"armchair psychology" meaning in English

See armchair psychology in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Etymology: From armchair (unqualified or uninformed yet giving advice) + psychology; or a back-formation from armchair psychologist. Etymology templates: {{compound|en|armchair|psychology|pos1=unqualified or uninformed yet giving advice}} armchair (unqualified or uninformed yet giving advice) + psychology, {{l|en|armchair psychologist}} armchair psychologist Head templates: {{en-noun|-}} armchair psychology (uncountable)
  1. (informal, uncommon) The practice of giving psychological advice, or speculating about a person's mental health, without any qualification to do so. Tags: informal, uncommon, uncountable
    Sense id: en-armchair_psychology-en-noun-dn2dyHtQ Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Download JSON data for armchair psychology meaning in English (2.5kB)

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        "pos1": "unqualified or uninformed yet giving advice"
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      "name": "compound"
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        "1": "en",
        "2": "armchair psychologist"
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      "expansion": "armchair psychologist",
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  "etymology_text": "From armchair (unqualified or uninformed yet giving advice) + psychology; or a back-formation from armchair psychologist.",
  "head_templates": [
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      "args": {
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      "expansion": "armchair psychology (uncountable)",
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1937, William Clark Trow, Introduction to Educational Psychology, Houghton Mifflin, page 7",
          "text": "\"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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1980, Kwasi Wiredu, Philosophy and an African Culture, Cambridge University Press, page 164",
          "text": "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]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022, Noël Carroll, Classics in Western Philosophy of Art: Major Themes and Arguments, Hackett Publishing Company, page 35",
          "text": "Of course, needless to say, Plato's own claims are based completely on armchair psychology, not empirical psychology.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The practice of giving psychological advice, or speculating about a person's mental health, without any qualification to do so."
      ],
      "id": "en-armchair_psychology-en-noun-dn2dyHtQ",
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, uncommon) The practice of giving psychological advice, or speculating about a person's mental health, without any qualification to do so."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal",
        "uncommon",
        "uncountable"
      ]
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  ],
  "word": "armchair psychology"
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  "etymology_text": "From armchair (unqualified or uninformed yet giving advice) + psychology; or a back-formation from armchair psychologist.",
  "head_templates": [
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1937, William Clark Trow, Introduction to Educational Psychology, Houghton Mifflin, page 7",
          "text": "\"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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1980, Kwasi Wiredu, Philosophy and an African Culture, Cambridge University Press, page 164",
          "text": "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]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022, Noël Carroll, Classics in Western Philosophy of Art: Major Themes and Arguments, Hackett Publishing Company, page 35",
          "text": "Of course, needless to say, Plato's own claims are based completely on armchair psychology, not empirical psychology.",
          "type": "quotation"
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      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The practice of giving psychological advice, or speculating about a person's mental health, without any qualification to do so."
      ],
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, uncommon) The practice of giving psychological advice, or speculating about a person's mental health, without any qualification to do so."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal",
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  "word": "armchair psychology"
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-20 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (1d5a7d1 and 304864d). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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