The Future of Psychology Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Future of Psychology Paper - Essay Example The last two decades of the century saw the recognition of psychology as not only a science but also as a practice. Thus, contemporary psychology is loosely defined as the study of behavior and all other underlying mental phenomena, reflecting a wider and more integrated, interdisciplinary body of science (APA Monitor Online, Vol. 30, #11, Dec. 1999). Finding its place in contemporary society which has likewise kept evolving, psychology as the world knows and embraces it today has taken the form of self-help, advices, and of concepts like the enneagram, â€Å"inner child†, â€Å"left/right brain†, among others. This is what is categorized now as popular psychology or pop psychology. By definition, popular psychology deals with concepts and theories pertaining to human mental life and behavior that are claimed to be psychology-based. These easily become popular among people because they provide easily-understood explanations that are not known before, and they present theories that are specifically addressing very personal and pressing issues like marriage relationships, parenting, the whys and how-to’s of things. In other words, they offer comprehensible explanations for interesting issues in a manner that even ordinary housewives, teenagers, everyday folks can easily accept and digest. The proliferation of self-help books as part of pop psychology has been a growing industry. An example and the most successful self-help book is â€Å"The Road Less Travelled† by M. Scot Peck, which presents psychology-based explanations about very interesting subjects in life, like love, marriage, parenting, self-growth and development. With the success of this book, several others have followed suit, thus â€Å"how-to† and â€Å"why† books about almost anything that interests the human mind are available. Although they provide better understanding of things, presenting easy-to-digest explanations with basis on psychology, these self-help books also present potential