Article Critique: Does Psychology Make A Significant Difference in Our Lives?
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Article Critique: Does Psychology Make A Significant Difference in Our Lives?
Research Question or Problem
Zimbardo (2004), in “Does Psychology Make a Significant Difference in Our Lives,”
debates whether psychology as a science, including its practice, methods, theory, and research,
makes a difference to humans. He contends that psychological research has been beneficial in a
wide variety of settings, including but not limited to political polling, education, health,
parenting, and factory work. Zimbardo (2014) affirms that applied psychology remains relevant
to our lives and will continue to be relevant to society.
Introduction
Zimbardo (2004) begins by reflecting back on whether psychology has been useful to our
lives. He argues that the questions on the utility of psychology have always been there.
Reflecting back when he was a psychology teacher, he argues that he has always sought to assure
his students of the relevance of psychology to everyday life. While Zimbardo (2004) cites eight
several studies in the introduction section, the introduction section is more of a reflection of his
experience as a psychologist, his educational attainment, and some of his mentors.
Methodology
Zimbardo (2004) employs a narrative review approach to discuss the contributions of
psychology to our lives. In traditional narrative reviews, the researcher begins with a narrow
problem statement and relies on a general discussion to expound on the topic. There is no
attempt to locate or evaluate pivotal resources. In the article, Zimbardo (2004) begins the
discussion with a focus on George Miller’s call on psychologists to become accountable to the
public and then presents a general discussion about the past and present impact of psychological
knowledge in multiple areas such as education, treatment of mental disorders, parenting, and
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politics. There is no attempt to evaluate the sources that Zimbardo (2004) uses to support his
inferences.
Results
While the article does not have a separate section reporting the findings, Zimbardo (2004)
presents a general discussion about past and present contributions of psychology to our lives.
According to the article, applied psychology has been beneficial to society in several ways. First,
psychology has been useful in assessing human abilities and talents, including intellectual
performance and intelligence. Psychologists have developed psychological testing tools that are
used by clinicians, employers, teachers, and other professionals to objectively evaluate human
ability and talents. Secondly, psychological research has been useful in informing the
development of positive reinforcement interventions in schools. Thirdly, psychological theories
and methodologies have been essential in the development of therapies for the treatment of
mental illnesses. Zimbardo (2004) goes further to discuss real-world examples of how
psychology is beneficial to society. For example, psychology has been useful in developing
interventions to promote awareness about the spread of HIV/AIDS. Zimbardo (2004) cites the
case of the use of psychology to develop soap operas to increase awareness about HIV/AIDs in
Tanzania.
Discussion/Conclusion
The article lacks a discussion section, but the author does summarize some key reasons
why psychology is beneficial to society. Zimbardo (2004) does not discuss the article’s
limitations or any future directions for research. There is a high likelihood that the paper suffers
from selection bias, which means that it is more an opinion piece rather than an objective
scientific paper.
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References
Zimbardo cites a total of 135 articles published between 1916 and 2003 to support his
inferences and conclusions. However, the article does not discuss the criteria that Zimbardo
(2004) used to select and evaluate the sources. The author does discuss where specific criteria
were used to appraise the included references—since the author did not use specific criteria to
evaluate the sources included in the review, the risk of systematic bias. Sy