Pop Psychology

[RxPsych]

Bringing this up because one of my longtime friends sent me this link and encouraged me to check it out:

Seven Primal Questions

www.primalquestion.com

The person that created this "primal question" is speaking at a well-known event that my friend is attending. He said, "since he is speaking at the event, he must be legit." How do you all handle conversations about things like this with friends and family? I tend to provide short responses that do not fully entail my true distaste unless they ask for my opinion, in which I kindly and briefly express my thoughts.

Similarly, when people mention things like enneagram, MBTI, etc. The number of pigs with lipstick in this field is astounding. Only occasionally do I have the thought of selling out, creating some gimmicky questionnaire loosely based in psychological theory but with no psychometric backing, and making millions...

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[PsyDr]

1) Same logic as financial gurus: If these people had all the answers, then they would either
a. keep their answers very quiet to maintain the value of their product, have a very very private client list, and the means to show it.
b. be at the most prestigious academic setting in the world.

It's like those people that say, "I'll teach you how to get 100% daily ROI !". Yeah bud, because you know how to become the wealthiest person in US history in 60 days.

2) I'll tell you what a mentor told me about psychoanalysis:

Have you ever seen a happy psychoanalyst? Then maybe you shouldn't go to those people for advice about happiness.

 

[Sanman]

Bringing this up because one of my longtime friends sent me this link and encouraged me to check it out:

Seven Primal Questions

www.primalquestion.com

The person that created this "primal question" is speaking at a well-known event that my friend is attending. He said, "since he is speaking at the event, he must be legit." How do you all handle conversations about things like this with friends and family? I tend to provide short responses that do not fully entail my true distaste unless they ask for my opinion, in which I kindly and briefly express my thoughts.

Similarly, when people mention things like enneagram, MBTI, etc. The number of pigs with lipstick in this field is astounding. Only occasionally do I have the thought of selling out, creating some gimmicky questionnaire loosely based in psychological theory but with no psychometric backing, and making millions...

What field is that exactly? I am a licensed psychologist. I don't work in the self-help/actualization/pop culture genre where no one has any credentials.

 

[RxPsych]

What field is that exactly? I am a licensed psychologist. I don't work in the self-help/actualization/pop culture genre where no one has any credentials.

The website states it is "backed by psychology. Proven in real life." It goes on, "5 years of research, over 100,000 assessments, 6,000 hours of interviews, 22 group labs..." and when I try to find more info about this research, assessments, interviews, etc. it is conveniently nowhere to be found. So it appears he is claiming this is supported by psychological research.

 

[DoubtfulDoc]

Yikes, yeah I feel you. The majority of psychotherapy providers I work with eat up that stuff like candy. I usually just say “I’m not very familiar with it. “ and then I may add, “is it in a clinical practice guideline you can point me to?” Or “I’d love to see one of its RCTs (or meta analysis or systematic review) if you wouldn’t mind sharing” if they know what those are. I only directly challenge that stuff if I’m explicitly brought on as a consultant like when I’m doing an assessment and I see something in the record about something pseudoscientific or unsupported.

 

[PsyDr]

I went through their questionnaire. It’s just Maslow stuff made into question, with “do I feel like I am safe? Do I feel like I make a difference to society?”, etc

 

[Sanman]

The website states it is "backed by psychology. Proven in real life." It goes on, "5 years of research, over 100,000 assessments, 6,000 hours of interviews, 22 group labs..." and when I try to find more info about this research, assessments, interviews, etc. it is conveniently nowhere to be found. So it appears he is claiming this is supported by psychological research.

So, he read an intro psych textbook and learned about Maslow's hierarchy? It's dumb but not sure if it is doing any harm. If you lack food and shelter, sort that out before sorting out your feelings.