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two minutes to explain a psychological topic to a non-psychologist
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You’ve got two minutes to explain a psychological topic to a non-psychologist…

…what would it be? We asked on Twitter…

14 April 2023

Dr Leyla Bragadin De Amicis @BragadinLeyla
Cognitive dissonance – it is so important in so many contexts!

Chris Ferguson @CJFerguson1111
Video games don't cause violence. Annoying people have been able to achieve that end result all by themselves since time immemorial.

Ian Patterson @psytac
The importance of child-care; and hence, having an understanding of developmental psychology. I have never met a significant offender (in my professional work, as a psychologist) that hadn't had an adverse childhood.

Prof. Sharron Hinchliff @DrSharronH
The insidious nature of ageism and the harm it causes.

Laura M @LauraUoSPA
Burnout... If you find yourself totally demotivated and/or hating your fellow man chances are you're psychologically drained and it's not your fault.

Marc Mulholland @katheder
As a non-psychologist: the Just World Hypothesis.

Taylor McGrath @TaylorMHN2023
How the physical effects of anxiety are actually your own body trying to look after and defend you from harm. It completely changed the way I looked at feeling anxious and panicking.

Sarah Riley @sarahrileybrown
How Postfeminism and neoliberalism effects your deepest sense of self without you knowing it (or agreeing to it!)

Sezgi Hüzmeli @SezgiGHuzmeli
appraisal theory of emotion, barnum effect and resilience

Denkverstärker @denkverstaerker
Zeigarnik effect and Ovsiankina effect

Denna @Denna42242609
Mirror neurons. I love them.

Suntosh Pillay @suntoshpillay
The Global North WEIRD context of most psychology theories.

Dr Raquel A @Raavila7
The Halo effect. Hot people get away with a lot more than everybody else. Your attributions change depending on how you perceive a person/brand/company etc.

Gail kinman @Profgailk
Working long hours shouldn't be seen as the sign of an 'ideal' employee, but as high risk behaviour with potentially catastrophic consequences.

Suzanne Zeedyk @suzannezeedyk
That the emotional experiences of childhood, from infancy to adolescence, leave a biological impact. We know this from the study of attachment & trauma. The implications of this one insight are massive for how we raise children & make sense of adult behaviour.

Dr Alex Barraclough-Brady @AlexBrady
Attribution theory. We spend so much time trying to explain the behaviours of others, or making assumptions around them, that it feels important to step back and understand how we approach such explanations.

Karen @KarenHenshaw8
Intersectionality and the multi-factorial impact gender, age, race, class etc have on people and their lives.

Georgios Vleioras @gvleioras
How we can infer causality. Yesterday, a student told me that, if we ask a lot of people if they think that self-esteem causes better stress management, then we can safely conclude that it does!

Lisa Richmond @LRichmond78
Cognitive load theory. Turning down the music to find an address when driving is a legit thing!

John Hills @johnhillsmusic
The anchoring effect - the first piece of information is more influential in decision making than later pieces; sunk cost & gambler's fallacies; the law of triviality.

Dr Jonathan Douglas PhD CPsych @JonathanCOnP
Sanctuary trauma. Our efforts to fight malingering by challenging every case leads to hugely increased costs and human suffering. The system stands in the way of the healing it wants to promote.

See all the tweets!

The Society has set up a TikTok account to promote psychology and our members to the wider public. Find us at @britishpsychsociety