Psychology, Science or BS?

however, i think the problem isn't that psychology is BS, but that science isn't really the be-all end-all of objectivity and is way more subject to cultural and societal trends than people admit. especially when you get to applied science in relation to people. they have similar drawbacks as doctors. they often have their own issues (strangely the most fucked up people i know or those who had the most tumultuous childhoods are all in psychology and social work - they seem to want to correct some wrong they've personally experienced), they can be of very average intelligence (though they know many more field-related facts) and are heralded as near-gods by society who need to cling to the hope that someone out there knows the solution to their deepest, most disturbing problems or life-threatening ailments. i have dealt with maybe 10 different psychologist throughout my life and found none of them helpful - some even laughable. psychiatrists are just legal drug-pushers as far as i can gather. this is not necessarily a bad thing, just not something that deserves such high, unquestioning respect.

i dunno. I know it really helps some people, so it's good for something. But maybe that's more the argument of that essay. That's it's one approach and shouldn't really be thrust upon people like it's The Answer.

call me crazy...

Have you ever read anything by Manly P. Hall? He formed the Philosophical Research Society and has written a few books that have made more sense than any other philosophical or "self-help" type books I've ever read. At the ripe old age of 21, he wrote a gigantic classic called "The Secret Teachings of All Ages" that showed the world what a wise and knowledgable person he was, but that was only the beginning of his career! more on his self-development books at http://www.prs.org/meditation.htm

A cursory glance at some of his book titles and the subject matter will convince some that they've got him "pegged" as a cultish weirdo bullshit artist, but would probably be pleasantly surprised if they happened to purchase one of his books. I am a bit of an authority on cultish weirdo bullshit artists.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/magazine/diederik-stapels-audacious-academic-fraud.html?pagewanted=6&_r=1&hp

Psychology was put on a relatively sound scientific basis by William James and his contemporaries and it remained so at least until 1950. It began to go downhill when more and more of its research was funded by governments and corporations whose major interest was in creating more effective propaganda. In the 1970s, the universities created about 10x more PhDs in psychology than the field could reasonably sustain, and bogus research started to flood out. It is a sadly diminished discipline today, but it isn't entirely bullshit.

http://ideas.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/05/24/just_how_tough_is_peer_review

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/28/science/many-social-science-findings-not-as-strong-as-claimed-study-says.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

Psychology not the only field by any means that's going to turn up irreproducible results as this issue gains traction, there's a Reproducibility Project in preclinical biology as well that's undoubtedly going to fail to reproduce some effects.

yes it's all so exciting

Wow, this seems kinda major:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jhbs.70043

In 1954, Dorothy Martin predicted an apocalyptic flood and promised her followers rescue by flying saucers. When neither arrived, she recanted, her group dissolved, and efforts to proselytize ceased. But When Prophecy Fails (1956), the now‐canonical account of the event, claimed the opposite: that the group doubled down on its beliefs and began recruiting—evidence, the authors argued, of a new psychological mechanism, cognitive dissonance. Drawing on newly unsealed archival material, this article demonstrates that the book's central claims are false, and that the authors knew they were false. The documents reveal that the group actively proselytized well before the prophecy failed and quickly abandoned their beliefs afterward. They also expose serious ethical violations by the researchers, including fabricated psychic messages, covert manipulation, and interference in a child welfare investigation. One coauthor, Henry Riecken, posed as a spiritual authority and later admitted he had “precipitated” the climactic events of the study.

ha I meant to find a thread to post this on earlier, really wild!