Misconceptions about Psychology - mental_floss on YouTube (Ep. 19)

Hi, I'm Elliot, and this is Mental Floss on YouTube

Today, I'm going to talk about some misconceptions about psychology. It's crazy, right

Misconception number one. People with Tourette's Syndrome scream out curse words. Only 10 to 15% of people who have Tourette's Syndrome use swear words or offensive gestures

The term Tourette's Syndrome refers to a disorder involving both physical tics and vocal tics

These tics are repetitive and involuntary, but don't necessarily involve cursing. Misconception number two, opposites attract

A 2003 study discovered that people actually desire people who are similar to them when it comes to relationships

These similarities include socioeconomic class, whether or not they're interested in family and monogamy, and equal attractiveness

These findings were confirmed in a study done in 2009, which found that newlyweds had similar values and personality traits

Well, I guess this finally explains why Russell Brand and Katy Perry didn't work out. Those guys are crazy

Misconception number three, shock therapy is an outdated practice. Electroconvulsive therapy, or ECT, is still used today

In ECT, electric currents are sent through someone's brain, which induces a seizure

This is actually an effective treatment for depression severe mania catatonia and dementia It believed that it might affect levels of neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin ECD might also repair neuroconnections and nerves Misconception number four therapy involves a lot of dream discussion

Every therapist is different, but it's rare to find one that will want to talk a lot about your dreams nowadays

And there's actually a good reason for this. We still don't really know what dreams mean

There are a few presiding theories, but most experts don't view dream interpretation as the key to happiness

In fact, some neuropsychologists claim that dreams are 100% meaningless. How disappointing is that

Misconception number five, lie detector machines work. Actually, the National Research Council found that a polygraph machine could indicate that

a person is lying when they're really just nervous. In 2004, the council held a panel on lie detector machines, which didn't find any evidence

of their validity. Plus, in the US, polygraphic evidence cannot be used in federal courts

This is because of a 1998 Supreme Court decision, which said, quote, There is simply no consensus that polygraph evidence is reliable

Misconception number six, the Mozart effect. Over 80% of American adults believe in the Mozart effect

that children who study music are smarter and get better grades. But most studies that have concluded that the Mozart effect is real have been discredited

In 2013 Harvard University conducted a study that found no statistically significant difference in IQ between children who study music and those who didn Misconception number seven schizophrenia equals multiple personalities Schizophrenia is defined as the disconnection or splitting of the psychic functions

That splitting sometimes confuses people who think the term is interchangeable with multiple personalities

But there are other symptoms of schizophrenia, like there's hallucinations and delusions

and illogical speech and so on. Dissociative identity disorder, on the other hand, is what used to be known as multiple

personality disorder. People who have this disorder have at least two separate, lasting personalities

These come with memory impairment as well. Misconception number eight, subliminal messages in advertising work

In 1957, a researcher named James Vickery published a press release saying that he had conducted an experiment in which thousands of people in movie theaters

saw the words eat popcorn and drink Coca-Cola flash on screen. But it only appeared for an amount of time that would have been too short for them to process

Vickery claimed that there was a 57.5% increase in popcorn sales as well as an 18.1% increase in Coke sales

So that's where the subliminal message ad myth comes from. Vickery later admitted, though, that he fabricated his data

but the misconception continues to live on. More recent studies of the phenomenon haven't been able to prove

that this type of advertising is effective. While there is evidence that subliminal advertising can nudge your decision in a certain way you have to already want the product being advertised But regardless the FCC banned its use in 1974 Misconception number nine psychiatrist

equals psychologist. An easy way to tell the difference between the two is that psychiatrists

prescribe drugs, but psychologists can't, except in New Mexico and Louisiana, where they can. There's

also a difference in their schooling. If you want to become a psychiatrist, then I'm a little

suspicious that it's because of the fact that I just gave you. But anyway, you will need four years

of medical school followed by a residency in mental health. Psychologists, on the other hand, have up to six years of graduate school before they

earn a PhD. Misconception number 10, everything Sigmund Freud ever said. Okay, now that is a generalization, but Freud is no longer used as a serious source in the

field of psychology. He got quite a few of his theories wrong, like there's no oral, , phallic, and genital

stages, no one argues that women experience penis envy or that men have castration anxiety

And if someone tries telling you that you have an Oedipus complex or electric complex

I'd get a second opinion