Transparency Item: The Perspectives Section of the Graphic is comprised of articles based on opinion. This is the opinion and perspective of the writer.
The field of psychology has garnered a significant amount of public interest since the mid-20th century, with new theories taking over each decade, and I find it helpful as a psychology student to pay attention to current trends. Not only have psychological researchers propelled concepts like the Big Five, a measure of personality traits, into popular consciousness, but they have created a larger movement to better understand the individual self and humans in general.
However, many popular tests and psychological concepts are based on misunderstandings. Fun facts like “Humans only use 10% of their brains” and “opposites attract” are pervasive, but research shows they aren’t true, in fact all areas of the brain are usually active and people with similar personalities tend to attract.
Kübler-Ross’s five stages of grief, which are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance, are also not necessarily supported by psychological research. Ideas like these can provide a sense of order in chaotic moments, but they are not strict laws of the universe that apply to everyone.
These are fairly low-stakes ideas that don’t cause much harm, and I don’t really care to “correct” people when I hear them. However, there are other psychological myths that do have consequences, mainly those regarding several mental conditions.
Schizophrenia is commonly thought of as one of the “dangerous” mental disorders that causes people to become violent. In reality, 90% of people with schizophrenia do not exhibit violent behavior and are often treated unjustly as a result of this stereotype.
In her TED Talk “I Am Not a Monster,” Cecilia McGough picks apart several misconceptions regarding schizophrenia that isolated her as a young adult. Elyn Saks, a professor of psychiatry at the USC Gould School of Law also details her experience in her book, “The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness.”
Bipolar disorder is often characterized in popular culture as a series of mood swings that are impossible to miss, leading to indecisiveness and a kind of “split personality.” In reality, bipolar disorder looks different for everybody who has it and is not always blatantly obvious.
Taylor Tomlinson, a stand-up comedian, speaks candidly in her special “Look at You” about being diagnosed with bipolar disorder in her late twenties. Despite her positivity around mental health awareness, she states that she had an initial reaction of shame and questioned whether she would tell others or not.
Openness helps remove stigmas, but it is also difficult to be open when the stigmas exist. The sentiment of mental health awareness is everywhere, but much of it is incomplete, and I think public perception has room for improvement in certain areas.
For example, several neurodivergent conditions have become colloquial terms in addition to formal diagnoses. Statements such as “She’s so bipolar” and “He’s so OCD” and “I’m super ADHD” are frequent, but they don’t often reference accurate conceptions of those disorders.
Autism, in my observation, is misrepresented on a large scale, leading to egregious impacts on the public’s general understanding of it. People with autism already face high amounts of discrimination in the education system and society at large, and treating autism as dangerous or one-dimensional only adds to ableist stigma.
ADHD is also emphasized in pop culture as a condition that mainly causes hyperactivity. While hyperactivity is an element of ADHD, many factors such as inattentiveness and forgetfulness, which, according to WebMD, may be more common in women who have ADHD, are often neglected by professionals and in media representation.
It is not only the TV shows and colloquialisms that solidify misinformation in public consciousness, but implicit biases that exist in the medical field, which research shows contribute to health disparities in marginalized groups. Bias and misconceptions can lead to improper care, so before we throw words like “ADHD” and “bipolar” around, it is important to consider the perspectives of the people actually experiencing the conditions.
Improving public perception of mental health and mental conditions is crucial to creating access and resources for people who need them. Personality and mental health are more than colloquialisms and online quizzes, and deserve an accurate representation of all their complexities.
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Contact Alyssa Johnson via email: alyssa.johnson@pepperdine.edu
