How to Think Straight About Psychology

by Stanovich, Keith E.

• ISBN13: 9780321012463
• ISBN10: 0321012461
• Edition: 5th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-08-01
• Publisher: Prentice Hall

Table of Contents

Notes to the Fifth Edition	xiii	(2)
Preface	xv
CHAPTER 1 Psychology Is Alive and Well (and Doing Fine Among the Sciences)	1	(21)
THE FREUD PROBLEM	1	(2)
THE DIVERSITY OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY	3	(3)
Implications of Diversity	3	(3)
UNITY IN SCIENCE	6	(2)
WHAT, THEN, IS SCIENCE?	8	(8)
Systematic Empiricism	9	(1)
Publicly Verifiable Knowledge: Replication and Peer Review	10	(5)
Empirically Solvable Problems: Scientists' Search for Testable Theories	15	(1)
PSYCHOLOGY AND FOLK WISDOM: THE PROBLEM WITH "COMMON SENSE"	16	(3)
PSYCHOLOGY AS A YOUNG SCIENCE	19	(2)
SUMMARY	21	(1)
CHAPTER 2 Falsifiability: A Discourse on How to Foil Little Green Men in the Head	22	(15)
THEORIES AND THE FALSIFIABILITY CRITERION	23	(11)
The Theory of Knocking Rhythms	24	(1)
Freud and Falsifiability	25	(2)
The Little Green Men	27	(2)
Not All Confirmations Are Equal	29	(1)
Falsifiability and Folk Wisdom	29	(1)
The Freedom to Admit a Mistake	30	(2)
Thoughts Are Cheap	32	(2)
ERRORS IN SCIENCE: GETTING CLOSER TO THE TRUTH	34	(2)
SUMMARY	36	(1)
CHAPTER 3 Operationism and Essentialism: "But, Doctor, What Does It Really Mean?"	37	(16)
WHY SCIENTISTS ARE NOT ESSENTIALISTS	37	(6)
Essentialists Like to Argue About the Meaning of Words	38	(2)
Operationists Link Concepts to Observable Events	40	(1)
Scientific Concepts Evolve	41	(2)
OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS IN PSYCHOLOGY	43	(8)
Operationism as a Humanizing Force	45	(2)
Essentialist Questions and the Misunderstanding of Psychology	47	(1)
Operationism and the Phrasing of Psychological Questions	48	(3)
SUMMARY	51	(2)
CHAPTER 4 Testimonials and Case Study Evidence: Placebo Effects and the Amazing Randi	53	(20)
STAGES OF SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION	54	(1)
WHY TESTIMONIALS ARE WORTHLESS: PLACEBO EFFECTS	55	(4)
THE "VIVIDNESS" PROBLEM	59	(8)
The Overwhelming Impact of the Single Case	62	(2)
What to Do About the Vividness Problem	64	(1)
The Amazing Randi: Fighting Fire with Fire	65	(2)
TESTIMONIALS OPEN THE DOOR TO PSEUDOSCIENCE	67	(4)
SUMMARY	71	(2)
CHAPTER 5 Correlation and Causation: Birth Control by the Toaster Method	73	(11)
PEARSON AND TUBERCULOSIS	74	(1)
THE THIRD-VARIABLE PROBLEM: GOLDBERGER AND PELLAGRA	75	(4)
Why Goldberger's Evidence Was Better	75	(4)
THE DIRECTIONALITY PROBLEM	79	(1)
SELECTION BIAS	80	(3)
SUMMARY	83	(1)
CHAPTER 6 Getting Things Under Control: The Case of Clever Hans	84	(15)
SNOW AND CHOLERA	85	(1)
COMPARISON, CONTROL, AND MANIPULATION	86	(12)
The Case of Clever Hans, the Wonder Horse	89	(1)
Clever Hans in the 1990s: An Unfolding Tragedy	90	(3)
Prying Variables Apart: Special Conditions	93	(2)
Intuitive Physics	95	(2)
Intuitive Psychology	97	(1)
SUMMARY	98	(1)
CHAPTER 7 "But It's Not Real Life!": The "Artificiality" Criticism and Psychology	99	(16)
The "Random-Sample" Confusion	101	(1)
Theory-Driven Research Versus Direct Applications	101	(4)
Two Examples: Night Vision and Language Development	105	(2)
APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORY	107	(7)
The "College Sophomore" Problem	110	(3)
The Real-Life and College Sophomore Problems in Perspective	113	(1)
SUMMARY	114	(1)
CHAPTER 8 Avoiding the Einstein Syndrome: The Importance of Converging Evidence	115	(24)
THE CONNECTIVITY PRINCIPLE	116	(4)
A Consumer's Rule: Beware of Violations of Connectivity	117	(1)
The "Great-Leap" Model and the Gradual-Synthesis Model	118	(2)
Psychology as a Gradual-Synthesis Science	120	(1)
CONVERGING EVIDENCE	120	(10)
Progress Despite Flaws	121	(1)
Theory Evaluation	121	(1)
Converging Evidence in Psychology	122	(1)
Dyslexia: An Example of Convergence	123	(4)
Television Violence and Aggression: Convergence Again	127	(3)
SCIENTIFIC CONSENSUS	130	(5)
Methods and the Convergence Principle	132	(1)
The Progression to More Powerful Methods	133	(2)
A COUNSEL AGAINST DESPAIR	135	(3)
SUMMARY	138	(1)
CHAPTER 9 The Misguided Search for the "Magic Bullet": The Issue of Multiple Causation	139	(7)
SUMMARY	145	(1)
CHAPTER 10 The Achilles' Heel of Human Cognition: Probabilistic Reasoning	146	(16)
"PERSON-WHO" STATISTICS	147	(2)
PROBABILISTIC REASONING AND THE MISUNDERSTANDING OF PSYCHOLOGY	149	(1)
PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH ON PROBABILISTIC REASONING	150	(11)
Insufficient Use of Probabilistic Information	151	(2)
Inverting Conditional Probabilities	153	(2)
Failure to Use Sample Size Information	155	(1)
The Gambler's Fallacy	156	(3)
A Further Word About Statistics and Probability	159	(2)
SUMMARY	161	(1)
CHAPTER 11 The Role of Chance in Psychology	162	(20)
THE TENDENCY TO TRY TO EXPLAIN CHANCE EVENTS	162	(6)
Explaining Chance: Illusory Correlation and the Illusion of Control	166	(2)
CHANCE AND PSYCHOLOGY	168	(5)
Coincidence	168	(3)
Personal Coincidences	171	(2)
ACCEPTING ERROR IN ORDER TO REDUCE ERROR: CLINICAL VERSUS ACTUARIAL PREDICTION	173	(8)
SUMMARY	181	(1)
CHAPTER 12 The Rodney Dangerfield of the Sciences	182	(27)
PSYCHOLOGY'S "IMAGE" PROBLEM	184	(5)
Psychology and Parapsychology	184	(2)
The Self-Help Literature	186	(2)
Recipe Knowledge	188	(1)
PSYCHOLOGY AND THE MEDIA	189	(4)
PSYCHOLOGY AND OTHER DISCIPLINES	193	(3)
Physicists and the Paranormal: Another Example	195	(1)
OUR OWN WORST ENEMIES	196	(4)
ISN'T EVERYONE A PSYCHOLOGIST? IMPLICIT THEORIES OF BEHAVIOR	200	(2)
THE SOURCE OF RESISTANCE TO SCIENTIFIC PSYCHOLOGY	202	(6)
Conflict of Interest	202	(4)
Moral and Philosophical Objections to Psychology	206	(2)
THE FINAL WORD	208	(1)
References	209	(20)
Index	229