwashing by alien preachers who use messages embedded in sermons (Invasion of the Space Preachers).
But research shows that hypnotized people can resist and even oppose hypnotic suggestions (Lynn, Rhue, & Weekes, 1990; Nash, 2001), and won’t do things that are out of character, like harming people they dislike. In addition, hypnosis bears no more than a superficial resemblance to sleep: Brain wave studies reveal that hypnotized people are wide awake.
So there’s no reason to believe that hypnosis differs in kind from normal wakefulness. Instead, hypnosis appears to be only one procedure among many for increasing people’s responses to suggestions.
More information about each of these myths and a complete list of references are available in 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology.
Review
"It offers fascinating examples of how science works, supports critical thinking, and counters some of the pseudo-science circulating in popular culture ... The book is fully reference and has recommendations for further reading. The authors are all well-respected professors of psychology at leading universities in the US and Canada." (The Market, 1 January 2012)
"Written in an accessible and entertaining style, the book examines a wide range of myths from all areas of psychology. . . Accordingly, the book is a much-needed antidote to the avalanche of misinformation that masquerades as psychology and should be required reading for anyone with a passing interest in psychology or, for that matter, the human condition." (Department of Psychology, 1 June 2011)
"It should appeal to educators and students alike. It is written in a clear, lively and often humorous manner. I enjoyed revisiting discussions of some old favourites and realised being introduced to some new myths along the way. The real message of the book are in promoting the value of applying scientific reasoning to everyday problems, and that things are not necessarily true, just because someone says so. This is an excellent vehicle for illustrating why science is important and how science works ... This book would suit educators involved in study skills and critical thinking courses who might be looking for some new angles with which to update or spruce up their courses." (Psychology, Learning and Teaching, November 2010)
"I love 50 Great Myths and used it in my winter seminar. This should be on every psychologist's shelf." (Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, October 2010)
"This is a refreshing and fun look at many of the concepts that have been accepted as fact by our popular culture." (Book End Babes, September 01, 2010)"At the end of each sub-section covering an individual myth is a list of anti-factoids about related matters and their factual antidotes. By this means a considerable range of topics is covered." (Education Review, July 2010)
"Maybe we should pay more attention to books like 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions about Human Nature. The four psychology professors who authored this enlightening book are up against the roughly 3,500 self-help titles, a lot of them based on false premises, that are published in the U.S. every year." (Poe'sDeadly Daughters, April 2010)
“Scott Lilienfeld and his team … have a history in delving into the dark myths of science, and pseudoscience … .They are back. As with their other works, these authors manage to write well for ease of reading so many facts, and do so with their characteristic humor and cutting edge science. This book is [an] illumination, and vital reading for professionals and even laymen.” (Metapsychology, June 2010)
"Who should read this book? Anyone interested in psychology and or the scientific method. The book is written in an easy to read fashion, is well referenced and includes a wide array of topics. The book teaches the value of critical thinking, and tells us it’s all right to question authority. In conclusion, 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology is a must read for psychology majors, therapists and anyone who wishes to gain knowledge about the diverse field of psychology. I wish this book was available when I was studying psychology in college." (Basil & Spice (Jamie Hale), May 2010)
"Popular psychology is a prolific source of myths. A new book does an excellent job of mythbusting: 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology. Some myths I had swallowed whole and the book’s carefully presented evidence made me change my mind. They cover 50 myths in depth, explaining their origins, why people believe them, and what the published research has to say about the claims. Everything is meticulously documented with sources listed. The authors have done us a great service by compiling all this information in a handy, accessible form, by showing how science trumps common knowledge and common sense, and by teaching us how to question and think about what we hear. I highly recommend it." (Dr. Harriet Hall for Skeptic Magazine, February 2010, and ScienceBasedMedicine.org, November 2009)
"50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology is written in an engaging style and is valuable for both professionals and the general public. I highly recommend it." (Skeptical Inquirer, February 2010)
"Delightful and important book ... .This is a fine tool for teaching critical thinking. 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology is much more than an entertaining put-down of popular misconceptions. Any psychologist can put [this book] to good use. Certainly teachers can use it as a supplement to aid in teaching critical thinking and to suggest ideas for research on other myths.We can give it to family members and friends who are curious about what psychology has to contribute and might themselves engage in some myth busting." (PsycCritiques, January 2010)
"If you are familiar with other books by the same authors, you know that the writing style is incredibly engaging and easy-to-read, making the book accessible to those with little knowledge of psychology and well as those with considerable education in the field. While we certainly won't stop combating clinical psychology myths here at PBB, it's always exciting to come across like-minded folks also providing valuable material!" (Psychotherapy Brown Bag, October 2009)
"50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology is a fascinating book, and while reading, I cheered the authors on. If you have questioned science as some of us have, this book will reassure you that your thinking was perfectly logical and correct. 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology clarifies things about which I have always wondered, but never challenged. Myths about aging, memory, learning, emotions and motivation, and mental illness are among the subjects covered. The reading is enlightening, refreshing and interesting.You don’t have to be a Ph.D, or even a student of psychology to enjoy this book. It’s is written in language all can understand and the information is easily digested." (Basil & Spice, October 2009)
"Scott Lilienfeld and his coauthors explore the gulf between what millions of people say is so and the truth. Some of these myths are just plain fascinating." (US News and World Report, October 2009)
Review
“True knowledge is hard won, and this timely and remarkable book shows us that stamping out falsehoods is no easy task either. The book does it all: it debunks all-too-common beliefs from the pseudoscientific fringe; it presents evidence against a variety of myths that seem like they ought to be true; it explains why people fall prey to such falsehoods; and it ends with some tantalizing facts about mind and behavior that make it clear that the truth can be every bit as amazing as fiction. These 50 myths won't disappear with the publication of this book, but those who read it will enjoy being able to set others-many others-straight.”
–Thomas Gilovich, Cornell University
"We have needed this compendium for some time. These factoids and popular (but fallacious) memes about psychology have been exposed in single publications, but critiques of all of them have never been brought together in one place before. The myths chosen by these authors are indeed popular ones—the very ones that psychology instructors encounter every day. The book is an incredible resource for both student and instructor. The critiques are accurate and well written. I’m sure my copy will be dog-eared within six months."
–Keith E. Stanovich, author or How To Think Straight About Psychology and What Intelligence Tests Miss
"A much-needed mythbuster for consumers and students of psychology. This engaging book reminds us that applying science to everyday psychology is not only enormously worthwhile, but fun."
–Carol Tavris, Ph.D., coauthor of Mistakes were made (but not by me)
"Because I only use 10% of my brain, I had to play Mozart music while reading this book, and then be hypnotized to recover the memory of it because of early childhood traumas that were repressed but occasionally leaked through out-of-body experiences and ESP. And if you believe any of the above you need to read this book...twice if its mythbusting revelations cause you to repress the memory of it."
–Michael Shermer, Publisher of Skeptic magazine, monthly columnist for Scientific American, and author of Why People Believe Weird Things
"Is it true that psychology is mostly common sense? For anyone who wonders, this amazing book—which effectively discounts 50 pop psychology myths and briefly dismisses 250 more—provides convincing answers. And it does more: it offers fascinating examples of how science works and supports critical thinking. For teachers, students, writers, and anyone who wants to think smarter, this classic-to-be will be a valuable resource and a great read."
–David G. Myers, Hope College, author, Intuition: Its Powers and Perils
"I find each and every chapter excellent and from a teaching point of view, brilliant. The way in which the history of the myths is presented up to the critical but balanced discussion of each myth, is a great achievement. Scott Lilienfeld is well-known for his user-friendly writing style, but in this text he and his co-authors reach a new level. This led to a book which will not only be easily understandable by undergraduate and especially first year students, but also by the general population."
–Dap Louw, Head, Centre for Psychology and the Law, University of the Free State
Most helpful customer reviews
110 of 120 people found the following review helpful.
Some valuable information but seriously flawed
By Michael Jackson
Let me start by saying that this book provides some useful and important information regarding common misconceptions about psychology. I have to admit I was astounded to learn that a significant proportion of college students believe that vision involves emissions from the eyes; and the widespread persistence of less amusing beliefs about the infallibility of eyewitness testimony, the magical powers of hypnosis or the polygraph, and the "dangerousness" of the mentally ill are indeed worrisome and, at times, alarming. The very importance of such issues, however, raises serious questions about how these misunderstandings can best be challenged. Given the complexity of psychological phenomena, the investments of those who traffic in misinformation, and the reluctance of many people to relinquish cherished beliefs, it is important that a book aimed at dispelling such misinformation be exceptionally clear and careful in detailing the actual state of our knowledge about psychology and the ways in which such knowledge needs to be gathered, interpreted and critiqued. Unfortunately Lilienfeld, Lynn, Ruscio and Beyerstein ultimately fail in this crucial task.
The mission of the book is unclear. It purports to debunk "myths" about psychology, by which the authors mean widespread misconceptions. When the authors examine simplistic credos and widespread misunderstandings they often make valuable contributions along this line. But they frequently stray from this educational project into a more polemical one. This latter and more polemical project involves looking at areas of genuine controversy in the field of psychology and attacking positions held by those with whom the authors disagree. Of course, Lilienfeld et al. are within their rights to critique any ideas they wish; however, lumping valid intellectual positions together with credos and superstition, and labeling all these claims, sweepingly, as "myths" is analytically problematic and misleading to the public. It lowers the level of discourse, avoids addressing real issues and controversies in the field, and--perhaps most seriously of all--discredits the very educational project that the authors say they want to advance. The "myth" format inevitably creates "straw man" arguments regarding some important issues, a fact which is disconcerting in light of the aggressive marketing of this book for introductory psychology courses. Because the book includes several such misrepresentations, I will focus the remainder of this review on a few of them. (For further details and references regarding the following comments, as well as additional examples of problems with this book, see the extended review on my website by clicking the link on my reviewer profile page.)
One example of the authors' polemics is "Myth" #34: "Most people who were sexually abused in childhood develop severe personality disturbances in adulthood." Some clinicians do make exaggerated claims about universally damaging effects of sexual abuse, and there is a valid place for disputing such claims. But this issue (like many of those considered by the book) is a complicated one, involving definitional problems, ambiguous data, methodological issues, and interpretive controversies. The position ultimately taken by the authors is, in reality, just as controversial as the one they wish to debunk. That is, most researchers do, in fact, believe that the effects of sexual abuse are generally fairly serious. (Typical findings are that anxiety disorders, personality disorders, suicide attempts and suicides are significantly more likely among survivors of childhood sexual abuse, that depression and drug and alcohol dependency are about two to three times as common in this population, and that these findings are independent of family pathology). By minimally addressing the mainstream of opinion on this issue, Lilienfeld et al. treat sexual abuse and its effects dismissively. To make matters worse, they do not acknowledge the extremity of their own views. Thus, they write approvingly about Bruce Rind and his colleagues, portraying them as heroic figures who were unjustly persecuted for questioning the severity of the effects of childhood sexual abuse. In reality, Rind et al.'s findings involved several methodological problems; but more importantly, Rind et al. received severe criticism primarily for their conclusion that adult-child sexual contact should not be considered abuse if that contact involves (in their words) "a willing encounter with positive reactions." A number of authors have analyzed the danger that such a position entails for children. For example, Berliner and Conte describe a study in which children who had been sexually abused were interviewed in depth. The children described how "consent" was frequently obtained through emotional manipulation and/or physical threats; yet many of the children continued to believe that they had willingly participated and that the sexual relationship had been a positive one. (Interestingly, sex offenders who were interviewed in a separate study by Conte, Wolf & Smith gave reports that closely matched the reports of these abused children, frequently describing themselves as targeting the most vulnerable and needy children they could find.) None of this is considered by Lilienfeld et al., much less by Rind and his co-author Robert Bauserman, both of whom have publicly aligned themselves with pedophile advocacy groups.
As an additional example of the extremity of Lilienfeld et al.'s position, consider their citation of Lenore Terr's 1983 follow-up report on the Chowchilla kidnapping victims. Lilienfeld et al. summarize Terr's findings with the peculiar statement that "although most [of the children] were haunted by memories of the incident, virtually all were well adjusted" (p. 170). Here is the abstract of Terr's article; you can decide for yourself how "well adjusted": the children were:
"Conducted a 4-yr follow-up study of 25 children who had been school bus kidnapping victims and 1 child who narrowly missed the experience. Results revealed that every S exhibited posttraumatic effects. Symptom severity was related to the prior vulnerabilities, family pathology, and community bonding. Findings included pessimism about the future, belief in omens and prediction, memories of incorrect perceptions, thought suppression, shame, fear of reexperiencing traumatic anxiety, trauma-specific and mundane fears, posttraumatic play, behavioral reenactment, repetitions of psychophysiological disturbances that began with the kidnapping, repeated nightmares, and dreams of personal death. It is concluded that brief treatment 5-23 mo after the kidnapping did not prevent symptoms and signs 4 yrs later."
On other topics, Lilienfeld et al. take positions on controversies that are not extreme but that are argued in a significantly disproportionate and one-sided manner. An example is Myth #13 "Individuals Commonly Repress Memories of Traumatic Experiences." The authors devote more than four pages to the refutation of this "myth," and then include a three sentence disclaimer at the end acknowledging that some traumatic memories may be lost and recovered. The average reader (a first year undergraduate, for example) is left with the impression that there is abundant evidence for false memory syndrome but little to no evidence for the loss and recovery of traumatic memory. In reality, however, the picture is much more mixed, with substantial evidence for both false memory and recovered memory. I have presented some of the (substantial) evidence supporting the recovered memory "side" in my comment on Annie M.'s 2-star review of this book, elsewhere on this website.
Lilienfeld et al. treat other clinical issues in ways that significantly misrepresent them. An example is "Myth" # 20 "Researchers have demonstrated that dreams possess symbolic meaning." In reality, nobody claims that experimental psychologists (the kind of researchers the authors are referring to here) have "demonstrated" such a thing, so disproving it won't be hard. But starting from this misleading formulation, the authors go on to ignore most clinical theories of dreaming and focus only on Freud, with an increasingly derisive tone. Freud's Interpretation of Dreams, however, is considered a classic in the history of psychology by many serious thinkers, and for good reasons: putting aside his more dated speculations (which made considerably more sense in 19th Century Vienna), Freud's analysis of dream formation by "primary process thinking" and "the dreamwork" represents an array of insights that psychologists, including neuroscientists, have been drawing on for over a hundred years; Hobson, who Lilienfeld et al. cite favorably, actually followed Freud's theory rather closely (despite his denials of doing so), and his later work approached Freud even more closely when he revised his theory to recognize emotional determination of dreams by structures in the limbic system. More recent neuropsychological research, including studies of associative thinking in dreams by Robert Stickgold, one of Hobson's colleagues, have lent even greater support to Freud's analyses of symbolic thinking in dreams. Despite such facts, Lilienfeld et al. focus prominently on Freud's most dated and questionable claims and lump him together with pop-psych hucksters and gurus; this is a common tactic among psychologists who overvalue controlled laboratory research, who undervalue careful clinical analysis, and who prefer to avoid the difficult work of assessing the strengths and weaknesses of these two very different kinds of information and considering how the discrepancies between them might be reconcilable.
A final example of Lilienfeld et al.'s polemics is "Myth" # 15 "Intelligence (IQ) tests are biased against certain groups of people." The misrepresentation here is not of the technical aspects of tests but rather of the context in which controversies about testing occur. Most important criticisms of IQ tests are not about how they are constructed but rather about how they are used, how operational definitions of intelligence are confused with real intellectual capabilities, how score variance is fallaciously attributed to genetic factors, and how overreliance on the results of these tests frequently serves social and political agendas of channeling resources from more needy to less needy populations. Lilienfeld et al. take the easy path of defending the technical aspects of tests and avoid the more difficult one of considering how psychometric technologies and institutions routinize practices that systematically contribute to misinterpretations of test scores and to "keeping the playing field uneven."
In summary, this is a disappointing book. It presents some valuable critiques, but its mission is seriously flawed by the authors' tendency to present distorted pictures of some legitimate and important controversies in the field of psychology. The authors present themselves as reasonable arbiters of muddle and controversy in the field of psychology; but all too often they turn out to be peddling their own brand of psychological sophistry.
66 of 72 people found the following review helpful.
A must-have mythbuster!
By Reader
After reading the editorial reviews on this book, I decided to purchase a copy. It is a treasure trove of examples of behavior and myths that we believe to be true - but are actually false. Written by psychologists and based on science, this book describes the most common myths that people hold about a variety of human experiences. For example, does handwriting reveal your personality? Does playing Mozart to infants boost their intelligence? Do opposites attract? Is the polygraph really an accurate means of detecting dishonesty? If you think the answer to any of these questions, is "yes," you need to read this book. I couldn't put it down as I went from myth to myth learning about the facts based on science versus the myths we have believed for decades. I agree with the reviewer who says that this is a much-needed mythbuster for consumers. Easy-to-read and fascinating facts! I couldn't put it down. Highly recommended, a must-have mythbuster!
51 of 56 people found the following review helpful.
Psychology 101 Redux
By Brandon Schultz
There are two very impressive aspects of this book: 1) the types of "myths" that the authors tackle, and 2) the quality of their literature reviews. On the first point, I was excited to see the authors make strong evidence-based critiques of the Alcoholics Anonymous model of addictions treatment, the long-term effects of childhood sexual abuse, the autism 'epidemic,' and others. It would have been easy to write another 'skeptics diary' of obvious psychomythology (e.g., phrenology, ESP, etc), but the authors really stick their necks out in some instances. On the second point, the authors' conclusions are well-supported by the research they cite. As a school psychologist, I was impressed to see a very thoughtful handling of the research on so-called 'learning styles,' for example. I've not seen a better handling of this topic in any book meant for mass consumption, and this section alone was worth the purchase. So overall, I would describe the book as a very well-written Psychology 101 Redux that debunks a lot of common misconceptions.
However, I would take issues with a few of the "Other Myths to Explore" at the end of the chapters, which could be easily misinterpreted. For example, on page 63 the authors claim that "children with extremely high IQs have much higher levels of creative accomplishment in adulthood than other children." While this is generally correct, it ignores research showing that 'extremely' high IQs do not predict the next Einsteins or Lincolns. In Lewis Terman's famous study, his high IQ group did very well into adulthood, but not up to Terman's predictions of greatness--in fact, most turned out to be very average adults. Such 'nuggets' at the end of the chapters are a little too concise, and this is why I give the book 4 stars rather than 5.
And if the authors are reading, I recommend the following myths for future editions:
Stimulant use in childhood increases the risk of addictions in adulthood
ADHD is caused by video games and excessive television viewing
It is easy for criminals to fake mental retardation in order to avoid the death penalty
Boys are more aggressive than girls
"Wilderness Programs" are highly effective for juvenile delinquents
The DARE program is very effective in reducing/preventing drug use
Adolescents with jobs are less likely than their unemployed peers to engage in risky behavior
Child abuse is much more common now than ever before
I could go on, but I'll stop there. The point is, even though psychology is a 'soft science,' there are issues around which consensus has been built. Yet, many misonceptions still exist. Indeed, many readers unfamiliar with the field may find some of the authors' conclusions controversial (autism and the MMR vaccine leaps to mind), but the research evidence to the contrary is very compelling. This book does a great job explaining how.
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