I suspect a lot of the less scientific (that is empirically supported or supportable) ideas in psych textbooks remain in those texts because psych folk find them easy to generate discussion in class and fit them to life events. When I teach about hindsight analyses and confirmation biases, and how, for example, dream interpretations or psychic readings can seem to match events or be easy to apply to our lives, I often think about the popularity of ideas like Erikson or other views in personality, where psychologists fit them to events and look only at the seeming confirmation. Meanwhile, the efforts to actually test aspects of the theory are few, with little or no effort to replicate the studies that have been done. Yet, they remain popularized in text books. Gary Peterson
Gerald L. (Gary) Peterson, Ph.D. Professor, Psychology Saginaw Valley State University University Center, MI 48710 989-964-4491 [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
