No really, I’m me. And yes it is my real last name, although I think I should change it!
Congratulations that you had the choice of either clinical psych or medicine. This is usually not the case, especially for empirical psychology, since (at least in Canada) clinical requires an A average, whereas empirical psych only requires a B average. The issue wasn't about empirical psychologists, but those who are not, such as medical doctors, and their purported lack of ability if they aren't interested in research per se. Now perhaps the standards are lower in the States, but in Canada a med school applicant typically has at least a 90% average across all subject areas, such as mathematics, statistics, biochemistry, physics, etc. Of course, this is much more difficult to achieve than the B average required to get into empirical psychology. Such achievements plus finishing med school itself I would say practically ensures the graduand of such a program is a highly intelligent critical thinker who is an excellent scholar and quite familiar with science and its methods. To imply that after such intense study and training (while maintaining excellence in such) that such people are essentially not able to assess research evidence and are open to all kinds of simplistic assaults on the intellect just because they are not interested in research per se, is quite ridiculous. Or entails an exaggerated sense of self-importance. --Mike --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
