Contents
Myth #1 Most People Use Only 10% of Their Brain Power
Myth #2 Some People Are Left-Brained, Others Are Right-Brained
Myth #3 Extrasensory Perception (ESP) Is a Well-Established Scientific Phenomenon
Myth #4 Visual Perceptions Are Accompanied by Tiny Emissions from the Eyes
Myth #5 Subliminal Messages Can Persuade People to Purchase Products
Myth #6 Playing Mozart’s Music to Infants Boosts Their Intelligence
Myth #7 Adolescence Is Inevitably a Time of Psychological Turmoil
Myth #8 Most People Experience a Midlife Crisis in | 8 Their 40s or Early 50s
Myth #9 Old Age Is Typically Associated with Increased Dissatisfaction and Senility
Myth #10 When Dying, People Pass through a Universal Series of Psychological Stages
3 A REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST
Myth #12 Hypnosis Is Useful for Retrieving Memories of Forgotten Events
Myth #13 Individuals Commonly Repress the Memories of Traumatic Experiences
Myth #14 Most People with Amnesia Forget All Details of Their Earlier Lives
4 TEACHING OLD DOGS NEW TRICKS
Myth #15 Intelligence (IQ) Tests Are Biased against Certain Groups of People
Myth #17 The Defining Feature of Dyslexia Is Reversing Letters
Myth #18 Students Learn Best When Teaching Styles Are Matched to Their Learning Styles
Myth #19 Hypnosis Is a Unique “Trance” State that Differs in Kind from Wakefulness
Myth #20 Researchers Have Demonstrated that Dreams Possess Symbolic Meaning
Myth #21 People Can Learn Information, like New Languages, while Asleep
Myth #22 During “Out-of-Body” Experiences, People’s Consciousness Leaves Their Bodies
Myth #23 The Polygraph (“Lie Detector”) Test Is an Accurate Means of Detecting Dishonesty
Myth #24 Happiness Is Determined Mostly by Our External Circumstances
Myth #25 Ulcers Are Caused Primarily or Entirely by Stress
Myth #26 A Positive Attitude Can Stave off Cancer
Myth 27 Opposites Attract: We Are Most Romantically Attracted to People Who Differ from Us
Myth #29 Men and Women Communicate in Completely Different Ways
Myth #30 It’s Better to Express Anger to Others than to Hold It in
Myth #31 Raising Children Similarly Leads to Similarities in Their Adult Personalities
Myth #32 The Fact that a Trait Is Heritable Means We can’t change it
Myth #33 Low Self-Esteem Is a Major Cause of Psychological Problems
Myth #35 People’s Responses to Inkblots Tell Us a Great Deal about Their Personalities
Myth #36 Our Handwriting Reveals Our Personality Traits
Myth #37 Psychiatric Labels Cause Harm by Stigmatizing People
Myth #38 Only Deeply Depressed People Commit Suicide
Myth #39 People with Schizophrenia Have Multiple Personalities
Myth #40 Adult Children of Alcoholics Display a Distinctive Profile of Symptoms
Myth #41 There’s Recently Been a Massive Epidemic of Infantile Autism
Myth #42 Psychiatric Hospital Admissions and Crimes Increase during Full Moons
Myth #43 Most Mentally Ill People Are Violent
Myth #44 Criminal Profiling Is Helpful in Solving Cases
Myth #45 A Large Proportion of Criminals Successfully Use the Insanity Defense
Myth #46 Virtually All People Who Confess to a Crime Are Guilty of It
Myth #47 Expert Judgment and Intuition Are the Best Means of Making Clinical Decisions
Myth #48 Abstinence Is the Only Realistic Treatment Goal for Alcoholics Alcoholics
Myth #50 Electroconvulsive (“Shock”) Therapy Is a Physically Dangerous and Brutal Treatment