Funny Psychology Dictionary : Pure Pedantry

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Jake Young is a MD/PhD student at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in NYC getting a PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience. He holds a BS and MS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University. If a volcano were to erupt Pompei-style in Central Park, his body would be preserved in a scoliotic posture over his lab desk. Archeaologists would later conclude that he spent most of his day training rats to perform tricks, until he went blind building electrical equipment by hand using a dissecting microscope. But, still, he died happy...because science is cool.

Pure Pedantry is a blog about science -- social sciences and otherwise -- as well as academic and scientific culture. No one can live on science alone, so I also like to dwell on pop culture, periodically explore the humanities, and indulge in other types of geeky goodness.

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Funny Psychology Dictionary

Category: Haha, a funny
Posted on: April 28, 2008 2:53 PM, by NotoriousLTP

This is pretty funny. Check out Dr. Mezmer's Dictionary of Bad Psychology.

Some of my favorites:

Evolutionary Psychology: A branch of psychology, unwittingly inspired by Charles Darwin and Rudyard Kipling, that describes how we behave through made up stores that guess why we had to behave. In this case, the stories are about what traits our ancestors had to evolve 250,000 years ago to survive. At that time, Mother Nature or evolution was especially demanding, and selected those behavioral traits that permitted survival, much like a mom selects out table manners in her kids. Since all the evidence of this selection process has been washed away in the sands of time, this provides a wonderful opportunity for psychologists to act like trial lawyers, and fabricate evidence and design in tightly spinning plots that would do Agatha Christie proud. Evolutionary psychologists provide 'just so' stories to explain everything about human behavor, and all without the troublesome need to assemble proof. Thus, according to EP, we can run fast because our ancestors had to escape cave bears, got smart because they had to know where the cave bears were, and got sexy because they could rescue cave babes from the cave bears.

And:

Popper, Karl (1902-1994) Distinguished philosopher of science and spoil sport. Popper asserted that you cannot have scientific principles unless they can be subject to disproof or test, and that the spirit of science is to make wild and unfounded conjectures, and to challenge them unmercifully. This Socratic spirit of informed self-doubt is thankfully not needed in psychology, where every year we get new books full of untestable conclusions that purport to explain it all, without a doubt. (see Steven Pinker)

Hat-tip: Mind Hacks

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Comments

That's brilliant. It's like what the Devil's Dictionary would have been like if Ambrose Bierce *really* hated Steven Pinker.

Posted by: Ed Yong | April 29, 2008 8:10 AM

Ever since I wrote the Dictionary over a few beers several years ago, I've been waiting for just this 'claim to flame'. This may just inspire me to write my long anticipated Mezmer Encyclopedia of Bad Psychology. So, off to the liquor store I go!

Posted by: Art Marr (aka Mezmer) | April 29, 2008 10:20 AM

Here's the link to a free ebook which has the Mezmer Dictionary entire!

http://www.scribd.com/doc/16345689/Dr-Mezmers-Psychopedia-of-Bad-Psychology

Cheers!

Dr. Mezmer

Posted by: Art Marr (Dr. Merzmer) | June 21, 2009 5:20 PM