armchair psychology
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.18 in modern English
39
Scrabble Score
18
Letters
5
Syllables
12
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The practice of giving psychological advice, or speculating about a person's mental health, without any qualification to do so.
Informal; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- ""Armchair psychology" is the somewhat derisive term which is sometimes applied to speculations concerning the nature of the mind based on one's own experience and introspections and accepted as true for mankind in general."
- "This might sound like armchair psychology, but the matter is somewhat more complicated than that. Psychology studies the facts of observable mental life or, if you like, behaviour. Transcendental epistemology, on the other hand, studies what is presupposed of the human mind by the possibility of the synthetic a priori mode of knowing. [author's italics]"
- "Of course, needless to say, Plato's own claims are based completely on armchair psychology, not empirical psychology."
Etymology
From armchair (unqualified or uninformed yet giving advice) + psychology; or a back-formation from armchair psychologist.