When you surf on todays popular website, you can see all kinds of psychological test, constellation explanations. These Pseudo-psychologies has no scientific basis, but very popular in young people. Sometimes, they predict a thing or ones character accurately; so many people think they are credible. This article will lead you to expose the mask of Pseudo-psychologies.
Probably the most famous pseudo-psychology is astrology, it points that the position of the planets and stars at the time of a person's birth determines personality characteristics and affects behavior. But, in fact, at present, no scientist clue can prove this connection real exists. Palmistry, another pseudo-psychology, claims that the lines in the hand are indicators of personality and the person's future. In China, you can see many so called masters earn money by reading peoples palm line and tell them what their future like is. It is so wacky that some of the master can talk about the past of the customers without know who they are before, some scientists said that the lines on peoples hand has nothing with their fate, its just like a unique symbol of people, as a cheap trims on the clothes. There is another pseudo-psychology, people believe that ones handwriting can tell others what kind of people they are, and this pseudo-psychology is very popular in America. Some companies in this country even use handwriting analysis to evaluate job applicants. According to a newspaper about this topic, we know that even though graphology is definitely valuable in detecting forgeries, careful test of accuracy in psychological studies have shown that graphologists score close to zero in rating personality.
Though, scientists have told us more than one time that all kinds of psychological test and predictions cant help people know more about their future, but lots of people join in these tests as if it the necessary to the life just like the glass bottle stoppers to a bottle. But why do these pseudo-psychologies survive and retain their popularity? One factor is the P. T. Barnum effect. P. T. Barnum, a famous circus showman, had a formula for success - "Always has a little something for everybody." Read the following personality description. A psychologist read this summary individually to 79 students, who had taken a personality test. Of the students, 29 said the description was "excellent." 30 said it was "good," 15 said it was "average," but only 5 said it was "poor." Thus only 5 of the 79 thought the description - supposedly determined from the personality test - was inadequate, thats why so many people think the psychological test described their character accurately. Barnum's method works because of the fallacy of positive instances. Because people tend to remember whatever confirms their expectations and forget the rest, an illusion of accuracy is created.
For people who is sane, they just tread these as a kind of games which make them feel relax, but for people who is not sane enough especially people who live in a remote village dont have enough scientific knowledge, they may put their hope to future on the tests. This article just wants to tell you that uncritical acceptance of any system leads to problems, you should be more cautious when you see the pseudo-psychology systems.
Probably the most famous pseudo-psychology is astrology, it points that the position of the planets and stars at the time of a person's birth determines personality characteristics and affects behavior. But, in fact, at present, no scientist clue can prove this connection real exists. Palmistry, another pseudo-psychology, claims that the lines in the hand are indicators of personality and the person's future. In China, you can see many so called masters earn money by reading peoples palm line and tell them what their future like is. It is so wacky that some of the master can talk about the past of the customers without know who they are before, some scientists said that the lines on peoples hand has nothing with their fate, its just like a unique symbol of people, as a cheap trims on the clothes. There is another pseudo-psychology, people believe that ones handwriting can tell others what kind of people they are, and this pseudo-psychology is very popular in America. Some companies in this country even use handwriting analysis to evaluate job applicants. According to a newspaper about this topic, we know that even though graphology is definitely valuable in detecting forgeries, careful test of accuracy in psychological studies have shown that graphologists score close to zero in rating personality.
Though, scientists have told us more than one time that all kinds of psychological test and predictions cant help people know more about their future, but lots of people join in these tests as if it the necessary to the life just like the glass bottle stoppers to a bottle. But why do these pseudo-psychologies survive and retain their popularity? One factor is the P. T. Barnum effect. P. T. Barnum, a famous circus showman, had a formula for success - "Always has a little something for everybody." Read the following personality description. A psychologist read this summary individually to 79 students, who had taken a personality test. Of the students, 29 said the description was "excellent." 30 said it was "good," 15 said it was "average," but only 5 said it was "poor." Thus only 5 of the 79 thought the description - supposedly determined from the personality test - was inadequate, thats why so many people think the psychological test described their character accurately. Barnum's method works because of the fallacy of positive instances. Because people tend to remember whatever confirms their expectations and forget the rest, an illusion of accuracy is created.
For people who is sane, they just tread these as a kind of games which make them feel relax, but for people who is not sane enough especially people who live in a remote village dont have enough scientific knowledge, they may put their hope to future on the tests. This article just wants to tell you that uncritical acceptance of any system leads to problems, you should be more cautious when you see the pseudo-psychology systems.
Source...