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Psychological and psychiatric terms to avoid

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Re: Psychological and psychiatric terms to avoid

#121

Post by cbsmith »

MichaelCollins wrote: post #45

> Nevertheless, the attitude-change techniques used by so-called “brainwashers” are no different than standard persuasive methods identified by social psychologists, such as encouraging commitment to goals, manufacturing source credibility, forging an illusion of group consensus, and vivid testimonials The brainwashing techniques used by various cults, criminal gangs and regimes go far beyond these gentle methods. Pa…

> I sure hope social psychologists don't use torture.

The phrasing was very specific: " standard persuasive methods identified by social psychologists". You don't need to use a method just because you've identified it.

Re: Psychological and psychiatric terms to avoid

#123

Post by babypuncher »

kbos87 wrote: post #115

This isn’t used in medical circles anymore but I’m shocked that it’s still acceptable to label something or someone as “hysterical”, which I believe implies erratic behavior that ties back to having a uterus.

I would wager that 99% of people using the word "hysterical" have no clue about that history.

I'm in my 30s and this is a little fact I just learned today.

Re: Psychological and psychiatric terms to avoid

#124

Post by Kranar »

blacksmith_tb wrote: post #94
_8j50 wrote: post #33

> Furthermore, there are ample reasons to doubt whether “brainwashing” permanently alters beliefs This person needs to look at interviews of mk-ultra experiment survivors. Brainwashing is very real and permanent.

It also doesn't quite make sense, even if these techniques aren't any more serious than other kinds of indoctrination, we have abundant examples of indoctrination permanently altering beliefs - religious conversions, ideological movements, etc.

Indoctrination is not the same as brainwashing though. If what you mean is indoctrination then use that term. Brainwashing is the idea that it's possible for a specific agent to forcefully gain significant control over someone's mind.

Indoctrination is not forced on a person by a specific agent but rather is the result of passive exposure over long periods of time. As a social species we are all indoctrinated to some degree by our culture, our parents, friends, profession etc... but that is not the same as a specific person having significant control over our beliefs or actions.

Re: Psychological and psychiatric terms to avoid

#125

Post by bt4u »

ndr wrote: post #86

> (27) The scientific method. Many science textbooks, including those in psychology, present science as a monolithic “method.” [...] Contrary to what most scientists themselves appear to believe, science is not a method; it is an approach to knowledge (Stanovich, 2012). Specifically, it is an approach that strives to better approximate the state of nature by reducing errors in inferences. Mmmh is this Psychology opti…

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Re: Psychological and psychiatric terms to avoid

#126

Post by runarberg »

stewbrew wrote: post #122

How about "subconscious"? It's interesting to see how some statements are based on wrong translations and misunderstanding.

Can you elaborate, I always assumed subconscious to mean something like blindsight, that is blind individuals that have functioning eyes (i.e. their blindness is caused by brain damage in the visual processing organs), are able to evade an object being thrown at them despite never being able to consciously see it. That is the stimuli of an approaching object is indeed subconscious.

However maybe that is an outdated term, and a better one exists. It has been a minute since I read up on the literature.

Re: Psychological and psychiatric terms to avoid

#127

Post by halpmeh »

ndr wrote: post #86

> (27) The scientific method. Many science textbooks, including those in psychology, present science as a monolithic “method.” [...] Contrary to what most scientists themselves appear to believe, science is not a method; it is an approach to knowledge (Stanovich, 2012). Specifically, it is an approach that strives to better approximate the state of nature by reducing errors in inferences. Mmmh is this Psychology opti…

I love that they make an assertion that “Science is not a method, it is an approach to knowledge” and cite something from 2012, as if science didn’t exist before that. And the fact that they conflate “science” and “scientific method” is quite hilarious as well.

Re: Psychological and psychiatric terms to avoid

#128

Post by tboyd47 »

> (3) Autism epidemic.

How breathtakingly insulting to the 100,000s of parents and caregivers of autistic children over the past 30 years, who have sacrificed 1,000s of hours, $MM of lost revenue, their own health, their own goals, and even attention that could have been paid to their other children and their community, exerting heroic efforts and sparing no expense to reach into a single child's mind to teach him or her basic skills and share some kind of human connection, starting from zero with no answers, no training, and sometimes not even family or a support network.

Unlike these scientists, most of these parents and caregivers will not be thanked or applauded for their work by society, but they only did it because it happened to be their child.

Let's not acknowledge that that their efforts correspond to a real event-- instead, let's dismiss all of the potential links uncovered and directions for future research, and wave it all away, feeling self-assured that we are being skeptical and rigorous while eating up taxpayer money from these same parents who still have no answers.

Re: Psychological and psychiatric terms to avoid

#129

Post by runarberg »

MichaelCollins wrote: post #45

> Nevertheless, the attitude-change techniques used by so-called “brainwashers” are no different than standard persuasive methods identified by social psychologists, such as encouraging commitment to goals, manufacturing source credibility, forging an illusion of group consensus, and vivid testimonials The brainwashing techniques used by various cults, criminal gangs and regimes go far beyond these gentle methods. Pa…

> I sure hope social psychologists don't use torture.

Read up on psychologist’s participation in the Guantanamo prison camp torture program. Indeed many psychologists did use torture, and it is something of a really dark spot in the history of the American Psychology Association.

Re: Psychological and psychiatric terms to avoid

#130

Post by scubbo »

lisper wrote: post #102

Another term to avoid IMHO: "jingle jangle fallacy". It's catchy, but both the word "jingle" and the word "jangle" have established meanings in English neither of which has anything to do with what is being referred to here. To say nothing of the fact that the "jingle jangle fallacy" is not a fallacy, it's just bad choice of terminology. Much better words than "jingle jangle fallacy" are "ambiguous" (for one word tha…

This is the first time I've heard of the word "jangle" existing independently of the onomatopoeiac phrase "jingle jangle"! That said, I definitely agree that this is an ironically-poor choice of name due the lack of relation between the name and the referent.
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