Category: Sexism

‘Psychology in Crisis’ is now available

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About the Author

Imprint: 2018
Psychology in Crisis
Author: Brian M. Hughes
Publisher: Palgrave, London

ISBN-10: 1352003007
ISBN-13: 978-1352003000

Click here to view on Palgrave Macmillan
Click here to view on Amazon.co.uk
Click here to view on Amazon.com
Click here to view on Amazon.in
Click here to view on Amazon.co.jp
Click here to view on Barnes & Noble
Click here to view on Book Depository
Click here to view on The Guardian Bookshop
Click here to view on Waterstones
Click here to view on WHSmith

From the cover: Throughout the history of psychology, attempting to objectively measure the highly dynamic phenomenon of human behaviour has given rise to an underappreciated margin of error. Today, as the discipline experiences increasing difficulty in reproducing the results of its own studies, such error not only threatens to undermine psychology’s credibility but also leaves an indelible question: Is psychology actually a field of irreproducible science?

In this thought-provoking new book, author Brian Hughes seeks to answer this very question. In his incisive examination of the various pitfalls that determine ‘good’ or ‘bad’ psychological science – from poor use of statistics to systematic exaggeration of findings – Hughes shows readers how to critique psychology research, enhance its validity and reliability, and understand the strengths and weaknesses of the way psychology research is produced, published, and promulgated in the twenty-first century.

This book is essential reading for students wanting to understand how to better scrutinise psychological research methods and results, as well as practitioners and those concerned with the replication debate.

“Psychology in Crisis is an unflinching tour of the challenges of doing psychological science well. Brian Hughes describes six crises facing psychology that could make one think that all is lost. But it is not. At their core, the crises are illustrations of just how hard it is to study human behavior and, simultaneously, why it is worth doing. Hughes closes with a path toward a science that is robust, transparent, and self-skeptical to help accelerate discovery and ensure that psychology meets its potential as a scientific enterprise.” — Professor Brian Nosek, Professor in psychology at the University of Virginia and Executive Director for the Center for Open Science

Contents

Chapter 1 ‘The Same Again, But Different’: Psychology’s Replication Crisis
Chapter 2 ‘Black Is White’: Psychology’s Paradigmatic Crisis
Chapter 3 ‘Never Mind the Quality, Feel the Width’: Psychology’s Measurement Crisis
Chapter 4 ‘That Which Can Be Measured’: Psychology’s Statistical Crisis
Chapter 5 ‘We Are The World’: Psychology’s Sampling Crisis
Chapter 6 ‘Fitter, Happier, More Productive…’: Psychology’s Exaggeration Crisis
Chapter 7 From Crisis to Confidence: Dealing with Psychology’s Self-Inflicted Crises

‘Rethinking Psychology’ is now available

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Alright, there really is no humble way of putting this. My new book [*blush*], having been trailed as “imminent” for several months, is now officially available. In all good booksellers, as they say (and they actually do say this).

I’ll be having an initial launch event in Galway in late April (details to follow). But in the meantime, here are all the formal bits and pieces you need to know…

rethinking

Imprint: 2016
Rethinking Psychology: Good Science, Bad Science, Pseudoscience
Author: Brian M. Hughes
Publisher: Palgrave, London

ISBN-10: 1137303948
ISBN-13: 978-1137303943

Click here to view on Palgrave
Click here to view on Amazon.co.uk
Click here to view on Amazon.com
Click here to view on Amazon.in
Click here to view on Amazon.co.jp
Click here to view on Barnes & Noble
Click here to view on Book Depository
Click here to view on uRead (India)
Click here to view on Waterstones
Click here to view on WHSmith

From the cover: Psychology is one of the most popular subjects in universities across the world, offering unique insights into the human condition. However, its very popularity threatens to undermine its value as a discipline, and it often attracts those who lack scientific rigour. Taking a fresh look at common practices and pitfalls, Brian Hughes examines the relationship between psychology, science and pseudoscience, and explores the biases impeding many psychologists from being truly rigorous.

“Brian Hughes has written an important and engaging book exploring the relationships between science, pseudoscience, and psychology. He argues persuasively that psychology itself can properly be considered to be a true science but one that is marred within by pockets of pseudoscience. This book should be read by anyone with a serious interest in the subject.” — Professor Christopher French, Goldsmiths, University of London

“Hughes provides a timely and comprehensive reminder of the critical role of science in both academic and professional applications of psychology. It covers an impressive breadth of topics with incisive clarity and illustrates clearly the integral role of scientific approaches to understanding psychological phenomena.” — Dr David Hevey, Trinity College, Dublin

 

Contents

PART I PSYCHOLOGY AND PSEUDOSCIENCE IN THEORY
Chapter 1 What is Science and Why is it Useful?
Chapter 2 What is Pseudoscience and Why is it Popular?
Chapter 3 The Scientific Nature of Psychology
Chapter 4 The Scientific Nature of Psychology
PART II PSYCHOLOGY AND PSEUDOSCIENCE IN PRACTICE
Chapter 5 Examples from the Fringes: From Healing the Mind to Reading the Body
Chapter 6 Examples from the Mainstream: Biological Reductionism as Worldview
Chapter 7 Examples from the Mainstream: What Some People Say about What They Think They Think
PART III PSYCHOLOGY AND PSEUDOSCIENCE IN CONTEXT
Chapter 8 Biases and Subjectivism in Psychology
Chapter 9 Religion, Optimism and their Place in Psychology
Chapter 10 Psychologists at the Threshold: Why Should We Care?

 

“The Point of Psychology (and How it Gets Missed)”: Director’s cut

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Okay, the official movie — featuring full slides and audio — has been made…

Thanks to Chris Noone for the soundtrack (from the official PSI EGG talking-head version); background to the keynote as per here and here.

As a reminder, the audience was a national conference of early career psychology graduates, the conference theme concerned the place of psychology in society, and the abstract I set for myself was as follows:

The Point of Psychology (and How it Gets Missed)

The point of psychology is, and always has been, to use scientific methods to resolve uncertainties in our understanding of the human condition. Nonetheless, many audiences seek to imbue psychology with some kind of mission to “improve people’s well-being” (whatever that means), to “encourage positive behaviours” (whatever they are), or to cure mental ill-health by means of laying-on-of-hands.

In addition, psychology often projects itself as a politically liberal (as opposed to conservative) discipline, despite being an overwhelmingly white, middle class, middle-aged, male academic field shaped by a century of Euro-American hegemony.

This talk will examine these themes, and include at least one joke.

To be fair, people did laugh at the joke.

Enjoy!

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