Popular Psychology - An Encyclopedia (Luis A. Cordon, 2005).pdf

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P OPULAR P SYCHOLOGY
A N E NCYCLOPEDIA
Luis A. Cordón
Greenwood Press
Westport, Connecticut • London
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cordón, Luis A.
Popular psychology: an encyclopedia / Luis A. Cordón.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-313-32457-3 (alk. paper)
1. Psychology—Encyclopedias. I. Title.
BF31.C715 2005
150'.3—dc22 2004017426
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available.
Copyright © 2005 by Luis A. Cordón
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be
reproduced, by any process or technique, without the
express written consent of the publisher.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2004017426
ISBN: 0-313-32457-3
First published in 2005
Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881
An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
www.greenwood.com
Printed in the United States of America
The paper used in this book complies with the
Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National
Information Standards Organization (Z39.48-1984).
0987654321
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Contents
Preface
ix
Acknowledgments
xiii
List of Entries
xv
Guide to Related Topics
xvii
Popular Psychology: An Encyclopedia
1
Annotated Bibliography
263
Index
269
Preface
The mysteries of the human mind and human behavior have been a source of
fascination and speculation throughout recorded history, and surely, for a long
time before that. Attempts to explain human thoughts, emotions, and behavior,
especially when they are disordered, go back just as long; and have often in-
volved magic, evil spirits, invisible entities, and such unusual ideas as stones in
the head and memories of previous lives. The scientifi c fi eld of psychology is
less than 150 years old. Most textbooks date its beginning to the establishment
of Wilhelm Wundt’s laboratory in Leipzig, Germany, in 1879. Since that time
the fi eld has grown rapidly, and the application of scientifi c method has led to
many remarkable discoveries about how the human brain and mind actually
work, along with what actually determines human behavior.
Unfortunately, magical thinking and superstition had a head start of 20,000
years on the scientifi c method, and so their elements still permeate the popular
presentation of psychology, or “pop” psychology. We in the academic world
probably should not be as surprised as we are that people are still willing to be-
lieve in a wide array of bizarre causal mechanisms for mental illness and in the
treatments those beliefs inspire, despite a complete lack of empirical evidence
supporting them. The realm of pop psychology certainly overlaps the science of
psychology, but there are large areas of the two that rarely meet. A central pur-
pose of this book is to explore key areas of both, in hopes of fi nding what is good
science in the popular presentation of psychology, while providing some of the
necessary tools for detecting those parts that are unworthy of serious attention.
Since I began my career as a psychology professor, the need for a book like
the Popular Psychology : An Encyclopedia has become increasingly clear to me. First,

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