• Question: How does psychology, in your perspective, help develop and improve the quality of an individual's life? (please elaborate and develop your answer around the public as a whole)

    Asked by anon-204918 to Sally, Lucy, Louise, James, David, Dan on 5 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: David Chadwick

      David Chadwick answered on 5 Mar 2019:

      This is very difficult for me to answer as I am a computer scientist.

      But I think that in any field of study, understanding the current situation is a critical factor in developing any improvement in it. In order to improve the quality of life one has to better understand what the quality of life means to people, and how you might measure it. Once you have done this you are able to suggest interventions and then measure their effect.

    • Photo: Lucy Maddox

      Lucy Maddox answered on 5 Mar 2019:

      I think psychology has a lot to offer the public as a tool for understanding ourselves through looking at what experiments can tell us about different aspects of our personality, behaviour, motivation,
      and also about how we can change these things. For example knowing that regularly exercising boosts our mood, or knowing that if we are feeling really angry or afraid then it’s a bad time to make a decision or send an email.
      I really like that psychology is based on evidence from scientific experiments and that this is then applied to “real life”. For example, some of the classic animal studies showed that affection and closeness is really important to us all early on in life – as important as food and nourishment. Understanding this changed practices in UK hospitals – children used to be left alone without their families in hospitals but now parents and carers can stay with children.
      I also like that the ideas from real life often inspire research to find out more. So for example, researchers might get interested in studying the effects of sleep because they are sleeping badly!

    • Photo: Sally Tilt

      Sally Tilt answered on 6 Mar 2019:

      Another great question.

      From a forensic psychology perspective, the body of psychology research has helped us to understand which are the key factors, that if changed, will likely lead to a change in a persons chances of carrying out another crime – for example antisocial peers, poor family support, antisocial thinking etc.

      There are other factors, that most people sort of thought would be important – for example admitting to your offence. But actually the research has suggested that people who deny their offences can also reduce their risk of reoffending.

      Forensic psychology has then helped to support people to stop offending by targeting the right things – which in turn has helped to reduce the number of victims – so a pretty important improvement in quality of life 🙂

    • Photo: Dan Taylor

      Dan Taylor answered on 6 Mar 2019:

      With my area being sex and sexuality research I think it has the application that (almost) everyone has sex! When we think about things like sexuality and sexual orientation, science has helped us understand homosexuality and bisexuality which in turn, helps us to break down the stigma surrounding these orientations. Sex research improves quality of life of those who may be considered marginalised helping them to live their most authentic selves.

    • Photo: Louise Rodgers

      Louise Rodgers answered on 7 Mar 2019:

      I think anyone who has any of the following in their life:

      – relationships with other humans
      – emotions and feelings
      – thoughts which you feel you’re not always in control of
      – actions which you feel you’re not always in control of

      can use psychology to help them understand them better and get control of them better. This is a brilliant way to understand how psychology can help anyone understand their own mind and be in the driving seat of their mental life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-KI1D5NPJs

    • Photo: James Munro

      James Munro answered on 10 Mar 2019:

      Hi S,

      Psychology works to increase understanding of abnormal conditions and has done for 150 years. This has helped countless millions of people understand themselves better. For example, Charles Myers studies shell-shock in World war 1 which stopped soldiers being punished for being cowards. This lead to what we understand as PTSD now – and it can happen to anyone who experiences anything traumatic https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd/ Now it is better understood and there is far less stigma.

      Psychology has helped LGBTQ+ become better understood and better accepted – the community does not tolerate discrimination so it makes it harder for anyone else to justify being mean. Similarly, psychology does a lot of research into why individuals might want to change their gender, and provides a lot of help to people trying to work out why they feel that way.

      Psychology helps police forces and courtrooms understand why eye-witness testimony is not always very useful. It also helps them understand how juries make their decisions, and lots of other things. This prevents innocent people from being punished.

      Psychology helps us understand and deal with depression, anxiety, eating disorders and psychosis – which are the 4 most common conditions in the UK. Because of this, you no longer need to hide these conditions as they are becoming more and more accepted. We can tell you that many people by age 30 will have experienced anxiety or depression, and we have had a big part in testing medicines and therapies.

      Psychology has helped design artificial limbs that can be controlled by the brain. It has helped treat epilepsy and Parkinson’s, it has informed the government about the psychological effects of different drugs. It has explored why we like spicy food and how we can make horror games scarier. It has let us understand what parts of the brain do what.

      Big question, big answer – but I barely scratched the surface 🙂

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