How to Think Straight About Psychology

Keith E. Stanovich is currently Emeritus Professor of Human Development and Applied Psychology at the University of Toronto. He is the author of over 175 scientific articles and seven books.  Stanovich is the 2012 recipient of the E. L. Thorndike Career Achievement Award from the American Psychological Association and the recipient of the 2010 Grawemeyer Award in Education. In 2000 he received the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading. Stanovich is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (Divisions 3, 7, 8, and 15) and the Association for Psychological Science.

In this Section:
1. Brief Table of Contents

2. Full Table of Contents

 

 

1. BRIEF TABLE OF CONTENTS:

 

Chapter 1: Psychology Is Alive and Well (and Doing Fine Among the Sciences)

Chapter 2: Falsifiability: How to Foil Little Green Men in the Hand

Chapter 3: Operationism and Essentialism: “But, Doctor, What Does It Really Mean?”

Chapter 4: Testimonials and Case Study Evidence: Placebo Effects and the Amazing

Chapter 5: Correlation and Causation: Birth Control by the Toaster Method  

Chapter 6: Getting Things Under Control: The Case of Clever Hans  

Chapter 7: “But It’s Not Real Life!”: The “Artificiality” Criticism and Psychology  

Chapter 8: Avoiding the Einstein Syndrome: The Importance of Converging

Chapter 9: The Misguided Search for the “Magic Bullet”: The Issue of Multiple

Chapter 10: The Achilles’ Heel of Human Cognition: Probabilistic

Reasoning  

Chapter 11: The Role of Chance in Psychology  

Chapter 12: The Rodney Dangerfield of the Sciences  


2.  FULL TABLE OF CONTENTS:

 

Preface 

  

Chapter 1: Psychology Is Alive and Well (and Doing Fine Among the Sciences)

The Freud Problem

The Diversity of Modern Psychology

  Implications of Diversity

Unity in Science

What, Then, Is Science?

  Systematic Empiricism

  Publicly Verifiable Knowledge: Replication   and Peer Review

  Empirically Solvable Problems: Scientists’ Search   for Testable Theories

Psychology and Folk Wisdom: The Problem with “Common Sense”

Psychology as a Young Science

Summary



Chapter 2: Falsifiability: How to Foil Little Green Men in the Hand

Theories and the Falsifiability Criterion

  The Theory of Knocking Rhythms

  Freud and Falsifiability

  The Little Green Men

  Not All Confirmations Are Equal

  Falsifiability and Folk Wisdom

  The Freedom to Admit a Mistake

  Thoughts Are Cheap

Errors in Science: Getting Closer to the Truth

Summary  

 

Chapter 3: Operationism and Essentialism: “But, Doctor, What Does It Really Mean?”

Why Scientists Are Not Essentialists

  Essentialists Like to Argue About the Meaning   of Words

  Operationists Link Concepts to Observable   Events

  Reliability and Validity

  Direct and Indirect Operational Definitions

  Scientific Concepts Evolve

  Operational Definitions in Psychology

Operationism as a Humanizing Force

  Essentialist Questions and the Misunderstanding  of Psychology

Summary

 

Chapter 4: Testimonials and Case Study Evidence: Placebo Effects and the Amazing

Amazing Randi

The Place of the Case Study

Why Testimonials Are Worthless: Placebo Effects

The “Vividness” Problem

  The Overwhelming Impact of the Single Case

  The Amazing Randi: Fighting Fire with Fire

Testimonials Open the Door to Pseudoscience

Summary

 

Chapter 5: Correlation and Causation: Birth Control by the Toaster Method  

The Third-Variable Problem: Goldberger and Pellagra

  Why Goldberger’s Evidence Was Better

The Directionality Problem

Selection Bias

Summary

 

Chapter 6: Getting Things Under Control: The Case of Clever Hans

Snow and Cholera

Comparison, Control, and Manipulation

  Random Assignment in Conjunction with Manipulation   Defines the True   Experiment

  The Importance of Control Groups

  The Case of Clever Hans, the Wonder Horse

  Clever Hans in the 1990s

  Prying Variables Apart: Special Conditions

  Intuitive Physics

  Intuitive Psychology

Summary

 

Chapter 7: “But It’s Not Real Life!”: The “Artificiality” Criticism and Psychology  

Why Natural Isn’t Always Necessary

  The “Random Sample” Confusion

  The Random Assignment Versus Random   Sample Distinction

  Theory-Driven Research Versus Direct Applications

Applications of Psychological Theory

  The “College Sophomore” Problem

  The Real-Life and College Sophomore   Problems in Perspective

Summary

 

 

Chapter 8: Avoiding the Einstein Syndrome: The Importance of Converging

Evidence

The Connectivity Principle

  A Consumer’s Rule: Beware of Violations   of Connectivity

  The “Great-Leap” Model Versus the Gradual-Synthesis  Model

Converging Evidence: Progress Despite Flaws

  Converging Evidence in Psychology

Scientific Consensus

  Methods and the Convergence Principle

  The Progression to More Powerful Methods

A Counsel Against Despair

Summary  

 

Chapter 9: The Misguided Search for the “Magic Bullet”: The Issue of Multiple

The Concept of Interaction

The Temptation of the Single-Cause Explanation

Summary  

 

Chapter 10: The Achilles’ Heel of Human Cognition: Probabilistic Reasoning  

“Person-Who” Statistics

Probabilistic Reasoning and the Misunderstanding of Psychology

Psychological Research on Probabilistic Reasoning

  Insufficient Use of Probabilistic Information

  Failure to Use Sample Size Information

  The Gambler’s Fallacy

  A Further Word About Statistics and Probability

Summary 

 

Chapter 11:  The Role of Chance in Psychology

The Tendency to Try to Explain Chance Events

     Explaining Chance: Illusory Correlation and the Illusion   of Control

Chance and Psychology

  Coincidence

  Personal Coincidences

Accepting Error in Order to Reduce Error: Clinical versus Actuarial Prediction

Summary 

 

Chapter 12:   The Rodney Dangerfield of the Sciences

Psychology’s Image Problem

  Psychology and Parapsychology

  The Self-Help Literature

  Recipe Knowledge

Psychology and Other Disciplines

Our Own Worst Enemies

Isn’t Everyone a Psychologist? Implicit Theories of Behavior

The Source of Resistance to Scientific Psychology

The Final Word

 

References

Name Index

Subject Index