The real tragedy of discovering fraud in psychology is realizing that it doesn't matter

Discussion in 'Research methodology news and research' started by Jaybee00, Aug 30, 2023.

  1. Jaybee00

    Jaybee00 Senior Member (Voting Rights)

    Messages:
    2,175
    Hutan, Michelle, alktipping and 11 others like this.
  2. SNT Gatchaman

    SNT Gatchaman Senior Member (Voting Rights)

    Messages:
    5,740
    Location:
    Aotearoa New Zealand
    Brilliant.

    I don't think people are yet close to getting bored of psychosomatic paradigms. Hopefully the biomedical findings that explain the clinical pictures will get there soon and make them redundant.
     
    Hutan, FMMM1, alktipping and 13 others like this.
  3. Solstice

    Solstice Senior Member (Voting Rights)

    Messages:
    1,216
    As long as psychosomatic paradigms aren't sufficiently challenged they'll remain mainstream no matter how many diseases we understand and cure. It's implications not just medical but societal as well. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps works just as well for poor people as it does for us ME patients or other patients for that matter.
     
    Hutan, FMMM1, Sean and 8 others like this.
  4. Trish

    Trish Moderator Staff Member

    Messages:
    55,364
    Location:
    UK
    It's an entertaining article, and I'm sure the author is right that much of what claims to be research in psychology is bunk, not only the outright fraudulent stuff, but the stuff where the researchers treat it seriously, design questionnaires and experiments they think will show something interesting about human behaviour and thoughts, and analyse the data 'correctly' is still completely pointless and useless and makes no difference to humanity.

    It's all the usual dross about abstract words like leadership and honesty where researchers try to analyse complex human behaviour and interactions by turning it into statistical data, and failing completely to discover anything useful or interesting.

    The author doesn't touch on medical stuff at all, let alone dive into the murky world of psychosomatic medicine where it does actually matter and make a difference to real people's lives.
     
    Hutan, FMMM1, Sean and 9 others like this.
  5. Solstice

    Solstice Senior Member (Voting Rights)

    Messages:
    1,216
    It's better for it to me. It questions if psychology comes up with anything useful at all. It also questions the worth of psychologic studies whose foundation is built on other fraudulent studies. We know from experience how one twisted narrative can get turned into a money-making machine where study after study gets cranked out. If the studies that are used to form the basic premise get debunked, does that then mean the money-making stops?
     
    Hutan, FMMM1, Sean and 3 others like this.
  6. Jaybee00

    Jaybee00 Senior Member (Voting Rights)

    Messages:
    2,175
    Sean, alktipping, Kitty and 1 other person like this.
  7. Jonathan Edwards

    Jonathan Edwards Senior Member (Voting Rights)

    Messages:
    15,166
    Location:
    London, UK
    Economics even more so, I would say.
    And it does matter. Money is poured down the drain in the name of 'growth'.
     
    FMMM1, obeat, Sean and 7 others like this.
  8. rvallee

    rvallee Senior Member (Voting Rights)

    Messages:
    13,632
    Location:
    Canada
    They sure do. But at the end of the day, currency can be counted as a precise quantity. As can the quantity of goods produced, tax revenue, imports/exports and the numbers of consumers in various areas or grocery stores, along with other basic data points. That makes it a very hard science compared to psychology. And models are not held as sacrosanct, or considered more valid than real life data.

    But it sure does apply to economics, just far, far more to psychology.
     
    obeat likes this.

Share This Page