Should psychology be written in the layman or should science be exclusively for scientists?
Однажды я сказал себе…
Although many would doubt whether psychology is a science or not, let’s consider it as the science here. And as any science, psychology is written in a scientific way and it has its own “language”, its own terminology. Some of it may seem complicated (Oedipus complex) and/or confusing (schizotypal and schizoid personality disorders). For psychologists such terminology should be clear whereas for others, who are not trained in this area, it would be difficult to understand. Such terms or jargon has been created with the reason – to reduce misconception and to ease the process. Some term definitions may seem similar but one little feature changes the point. And if all scientific work were written in lay terms, with full explanations, it would be difficult for people outside psychology field to define each term from another. Also, have you seen those works? They are huge, contain tons of pages. Imagine if it all was written understandable for public, then additional explanation would be required. It would take even more pages and would only waste time since it mostly written for other scientists or any “other” people within science, who are familiar with such terminology. It would only slow down the process for researchers to try to explain things that are already known (within that particular field, of course). What scientists mostly care is to find an effect and to publish results so that other scientists may replicate our research or to find more based on previously found results. There are other ways to explain psychological findings to non-scientists. For example, scientific magazines are aimed for general public. Here is one article from “New Scientist” magazine about how crossword puzzles mess with our minds: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21228441.500-how-crossword-puzzles-mess-with-your-mind.html?full=true
Psychology should be written in a scientific way, so it does not lack a degree of professionalism. APA (American Psychological Association) guidelines is one of the tools that helps us to stay scientific and at the same time accessible to public. A couple of years ago, we, new psychology students, could not get our head around those scientific papers and jargon. We were the general public at that time. However, the more we learned the easier the science became, the easier it became for us to read those papers and less boring 🙂
You see, we, psychologists, try to understand people’s minds, problems and behaviour. And if someone didn’t understand what was written in a scientific paper, it does not stop us from doing what we do. There is no need for science to be written in layman terms. If you are interested in any particular field, you just need to learn more.
Psychology is a profession and as any profession it needs to be mastered.
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skakov87 
February 21, 2012 at 12:39
But surely as you rightly said psychology is a study of the mind and behaviour and some of the problems and processes surrounding these. Therefore would it not be better for everyone to benefit knowing about themselves to be able to apply the knowledge and better improve life.
For example teachers felt they were inadequately trained in behaviour management for their teaching career (http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0305569930190106). This could be improved if applied behaviour management theories were written for the layperson, such as teachers, for practical reasons and then maybe a second report with more detail for scientists.
February 21, 2012 at 18:38
Some areas of psychology would be very difficult for the layman to understand, an example of this would be the different parts of the brain and what they do, and in this case I would argue it to be slightly pointless that these papers were to be written for the layman. However, mental health campaigners are now trying to make the public more aware of the different mental health problems that there are and are trying to reduce the stigma that many people have towards people with mental health issues. This stigma, is for many people, a lack of understanding, and that could be to do with the jargon that we use. I know that this jargon is necessary so that we as Psychologists can identify these conditions but these definitions should also be explained to the general public so that they can gain a better understanding, not just to reduce stigma but to help raise awareness so that when the symtoms occur they can be recognised and treated faster.
Up until I did my A level psychology I thought that someone who has schizophrenia had a split personality, and now when people are wrong, I will correct them and explain to them in terms that they will understand because this helps them and others too.
February 21, 2012 at 19:40
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March 13, 2012 at 11:55
Did it ever occur to you also that if psychology was written in layman terms and everyone could understand it it wouldn’t be as tempting for us psychologists to go and study to be professionals. I think that one of the reasons as to why people go and study such disciplines is because it is something unknown, something that makes us stand out from the crowd once we know it. I think that every psychology student is very proud of themselves because they’ve come that far and they’ve come to learn and more importantly understand the difficult terms of psychology. Therefore, I think it is one of the reasons as to why psychology should be written in scientific terms. Otherwise, if it was accessible to everyone, we wouldn’t really need to study for it and there would be no need for processional training.
March 13, 2012 at 12:43
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