Psychology’s Misuse of Statistics and Persistent Dismissal of its Critics

James T. Lamiell (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

XXI, 179 Seiten

2020 | 1st ed. 2019
Springer International Publishing (Verlag)
978-3-030-12133-4 (ISBN)

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This book is a strenuous critique of the misinterpretation of statistical knowledge of populations in mainstream psychology, exploring the implications of assuming that those statistics constitute scientific knowledge of individuals. It investigates the essential nature and historical roots of this interpretive practice, and documents the lack of change in mainstream thinking despite previous critiques of the practice. The author contends that prevailing interpretive traditions result in bad science, in that invalid claims are made to knowledge of individuals. He also discusses the socio-ethical problems resulting from this misinterpretation of statistics, where psychological practitioners unjustifiably endorse interventions in the lives of individuals. Lamiell urges psychologists to abandon the aggregate statistical methods which he argues have transformed the field into 'psycho-demography,' and to embrace instead alternative research methods that are logically suited to gaining scientific knowledge about the psychological functioning of individuals. This book concludes by highlighting some of the currently available methodological alternatives, as well as discussing some enduring conceptual impediments to the serious consideration of those alternatives.

James T. Lamiell is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Georgetown University, USA after having spent thirty-six years on the faculty at that institution. He holds the 2001 Bunn Award for Faculty Excellence at Georgetown, and is a three-time Fulbright scholar to Germany. He has authored four books and translated a fifth.

Chapter 1: Introduction: Mainstream Psychology's Worrisome Incorrigibility.- Chapter 2: Challenging the Canon: The Critique and its Aftermath in Autobiographical Perspective.- Chapter 3: The Entrenchment of Statistical Thinking in Early Twentieth Century.- Differential Psychology.- Chapter 4: The Failure of Critical Thinking in the Statistization of Experimental Psychology.- Chapter 5: Statistical Thinking in Psychology: Some Needed Critical Perspective on What 'Everyone Knows'.- Chapter 6: 'Statisticism' in Psychology as a Socio-Ethical Problem.- Chapter 7: In Quest of Meaningful Change.

Erscheinungsdatum	07.07.2020
Reihe/Serie	Palgrave Studies in the Theory and History of Psychology
Zusatzinfo	XXI, 179 p. 7 illus.
Verlagsort	Cham
Sprache	englisch
Maße	148 x 210 mm
Gewicht	274 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie
Schlagworte	20th century personality psychology • critiques of statistically-based knowledge • ethics • knowledge claims • Psycho-demography • psychological statistical findings • Psychological Statistics • scientific psychology • socio-ethics • statistically-based knowledge claims • statistical methods in psychology research • variation studies
ISBN-10	3-030-12133-X / 303012133X
ISBN-13	978-3-030-12133-4 / 9783030121334
Zustand	Neuware