Does Pop Psychology Teach Psychology? Psychological Knowledge among Students of Secondary Schools

Abstract

Pop psychology is a phenomenon that evokes extreme emotions. Myths that work to the detriment of the recipients get into the general consciousness. Of course, there are also valuable items that have the hallmarks of pop psychology. Therefore, the ability to think critically and search for reliable knowledge is important. Can students do it? They receive relatively little psychological education in schools, so if they want to learn something in this matter, they must use the knowledge available outside traditional education. In order to determine the psychological knowledge of adolescents, a CAWI quantitative study was conducted using the Qualtrics tool on a sample of 204 secondary school students. The main research problem is: What is the state of knowledge of secondary school students? Research questions: How much psychological knowledge do secondary school students have? From which source(s) do students mainly obtain psychological knowledge? Do secondary school students agree with the statement that psychological knowledge is useful in their lives? The study shows that students’ knowledge is at a relatively good level (the average value of the indicator on a scale of 1–3 was 1.94). The most frequently chosen terms to define are: phobia, anorexia, depression, narcissism, empathy. In turn, the concepts with the highest declared level of knowledge are: depression, manipulation, phobia, positive thinking, sexual orientation. The vast majority of students (91%) see the usefulness of psychological knowledge in their lives. They obtain it mainly from the Internet (71% from websites, 69% from social media), and much less often from school (29%). The school has the opportunity to equip students with reliable psychological knowledge during one of the most important (from the point of view of human development) periods in lives. Therefore, it is worth taking systemic actions that will enable students to navigate the world efficiently and understand themselves as best as possible.