Brian Hughes (2018): Psychology in Crisis

[Jonathan Edwards]

It wasn't 'exaggerated' - because it wasn't even there in the first place.

`somebody missed the point?

 

[Kalliope]

I don't know if the prize was in connection with the book, but congratulations either way!

 

[MSEsperanza]

Stewart, L.G. (2019). Psychology in Crisis.[Review of the book]. International Journal of Educational Psychology, 8(1),105-107, http://dx.doi.org/10.17583/ijep.2019.4065

http://hipatiapress.com/hpjournals/index.php/ijep/article/view/4065/Stewart

From the review:
"Non-equivalent control groups, lack of blinding and adjustment of assessment criteria revealed that the effectiveness of the intervention for treating Chronic Fatigue Syndrome was exaggerated"

`somebody missed the point?

Unfortunately that seems to be the case for the review.

In Brian Hughes' book the PACE trial is dealt with in the second last chapter called "Psychology's exaggeration crisis". But If I remember correctly I understood the PACE subchapter within this chapter as a synopsis of all the crises explained in the previous chapters. Also, exaggeration is meant in a broader sense.

In other words, I think Hughes takes, before the final chapter, PACE as an example for all the five crises he elaborated on before (starting from the introductory "replication crisis").

These five crises are -- taken from the author's own summary on Psychology Today:

1) theoretical fragmentation (a paradigmatic crisis)

2) reductionism (a measurement crisis)

3) sloppy approaches to significance and effect sizes (a statistical crisis)

4) a tendency to focus on a tiny sliver of the human population (a sampling crisis)

5) premature optimism about the progress made by psychology, both in basic science and in resolving its reproducibility problems (an exaggeration crisis, if you will).

(Numbering added.)

I found the introductory paragraph to the PACE subchapter on google books, (Psychology in Crisis, p.132) :

Chronic fatigue syndrome: Psychologists to the rescue

"To many psychologists, the provision of therapy is the raison d'etre of psychology. However, for as long as they existed psychotherapies have been controversial. Many psychologists find criticism of psychotherapy very hurtful, viewing it as an attack on their professional integrity.
[...]
"it is a matter of public interest that psychologists avoid exaggeration when championing their own forms of treatment. Psychologists should be careful not to defend psychotherapies without robust empirical evidence. They should especially not do so in defiance of such evidence."

(Italics in the original.)

So, even though I think the reviewer's' intentions were good and he understood that the PACE trial is "perhaps one of the most striking examples of poor research in the book", I hope more and better reviews will follow.

 

[Ebb Tide]

Reproducibility crisis in science was discussed on BBC Radio4 Inside Science on Thursday 16th Jan at 4.30pm. I hope this is the right link to BBC Sounds:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000d8st

Interview with Professor of Zoology at Manchester University, Matthew Cobb (first item on programme, about 13 mins)

Starts with replication issues in psychology research, then problems in other areas, oceanography discussed here. Professor Cobb mentioned the problems of objective measurement in behavioural animal studies. From Manchester University's site it seems his first degree and PhD were in human psychology.

 

[MSEsperanza]

Off topic but looks like another good book by Brian Hughes:

"A Conceptual History of Psychology: The Mind Through Time"

https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/conceptual-history-of-psychology-9781350328204/

Brian Hughes on mastodon.ie:

"I hope you'll forgive me for a little self-promotion here, but I just wanted to share that my new book has just been published...

"A Conceptual History of Psychology: The Mind Through Time"

Unlike most histories of psych, this book focuses on concepts not events - contentious ideas arising from the way people have tried to explain each other's behaviour down the ages.

It quite warts-and-all, but hopefully diverse and modern.

#psychology #history

More details here:
https://bloomsburycp3.codemantra.com/v

 

[Trish]

"A Conceptual History of Psychology: The Mind Through Time"

Thought I might buy it until I saw the price. It's a 456 page textbook and the paperback costs about £40.

Here's the blurb on Amazon:

This comprehensive and thought-provoking new textbook covers the conceptual issues and theoretical developments in psychology while effortlessly bringing to life key historical milestones. Each chapter allows students to engage with the ‘great debates’ in a particular area of psychology while learning objectives and reflective summaries help to scaffold understanding and deepen learning. Non-Western psychology is integrated throughout to help tell a compelling story of how, across centuries, human beings came to explore each other’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviours – tracing Psychology’s development from an obscure philosophical pursuit to the world’s most popular science.

Key features of this textbook include:
· Expansive coverage of the field from its historical roots in ancient philosophy to the present day, with particular emphasis on developments in modern psychology and neuroscience
· Comprehensive coverage of cultural debates within psychology including WEIRD psychology
· Carefully-thought out pedagogical framework reinforces the links between history and conceptual issues in an engaging and critical way
· Includes ‘Almost Famous’ biographies of minority, non-Western and other psychologists whose work is often overlooked in the usual ‘Great Men’ narrative of the field’s development
· Student-friendly writing style and attractive two-colour layout to aid learning, with online resources offering further support.

This textbook will help students understand Psychology, its origins and evolution, its cultural contexts, and the history of cultural change in order to gain invaluable insight into the past, present and future of this vitally important field.

 

[MSEsperanza]

Thought I might buy it until I saw the price. It's a 456 page textbook and the paperback costs about £40.

I hope it won't take too long until it will also be available at libraries as an e-book.

(I think everyone can suggest books to be bought by your local library see this post.)

This time I will request that they buy the e-book instead of the hard copy...

 

[Barry]

Currently considering buying a kindle, simply because no more room for books (which I love), but I don't think kindles support library e-books? And note sure kobo as good.

 

[Trish]

I don't have a kindle. My daughter is happy with her Kobo.

 

[Barry]

Thanks @Trish.

 

[rvallee]

Currently considering buying a kindle, simply because no more room for books (which I love), but I don't think kindles support library e-books? And note sure kobo as good.

Kindle is more closed-off on purpose. I think there's another one besides that but Kobo usually works well with other libraries, including public ones.