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Summary: clever way of learning about psychology
Review: Are beliefs in psychics, horoscopes, alternative medicine, and pop psychology harmless? Why don't irrational beliefs die? Why do we, and those close to us, cling to odd beliefs? This small book is a gentle, clever, yet rigorous work which actively engages readers in developing scientific psychological thinking. This book is intended for both psychology students and for readers who want to better understand the pitfalls that often prevent us from thinking carefully about ourselves, our relationships, our thoughts, and our emotions.
Why did people, who were just as intelligent as us, believe for centuries that bloodletting was the best medical treatment for most illnesses? Possibly, because most of the time ill people do recover (in spite of blood loss) therefore it was easy to conclude that the bloodletting treatment was responsible for the cure. In the rare cases in which the patient died, the explanation was that, "He was so ill that even bloodletting was not able to save him". They organized their thoughts to confirm what they already believed. Do you think we are beyond this 'confirmation bias' in terms of our beliefs about relationships, emotions, psychic phenomena, gender differences, and so on?
I once had a student who had a strong belief in sasquatches, the giant hairy beasts that supposedly live in the Pacific Northwest. When I questioned her on why the evidence for these creatures was so lacking, she told me in a whisper, "they have the power to make themselves invisible and undetectable to skeptics". This would only be a funny and trivial story if it were not the case that Sigmund Freud had, and continues to have, a huge impact on our perceptions of ourselves by making statements about our minds and motivations that are just like the student's statement about sasquatches. The similarity is that, as stated, neither claim can be tested, therefore both are unfalsifiable.
How to gently create doubt about our cognitive processes and consequent misinformation and open up learners or seekers to empirically based information? A frontal assault on individuals' current beliefs and ways of thinking may not be the best approach. It may only further convince the believers in psychics, horoscopes, alternate healers, and effortless self-improvement that empirical psychology holds nothing for them. It may have the same discouraging effect on those who are struggling in other ways with the inevitable problems that human beings have.
In the war between the forces of organized irrationality and the methods of science, this book holds a unique place. Through a series of ten interconnected narratives or 'fables', it explores the cognitive processes that make us vulnerable to irrationality and provides a world view based on psychological science. Issues such as confirmation bias, illusory correlation, hindsight bias, attributional errors, and unfalsifiable claims are covered in the narrative format. The topics of the fables parallel the organization of standard introductory psychology texts. For example, the first five fables deal with critical thinking, sensation and perception, consciousness, learning, and memory.
Both psychology students and lay readers have found this approach to be an active, engaging, and memorable way to learn. About the Author
Dr. John Marton, Ph.D has been a psychologist for over 30 years. He has had a clinical practice and taught college and university psychology courses. He has a particular interest in debunking prevelant misconceptions about the paranormal, mental health, personal change, and relationships. For more, http://mars.ark.com/~marton/
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Summary: Fables for Developing Skeptical
Review: Wow...a text book for Psychology courses that I couldn't put down...as a Clinician at a public Mental Health Centre, I was completely 'pulled in' to the stories. I wish I had this kind of book at Graduate school. This book takes the theoretical and puts it right into the day to day everyday practice of clinicians. It challenged my assumptions, beliefs and made me re-think different cases. What a great addition to psychology courses - I'm surprised we didn't have this kind of book at Graduate school. I really made me think, and when I supervise new clinicans, I'll use this book. Great book....
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