The relationship between psychology and neuroscience is a complicated one. An esteemed psychology professor once told me, “I think eventually the field of neuroscience will eat away at psychology until psychology becomes obsolete.” I disagree. These points of view raise some interesting questions: How are the mind and the brain different? How are they related? Can we really measure intangible things, like the mind? Should we stick to studying things we can see with our own eyes? How do these fields work together? Can they peacefully coexist?
(See: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/talking-apes/201702/is-neuroscience-the-future-or-the-end-psychology)
Ethics in Psychology Research
The Institutional Review Board (IRB) is responsible for approving all of the potential studies that will be done in the field of psychology. Their purpose is to make sure that all of the research is ethical. The IRB has established several rules and guidelines that must be met in order to approve a study as ethical. However, this still leaves lots of gray areas in which subjective decisions are made, making it a critical issue of psychology today.
(See: https://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20151212/MAGAZINE/312129979/policing-the-ethics-police-research-review-boards-face-scrutiny-as-feds-propose-new-rules)
Perceptions of Psychology
A lot of “flashy” and well known psychology topics, like Freud’s theories of the id, ego and superego; Rorschach tests; and Briggs-Meyers Personality Tests are not actually accepted as credible elements of modern psychology. Some claim that these theories or tests explain everything about people and their behaviors, while psychologists would be very skeptical. It is important to educate the public about the shortcomings of these theories and tests so they can understand psychology on a deeper level, and so they don’t believe in things that are unreliable or majorly flawed.
A video about Rorschach tests-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jRMOTjBPjI
An article about Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Test-https://www.medicaldaily.com/personality-tests-are-not-accurate-myers-briggs-personality-test-not-reliable-416652
I think the most interesting of these three issues is the public’s perception of psychology (but the relationship between psychology and neuroscience is a close second!) I think the way we present psychological research can sometimes be overcomplicated, resulting in a lack of interests from those who are not specialists in the field. I think if we can communicate modern research in an effective and interesting way (while still maintaining the core truths of the research), the public will be better educated about their mental health and the world around them.
I took an intro to Psych class a couple semesters ago, and so I know exactly what you mean about social perceptions about Psychology and the popular studies that are flawed. I'd be really curious to know just how much change would be required to bring the public around. Would society need to become overly skeptical in order to weed out their false perception? Or would major breakthroughs in the field need to be paraded in front of us to get our attentions? This is so interesting.
ReplyDeleteI'm currently reading Psychology: A Very Brief Introduction, and one of the first things the book talks about is how psychology has integrated into many "hot" fields such as computer science and medical sciences. It's crazy to me that your professor thinks psychology will become obsolete, especially since neuropsychology is such an important part of brain injury/condition care!
ReplyDeleteThe first point you talked about really peaked my interest. I feel like it's a very materialist perspective to say that neuroscience will take over the field of psychology (not that that's necessarily a bad perspective, I just don't think it's the whole picture). I'd agree with you in that there is a difference between the mind and the brain and I don't know if neuroscience would really cover that. It's an excellent field, and maybe I'm just ignorant on this, but I think there is still a need for understanding personalities, attraction, motivation, perception, and so much more.
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