The point of psychology

(And how it gets missed)

Ψ

Outline(WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS)

• Is Psychology a type of therapy? (No)

• Is Psychology a guide to good behaviour? (No)

• Is Psychology a means of achieving the ‘good life’? (No)

• Is Psychology a virtuous discipline? (No)

• WTF *is* Psychology?!?!

Is Psychology a type of therapy?

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The New Treatment of Ataxia by Suspension at the Salpêtrière (newrepublic.com)

Barley Hall, York, UK (http://www.yorkshire-east-coast-unofficial-guide.com/)

Wampold et al. (1997)

Wampold et al. (1997)

p of hypothesis that effect deviates from zero

(i.e., probability that both therapies are the same)

Wampold et al. (1997)

“Small” effect size (d of .21 equivalent to r = .1, or 1% of

variance)

Strupp & Hadley (1979)

Webb et al. (2010)

Tracey et al. (2014)

Barriers to Achieving Expertise in Psychotherapy

Cognitive and Information-Processing Factors Affecting Expertise

Failure to Engage Routinely in Deliberate Practice

Inaccuracy of Therapists’ Self-Appraisal of Competence

Lack of Accurate Feedback

Things that the effectiveness of psychotherapy does not depend on

• Whether the therapist administers one therapy or another entirely different therapy

• Whether the therapist sticks to the instructions for administering the therapy

• Whether the therapist knows what they’re doing

• Whether the therapist has been kidnapped and replaced by an imposter

Is Psychology a guide to good behaviour?

Ψ

“Positive” behaviours• Not littering or polluting the

environment• Carrying an organ donor card• Obeying speed limits• Wearing seatbelts• Brushing teeth• Washing hands

“Positive” behaviours?• Smoking less, or not smoking at all• Drinking less, or not drinking at all• Eating less junk food, or not eating

junk food at all• Giving money to charity• Engaging in voluntary

work• Doing your homework

“Positive” behaviours?

• Avoiding sex during youth

“Positive” behaviours?

• Being heterosexual

DSM “Dominant Social Morals”

• Transvestic disorder• “A. Over a period of at least six months…recurrent and intense

sexual fantasies, sexual urges, or sexual behaviors involving cross dressing‑

• B. The fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning”

• Situates distress as a psychiatric pathology, rather than as a consequence of social stigmatisation, transphobia, homophobia, oppressive gender policing, etc.

• Gender dysphoria• “people whose gender at birth is contrary to the one they

identify with”• Why exactly is this a psychiatric diagnosis?

“Positive” behaviours?

• Not attempting to flee from slavery

“Positive” behaviours?

• Disciplining children by hitting them*

(*NB: Not the face!)

Is Psychology a means of achieving the ‘good life’?

Ψ

“Positive psychology”

• By pitching a positivity-negativity axis, invokes a particular (i.e., arbitrary) moral frame of reference

• Promotes satisfaction with the status quo, discourages dissent

• Falls foul of the person-situation controversy

Is Psychology a virtuous discipline?

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Inbar & Lammers (2012)

On “women's [under-]representation in tenured positions in science and engineering at top universities”:

• “…different availability of aptitude at the high end…”

• “…in the special case of science and engineering, there are issues of intrinsic aptitude, and particularly of the variability of aptitude…”

• “I did a very crude calculation [regarding sex differences in grade-school maths]…you get five to one, at the high end”

• “…combination of the ‘high-powered job hypothesis’ and the differing variances probably explains a fair amount of this problem.”

http://www.ehow.com/info_8783846_difference-between-qualitative-quantitative-approaches.html

“Peer-reviewed journals, positivist epistemology, and quantitative methods

The Psychologist (2006) On behalf of the British Psychological Society’s Standing Committee for the Promotion of Equal Opportunities

“[In addressing discrimination against women] the new Qualitative Methods in Psychology Section should also provide an important forum…” (p. 96)

work...to reduce women’sparticipation in psychology.” (p. 96)

Hyde (2005; 2014)

HTTP://XKCD.COM/385/

WTF *is* Psychology?!?!

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Hyde et al. (2008). Science, 321,494-5

441 samples

Total n = 1,286,350

Total effect size, d = 0.05

≈ 0.0625% of variance

» 99.9375% of variability in scores due to factors other than gender

Lindberg et al. (2010). Psych Bull, 136(6),1123-35

Issue Advocate

Pure Scientist

Honest Broker of

Policy Alternative

s

Science Arbiter

Stakeholder model

Linear modelView of science

View of democrac

y

Pielke, R. A., Jr. (2007). The honest broker: Making sense of science in policy and politics. Cambridge: University Press.

Bottom-up

Top-down

Psychology, psychologists, and values

Values psychology does NOT have

• Altruism• Inclusivity• Equality• Justice• Liberalism• Positivity• Hope

Values psychology DOES have

• Objectivity• Transparency• Clarity• Accuracy• Rigour• Honesty

The Point of Psychology

• The use of empirical methods to resolve uncertainties in our understanding of the human condition

• Like gossip or punditry, but with independently verifiable data

• Psychology’s key strength is its objectivity • Whenever psychology self-describes as ‘liberal’ or

‘progressive’, it loses credibility as when being maligned as ‘masculinist’ or 'Western’

• Is Psychology a tool with which to pursue and promote social justice? (Yes)

• When psychologists obstruct social progress, it is usually because they are bad at psychology

• Injustices and inequality are -- by definition -- demonstrable

• Resolutions rely on more and better clarity, more and better accuracy, more and better verifiability, more and better replicability, more and better objectivity, etc.

• Fleeing science is not a solution, fleeing science is what they want you to do

The Point of Psychology