On Mon, 13 Aug 2012 05:18:05 -0700, Jim Clark wrote: >Hi >A Columbia psychology graduate student gives an incoherent diatribe >against scientific approaches in the humanities and social sciences, >including psychology. > >http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/literally-psyched/2012/08/10/humanities-arent-a-science-stop-treating-them-like-one/
Well, this kind of critique is not new though her incoherence and apparent lack of historical knowledge of the nature of psychology is troubling. This is particularly so, given some of the research that she has been involved in. Ms. Konnikova's bio on the Scientific American website is kind of vague on what she's doing and who she is working with at Columbia; see: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/literally-psyched/about.php?author=314 Quoting from the SciAm description: |Most mornings, Maria can be found in a yoga studio. Most afternoons, |she can be found writing, reading, or conducting definitive explorations |into the workings of the human mind. Sounds like an ideal life in NYC. Especially "conducting definitive explorations into the workings of the human mind" -- there seems so little of that being done today (then again, if psychology were a science....) Checking the Columbia website, one does find some things that seem at odds with here SciAm piece: (1) She is identified as being one of Bernd Figner (of The Decision Center at Columbia) co-sponsored graduate students (see page 9 on Figner's vita which I link to below) and she is listed as having made the following presentation: Konnikova, M., Figner, B., Mischel, W., & Weber, E. U. (2010). When self-control hurts: Financial risk-taking, stress, and illusory control. Paper presented at the Meeting of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making, St. Louis, USA. One wonders if her SciAm article is some sort of reaction to this kind of research which, I assume, would be somewhat statistical or mathematical. Is decision-making a purely qualitative process (i.e., a "gut reaction") or can it be characterized by math/stat algorithms? Here is Figner's vita: http://www.columbia.edu/~bf2151/CV_Bernd_Figner.pdf (2) Columbia has something called the Center for Decision on Environmental Decisions and Konnikova is listed as being part of it; see: http://cred.columbia.edu/about-cred/people/postdoctoral-fellows-graduate-students/maria-konnikova/ It is unclear with whom she is working with at this center. I first came across the center's webpage when I clicked on Dave Krantz's "lab site" link. Tory Higgins is also associated with the center and it would seem to me that he would be a more likely faculty supervisor but he does not list her on his lab's webpage; see: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/psychology/higgins/people-current.html Well, it appears to me that Konnikova may have some issues to resolve. -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] P.S. Konnikova objects to the use of mathematical techniques essentially to discriminate among texts that can be classified as either "historical" or "fictional". For more detail on this, see: http://iopscience.iop.org/0295-5075/99/2/28002/ Whether or not this is appropriate or useful is, as we say, an empirical question and we'll have to await an answer though Konnikova seemed to have decided the matter. One wonders what her thoughts are on the statistical analysis of the authorship of the Federalist papers; see: http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~gfung/federalist.pdf Is this a meaningless exercise as well? --- 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=19709 or send a blank email to leave-19709-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
