We are all psychologists. As human beings, we all have intuitive beliefs and ideas about why people do the things they do, and the ability to form such beliefs is an important part of surviving and getting on in the world. Indeed those few individuals who lack this ability are severely disadvantaged.
Studying psychology at a university level is both like and quite unlike these natural skills. Many of our beliefs about the social world are accurate, but some are unfortunately quite incorrect and misleading. How do we know when we are correct? How do we go about finding out? Our natural...