In the book, 50 Great Myth of Popular psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions about Human Behavior, it is given many scientific evidences to refute several myths that have penetrated our society. Throughout the book, it is described how these myths have been incorporated into society by the media, which offers biased and exaggerated point of views about a wide range of psychological phenomena. Nevertheless, how about if mainstream science is itself biased against anything that sounds too inspirational and somewhat spiritual. Do scientific journals publish everything that knocks their doors? What is the filter threshold? These questions emerged particularly after reading myth 26th from the mentioned book. This chapter argues against
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(2013) conducted a meta-analysis study on seven prior researches that had a total number of 99,807 women in their samples. These studies took place in different countries of Europe, North America, and in Australia. After revising this large sample of breast cancer patients, it was found a strong association between striking life events and cancer. Findings showed that women experiencing stressful events were 1.5 times more likely to suffer from breast cancer, and those that already had cancer were 2.5 times likely to have experienced striking life events in the past. Lin et al. (2013) explained that in order for a life event to be considered striking, it should have elicited acute anxiety disorder in the person. The physiological consequences of this disorder are a malfunctioning on the hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal axis, which provokes a rise on cortisol levels and reduction of the natural ability of the body to prevent the growth of tumors (Lin et al., 2013).
On the other hand, Chapter 26 also explains why the myth of “A Positive Attitude Can Stave off Cancer” has become apparently so popular, and the main reason has been self-help books from people that have survived cancer (Lilienfeld et al., 2009). For instance, the book of Louis Hay, who wrote You Can Heal Your Life. In Chapter 26, assumes that authors that who writes this kind of inspirational books promotes rejection of conventional medicine, and claims that only changing attitude will stave off cancer, but this is not completely accurate. In Hay (1984) can be read the following
(2013) conducted a meta-analysis study on seven prior researches that had a total number of 99,807 women in their samples. These studies took place in different countries of Europe, North America, and in Australia. After revising this large sample of breast cancer patients, it was found a strong association between striking life events and cancer. Findings showed that women experiencing stressful events were 1.5 times more likely to suffer from breast cancer, and those that already had cancer were 2.5 times likely to have experienced striking life events in the past. Lin et al. (2013) explained that in order for a life event to be considered striking, it should have elicited acute anxiety disorder in the person. The physiological consequences of this disorder are a malfunctioning on the hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal axis, which provokes a rise on cortisol levels and reduction of the natural ability of the body to prevent the growth of tumors (Lin et al., 2013).
On the other hand, Chapter 26 also explains why the myth of “A Positive Attitude Can Stave off Cancer” has become apparently so popular, and the main reason has been self-help books from people that have survived cancer (Lilienfeld et al., 2009). For instance, the book of Louis Hay, who wrote You Can Heal Your Life. In Chapter 26, assumes that authors that who writes this kind of inspirational books promotes rejection of conventional medicine, and claims that only changing attitude will stave off cancer, but this is not completely accurate. In Hay (1984) can be read the following