ABSTRACT
When a psychologist meets someone for the first time at, say, a party and replies truthfully to the standard opening line, ‘What do you do for a living?’, the reaction of the newly made acquaintance is likely to fall into one of the following categories: ‘Oh, I’d better be careful what I say from now on’ (partly defensive, partly amused) ‘I bet you meet some right weirdos in your work’ (partly intrigued, partly
sympathetic) ‘What exactly is psychology?’ (partly inquisitive, partly puzzled). What these reactions betray – especially the first two – is an inaccurate and incomplete understanding of the subject. The first seems to imply that psychologists are mind readers and have access to other people’s thoughts (they don’t), while the second seems to imply that psychologists work mainly with people who are ‘mentally ill’ or ‘mad’ (again, they don’t, although many do). The third reaction perhaps implies that the boundaries between psychology and other subject disciplines aren’t clearly drawn (they aren’t), but what this chapter aims to do is make them sufficiently clear to enable you, the reader, who may be ‘visiting’ psychology for the first time, to find your way around this book – and the subject – relatively easily.
