Key points

Psychological science combines rigorous methods with deep human and cultural complexity.

COVID-19 revealed failures in applying psychological insights to public policy.

Self-correction and cultural reflexivity are crucial to psychology’s scientific role.

Psychological science is really our best shot at making sense of how people think, feel, and act. It’s rooted in old philosophy but runs today on experiments, observation, and data. Back in the late 1800s, Wilhelm Wundt had the bold idea to treat consciousness like something you could study in a lab, the same way you might study a chemical reaction or a falling apple.

But people aren’t atoms. We don’t follow fixed laws. We’re emotional and shaped by the world around us. Context, memory , trauma , culture, and love all

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