armchair psychologist

Definitions

One who gives psychological advice or speculates about a person's mental health without any qualification to do so.

informal

Examples

“Alcohol education has turned our son into another armchair psychologist. All my wife and I hear⟳ about is how we must strive for open⟳ communication. Can't anyone just give⟳ him the facts about what alcohol can do to you and leave⟳ psychology to the experts?”

“This was in 1895. The armchair psychologist thereby acquired a stain of taboo early on, in the childhood of psychology, while laboratory research⟳ was the totem it was hoped that psychologists would dance⟳ around in the twentieth century.”

“Amid a two-hour conversation at Manny's, Axelrod veered from raconteur to philosopher to armchair psychologist to pundit.”

CEFR level