Self Help – When Scientists Go Wild…

1. Make Outlandish claims with no science to back them up (ex: can cure illnesses and lose weight and stop smoking, etc.). Remember that “Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence”.
2. Depend on anecdotes and testimonials. Problems with this:
   • Self-serving bias: people take personal credit when things go well in their lives
   • Hindsight Bias: success is judged by looking backward: even psychotherapy can’t be confidently judged as having been helpful in this way (feeling better could be the result of maturation or simply cognitive dissonance)
   • Fundamental attribution error: we think other people are successful because of their internal traits
   • An article was recently published in Scientific American which sheds some light on why anecdotes and testimontials are so convincing. The article is called How Anecdotal Evidence Can Undermine Scientific Results and was written by well-known skeptic Michael Shermer. Here’s a quote:
     

     …we have evolved brains that pay attention to anecdotes because false positives (believing there is a connection between A and B when there is not) are usually harmless, whereas false negatives (believing there is no connection between A and B when there is) may take you out of the gene pool. Our brains are belief engines that employ association learning to seek and find patterns. Superstition and belief in magic are millions of years old, whereas science, with its methods of controlling for intervening variables to circumvent false positives, is only a few hundred years old. So it is that any medical huckster promising that A will cure B has only to advertise a handful of successful anecdotes in the form of testimonials.

3. Claim that "everything happens for a reason": or "nothing happens by chance". Problem: confirmation bias and hindsight bias – we look for information that confirms our beliefs.
4. Propose solutions to human problems that are too simplistic: “Happiness is a choice”, or (from the movie “The Natural”): “Losing is a disease” or, “Thoughts are habits – you just have to change your habit.”
5. Make unfalsifiable claims: “you succeed or you fail because of your thoughts” (prob: “you weren’t thinking positively enough”), “I create my reality”, “I create everything in my life.”
6. Use no references or citations: there has been a lot of research on what makes people happy. Why wouldn’t a self help book discuss some of these findings? Also, some books don’t give credit to the founders and developers of the concepts that are discussed in these books: Albert Ellis, Aaron Beck, or Martin Seligman.
7. Reference something that is not measurable: ex: law of attraction, law of abundance, law of prosperity, or refer to some “force”. The law of gravity: you can’t see gravity but you can measure it.
8. Make statements that can result in blaming the victim. Ex: “That person failed because he/she didn’t think positively enough.”
9. Make references to authority figures – the Buddha, Christ, shamans, ancient priests, Hopi Indians, etc., and claim that they would all agree with you. It’s not that such people didn’t understand some trughts about life, but is the author hiding behind these people – hoping that no one would attack them because that would mean attacking these famous people. Also, just because someone famous said it doesn’t make it true.
10. Give out ordinary advice wrapped around a lot of flowery language. Examples: “work hard”, “set high goals”, “learn from your mistakes”, “give customers more than they expect”, etc. – you don’t need to refer to a “law” or some “force” for this advice to work. It’s just plain good advice. Scientists prefer parsimony – the simplest explanation for events.
11. Have a “slick salesman” appearance: frequent requests for money or subscription to other services.
12. Mis-represent psychology: “It’s a fundamental law in psychology that you get more of whatever you focus on.” There is no such law.
13. Overemphasize the role of your thoughts. Your thoughts may not be the cause of your sad feelings. You may need to look inside and examine some emotional trauma, crisis or poor parenting. Or, if you can change some undesirable behavior your thoughts may change as a result. Or, your negative thoughts may be the result of a biochemical imbalance.
14. Claim that positive thinking can address serious mental illnesses like chronic depression, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders or PTSD.

Conclusion

• Why do we like self-help books? They give us a sense of control over our lives. There’s a lot of randomness in life. Bad things happen to good people. That can be a scary thought.
• It’s uplifting, it’s comforting to listen and to read these books.
• Humans are pattern seekers – we see patterns even when they don’t exist.
• We like to feel that life has meaning.
• Our biases (self-serving, hindsight, fundamental attribution error, etc.) lead us astray.
• Human behavior is multi-determined and complex
• Critical thinking is hard. There is value in being a critical thinker; in thinking like a scientist. Some self help books promote “mushy thinking” which can make you gullible. You’re less gullible when you think critically.

Recommendations

• Apply the ideas above and do your own evaluation. Lots of self-help books so have good ideas.
• Look for a book that has citations in the back or which discusses the research. You really can study happiness and a lot of research has been done on what helps to make people feel good about themselves. There is plenty of research to cite.
• Understand the limitations of self help books. They probably are not going to help with serious psychological illnesses.

Correction

My colleague professor Blaine Peden pointed out to me that there actually are more than laws in psychology than the two I mention in the episode. Some additional ones include:

• The Gestalt Laws of Perception (similarity, pragnanz, etc.): as Dr. Peden points out: “At best these are qualitative, and there status as laws is up for debate (but they are listed as such in many textbooks–both introductory and for perception courses)”. I can’t believe I forgot about these Gestalt laws. You can learn more about them in a popular video episode of The Psych Files called Lemon Slices and a New Face on Mars! Gestalt Principles at Work
• Emmert’s Law: a quantitative relationship regarding the size of an after image and its distance to a surface. Here’s a link to another description from wikipedia.
• Matching Law: Dr. Peden: Richard Herrnstein published the quantitative statement and it is supported by a large operant literature. More on this law in wikipedia, and on the Harvard University Press site.

If you like this list feel free to distribute it to colleagues, students, or friends. I only ask that you retain the information about this podcast when you give this document to others: click here to download the list in Microsoft Word format.

Click Here to Hear All My Episodes On Positive Thinking

Resources on The Mozart Effect

• Here is a case study on the Mozart Effect written by Lisa Hager from the Psychology Department at Spring Hill College.
• If you’re looking for a very nice (and brief) summary of the main issues and concerns regarding the Mozart effect, you’ll find it in chapter 2 of a very fine book called Readings in Pseudoscience and the Paranormal
• Dr. Steele mentions a study on music lessons and IQ that was conducted by E. Glenn Schellenberg. Here is a link to Dr. Schellenberg’s website where you can download pdf’s of his research as well as his response to Dr. Steele’s concerns regarding his studies.
• Here’s an interesting article: The Mozart effect: Tracking the evolution of a
  scientific legend by Adrian Bangerter and Chip Heath from the Department of Psychology and the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. Note: clicking this link will automatically download a pdf to your computer.
• Mozart Doesn’t Make You Clever.

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• Is music the key to academic gains?

Image via Wikipedia

Resources on The Mozart Effect

Today’s interviewee, Dr. Kenneth Steele, has conducted a great deal of research on the so-called “Mozart effect” and here is a link to his website where you can find links to download many of his research articles. Here are the ones I used in preparation for this episode:

• Steele, K. M. (2006). Unconvincing evidence that rats show a Mozart effect. Music Perception, 23, 455-458
• Steele, K. M. (2003). Do rats show a Mozart effect? Music Perception, 21, 251-265
• Steele, K. M. (2001). The “Mozart Effect”: An example of the scientific method in operation. Psychology Teacher Network, 11, 2-5
• Steele, K. M., Bass, K. E., & Crook, M. D. (1999). The mystery of the Mozart effect: Failure to replicate. Psychological Science, 10, 366-369
• Steele, K. M., Brown, J. D., & Stoecker, J. A. (1999). Failure to confirm the Rauscher and Shaw description of recovery of the Mozart effect. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 88, 843-848

Other Resources of Interest on the Mozart Effect:

• The originators of the mozart effect are Francis Rauscher and Gordon Shaw. Here is Francis Raucher‘s website at the University of Wisconson OshKosh
• Thanks to Prof. Linda Holzer, Coordinator of Classical Piano Studies at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock for the Mozart piano music you hear underneath much of the interview.
• The actual piece of Mozart’s music played during Dr. Raucher’s studies is the first movement of Mozart’s Sonata for 2 pianos in D major, K. 448.
• The Skeptic’s Dictionary website (by Robert Carroll, Ph.D.) has an excellent article on the Mozart Effect.
• The Stanford Report wrote an excellent article about the dubious nature of the Mozart Effect.

Magician’s Penn and Teller like to debunk dubious ideas, and they address the Mozart Effect in this video, from YouTube. Warning: the video contains some strong language:

Today’s Sponsor is Audible. Feel free to check out Audible’s huge library of downloadable audio, including a great deal of educational audio.

Resources on Motivation and Getting in Shape

• I highly recommend the Fitness Rocks podcast which is hosted by Dr. Monte Ladner. Excellent podcast. I’m a subscriber.
• The article that appeared in UCLA’s Daily Bruin entitled, "Food Restriction Not Effective Long-Term Weight-Loss Solution" is no longer available online, but this is the one that mentions how some students are trying a lemonade diet to lose weight, not understanding that severe calorie restriction results in the body going into "starvation mode " and actually results in less weight loss. Here’s a quote from that article:
  

  Not eating enough food may become a problem because of metabolism decrease. When consuming fewer calories, the body thinks it is in starvation mode, so it wants to hold on to whatever calories it can and in fact will store them even more efficiently, said Dana Ellis, a cardiac dietitian at the UCLA Medical Center. As a result of food deprivation, the body starts to store every calorie as fat, according to an article by Sheri Barke, a dietitian at the UCLA Arthur Ashe Health and Wellness Center.

• You may have heard of the young man who is using the Nintendo Wii program called Wii Fitness to lose weight. Check out his site. Interesting if nothing else.

Click on the image below to see a larger version of the Expectancy Theory of Motivation:

Check out below the voicethread I created to explain exactly how expectancy theory works using weight loss as an example. Click on the image below to listen and watch (use your mouse to move around) or go to this image on expectancy theory at the voicethread website. Sign up (it 's free) and you can comment on this image as well!

[voicethread b=136344]

After reviewing the study I’ll take a look at a couple articles that cite the good samaritan parable and ask the question: what does the results of this study imply about the value of character education, virtues programs, codes of ethics, citizenship and ethical behavior in general?

The Good Samaritan Parable (Luke 10: 27-37)

Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus…”And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down the road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by the other side. but a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers? He said, The one who showed him mercy” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

Resources on Helping Behavior

• Darley, J. M. & Batson, C. D. (1973) From Jerusalem to Jericho: a study of situational and dispositional variables in helping behavior, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 27(1), 100 – 119.
• Samuels, S.M. and Casebeer, W.D. (2005). A social psychological view of morality: why knowledge of situational influences on behaviour can improve character development practices. Journal of Moral Education, 34, 73-87.
• Kotre, J. (1992). Experiments as Parables. American Psychologist, 672-673.

Episodes on Bystander Intervention and other Good Stories

• What Really Happened to Kitty Genovese?
• Leon Festinger’s Cognitive Dissonance Study.
• John Watson’s study on Little Albert.
• Sherif’s Robber’s Cave study on group conflict.

Other Experiments as Parables

• Festinger, L., & Carlsmith, J. M. (1959). Cognitive consequences of forced compliance.
  Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 58, 203-210
• Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral study of obedience. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology,
  67, 371-378.
• Asch, S. E. (1951). Effects of group pressure upon the modification and distortion of judgment. In H. Guetzkow (ed.) Groups, leadership and men. Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Press.
• Watson, J.B. & Rayner, R. (1920). Conditioned Emotional Reactions. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 3, 1-14.

Image via Wikipedia

Kitty Genovese: what you know about what happened to her is wrong.

Kitty Genovese was repeatedly attacked while others watched and did nothing – right?

Wrong.

While the story lead to a long and successful line of research in the area of bystander intervention and diffusion of responsibility, the facts of the story are incorrect.

What are the facts behind the Kitty Genovese case and if groups are so unlikely to help, how do you explain how people came together to help at 911? Let’s take another look at the legacy of this famous story in this episode.

Thirty-Eight Witnesses: The Kitty Genovese Case (Melville House Classic Journalism) List Price: $14.95 Price: $5.98 Read Reviews

Resources For This Podcast

• Here’s a link to the homepage of the American Psychologist journal. The article of interest is called “The Kitty Genovese Murder and the Social Psychology of Helping: The Parable of the 38 Witneses” by Rachel Manning, Mark Levine, and Alan Collins. You’ll need to get the article from your library however, as it is not available online.

• Here is an interesting article from the online magazine American Heritage called Nightmare on Austin Street which also covers the facts behind the Genovese case. Thanks to Chris Green for this link.

The Bully, the Bullied, and the Bystander: From Preschool to HighSchool--How Parents and Teachers Can Help Break the Cycle (Updated Edition) List Price: $14.99 Price: $5.93 Read Reviews

• Rachel Manning’s UWE webpage.

• Mark’s Lancaster University webpage.

• Alan’s Lancaster University webpage.

• There is a great deal of information about what really happened to Kitty Genovese on the Kew Gardens website.

• Here’s a video showing how the “smoke under the door” scenario results in a lack of helping:
  

• Interesting video on Helping Behavior on YouTube.

• If you’re a Psych Teacher you should definitely join the Teaching In the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) discussion list to stay in touch with your "virtual colleagues" as I do.

• Another great discussion group for psychology teachers is PsychTeacher.

Resources On Extreme Sports

• Personality Psychology website at Arcadia. This site has a lot of great resources on personality. Highly recommended.
• Take the sensation-seeking scale here.
• Lots of resources on personality can be found at the Personality Pedagogy site.
• A nice overview of Sensation Seeking can be found in Motivation Theories and Pinciples 5th edition by Robert Beck.
• Biopsychology by John Pinel has some excellent illustrations and extensive explanations on how neurotransmitters work.
• Interesting in Time Magazine online called, Why We Take Risks: It’s the Dopamine.

Media Resources for this Episode

• Thanks to the band 3Kisses for allowing me to use “It’s Not About You” for the soundtrack to my extreme snowmobile chase.
• Extreme Bungee on YouTube.
• Here’s the YouTube video showing the extreme hang gliding video featured in this episode.
• The snowmobile chase machinima was made with the video game Stuntman: Ignition
• Here’s a link to one of the many machinima sites.

Need to memorize the parts of the brain? This will help:

Resources For This Episode

• Click to read the article in New York Magazine by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman about the psychology of sleep.
• Here’s an article entitled, "Sleep Builds Long Term Memories" which explains from a neurological perspective why sleep is essential to long term learning
• The Memory Book: The Classic Guide to Improving Your Memory at Work, at School, and at Play

Mnemonic Techniques:

• Acronyms: “Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge” and ROY G BIV
• Rhyme – “30 days has September”
• method of Loci
• Pegword (“one is a bun”)
• Keywords

Resources for this Podcast

• Perceptual Set Experiment: go here to do the “Man on a horse” experiment I created. You can run this experiment on your friends, or even use it for a project in class. Have fun with it and let me know if you’ve got any feedback/suggestions. NOTE: The control condition is the “condition 1″ button (random pictures which are unrelated to the man on the horse). The experimental condition is the “condition 2″ button (pictures of animals which should help the viewer more easily see the man on the horse).

Here are a few sites which further explain some of the Gestalt principles of organization:

• You can learn how psychological gestalt principles apply to web design at the Web Design for Instruction site
• And more about psychological gestalt principles from the Spokane Falls Community College Graphic Design website.
• Here’s the NASA site where you’ll find the “Face On Mars” pictures.
• Here’s a good site which describes the gestalt principles. It’s from the Interaction Design website.

Here is a slideshow of some of the images used in this episode. Roll over the bottom of the box below to see thumbnails of all the images which you can click on to examine any of the photos in more detail.

Resources For This Podcast

• Michael Shermer’s book, Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time is also an excellent book on the kinds of thinking that lead us astray. This is the book I mention in the podcast where Mr. Shermer took a tour through the Edgar Casey museum and took the ESP “test”.
• Carl Sagan’s book, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, is also a very readable book regarding why we believe strange things.
• If you are teaching or learning statistics you might want to take a look at the Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education. Also, the Rice Virtual Lab in Statistics has a humor section that you might like. Thanks to professor Blaine Peden for suggesting these sites.
• Want more statistics jokes? Check out Gary C. Ramseyer’s Internet Gallery of Statistics Jokes, for more jokes on statistics than you asked for. Again thanks to Professor Peden for this link.
• Correction: In the podcast I said that Mur Lafferty was the host of the Grammar Girl. Actually Mignon Fogarty is the host and here is the link to the Grammar Girl. Mur Lafferty is the host of another interesting podcast called I Should Be Writing.
• Here is the TED talks presentation by Peter Donnelly. Fascinating.