It is a bit much that the NY Times article slams the entire field of psychology (a field “that has only recently earned a fragile respectability”!).
The article goes on to say “Researchers in psychology are certainly aware of the issue. In recent years, some have mocked studies showing correlations between activity on brain images and personality measures as “voodoo” science, and a controversy over statistics erupted in January after The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology accepted a paper purporting to show evidence of extrasensory perception.” I do not think those issues have anything to do with falsification of data (weird that they are even mentioned in an article about falsification) but rather an expression of the normal and desired scientific process. I thought the New York Times had a science writer who is familiar with the scientific process. Marie **************************************************** Marie Helweg-Larsen, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Psychology, Dickinson College Kaufman 168, Phone 717 245-1562 Office hours: Monday 10-11:30 and Wednesday 2:00-3:30 http://users.dickinson.edu/~helwegm/index.html **************************************************** From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, November 03, 2011 9:43 AM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: Re: [tips] Stapel's faking of social psychology data The story is being carried by the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/health/research/noted-dutch-psychologist-stapel-accused-of-research-fraud.html?_r=2&hp. An interesting line from the article: "Also common is a self-serving statistical sloppiness. In an analysis published this year, Dr. Wicherts and Marjan Bakker, also at the University of Amsterdam, searched a random sample of 281 psychology papers for statistical errors. They found that about half of the papers in high-end journals contained some statistical error, and that about 15 percent of all papers had at least one error that changed a reported finding — almost always in opposition to the authors’ hypothesis." The above should not be all that surprising. Still, it's a little scary ... Miguel ________________________________ From: "Beth Benoit" <[email protected]> To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, November 2, 2011 9:32:09 PM Subject: [tips] Stapel's faking of social psychology data This story has been going on for a couple of days. Embarrassing: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21118-psychologist-admits-faking-data-in-dozens-of-studies.html Beth Benoit Granite State College Plymouth State University New Hampshire --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13482.917fac06d4daae681dabfe964ca8c74e&n=T&l=tips&o=13855 (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) or send a blank email to leave-13855-13482.917fac06d4daae681dabfe964ca8c...@fsulist.frostburg.edu<mailto:leave-13855-13482.917fac06d4daae681dabfe964ca8c...@fsulist.frostburg.edu> --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13234.b0e864a6eccfc779c8119f5a4468797f&n=T&l=tips&o=13867 (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) or send a blank email to leave-13867-13234.b0e864a6eccfc779c8119f5a44687...@fsulist.frostburg.edu<mailto:leave-13867-13234.b0e864a6eccfc779c8119f5a44687...@fsulist.frostburg.edu> --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=13873 or send a blank email to leave-13873-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
