Crisis in Psychology?

[vulcanlogician]

I think that for soft science 85% is probably about as good as it gets, to many non replicable variables. Don't claim a 'crisis' where there is not real crisis.

There is a question mark in the thread title. I'm not claiming a crisis. I just think it's an issue worth discussing. I also think that 85% is unacceptable, even for a soft science. Even psychologists were surprised to see such a low rate. If 85% is the best we can expect, lawmakers and clinicians are putting way too much stock in what these studies say.

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@John 6IX Breezy

What's your opinion on this? (Since it's in your field of study....?)

[brewer]

I think that for soft science 85% is probably about as good as it gets, to many non replicable variables. Don't claim a 'crisis' where there is not real crisis.

There is a question mark in the thread title. I'm not claiming a crisis. I just think it's an issue worth discussing. I also think that 85% is unacceptable, even for a soft science. Even psychologists were surprised to see such a low rate. If 85% is the best we can expect, lawmakers and clinicians are putting way too much stock in what these studies say.

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@John 6IX Breezy

What's your opinion on this? (Since it's in your field of study....?)

You didn't claim the crisis but it's pretty clear the author did, apologies if you thought I meant you.

With humans being what they are how would one go about repeating each individuals psychology of the participants in the original study group? That's like trying to repeat a jury.

[Ahriman]

These psychological "professional" type people don't know shit.

Yeah, no. It's not funny. They really don't know what they're doing. They aren't helping anyone.

[brewer]

Yeah, no. It's not funny. They really don't know what they're doing. They aren't helping anyone.

Don't you mean that your disorder makes you think that are not helping you?

I'm sure your noncompliance plays a factor.

And then, you just might be helpless.

[Belacqua]

Yeah, no. It's not funny. They really don't know what they're doing. They aren't helping anyone.

I think people expect some kind of mechanical model, where you go into the shop and the guy fixes you. That's obviously not possible. 

Freud, and many post-Freudians, agree with you, more or less. They don't cure you. They may help you make yourself less miserable. 

I did years of Freud-style talk therapy to work on melancholy and self-hate. I still have both of those, but I understand them, and myself, much better now. I'm glad I did the work.

[Ahriman]

Yeah, no. It's not funny. They really don't know what they're doing. They aren't helping anyone.

Don't you mean that your disorder makes you think that are not helping you?

I'm sure your noncompliance plays a factor.

And then, you just might be helpless.

How is what they're doing supposed to help me if I don't even know what's wrong with me? If you asked me what I thought I needed help with, I would just say you're asking the wrong person. I really don't know what's so wrong with me that I need therapy or any such thing, I mean, I take two different medications and they seem to help, but I couldn't tell you WHY I'm taking them, beyond the fact that they make me feel better. But why did I feel bad in the first place? I don't know, and none of the professionals I've seen know either. Psychology/psychiatry are not as exact of sciences as those assholes expect you to believe. And actually, a lot of people don't have real problems, but still get "treated" for their "problems", which is a waste of time and resources. And really, compared to most other people, I'm actually pretty normal. I just have no interest in participating in the system any more than I have to, 1) to keep myself safe from over bearing service providers, and 2) I don't have much faith (if any) in the system in the first place. The whole system is really designed for plebs, if you're more of a truly exceptional individual (i.e. you're worth a lot more than the average person), the system won't work for you. Pleb tier mediocrity is the standard of our society, and that's not going to change anytime soon.

[The Grand Nudger]

It's interesting where a person puts the line between forensics, anthropology, and sociology. Leaving aside those things in the soft sciences which don't seem to fit the criteria for soft science, the only way to solve the reproducibility crisis with respect to living human beings is to apply benfords law - but there are obvious practical difficulties there - and we still have to acknowledge the fact that living people are inherently duplicitous. A thermometer expends no effort deluding itself, others, or enforcing a consensus of public opinion and Right Thought.

Here's a thought experiment. Early modern human remains are found, male, early 40's, signs of blunt force trauma to the skull and stone fragments between the ribs along the spine which have minor unhealed damage. Further, the effects of the deceased contain numerous manufactured items. Dried foods, medicinal herbs, binding material, resins, woven fiber, a number of flints and edges, woodcraft, bone awls and needles. A small flute. An axe, a bow, arrows in various states of manufacture from blank to finish. The mans teeth show signs consistent with being worn down by fine inorganic particles in lightly processed grain, but are relatively free of other damage, cavities, or infection. Other than the trauma listed above, the man is healthy and shows little evidence of a history of injury or persistent illness beyond having broken his arm once in childhood, and abnormal wear in the ball joints of his knees.

Forensically - the man was murdered. He has old injuries that have healed but none beyond (or at) the point at which he suffered blunt force trauma and, likely, several shots to the back. It doesn't appear to be a robbery, the mans items were left at the scene. If he died in a war, he was either very lucky or this was the first time he'd ever been in combat - both unlikely given his age. Given the items he carried, left at the scene, he was likely a courier or independent tradesman. The shots to the back were unlikely to have killed him, though the would have certainly incapacitated him. It's unclear whether this was an assault in the immediate sense, or whether he was harried and coursed - but either way, he didn't live long after those shots to the back, as the ribs and spine never scarred over. In the absence of any other remains or midden heaps or signs of civilization, we can only assume he was at some point between a and b when the worst day of his life happened. If he was with anyone, they either didn't die there or survived - but either way they also left his items at the scene.

So there's the scene. I'd have to write a novel (and novels have been written) to fully describe the anthropological ramifications of a find like that. We know that the man came from a community or civilization that could..for example, make or source all of those items. We can put boundaries on the route of the man or reach of his community by cataloging the items in his possession and their pre-historic extent-of-origin. We can determine the methods of production used to create the manufactured items, and how many man-hours they represent, by direct demonstration. Similarly, we can determine what and when people in his community or within his reach must have been doing by the same. If we find processed grains, we know what people were up to in spring summer and fall. We can see that he must have eaten a relatively alkaline diet by the state of his teeth. We can see that this period in time was relatively peaceful for this man by reference to the lack of repeat injury. However, we can see that people were also motivated to murder even then, and not..at least in this case, merely to acquire goods. He may have been executed, which engenders a whole hell of alot more than a mugging gone wrong. The again, again...they also played the flute.

All of this, is soft science, allegedly.

[Jehanne]

Some experiments cannot be done, except in the real World. One example, out of many, is the statistical association in lead paint in homes with lead poisoning in young children. Plenty of data exists on identical versus fraternal twins to keep psychologists busy. Such may be soft science, but, it's still Science.

[Belacqua]

"The field has shattered the notion that scientific and technological findings objectively capture the world as it really is, she said.

“Our scientific pictures of the world are really the product of social activity at a lot of different levels,” from what we choose to examine, to how we examine them, to the methodology and objectives, to what is focused on and ignored. “These are all profoundly socially inflected,” she said.

As director of the Program on Science, Technology and Society at HKS, which she founded in 2002, Jasanoff has been instrumental in developing and bringing legitimacy to the field, Harvard colleagues say."

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2...echnology/

[Jehanne]

"The field has shattered the notion that scientific and technological findings objectively capture the world as it really is, she said.

“Our scientific pictures of the world are really the product of social activity at a lot of different levels,” from what we choose to examine, to how we examine them, to the methodology and objectives, to what is focused on and ignored. “These are all profoundly socially inflected,” she said.

As director of the Program on Science, Technology and Society at HKS, which she founded in 2002, Jasanoff has been instrumental in developing and bringing legitimacy to the field, Harvard colleagues say."

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2...echnology/

Just one scholar's opinion; and, your point is?