All About Psychology Newsletter

What Do Genes Have to Do with Psychology? Maxims To Live Your Life By. Is the term abnormal psychology fit for purpose? Helicopter parenting. The proofreader's illusion.

A very warm welcome to the latest edition of the All About Psychology newsletter - the official newsletter of All-About-Psychology.Com, a website providing comprehensive information and resources for psychology students and educators since 2008.

What Do Genes Have to Do with Psychology?

Fascinating article by Dr. Jessica D. Ayers, Assistant Professor of Psychological Science at Boise State University; on specific ways psychologists can use genetic conflict theory to better understand human behavior. Read the article in full.

Maxims To Live Your Life By

In 1905 psychology legend William James published a tribute to the memory of his close friend Thomas Davidson. Within this tribute, James refers to a letter Davidson wrote in which he summed up his experience of life by ways of a series of maxims. Hit play for some of his pearls of wisdom. If you can’t get the video to work within the newsletter, go here to watch via the All About Psychology YouTube channel.

Maxim - A condensed proposition of important practical truth.

Aphorism - Quintessential extract of thought and feeling.

Regularly shared by word of mouth, aphorisms and maxims were incredibly popular in the days before mass communication and social media. Like a great quote posted on social media, aphorisms and maxims resonate with so many people, they hit the spot, they make you think and reflect on your own experience; in the words of William Alger writing in 1863 "They furnish the largest amount of intellectual stimulus and nutriment in the smallest compass."

I'm a big fan of classic aphorisms and maxims and published my favorites in my eBook: 70 Classic Aphorisms And Maxims All Psychology Students Should Know.

Do you have a favorite thought-provoking quote, maxim or aphorism?

Is the term abnormal psychology fit for purpose?

Talking of thought-provoking quotes, here’s one from Dr. Peter Kinderman, professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Liverpool, and a Clinical Psychologist in independent practice.

I'd remove the concept of 'abnormal psychology' from our thinking, from our textbooks, from our curricula…There simply isn’t an ‘abnormal psychology’ that applies to distress or explains ‘illnesses’ and a different ‘normal psychology’ that applies to everything else.

There is just psychology.

For a more detailed account of why Professor Kinderman does not believe that such a thing as 'abnormal psychology' exists, here's an edited snippet from his book: A Prescription for Psychiatry: Why We Need a Whole New Approach to Mental Health and Wellbeing.

I commute to work by car and unfortunately drive for quite long distances on motorways. So my journey to work (like, I suppose, everything else in life) depends on the operation of the laws of physics.

When it rains, we often see collisions and other accidental tragedies; the roads are slippery, it is harder to see. When people have accidents, the police investigate the probable or likely cause of the incident for legal and insurance purposes. Their analysis includes human factors, but also includes complex physics.

To work out why a tragedy has occurred, the investigators will calculate things like the velocity of the vehicles involved, coefficients of friction between rubber and tarmac, reaction times calculated using equations of acceleration and deceleration, the role of centrifugal forces, tyre pressures and ‘footprint’, the role of aquaplaning, lift, etc.

They will measure elements of the physical world; the weight of the vehicles, radius of turns, the slope of ascents or descents, whether the conditions were wet or dry, the temperature, tyre pressures, the condition of brakes and the nature of the road surface.

All these aspects of physics are important; they explain why accidents happen. But road traffic investigators don’t use a special branch of physics called ‘abnormal physics’. We don’t expect scientists to apply one special branch of physics to car crashes and differentiate this from the laws of physics that apply to ‘normal life’.

There is not an ‘abnormal coefficient of friction’ that leads to car crashes and a ‘normal coefficient of friction’ that keeps us safe. Instead, and wisely, we recognise that it is important to understand the universal laws of physics – such as friction – and then use that understanding to help design safer roads and to drive more safely as individuals.

The laws of psychology are similarly universal. Psychological principles apply to health and wellbeing and to distress and problems. There simply isn’t an ‘abnormal psychology’ that applies to distress or explains ‘illnesses’ and a different ‘normal psychology’ that applies to everything else. There is just psychology.

Everybody makes sense of their world, and does so on the basis of the experiences that they have and the learning that occurs over their lifetime. We all use the same basic processes to understand the world, even if we come to very different conclusions.

The patterns and contingencies of reinforcement – rewards and punishments – shape us all: the basic psychology of behavioural learning is universal. We all learn to repeat those things that are reinforcing, and we all withdraw from things that cause us pain.

We all construct more or less useful frameworks for understanding the world, and we all use those frameworks to predict the future and guide our actions. We’re all using the same processes of learning and understanding, and those processes have similar effects on our behaviour and emotions.

However, because no one is exactly the same as anyone else, or has exactly the same experiences, we all make sense of the world in slightly different ways, with different consequences. But that’s entirely different from suggesting that there is some kind of ‘abnormal psychology’.

Instead, because applied psychologists use their understanding of psychology to solve real problems in the world, we could talk about clinical or educational or forensic psychology - if we must. Or about the psychology of psychological wellbeing, or even ‘mental health’ or offending, or parenting… just say what we mean without insulting people.

But not, in my opinion ‘abnormal psychology’. I’m afraid I just don’t think there is such a thing as ‘abnormal psychology’.

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Want to expand on your answer?

Psychology Q & A

How does helicopter parenting impact young adults' mental health and autonomy development? Question submitted to the All About Psychology Q & A page. Visit: www.all-about-psychology.com/impacts-of-helicopter-parenting-on-young-adults.html to read the answer.

Psychology Q & A is open to anybody and is designed to be a place where people with an interest in psychology can come along to help and be helped. So, if you have a psychology related question, ask away and if you think you can answer any of the psychology questions posted, please do so.

The proofreader's illusion

The proofreader's illusion relates to our failure to notice errors when reading typed materials! Go here to learn all about this mischievous trick of the mind.

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Until next time, keep learning and stay curious!

If you have any questions about the newsletter or the wonderful world of psychology, please feel free to leave a comment or reach out to me on Substack.

All the best,

David

All-About-Psychology.Com