When Bem came to give a talk at Dickinson he said that he had been investigating paranormal events for many years. He said it was a long interest of his and he always worked with undergraduate students so as to not harm the career of graduate students. Surely you would not keep testing hypotheses if you didn't think they were likely or possibly true.
Also, just like his precognition paper is probably not true his theory of sexual orientation is not true (something he alluded to when he gave his talk). But of course it is the nature of the scientific process that others can replicate (or fail to replicate) your findings. Now if we could just get journals to accept replications studies and null results! Marie Marie Helweg-Larsen, Ph.D. Associate Professor l Department of Psychology Kaufman 168 l Dickinson College Phone 717.245.1562 l Fax 717.245.1971 http://users.dickinson.edu/~helwegm/index.html -----Original Message----- From: Jim Clark [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2012 12:13 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: Re: [tips] The Psi-chology of Darryl Bem Hi Part of the problem with Bem's advice to "tell a story" (i.e., "make up a story"?) when writing papers is that one can never be sure what is fact and what is just for the sake of the story. Here, for example, the "tell a story" model makes me skeptical that Bem was as unsympathetic to paranormal phenomena as claimed in the article. After all, isn't the story better if he was really a skeptic and then was forced to change his mind, rather than that he set out to demonstrate something that he already believed? Take care Jim James M. Clark Professor of Psychology 204-786-9757 204-774-4134 Fax [email protected] >>> "Jeffry Ricker, PhD" <[email protected]> 06-Jun-12 7:20 pm >>> >>> Paranormal Circumstances: One Influential Scientist's Quixotic Mission to Prove ESP Exists From his research to his personal life, Daryl Bem's never been one to follow the crowd. by Yudhijit Bhattacharjee >From the March 2012 issue; published online May 14, 2012 "...Even in the context of a career of irreverence, there was little to suggest that Bem would end up defending the possibility of extrasensory perception, or ESP, which most mainstream scientists consider unworthy of serious inquiry. Through most of his career, he was as dubious about telepathy (mind reading) or precognition (seeing the future) as any of his colleagues. Then data changed his mind...." FULL TEXT AT: http://discovermagazine.com/2012/mar/09-paranormal-circumstances-scientist-mission-esp -- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jeffry Ricker, Ph.D. SCC: Professor of Psychology MCCCD: General Studies Faculty Representative PSY 101 Website: http://sccpsy101.wordpress.com/ --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scottsdale Community College 9000 E. Chaparral Road Scottsdale, AZ 85256-2626 Office: SB-123 Phone: (480) 423-6213 Fax: (480) 423-6298 --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13251.645f86b5cec4da0a56ffea7a891720c9&n=T&l=tips&o=18207 or send a blank email to leave-18207-13251.645f86b5cec4da0a56ffea7a89172...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13234.b0e864a6eccfc779c8119f5a4468797f&n=T&l=tips&o=18233 or send a blank email to leave-18233-13234.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=18277 or send a blank email to leave-18277-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
