How to Think Straight About Psychology

by Stanovich, Keith E.

Edition:

6th

ISBN13:

9780321047137

ISBN10:

0321047133

Format:

Paperback

Pub. Date:

7/1/2000

Publisher(s):

Prentice Hall

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Summary

"This popular book on applying critical thinking techniques to standard concepts in psychology and teaches how to recognize and critically appraise pseudoscience." In particular, this book provides tips on evaluating claims that arise in discussions of psychology in the media and self-help literature. By boldly examining common misconceptions in psychology, this book helps readers become more critical and discriminating consumers of psychological information." For anyone interested in psychology.

Preface

Psychology Is Alive and Well (and Doing Fine Among the Sciences)

(22)

The Freud Problem

(1)

The Diversity of Modern Psychology

(4)

Implications of Diversity

(3)

Unity in Science

(2)

What, Then, Is Science?

(9)

Systematic Empiricism

(1)

Publicly Verifiable Knowledge: Replication and Peer Review

(5)

Empirically Solvable Problems: Scientists' Search for Testable Theories

(2)

Psychology and Folk Wisdom: The Problem With ``Common Sense''

(3)

Psychology As A Young Science

(1)

Summary

(2)

Falsifiability: How to Foil Little Green Men in the Head

(16)

Theories and The Falsifiability Criterion

(12)

The Theory of Knocking Rhythms

(1)

Freud and Falsifiability

(2)

The Little Green Men

(2)

Not All Confirmations Are Equal

(1)

Falsifiability and Folk Wisdom

(1)

The Freedom to Admit a Mistake

(3)

Thoughts Are Cheap

(2)

Errors in Science: Getting Closer to the Truth

(2)

Summary

(1)

Operationism and Essentialism: ``But, Doctor, What Does It Really Mean?''

(16)

Why Scientists Are Not Essentialists

(5)

Essentialists Like to Argue About the Meaning of Words

(1)

Operationists Link Concepts to Observable Events

(2)

Scientific Concepts Evolve

(1)

Operational Definitions In Psychology

(10)

Operationism as a Humanizing Force

(2)

Essentialist Questions and the Misunderstanding of Psychology

(2)

Operationism and the Phrasing of Psychological Questions

(4)

Summary

(1)

Testimonials and Case Study Evidence: Placebo Effects and the Amazing Randi

(20)

Stages of Scientific Investigation

(2)

Why Testimonials Are Worthless: Placebo Effects

(3)

The ``Vividness'' Problem

(9)

The Overwhelming Impact of the Single Case

(2)

What to Do About the Vividness Problem

(2)

The Amazing Randi: Fighting Fire with Fire

(1)

Testimonials Open The Door To Pseudoscience

(4)

Summary

(1)

Correlation and Causation: Birth Control by the Toaster Method

(12)

Pearson and Tuberculosis

(1)

The Third-Variable Problem: Goldberger and Pellagra

(4)

Why Goldberger's Evidence Was Better

(3)

The Directionality Problem

(1)

Selection Bias

(4)

Summary

(1)

Getting Things Under Control: The Case of Clever Hans

(16)

Snow and Cholera

(1)

Comparison, Control, And Manipulation

(13)

The Case of Clever Hans, the Wonder Horse

(2)

Clever Hans in the 1990s: An Unfolding Tragedy

(3)

Prying Variables Apart: Special Conditions

(2)

Intuitive Physics

(1)

Intuitive Psychology

100

(2)

Summary

102

(1)

``But It's Not Real Life!'': The ``Artificiality'' criticism and psychology

103

(18)

Why Natural Isn't Always Necessary

103

(9)

The ``Random-Sample'' Confusion

105

(1)

Theory-Driven Research Versus Direct Applications

105

(4)

Two Examples: Night Vision and Language Development

109

(3)

Applications of Psychological Theory

112

(7)

The ``College Sophomore'' Problem

115

(4)

The Real-Life and College Sophomore Problems in Perspective

119

(1)

Summary

119

(2)

Avoiding the Einstein Syndrome: The Importance of Converging Evidence

121

(26)

The Connectivity Principle

122

(5)

A Consumer's Rule: Beware of Violations of Connectivity

123

(2)

The ``Great-Leap'' Model and the Gradual-Synthesis Model

125

(2)

Psychology as a Gradual-Synthesis Science

127

(1)

Converging Evidence

127

(11)

Progress Despite Flaws

128

(1)

Theory Evaluation

128

(2)

Converging Evidence in Psychology

130

(1)

Dyslexia: An Example of Convergence

131

(4)

Television Violence and Aggression: Convergence Again

135

(3)

Scientific Consensus

138

(6)

Methods and the Convergence Principle

140

(1)

The Progression to More Powerful Methods

141

(3)

A Counsel Against Despair

144

(2)

Summary

146

(1)

The Misguided Search for the ``Magic Bullet'': The Issue of Multiple Causation

147

(8)

Summary

154

(1)

The Achilles' Heel of Human Cognition: Probabilistic Reasoning

155

(17)

``Person-Who'' Statistics

156

(2)

Probabilistic Reasoning and The Misunderstanding Of Psychology

158

(1)

Psychological Research on Probabilistic Reasoning

159

(12)

Insufficient Use of Probabilistic Information

160

(2)

Inverting Conditional Probabilities

162

(3)

Failure to Use Sample Size Information

165

(1)

The Gambler's Fallacy

166

(3)

A Further Word About Statistics and Probability

169

(2)

Summary

171

(1)

The Role of Chance in Psychology

172

(22)

The Tendency to Try to Explain Chance Events

172

(6)

Explaining Chance: Illusory Correlation and the Illusion of Control

176

(2)

Chance and Psychology

178

(6)

Coincidence

179

(3)

Personal Coincidences

182

(2)

Accepting Error in Order to Reduce Error: Clinical Versus Actuarial Prediction

184

(8)

Summary

192

(2)

The Rodney Dangerfield of the Sciences

194

(30)

Psychology's Image Problem

195

(7)

Psychology and Parapsychology

196

(2)

The Self-Help Literature

198

(2)

Recipe Knowledge

200

(2)

Psychology And The Media

202

(3)

Psychology and Other Disciplines

205

(2)

Our Own Worst Enemies

207

(5)

Isn't Everyone a Psychologist? Implicit Theories of Behavior

212

(5)

Evaluating Our Implicit Theories: Psychology as a Meme Tester

214

(3)

The Source of Resistance to Scientific Psychology

217

(5)

Conflict of Interest

218

(3)

Moral and Philosophical Objections to Psychology

221

(1)

The Final Word

222

(2)

References

224

(25)

Index

249

How to Think Straight About Psychology

9780321047137

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Table of Contents