N.A.S.
by Jesmarie Disdiel
Psychology majors know all too well about existing theories that are highly questionable. There is evidence supporting both sides, however, psychology classes still teach the same topics repeatedly, never revealing all the ideas surrounding them.
Ben Ambridge, author of “Psy-Q,” questioned an audience in a 2014 Ted Talks, “10 Myths About Psychology, Debunked,” which addressed much of what they think they know about psychology as being wrong.  “What we need to do is assess psychological theories by seeing what predictions they make,” said Ambridge. He delved into 10 popularly held theories in psychology that are not actually true.
“You’ve probably heard it said that when it comes to their psychology, it’s almost as if men are from Mars and women are from Venus,” said Ambridge.  “Any psychologist will tell you that men are better at spatial awareness than women. So things like map reading for example, and it’s true. But, let’s have a look at the size of this difference: it’s tiny. The lines are so close together they almost overlap.”
Ambridge explained how the popularly held belief that there are major psychological differences between men and women has holes in it. The truth is, men and women share about the same distribution as one another.
According to Ambridge, learning styles are not real and are not supported by evidence either. Many people may be told whether they are a visual, auditory or kinesthetic learner. However, there is no evidence to prove if a person may learn more efficiently one way one or another.
“It’s obvious that the best presentation format depends not on you, but on what you’re trying to learn. Could you learn to drive a car for example, just by listening to someone telling you what to do with no kinesthetic experience? No. What you need to do is match the material to be learned to the presentation format, not you,” said Ambridge.
Numerous books and classes teach the idea that a person can either be left-brained dominant or right-brain dominant; Ambridge clarified that this is in fact a myth.
Similarly, most people have heard that we only have access to 10 percent of our brain.  According to Ambridge, this is also a myth. People use nearly all of their brain when conducting any task.
Listening to Mozart does not make a person smarter. But, listening to something a person enjoys may temporarily create an I.Q boost on a few tasks. Mozart’s music also does not make a listener healthier, unfortunately.
“So a myth that I have to say is sometimes spread a bit by sociologists, is that our preferences in a romantic partner are a product of our culture; that they’re very culturally specific. But in fact, the data doesn’t back this up,” said Ambridge. “Many theories in psychology are centered on the culture in which people are exposed to.”
It is important for people to be able to identify which theories are true or false. An idea may be popular and mentioned more often than most, but it does not guarantee that there is more evidence that supports it than debunks it.
“So the myth is that psychology is just a collection of interesting theories, all of which say something useful, and all of which have something to offer,“ said Ambridge. “The only way we can make progress is to test these predictions against the data in tightly controlled experimental studies. And it’s only by doing so that we can hope to discover which of these theories are well supported, and which… are myths.”