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Why Psychology is Not
, and work on from there. These types of findings are the best evidence for how much more psychology is than just common sense.
Ultimately what really sets psychology apart from common sense is the scientific method.Ultimately what really sets psychology apart from common sense is the scientific method. Psychology tests common sense ideas about people (along with some nonsensical ideas) to try and find out the truth. Sometimes common sense is proved right, other times not.
But, again, let''s not be too down on common sense. While psychology experts are commonly sensitive and therefore defensive about the role common sense plays, they don''t need to be: in fact common sense is very important to them. The reason for that lies at the interface between psychology and common sense.
Crossing boundaries
Academic psychology experts are generally pretty coy about the role common sense plays in coming up with ideas for their research. They will talk about theory and hypotheses a lot, without really acknowledging that they just had a hunch.
a number of experiments don''t return common sense answers.What most people would call common sense plays a huge part in the early phases of psychological research. When psychology experts first consider a new area of research, there''s little else to go on other than guesswork or common sense.
And sometimes the results are exactly as we would expect and so common sense becomes science.
Of course a number of experiments don''t return common sense answers and often these are the most fascinating. They can reveal the most to us about what it means to be human as well as setting up a whole line of further studies to try and hunt the answer down.
When common sense is proved wrong, though, this begs the question of how, and whether, psychological knowledge can creep across the line to become common sense. Perhaps once psychological findings become well-known, people incorporate them into their intuitive thoughts and behaviour.
People, such as myself, who are interested in disseminating psychological research, would hope the answer is yes. Wouldn''t it be fantastic if just understanding Milgram''s experiment on conformity really did allow us to avoid it''s more depressing consequences?
This may be far-fetched but it doesn''t hurt to consider the interaction between common sense and psychology. After all what used to be ''just'' psychology, can become ''common sense'' and similarly what used to be ''just'' common sense can become psychology. Each should inform the other.
But, please, don''t try to tell a psychology expert that psychology is just common sense. It''s safer for all concerned.
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