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Western University-led research debunks the IQ myth. Public release date: 19-Dec-2012 [ Print | E-mail Share ] [ Close Window ] Contact: Jeff Renaudjrenaud9@uwo.ca 519-661-2111 x85165University of Western Ontario After conducting the largest online intelligence study on record, a Western University-led research team has concluded that the notion of measuring one's intelligence quotient or IQ by a singular, standardized test is highly misleading.

Western University-led research debunks the IQ myth

Western-led research debunks the IQ myth. 15 Styles of Distorted Thinking. This is (not) psychology. Psychology. How Our Delusions Keep Us Sane: The Psychology of Our Essential Self-Enhancement Bias. By Maria Popova How evolution made the average person believe she is better in every imaginable way than the average person.

How Our Delusions Keep Us Sane: The Psychology of Our Essential Self-Enhancement Bias

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done without hope,” Helen Keller wrote in her 1903 treatise on optimism. The Self Illusion: How Our Social Brain Constructs Who We Are. Why Fear Is Fun. Mere-exposure effect. The mere-exposure effect is a psychological phenomenon by which people tend to develop a preference for things merely because they are familiar with them.

Mere-exposure effect

In social psychology, this effect is sometimes called the familiarity principle. The effect has been demonstrated with many kinds of things, including words, Chinese characters, paintings, pictures of faces, geometric figures, and sounds.[1] In studies of interpersonal attraction, the more often a person is seen by someone, the more pleasing and likeable that person appears to be. Research[edit] The earliest known research on the effect was conducted by Gustav Fechner in 1876.[2] Edward B. Dunning–Kruger effect. Cognitive bias about one's own skill The Dunning–Kruger effect is a hypothetical cognitive bias stating that people with low ability at a task overestimate their own ability, and that people with high ability at a task underestimate their own ability.

Dunning–Kruger effect

As described by social psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger, the bias results from an internal illusion in people of low ability and from an external misperception in people of high ability; that is, "the miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others".[1] It is related to the cognitive bias of illusory superiority and comes from people's inability to recognize their lack of ability. Without the self-awareness of metacognition, people cannot objectively evaluate their level of competence. Original study[edit] Later studies[edit] Mathematical critique[edit] Paired measures[edit] Cultural differences in self-perception[edit] The Backfire Effect: The Psychology of Why We Have a Hard Time Changing Our Minds. By Maria Popova How the disconnect between information and insight explains our dangerous self-righteousness.

The Backfire Effect: The Psychology of Why We Have a Hard Time Changing Our Minds

“Allow yourself the uncomfortable luxury of changing your mind,” I wrote in reflecting on the 7 most important things I learned in 7 years of Brain Pickings. It’s a conundrum most of us grapple with — on the one hand, the awareness that personal growth means transcending our smaller selves as we reach for a more dimensional, intelligent, and enlightened understanding of the world, and on the other hand, the excruciating growing pains of evolving or completely abandoning our former, more inferior beliefs as we integrate new knowledge and insight into our comprehension of how life works.

That discomfort, in fact, can be so intolerable that we often go to great lengths to disguise or deny our changing beliefs by paying less attention to information that contradicts our present convictions and more to that which confirms them. So where does this leave us?

Jungian Personality Types

Psych Central Personality Test. Based upon the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) Everybody is curious about their personality, so psychology to the rescue!

Psych Central Personality Test

Our personality test is similar to the Myers Briggs (MBTI) and the Jung personality tests, and is based upon an open-source set of personality testing items. These items are based upon scientific research and will provide results typical of a five-factor model of personality. The five factors measured by this test are extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and intellect/imagination. Please remember that these are only personality traits or preferences -- they do not predetermine every action you prefer in every situation. This test consists of just 50 questions and takes about 7 minutes for most people to complete.

First, let's get started with some basic demographic information about you... Reference: Personality Patterns. Criminal profiling: the reality behind the myth. For 16 years, "mad bomber" George Metesky eluded New York City police.

Criminal profiling: the reality behind the myth

Metesky planted more than 30 small bombs around the city between 1940 and 1956, hitting movie theaters, phone booths and other public areas. In 1956, the frustrated investigators asked psychiatrist James Brussel, New York State's assistant commissioner of mental hygiene, to study crime scene photos and notes from the bomber. Brussel came up with a detailed description of the suspect: He would be unmarried, foreign, self-educated, in his 50s, living in Connecticut, paranoid and with a vendetta against Con Edison--the first bomb had targeted the power company's 67th street headquarters. While some of Brussel's predictions were simply common sense, others were based on psychological ideas. For instance, he said that because paranoia tends to peak around age 35, the bomber, 16 years after his first bomb, would now be in his 50s. How does profiling work? Informal criminal profiling has a long history.

Offender profiling. History of Forensic Psychology. Q: What is the history of the Behavioral Science Unit?

History of Forensic Psychology

1974: The Behavioral Science Unit (BSU) is created to investigate serial rape and homicide cases. There were originally eleven agents and it was a part of the Training Division. How to Hypnotize Yourself Using the Best Me Technique.