Psychology Controversies They Don’t Want You to Know About

In this video, you'll see why psychology is more controversial than most people realize.
We’ll talk about how evidence gets interpreted, why the field sometimes reinforces inequality, and how self-help culture can end up doing more harm than good. I also explain why psychology often focuses on “fixing” individuals instead of addressing the social environments that actually create distress.

▶ Follow me on TikTok: @uncomfortablepsychology

Time Stamps:

0:00 Intro
1:51 Key Questions
2:12 Controversy and Psychology
3:20 Controversy #1 The Problem of Interpretation
6:33 Controversy #2 Psychology is not neutral
12:48 Controversy #3 "Giving Psychology away" to non-professionals
16:03 Takeaways

References:

Bansal, N., Hudda, M., Payne, R. A., Smith, D. J., Kessler, D., & Wiles, N. (2022). Antidepressant use and risk of adverse outcomes: population-based cohort study. BJPsych Open, 8(5), e164.

Banyard, P. (2022). Controversy and psychology. Routledge.

Coupland, C., Dhiman, P., Morriss, R., Arthur, A., Barton, G., & Hippisley-Cox, J. (2011). Antidepressant use and risk of adverse outcomes in older people: population based cohort study. BMJ, 343(aug02 1), d4551.

Hanel, P. H. P., Maio, G. R., & Manstead, A. S. R. (2018). A new way to look at the data: Similarities between groups of people are large and important. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 116(4), 541–562.

Shotter, J. (1990). The myth of mind and the mistake of psychology. In Recent research in psychology (pp. 63–70).