Let’s play a game of Two Truths and a Lie about Introductory/AP Psychology. Two of the following statements are Truths; one is a Lie. Name which is which.
- You learn a lot of really valuable information that you would never learn in other courses.
- You learn more about scientific and critical thinking than in most natural science courses, and it can help you make better decisions.
- It’s an easy course because it is mostly just common sense about stuff you already know.
Let’s explore each statement to see if it is a Truth or a Lie.
You learn a lot of really valuable information that you would never learn in other courses.
Introductory psychology in colleges and AP Psychology in high schools are incredibly popular courses. Students take them for many reasons. Learning about human behavior attracts many, but others sign up for more mundane reasons. Maybe it fulfills a requirement, or fills a gap in the schedule, or maybe a friend is already registered for it. Whatever the reason, once students are in the course, they are often surprised to learn that psychological science addresses a wide range of issues that are relevant to their lives and will help them be successful long after the course is over. Not only that, it is the only course in which students can find a lot of that information. I call these kinds of knowledge and skills the superpowers of psychology (Chew, 2021). Let’s list some of the superpowers of psychology that students get introduced to Introductory/AP Psychology. They include the following:
- You know how to learn effectively.
You learn about a lot of concepts that are critical for academic success. You learn about the importance of undivided attention while studying and how multitasking hurts learning. You learn about the limited capacity of working memory and how chunking can help students get more information through that bottleneck. You learn about how elaborative rehearsal is better than maintenance rehearsal for learning, even though it is harder to do. Learn more about the choke points and pitfalls students face when learningopens in new window, see Chew (2020). - You know the dangers of stress and how to manage it.
Stress is a huge problem in general, but it has been particularly challenging for students in the lockdown during the pandemic. Stress is linked to numerous physical problems. In the course, you learn about effective coping mechanisms for stress, such as sufficient sleep, regular exercise, mindfulness meditation, experiencing nature. Learn more about stress management, see APA (2021) - You understand personality traits and individual differences. In Introductory/AP psychology, you learn about scientifically sound theories of personality such as the Big 5, which helps you understand how people differ. For a group project, you want to pick people who are high in conscientiousness for your team. If the project requires a lot of cooperation, you want to choose people high in agreeableness. Furthermore, you learn how to distinguish between sound and unsound personality tests through their standardization, validity, and reliability. Learn how the Big 5 relates to job successopens in new window, (APS, 2014).
- You know about biases and prejudices.
Human behavior is fraught with biases and prejudices that can lead to faulty decisions and poor problem solving. Knowing about common biases can help you avoid them. In the course, you learn about some of the most common biases, such as confirmation bias, self-serving bias, just world bias, and the fundamental attribution error. Students also learn about implicit bias and how people develop prejudices. Maybe you recognized that Statement 3 in Two Truths and a Lie was the lie because it is an example of hindsight bias. Learn how biases can lead to faulty beliefs and the spread of misinformation about COVID-19, (Abrams, 2021). - You know how behavior can change when people are part of a group compared to when they are alone.
In the course, you learn how powerful social influences of being part of a group can change individual behavior. You learn about the effects of diffusion of responsibility in helping behavior and the role of social norms in conformity. You learn about displacement of responsibility and destructive obedience. You also learn about group processes, such as deindividuation, social loafing, and groupthink. To learn more about how groups influence our actions, listen to this interview with Dr. Jay Van Bavelopens in new window (Vedantam, 2021).
Statement 1 is definitely a truth. If you want to learn more about the superpowers of the psychology major, see Chew (2021).
You learn more about scientific and critical thinking than in most natural science courses, and it can help you make better decisions.
Virtually every Introductory/AP course (and textbook) features a discussion of scientific methods early in the course, and that isn’t by accident. Understanding research methods and critical thinking is considered fundamental in high school AP psychology (APA, 2022a) and college introductory psychology (APA, 2022b). The American Psychological Association lists scientific literacy, knowing how to use scientific principles to establish knowledge and make decisions, as a major learning goal in Introductory Psychology/AP courses (APA, 2022b). And in fact, students who have taken the course show higher scientific literacy than students who take general science courses (Macias, 2019).
The value of scientific literacy has become clear during the COVID-19 pandemic as people tried to make sense of various research studies. The scientific principles that students learn in Introductory/AP psychology can help them make better decisions about the strengths and weaknesses of research even outside of psychology. If are currently taking or have completed the course, let’s see if you can demonstrate this fact for yourself.
Below are brief summaries of three studies related to COVID-19 that were reported in the popular press. Read through the summaries and rank them in terms of how scientifically rigorous and sound each one is. Think about each study’s strengths and weaknesses.
- Researchers examined COVID-19 infection rates in 233 school districts in Arkansas during the Delta outbreak based on whether the school district had strict masking requirements. After taking into account vaccination rates and SES, districts that had strict masking mandates had a 23% lower infection rate than school districts with no or partial masking requirements (Mueller, 2022).
- In a nursing home in Texas, the home’s physician started giving the drug hydroxychloroquine to residents who tested positive for COVID-19. "It's actually going well. People are getting better," the physician reported, although it’s hard to quantify how much of the improvement is due to the drug (Romo, 2020).
- In Brazil, 1300 patients who were sick with COVID-19 were randomly assigned to receive either the anti-parasitic drug Ivermectin or a placebo. Patients followed throughout illness with data collected on multiple indicators. They found no evidence of effectiveness of Ivermectin for treatment of COVID-19 (Zimmer, 2022).
Which of the three studies was the most scientifically rigorous? In Introductory/AP psychology, students learn about the importance of control groups in experiments for comparison to experimental groups, and the importance of using random assignment to either experimental or control groups to avoid creating biased groups. The only study that meets those criteria is Study 3, in which patients were assigned to receive Ivermectin or a placebo. Study 3 is the most rigorous and the results the most scientifically reliable. Study 1 also had control groups, but these groups were not created through random assignment. The researchers took advantage of pre-existing differences among school districts, which makes this a quasi-experiment. Quasi-experiments are similar to correlational studies, and you know that correlation does not imply causation. Even though the researchers controlled for vaccination rates and SES, there are always confounds in quasi-experiments and correlations. School districts who had mask mandates may have had better testing protocols, or taken other measures to prevent COVID-19, such as smaller classes or better room ventilation. This study is still useful because the researchers controlled what they could, and this is a field study with natural conditions, but it has the limitations of a quasi-experiment. Study 2, run by a physician, is the least rigorous study. There is no control group, so we don’t know if people are getting better due to the drug, other measures they might be taking, or their own immune systems. There is no operational definition of “getting better” here nor any comprehensive and systematic measurement of symptoms, just the sense that patients are getting better. People without scientific literacy may think all three studies equally valid, and worse, may choose to believe the study that fits their beliefs. Students who have taken Introductory/AP psychology know better.
It’s an easy course because it is mostly just common sense about stuff you already know.
So clearly, this statement is the lie. And it’s a lie because the other two statements are true. Students learn a lot of new and useful information for personal, academic, and career success that they wouldn’t learn elsewhere. Scientific reasoning is harder to do than biased, intuitive thinking, but it can help you make better decisions. I didn’t even mention learning about psychological disorders and therapies, which is what most people think psychology is all about.
It is easy to overlook all the useful information you learn in Introductory/AP psychology and these are just some of the superpowers of psychology.
References
Abrams, Z. (2021, March 1). Controlling the spread of misinformation: Psychologists’ research on misinformation may help in the fight to debunk myths surrounding COVID-19. Monitor on Psychology, 52(2). https://www.apa.org/monitor/2021/03/controlling-misinformation
APA (2021). Stress relief is within reach. American Psychological Association, https://www.apa.org/topics/stress
APA (2022a). The APA Introductory Psychology Initiative. American Psychological Association,
https://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/undergrad/introductory-psychology-initiative
APA (2022b). National Standards for High School Psychology Curricula. American Psychological Association, https://www.apa.org/education-career/k12/national-standards
APS (2014, September 25). Which Personality Traits Are Most Important to Employers? Association for Psychological Science, https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/minds-business/which-personality-traits-are-most-important-to-employers.htmlopens in new window
Chew, S. L. (2020, July 27). How to Learn in Pandemic Times. National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology. https://youtu.be/XOKG2LrnwYoopens in new window
Chew, S. L. (2021, August 23). The superpowers of the psychology major. Psychology Teacher Network. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/psychology-teacher-network/introductory-psychology/superpowers-psychology-major
Macias, III (2019). Scientific literacy: It’s not just the textbooks. Psychology students score higher, too. Psychology Teacher Network, 29(2). https://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/ptn/2019/05/scientific-literacy
Mueller, B. (2022, March 8). Masking helped protect children from the virus last fall, a C.D.C. study suggests. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/08/health/covid-masks-kids-study-cdc.htmlopens in new window
Romo, V. (2020, April 10). COVID-19 Patients Given Unproven Drug in Texas Nursing Home In 'Disconcerting' Move. National Public Radio. https://www.npr.org/2020/04/10/830348837/covid-19-patients-given-unproven-drug-in-texas-nursing-home-garnering-criticismopens in new window
Vedantam, S. (2021, September 20). Group Think [Audio Podcast Episode]. In Hidden brain. NPR. https://hiddenbrain.org/podcast/group-think/opens in new window
Zimmer, C. (2022, March 30). Ivermectin Does Not Reduce Risk of Covid Hospitalization, Large Study Finds. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/30/health/covid-ivermectin-hospitalization.htmlopens in new window
About the author:
Stephen L. Chew has been a professor of psychology at Samford University since 1993. Trained as a cognitive psychologist, one of his primary research areas is the cognitive basis of effective teaching and learning. His research interests include the use of examples in teaching, the impact of cognitive load on learning, and the tenacious misconceptions that students bring with them into the classroom. He is the creator of a groundbreaking series of YouTube videos for students on how to study effectively in collegeopens in new window which have been viewed three million times and are in wide use from high schools to professional schools.
Chew received the Robert S. Daniel Teaching Excellence Award from the Society for the Teaching of Psychology In 2005 as the outstanding teacher of psychology at four-year colleges and universities. He was named the 2011 Outstanding Master’s Universities and Colleges U.S. Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. In 2018 he received the Charles L. Brewer Distinguished Teaching of Psychology Award from the American Psychological Foundation. He is an APA Fellow and a Distinguished Member of Psi Chi.
