Justifiably Paranoid

  This month I received an invitation to submit an article to the Pennsylvania Psychologist magazine on the theme “Myths in Psychology.” Without hesitation, I knew both what I wanted to write and that the imagined article would never be published.  I would have entitled it “The Myth that Psychology Respects Open Scientific Discussion and Debate.” And before explaining why I chose the topic, I must say that although I believe psychologists have as much right as anyone else to take political positions, they have no right to flood the citizenry with biased or uncontested politically-one-sided propaganda. The simple truth is that Psychology is at least as interested—I would argue often MORE interested—in politics than in science.  As one example, today, August 29, 2023, I quote “From APA Journals Article Spotlight” (https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/amp): How psychologists can help achieve equity in health care: Advancing innovative partnerships and models of care delivery. P...

  Viral-Artificial Intelligence-Zombie Information. Sound frightening? It should. Let's consider each element of the hyphenated phrase in reverse order, using medical science as only one of many possible exemplars. Zombie medical information was decried in a recent Nature article (July 2023) entitled "Medicine’s problem with ‘zombie’ trials." The scary suggestion is that "... at least one-quarter, and perhaps up to one-third, of trials contain problematic data". Equally hair-raising is the authors' contention that such studies "...can be laundered into respectability when they are included in systematic reviews, which assess evidence across many studies and are often the basis for clinical guidelines." So, that's the Zombie element. What about the Artificial Intelligence element? Sticking with Nature, consider the 24 January 2023 paper entitled "Tools such as ChatGPT threaten transparent science; here are our ground rules for their use....

What the fuck can we learn from the word “fuck”?   Let’s start with the following caveats that I haven’t carefully vetted:   The first English language television use of fuck allegedly was uttered by Kenneth Tynan on November 13, 1965 on a satirical television BBC3, and the first U.S. movie to use fuck was M*A*S*H* released in 1970.   According to Collider.com, of the “15 Most Profane Movies of All Time,” the lowest frequency of fuck is ‘One Day Removals’ (2008) with 320 and the highest, ‘Swearnet: The Movie’ (2014) with 935. We know that some form of fuck can and is used as virtually any part of speech.   So, when in doubt about what next to say, “fuck it.”   Gratuitously using the word fuck broadcasts that your intellect is as impoverished as is literally using “literally” when “figuratively” is warranted. But my point extends well beyond the word “fuck.”   Rather, it follows from my previous posting on mega-identity.   Saying fuck is much less a...

Most of us have heard some version of the adage, "Show me your company and I'll tell you who you are" whose elusive roots have been attributed to sources as diverse as the Bible and Vladimir Lenin.  In America, prior to the end of the 20th century the "who you are" mostly concerned one's moral standing.  Interlocutors wanted to know who could and could not be trusted, for instance.  In your great-grandparents' day, average citizens rarely were interested in details regarding minutiae of your sexuality or politics. That did not seem important to most of them.  By default, people passively were accepted as having some complex qualities and preferences that were "nobody else's business." That attitude promoted cultural norms that encouraged accepting people as they were in the here-and-now.  A new acquaintance need not pass some overarching litmus test that incorporated a host of criteria about irrelevant personal preferences, such as gender b...

  “Don’t ask, don’t tell” was the colloquial term for official U.S. military policy from 1993 to 2011.  What was that all about?  Americans born on or before about 1973 probably remember—it concerned the armed forces approach to what then unapologetically was termed “homosexuality”.  Actually, the entire policy was “don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t pursue, and don’t harass,” and it was President Bill Clinton’s and the Legislature’s way simultaneously to both address and avoid the issue. The policy is one obvious example of questioning and answering influences on human psychology and interpersonal relationships.  All people personally are inclined to ask about some issues and to avoid others.  Knowing those inclinations of your own can empower you to make good decisions.  For instance, given the current toxic social environment, most of us have learned to be very circumspect about what formerly would have been casual, harmless political questions and...

  "Follow the science" is the premier attention-grabbing meme used by popular media to inspire confidence in whatever is presented next.  The phrase amounts to a slightly more nuanced version of the renowned "evidenced-based science" appellation.  How might those characterizations affect you and your decisions?   You probably do sit-up and take notice, especially if the information promotes your preexisting confirmation bias. But perhaps that is understandable, since, after all, the media reports proceed from "science" and/or "evidence-based science." Let's, for this posting, restrict our considerations to research that is reasonable science and that truly is evidence-based.  I specify that because much widely disseminated media-promoted research eventually is revealed to be illegitimate research.  For instance, many of us vividly remember reading or hearing about bogus Cornell University research suggesting that you will eat less food if it ...

  Questioning & Answering: How, Who, When, & Where  Paperback – January 10, 2023 by  Dr. Peter James McCusker   (Author)   It's a simple question, right? Wrong ! There are no simple questions and no simple answers. If you think so, you set yourself up for disappointment and failure. At minimum, questions and answers have multiple, layered implications. They all say something about you, about the person with whom you are communicating, and about your relationship together. Dr. McCusker asserts that “…questions are bridges from ignorance to knowledge. Questions are bridges to answers, and answers are bridges to further questions. Questions, therefore, are cognitive, emotional, and interpersonal bridges from idea to idea and from person to person. Without questions and answers to them, conversation would be parallel monologues. Questions and answers take us from monologue to dialogue—from social isolation to interpersonal connection. Ima...