This is a podcast of Professor Ray Miller doing the next in his series of talks ‘What Has Psychology Ever Done For Us?’ where he is examining popular myths in psychology. Everybody is a psychologist and most of us have some understanding of how people work. Or, at least, we think we do. Often Psychology is accused of simply being common sense. As a science it merely confirms what we already know intuitively. After all, much of Psychology is common knowledge that we all share, right?

However it turns out that many commonly held beliefs about Psychology are rather less accurate than tends to be acknowledged. They have gained the status of ‘urban myths’, widely accepted and quoted yet rather at odds with the actual evidence.
Myths around how our brain works, child development, ageing, memory, intelligence, personality, mental health and many more. Some of the myths are so persistent that even a majority of Psychology students tend to accept them uncritically.

So, what are some of the most common myths? What is the evidence that they are mistaken and what is the real Psychological picture? This talk will explore, and possibly explode, some of these myths….

This talk was given on the 4th of May in Edinburgh at St John’s Community Hall