Nuggets of wisdom from Adrian Furnham's work in psychology

Recognised as one of HR's most influential HR thinkers, Adrian Furnham has been professor of psychology at University College London since 1992. In this interview, he shares the inspiration behind his work, and nuggets of wisdom from his work in psychology.

Actually three: Bruce Faulds who introduced me to psychometrics at the University of Natal; Michael Argyle, my D.Phil supervisor at Oxford; and Hans Eysenck for his brilliance and bravery.

Q. One moment that changed the course of your career:

My mother bringing home one of the early Eysenck Penguin paperbacks which were (and are) easy to read, interesting and provocative. I read it in one sitting and was captivated. I resolved in fifth form to read psychology rather than maths.

Q. One thing that you would change about psychology:

Specialising too early. When I was a student at an obscure colonial university we had to read Freud's Psychopathology of Everyday Life; Fromm's The Art of Loving; and Lorenze's King Soloman's Ring as preparation for the first year. I would add to that list Gregory's The Intelligent Eye and the new book by Lilienfeld et al 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology to get some idea of the breadth and range of the subject. One needs to learn that no behavioural issue is the exclusive province of one branch of psychology.

Q. One persistent problem:

I have been a weekly columnist for three newspapers: Financial Times, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Times. This involves coming up with 850 words each week. I enjoy trying to slaughter some of the more preposterous shibboleths of management gurus and modestly educating the public in psychology. But the cost is often rather nasty hate mail, sometimes typed on old ribboned typewriters, even threats as well as many compliments and invitations to give talks. Put your head above the parapet; be controversial and you inevitably pay a price. It certainly exposes a great deal of ignorance about psychology, psychologists and what we know about human behaviour.

Q. One challenge that psychology faces:

Coherence and unity. The tectonic plates seem to be moving and the archipelago of psychology is drifting further apart. The first inaugural lecture I read was a man who, in 1950, said he would probably be the last professor of psychology because all the signs were that the different parts would dissociate themselves from each other.

The other related issue is identity and psychologists now wanting to be called brain scientists, or cognitive neuro-scientists. Jerome Bruner observed 25 years ago that the best way to compliment British psychologists was to mistake them for biologists or medical scientists.

Q. One thing psychology has achieved:

I teach students from many areas: medical and business students, economics and philosophy students. What I have noticed is that my students acquire multiple skills others don't. They are numerate and literate; they can critique theories, arguments and analyses; they know how to gain access to knowledge. And, by third year they can take a hot off the press article from a top journal and understand its message and see its flaws. We do some things right.

Q. One consistent and persistent problem for psychology:

The scientist/practitioner divide in all areas of applied psychology: clinical, educational, work psychology. Practitioners soon become out of date and are driven by the agendas of their clients, companies and institutions. Scientists pursue journal impact factors and their h statistic with little or no regard to the applicability, usefulness. You can see this is the learned societies (APA, BPS) which many academics think largely pointless semi-trade unions so start their own societies (EPS, APS).

Q. One proud moment:

Achieving my ambition to have a chair before I was 40 (harder then than now) and getting a DSc (London) the year before from Princess Anne, our Chancellor.

Q. One regret:

Not embarking sooner on my Oxford D.Phil and spending the whole decade of the 1970s at universities procrastinating adulthood and doing three masters degrees, which in the end proved to be useful rather than critical to my career.

Q. One nugget of advice for aspiring psychologists:

Beware becoming a fashion victim of the latest statistical or methodological craze. Do three things to become well known: First, devise and validate a good test (of any sort); Second, do a few good meta-analyses and/or systematic reviews (and update them); Third, start, or try to get hold of a large longitudinal population sample to look at causal effects over time. That will do wonders for your citations and advancement.

Q. One alternative career path you might have chosen:

My careers master suggested my test results indicated law or journalism. For a time I contemplated becoming an Anglican Priest but hedonism and scepticism destroyed that. But I hope to do a PhD in history once I retire.

Q. One final thought:

I argued 30 years ago, in the Times Higher that I had the best job in the world. A dons job offers flexitime and flexi-topic you can follow your passions, write books and papers on anything that takes your fancy and make work your hobby; you are always surrounded by young, talented, forward-looking students; having respect-worthy, if not always supportive, peers some of whom are remarkably gifted; and a very light touch from the university bureaucrats. That still remains true, though the shadows of managerialism and centralism are changing the latter benefit.

Photo / Provided

Prof Adrian Furnham was educated at the London School of Economics where he obtained a distinction in an MSc Econ., and at Oxford University where he completed a doctorate (D.Phil) in 1981. He has subsequently earned a D.Sc (1991) and D.Litt (1995) degree.

Join him as he speaks at Talent Management Asia 2017, Singapore on 9-10 March at Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel, Singapore where he speaks on the topic of ‘How to successfully embed the talent management strategy with business strategic plan and ultimately part of the culture of your organisation?.’

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