The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #90952   Message #1728089
Posted By: Wolfgang
26-Apr-06 - 02:31 PM
Thread Name: Recognising Psychobabble
Subject: RE: Recognising Psychobabble
Mrr's post made me think that we talk about different types of psychobabble. Most expressions here are psychobabble also in the sense that they not even have a well defined meaning within psychology and not only when used in daily talk. They are expressions coming from what is sometimes called, disparagingly, soft psychology.

Negative/positive reinforcement have very clear definitions within the science but are often (negative, in particular) used wrongly in daily talk. There is no need to use such expressions in daily talk.

Positive and negative feedback are of course no psychobabble but have a very good and well defined use in theories of motor control and also in game theory. Or do you know other uses, Mrr? (grin)

Wolfgang