In what ways does the practice of applied psychology show that academic psychology is not simply a data-gathering exercise, but has practical benefits for human life?
In what ways does the practice of applied psychology show that academic psychology is not simply a data-gathering exercise, but has practical benefits for human life?
Introduction
It could be argued that the major justification for the existence of academic psychology is ultimately to produce practical benefits for human life. Of course it would be satisfying to know intellectually why we do the things we do, but more than that, we would like to be able to apply psychological methods to making our own lives and the lives of others happier, safer and free.
The dictionary defines ‘benefit’ as ‘enhances wellbeing’ (Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 2000). Below I firstly explore situations where psychology studies could benefit human life where they to be applied, secondly those areas where psychology has been applied but whether well-being has been enhanced overall is uncertain. Lastly I describe where the benefit to human life from psychology in action is clearly demonstrated.
Psychological studies with potential for benefit
Increasingly psychology research in the area of psychopathology is leading to the conclusion that so-called mental illness is not so much a ‘chemical imbalance’ as it is colloquially known but rather a result of ‘bad life experiences’.
This is shown in the case of schizophrenia, a mental aberration often thought of as having physiological cause, which exists at particularly high frequencies in the Caribbean population in the UK. A recent research study involved a comparison of West Indians with schizophrenia diagnoses living in London, with a matched group still living in the West Indies. The results show clearly that genetic (hence purely physiological factors) do not account for the levels of schizophrenia (Mallett R et al 2002). There must therefore be environmental factors with significant impact. In fact the authors implicate aspects such as employment status and living alone as contributory. However, if diagnosed in the UK, schizophrenia will most often be treated with drugs which have serious side effects and reduce normal fundtioning and not with treatments which address environmental contributions.
Similarly large numbers of studies on depression (Kendler et al 1999; Brilman & Ormel 2001;Patton et al 2003) are very suggestive of bad life experiences as causal in depression. Yet there were approximately 12,000 people given electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in 1999 (3,000 of which did not consent) (Office for National Statistics, DoH, UK ISBN1857744020, 1999). Although there will undoubtedly be genetic predisposing factors involved in the onset of these conditions, the evidence from this psychology research shows an important contribution from pre-existing, non-physical, environmental factors such as unemployment in schizophrenia development in Afro-Caribbean people (Mallet 2002).
Despite the increasing amount of evidence, psychological research is not currently being implemented in many mental health conditions. This, then is a way psychology research could impact positively and massively on human lives. The research suggests that if life experiences are involved programmes could be aimed at disease prevention as well as treatment therapies, with considerable benefits in avoiding barbaric treatments, reducing drug and social security costs not to mention the human cost of a tortuous life with a serious mental health problem.
