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Psychologists Don't Know Math
stupefaction writes "The New York Times reports that an economist has exposed a mathematical fallacy at the heart of the experimental backing for the psychological theory of cognitive dissonance. The mistake is the same one that mathematicians both amateur and professional have made over the Monty Hall problem. From the article: "Like Monty Hall's choice of which door to open to reveal a goat, the monkey's choice of red over blue discloses information that changes the odds." The reporter John Tierney invites readers to comment on the goats-and-car paradox as well as on three other probabilistic brain-teasers."
Not that I ever bought that a small sample, however truly random, really does prove what the larger whole would do.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
to "Psychologists Don't Know Shit". Being a "proper" science student i once peeked into a friend's psychology book (non clinical i might add) only to find it was full of long convoluted words used to explain the most mundane boring common sense stuff. I quickly concluded that the couch analysis shrink students should be stood right along side the Sociologists and other such riff raff.
Parent is not a troll. Psychology is not science. All they know is how to torture dogs and give people bad drugs for years.
OTOH, there are existing methodologies to fix people:
http://www.deep-trance.com/techniques/fast-phobia-cure.html
NLP is also not a science, but it has a "Do what works and shut up" kind of attitude, and also a great track record.
I hate Scientology as much as anyone here, but if there's one thing they're right about (or close to), it's psychology.
P.S. There ARE good psychologists. They're good precisely because they don't do what they've been taught. Can you imagine engineering today if you had to start out with analyzing the tree's childhood dreams if you wanted to make a table?