Criticisms of Psychology: Dogmatism

This video explores potential criticisms of psychology, including its tendency towards conceptual dogmatism, and adopting fashionable trends, fads, and ideologies, that have the potential to become full-blown fanatical movements. While some of these tendencies (e.g., unchecked metaphors, nested assumptions, untested background assertions) are also prevalent in the 'hard sciences' (e.g., biology, chemistry), the problem is much more severe in psychology and the social sciences more generally. I allege that this is primarily due to: 1) psychology misunderstanding itself as a 'science,' akin to biology or chemistry where the 'object' is in fact more amenable to 'objective understanding' than something like a person; 2) psychology divorcing itself from any need to engage in serious philosophy or rational argument (e.g., critical reflection, logic, awareness of theory construction). I end with a thought experiment to emphasize my point that psychologists are perhaps more likely to be implicit 'defenders' of dysfunctional and fanatical social ideologies, rather than sober and self-reflective individuals who are a safe haven of sanity for those who do not fit within a sick society. #psychology #criticisms #dogmatism #ideology #scientism #criticizingpsychology Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Brad Peters, MSc, Psychologist