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Intuition is of limited value in explaining behavior

By Eric Amsel, Guest Commentary - | Aug 11, 2015
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Amsel

It is estimated that 1 in 10 people experience clinical depression with symptoms such as sustained fatigue or energy loss, feelings of sadness, worthlessness, or hopelessness, and diminished interest or pleasure in activities that used to be pleasurable. Eighty percent of sufferers do not seek help, perhaps because their everyday intuition tells them that depression is a mental weakness — sufferers are weak and just do not fight through the symptoms. But from the perspective of scientific psychology, depression is a mental illness. Chemical imbalances in the brain affect sufferers’ thoughts, feelings and actions, which usually can be effectively treated, reducing the pain and suffering.

Despite the availability of scientific information about depression, people rely on their intuitions to understand this phenomenon and other aspects of human behavior. Psychologist David Myers defines intuitions as “the effortless, immediate, unreasoned sense of truth.” Our intuitions about human behavior evolve over time and are modified by social and cultural experiences. We generally believe that people’s behavior is rational and purposeful and based on a set of internal, private and conscious beliefs and desires.

The difference between theories of scientific psychology and everyday intuitions is relevant in how we react to the world around us, particularly when it comes to mental-health issues. Those who understand the science are more likely to seek treatment for themselves or support their loved ones in doing so. Those who rely on intuition are less forgiving of themselves or others who suffer.

The problem with intuitions, David Myers notes, is that we feel confident we know the truth because we can predict and explain occurrences. But psychology is much like physics in this regard — just because we can intuitively predict and explain the trajectory of a thrown ball, or the behavior of a human being, does not mean we have a scientific understanding of the true causes of either.

Students studying psychology quickly learn that everyday intuitions about human behavior do not hold up under scientific scrutiny. Research has shown that little of our behavior is consciously self-authored. We have very limited knowledge of the biological, social and unconscious causes of our behavior. There are also limits on how well we know our own minds. We often make impulsive rather than rational decisions and perceive and remember in ways consistent with what we believe or what makes sense to us, rather than what actually is.

As a professor in Weber State’s psychology department with an emphasis in research on teaching and learning, my students and I are exploring how people learn to adopt the scientific view of human beings, particularly in seeing depression as a mental illness. We have discovered that the more we help people understand the differences between the scientific and intuitive accounts of human behavior and invite them to think like psychologists, the more they view depression as a mental illness. The more people do that, the better they are at identifying depression in others, the less stigmatizing they are of those who are depressed and the more open they are to seeking forms of therapeutic interventions for themselves such as medication or psychotherapy.

Weber State’s Department of Psychology would like everyone to “Get Psyched” to eagerly study the science behind human behavior. In a yearlong series of monthly columns for the Standard-Examiner, faculty members plan to explore and explain the discipline of psychology.

Our everyday intuitions about people and objects are convenient fictions that help us predict and explain behavior, but they are no substitute for a scientifically validated account of what actually motivates the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of ourselves and others.

For more information on depression, visit healthline.com/health/depression/statistics-infographic. For more information on intuition, visit psychologytoday.com/articles/200212/the-powers-and-perils-intuition.

Eric Amsel is Professor of Psychology at Weber State University. Want to know more about the department or you are an alumna/alumnus of the department looking to reconnect, visit http://www.weber.edu/psychology.