I post the following as relevent to our ongoing discussion of
psychology as a science. I will leave it to others to comment if they
wish. (I apologize for the formating.)
Jeff Nagelbush
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Ferris State University
Cybersex Survey a travesty
Laura Schlessinger
"Now psychology as a
discipline must step up to the
table and accept responsibility for
the extent to which it has been
propagating an amoral ethos," Dr.
Jeffrey Satinover, a renowned
psychiatrist, is quoted as saying in
a recent interview.
That psychology has presented
itself as a science at all, much less
a hard science, is somewhere
between a joke and a travesty.
Personal and group biases and
agendas (Liberating sexuality for
adults and children), political
positions ("normalizing"
homosexuality), pet causes (anger
over perceived patriarchal
oppression of women, excessive
focus of self-esteem, unrestrained
narcissism as healthy), and
downright stupid or bad research
and methodology leading to
dangerous conclusions that the
media run with as truth (such as
the media blitz telling women that
they should no longer feel guilt
for farming their kids out to day
care) have seriously damaged
individuals, families and our
civilization.
A recent, seemingly benign,
example of this nonsense is a
"survey" of cybersex - another
addition to the wealth of amoral,
self-destructive psychobabble
presented by the American
Psychological Association in the
April issue of Professional
Psychology. The study was
accomplished by using the
MSNBC Web site (gee, isn't that
random sampling of the
population?). Users who had at
least one cybersex encounter
were asked to answer questions
about what kind of sex site they
visited, how long they spent in
such pursuits and what they got
out of it.
The first thing that ought to
come to mind is the
ridiculousness of self-reporting.
What ever happened to the
psychology craze about "denial"'.)
It used to be an "in" joke in the
profession (by the way I am licensed
as a marriage and family
therapist) that if a patient did not
admit to what the therapist
"knew" to be true, he or she was
in denial. Now, self-reporting is
taken as gospel. Fascinating.
What piece of hard science
determined that switch?
As evidence of this denial of
denial, "three out of four
respondents said they kept secret
from others how much time they
spent online for sexual pursuits,
although 87 percent reported that
they did not feel guilty or
ashamed about the time they
spent online.
Huh? they weren't ashamed,
but they wouldn't admit they did
it? Oh, please.
The study's author states that.
younger females who use the
cybersex sites do so because the
Internet offers "access,
affordability and anonymity
allowing young adult women to
be more comfortable
experimenting with their
sexuality online than almost
anywhere else. They can engage
in new relationships without
fear."
What is this psychologist
talking about? Granted, a woman
cannot get physically raped by a
computer screen, but what about
psychological and spiritual rape?
Can we not consider sexually
relating anonymously to
disengaged strangers a
disgusting, superficial, false and
pathetic nonrendition of healthy,
committed love? Does anyone
really think that letting go of all
inhibitions, making oneself
vacantly vulnerable, displaying
one's evolving sexuality in a
circus ting and extracting the self
from one's sexuality are healthy
things?
Evidently a large number of
psychologists think so. Their only
caution is the amount of time
spent degrading oneself. Since
"the majority (92 percent) said
they spent fewer than 11 hours a
week visiting sex sites," the rest
need their services. They note
that "about 5 percent of the
general population suffers from
sexual compulsivity." What
science backs up that arbitrary
point? None. Ten and a half hours
a week having sexual experiences
out of the context of love,
affection and bonding is perfectly
normal and healthy, according to
these shrinks. So, I guess,
successful treatment would take
the 12-hour-per-week cybersex
user down to IO hours.
The biggest chuckle in all of
this is that this survey was done
on MSNBC as a promotion - not
a scientific study. The network
used it to attract viewers, and
notes that ". . . by their very
nature, surveys posted on its Web
site are NONSCIENTIFIC."
So why is the APA publishing it
in a scientific journal?
New York Times Features
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