Allan, Laura J. (2016) The Influence of Studying Psychology on Myth Beliefs and Misconceptions. Honours thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
Myth belief is prevalent and pervasive in many industrialised countries, including Australia. This phenomenon has the potential to be both destructive and socially divisive. This study aimed to discover if studying psychology helps to dispel myths, misconceptions and pseudoscience. A subtest of the Australian Psychology Critical Thinking (APCTT) test, designed by Dr Suzanne Czech, “Identifying Psychological Myths” (IPM) in conjunction with self-reports of the ability to recognise pseudoscience, were administered to a total of 969 participants sampled from three representative adult populations in Australia. Members of the general community (n = 491), along with first year (n = 134) and third year (n = 344) university students provided data to examine accuracy in ability to detect pseudo-scientific beliefs, in comparison to IPM scores. Group differences in perceived and objective measures of this ability were also examined. Tests of correlation revealed that IPM scores were significantly associated with self-report measures for all groups. Following a significant one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), planned contrasts revealed that first and third year students had significantly higher IPM scores than the general community. Future direction in relation to methods for reducing myth belief within the wider community is discussed.
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| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Honours) |
|---|---|
| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences - School of Psychology and Counselling (1 Jan 2015 - 31 Dec 2021) |
| Supervisors: | Suzanne Czech |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Science (Honours) |
| Date Deposited: | 11 Aug 2025 23:42 |
| Last Modified: | 11 Aug 2025 23:42 |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | pseudoscience ; myth belief ; psychology ; critical thinking |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52106 |
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