Psychology’s Misuse of Statistics and Persistent Dismissal of its Critics – eBook

The ebook, Psychology’s Misuse of Statistics and Persistent Dismissal of its Critics, (PDF), is an aggressive critique of the misinterpretation of statistical knowledge of populations in mainstream psychology, evaluating the implications of assuming that those statistics constitute scientific knowledge of individuals. It explores the essential nature and historical roots of this interpretive practice, and documents the lack of change in mainstream thinking irrespective of previous critiques of the practice. The author claims that prevailing interpretive traditions result in bad science, in that irrational claims are made to knowledge of individuals. He also discusses the socio-ethical problems resulting from this misinterpretation of statistics, where psychological practitioners unjustifiably endorse interventions in the lives of individuals. Lamiell motivates psychologists to abandon the aggregate statistical methods which he debates have transformed the field into ‘psycho-demography,’ and to embrace rather than alternative research methods that are logically suited to gaining scientific knowledge about the psychological functioning of individuals. This textbook concludes by highlighting some of the presently available methodological alternatives, along with discussing some enduring conceptual impediments to the serious consideration of those alternatives.

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