Analyzing Kurt Salzinger's Article 'Take Back Psychology'

2/1 - In Dr. Kurt Salzinger's article, "Take back psychology," Kurt illustrates the many kinds of hardships that psychology is facing due to it's current state of affairs. That is to say, that psychology has been "given away" to be dissected and rehashed into various forms that help some causes and hurt others. The article was a nice read, and I enjoyed taking the time to look into Kurt's perspective. How he blended examples of applied and basic psychology to further his point made the article have a few layers.

On the topic of basic vs applied psychology, Kurt brings up a few points in his comments that help us understand the differences between the two. Applied psychology, while in its practicality with examples such as the simple cursory search on Amazon or the surveys done in popular magazines, can have a falling out when met with validitiy under a harder scope. In the article, the Amazon search left Kurt feeling better about himself when searching for self-help books because the webpage used statistical data to write the pages in such a way that made their customer feel warmer. This data was most likely done with a survey. Speaking of surveys, the surveys done in popular magazines provide another clear example on how such statistical …show more content…
In the case of prison studies performed by psychologists for various reasons, we can understand a great deal about the behaviors, reason, and logic of the criminal. However, we cannot still determine why we are unable to deter crime at a higher rate. This may require a practical approach not currently being utilized. When performing studies in the most habitable conditions possible, we can find the most accurate data. However, when we see the results of applied psychology used around us with popular media and online surveys, it becomes more difficult to accept even accurate