Overview
Folk psychology, which stands apart from armchair psychology and pop psychology, refers to the common explanations used by lay people to explain concepts and predict human behavior.
The moral model of addiction, which posits that individuals who compulsively use substances are simply suffering from a weak will or moral foundation, and the rational actor model, which assumes that people make decisions based on a rational analysis of their capacities and incentives, are common ones that folk psychology can arrive at. Note that these aren’t wholly irrational or internally inconsistent frameworks, since holding most people to the expectations derived from (at least what appears within the context of one’s culture to be) moral and rational standards is a fairly effective way to navigate the world for predicting people’s behavior and implementing a system of accountability. However, these models do face serious challenges when modern empirical evidence enters the equation and complicates ideas about agency, self-control, and long-term decision-making.