"Everything Is Psychology"

Some years ago, I was in a seminar discussion as a student, debating some point with a professor who was visiting our class. I forget the point that I was trying to press, but I shall never forget the professor’s response: with a twinkle in her eye, she said, “But Mark, from that point of view, everything is psychology.”

And so it is.

The environmental crisis? That’s psychology. The attitude that people take towards safeguarding the environment; the attitude that they take towards environmental toxins, waste, and so forth; whether they take a reactive or pro-active stance towards problems and challenges; even whether they separate their trash or not—all of these are psychological issues, and as such are well within the bailiwick of psychology.

The current global financial meltdown? That’s psychology, too. The single-minded focus on profit taken by many mortgage lenders, regardless of any concern about potential consequences; the focus by many borrowers on getting a large home, regardless of the risk; the overall lack of concern with how individual borrower, lender, and investor actions could have enormous societal consequences—all of these are psychological issues.

Natural disasters? That’s psychology, as well, to a large extent. Whether we plan ahead and commit resources to avert potential future disasters; whether we consider ourselves responsible to reach out to those in need—all of this is psychological, too.

Extreme example: how about killer asteroids? Yes, indeed, that’s psychology, too. No, the asteroids are not in our minds. However, what we do about them—whether we are willing to plan for this kind of contingency; the degree of societal resources we are willing to devote to averting a global catastrophe that is unlikely at any given moment, but inevitable in the longest of long runs—that is all psychological.

I am not saying that we live in some kind of dream; I am certainly an advocate of philosophical realism. The physical world (including the interpersonal world) is certainly out there. However, the way that we sense and form perceptions of the physical world; how we interpret it to form the experienced world (which is the ‘real world’ for each of us); and, perhaps most importantly, how we respond to the physical world—all of these are psychological issues. Therefore, all of the issues I have mentioned above have highly significant psychological components.

So What?

My point in making this point explicit is to point out that psychologists have a much greater field of play than they usually claim. If you—the student, the researcher, the scholar, the practitioner—are concerned about some current or potential problem that the world or individuals face, you may wish to consider what the psychological aspects of this problem are. (Even someone’s simply refusing to consider the problem as a problem is a psychological issue.) By researching these problems from a psychological point of view, you may be able to address even seemingly colossal problems. Even killer asteroids.

Of course, what is true of colossal “external problems”—the environmental crisis, killer asteroids—is all the more true of the wide spectrum of social problems that our society faces: prejudice and discrimination, homelessness and poverty, lack of educational and vocational opportunity. These are things that more and more psychologists should be working on.

Maybe even you and I.

Copyright 2010 Mark E. Koltko-Rivera. All Rights Reserved.

[The image was obtained from Wikipedia. The creator of the image released it into the public domain.]