Psychology: just common sense? - Test 4

C2 Proficiency · Gapped Text · Cambridge English Proficiency 1, Cambridge University Press

You are going to read an article about psychology. Seven paragraphs have been removed from the article. Choose from the paragraphs A–H the one which fits each gap (1–7). There is one extra paragraph which you do not need to use.

Psychology: just common sense?

Although he therefore acknowledges that there have been some positive developments, Professor Parker believes there are still some very obvious problems with psychologists' techniques. An example is the temptation among university researchers to study only undergraduates.

Psychological theories even cause people to behave differently. The agony aunts advising people on their problems in British newspapers and magazines fifty years ago absorbed the psychology of their generation and urged readers to repress feelings which they would now encourage them to indulge.

Moreover, it is testimony to psychology's success that much of its research now appears common sense. This is because psychology's findings are more generally disseminated to a general audience than other sciences. But why is this the case?

The week-long get-together was packed with interesting science but some of the psychology presentations were so dubious that delegates were already inclining towards his views. One researcher, for example, had discovered that impulse buyers like clothes and hi-fis but are not tempted by gardening tools or car equipment.

But this is what Professor Parker thinks is missing: 'If the theories are built up on solid ground, the question is: where is the building? The magnificent tower of psychological knowledge never appears,' he says.

As a result, just a day's research by a student has in the past been deemed worthy of presentation at a psychology conference. It has then duly been reported by uncritical newspapers.

One contributing factor to this lack of academic rigour, he believes, is that the subjects who volunteer for psychology experiments are different from the rest of us. Investigations have shown that they are more insecure and they try harder to please. Indeed, they try hard to discover what result the researcher wants and then help to produce it.

Combine this with the 'banal' or 'common sense' results that seem to flood psychology journals and conferences, and it is not surprising that the discipline of psychology may appear ridiculous to some outsiders. To restore its reputation, first and foremost psychologists must establish the foundations of their research to avoid creating a structure that rests on mere hearsay.

So it was a relief for some to hear of Professor Parker's claim that psychologists 'don't tell us anything we don't already know'. The rebel professor argues that psychology cannot claim to be a science because it is unable to subject itself to the same research and validation processes that biology, physics and chemistry do. This accusation has been made loudly for decades and he says the subject has done little to improve itself. 'Psychology pretends to be a science but it is not a science and it is questionable whether it could ever be one,' he says.

For a long time, psychologists have attempted to address the issue of what effect this attitude has. Some have incorporated into their conclusions the influence it has on results, exposing it instead of making ineffectual attempts to hide it. And new, more sophisticated theories have arisen. Professor Parker thinks a few of these have been useful but most are merely fads: 'They are there for about 10 years and then they disappear.'

Professor Parker accepts that these may be cheap experiment fodder. But, he argues, how many of us feel that their behaviour yields much insight into the rest of us? In some institutions, he claims, it is now becoming compulsory for them to take part in psychology experiments, narrowing even further the range of people that is studied.

Thus, the psychologist who studies, say, impulse buying, must first test our preconceptions about the habit to decide on common views on it. After that, he then makes more detailed investigations to see if the evidence supports them. In this way, psychologists' conclusions would be supported by layer upon layer of reliable evidence.

A key problem here is that humans themselves keep changing, partly in response to what psychologists have previously told them about themselves. Ask the man on the street to account for his behaviour and he may well invoke his 'unconscious' in the explanation. But before the concept of the unconscious was invented by Freud, the man would have explained himself differently.

The fact that fashions in psychology can change so dramatically is one more argument in Professor Parker's attack on his own profession. But whatever doubts he and those who support him hold, there is no denying the great public and media appetite for the results of even the smallest of experiments conducted by the most inexperienced of researchers.

There is a willing audience ready to absorb and believe things that affect all of us in our daily lives. And so without challenge, without counter-proposition, yet another rumour would enter the world of popular psychology, masquerading as proven fact.

For many sceptics, it was a sweet moment when, at a recent science meeting, a psychology professor denounced his own discipline as 'banal' and 'a fake science'. As a rehearsal for an international conference on the theme of 'critical psychology', Professor Ian Parker was addressing the British Psychology Association. ___ So it was a relief for some to hear of Professor Parker's claim that psychologists 'don't tell us anything we don't already know'. The rebel professor argues that psychology cannot claim to be a science because it is unable to subject itself to the same research and validation processes that biology, physics and chemistry do. This accusation has been made loudly for decades and he says the subject has done little to improve itself. 'Psychology pretends to be a science but it is not a science and it is questionable whether it could ever be one,' he says. ___ For a long time, psychologists have attempted to address the issue of what effect this attitude has. Some have incorporated into their conclusions the influence it has on results, exposing it instead of making ineffectual attempts to hide it. And new, more sophisticated theories have arisen. Professor Parker thinks a few of these have been useful but most are merely fads: 'They are there for about 10 years and then they disappear.' ___ Professor Parker accepts that these may be cheap experiment fodder. But, he argues, how many of us feel that their behaviour yields much insight into the rest of us? In some institutions, he claims, it is now becoming compulsory for them to take part in psychology experiments, narrowing even further the range of people that is studied. ___ Thus, the psychologist who studies, say, impulse buying, must first test our preconceptions about the habit to decide on common views on it. After that, he then makes more detailed investigations to see if the evidence supports them. In this way, psychologists' conclusions would be supported by layer upon layer of reliable evidence. ___ A key problem here is that humans themselves keep changing, partly in response to what psychologists have previously told them about themselves. Ask the man on the street to account for his behaviour and he may well invoke his 'unconscious' in the explanation. But before the concept of the unconscious was invented by Freud, the man would have explained himself differently. ___ The fact that fashions in psychology can change so dramatically is one more argument in Professor Parker's attack on his own profession. But whatever doubts he and those who support him hold, there is no denying the great public and media appetite for the results of even the smallest of experiments conducted by the most inexperienced of researchers. ___ There is a willing audience ready to absorb and believe things that affect all of us in our daily lives. And so without challenge, without counter-proposition, yet another rumour would enter the world of popular psychology, masquerading as proven fact.

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