[EDIT: Video of lecture now at: http://thesciencebit.net/2015/03/08/the-point-of-psychology-and-how-it-gets-missed-directors-cut/] Slides from keynote lecture by Professor Brian Hughes at the Psychological Society of Ireland Early Graduate Group national conference, 28 February 2015

1. The point of
psychology
(And how it gets missed)
Ψ

8. Outline
(WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS)
• Is Psychology a type of therapy? (No)
• Is Psychology a guide to good behaviour? (No)
• Is Psychology a means of achieving the ‘good life’? (No)
• Is Psychology a virtuous discipline? (No)
• WTF *is* Psychology?!?!

9. Is Psychology a type of therapy?
Ψ

10. The New Treatment of Ataxia by Suspension at
the Salpêtrière (newrepublic.com)
Barley Hall, York, UK (http://www.yorkshire-east-
coast-unofficial-guide.com/)

12. Wampold et al. (1997)

13. Wampold et al. (1997)
p of hypothesis that effect deviates from zero
(i.e., probability that both therapies are the same)

14. Wampold et al. (1997)
“Small” effect size
(d of .21 equivalent to r = .1, or 1% of variance)

15. Strupp & Hadley (1979)

16. Webb et al. (2010)

17. Tracey et al. (2014)
Barriers to Achieving Expertise in Psychotherapy
Cognitive and Information-Processing Factors Affecting Expertise
Failure to Engage Routinely in Deliberate Practice
Inaccuracy of Therapists’ Self-Appraisal of Competence
Lack of Accurate Feedback

18. Things that the effectiveness of
psychotherapy does not
depend on
• Whether the therapist administers one therapy or
another entirely different therapy
• Whether the therapist sticks to the instructions for
administering the therapy
• Whether the therapist knows what they’re doing
• Whether the therapist has been kidnapped and
replaced by an imposter

19. Is Psychology a guide to good
behaviour?
Ψ

20. “Positive” behaviours
• Not littering or polluting the
environment
• Carrying an organ donor card
• Obeying speed limits
• Wearing seatbelts
• Brushing teeth
• Washing hands

21. “Positive” behaviours?
• Smoking less, or not smoking at all
• Drinking less, or not drinking at all
• Eating less junk food, or not eating
junk food at all
• Giving money to charity
• Engaging in voluntary
work
• Doing your homework

22. “Positive” behaviours?
• Avoiding sex during youth

23. “Positive”
behaviours?
• Being heterosexual

24. DSM  “Dominant Social Morals”
• Transvestic disorder
• “A. Over a period of at least six months…recurrent and intense
sexual fantasies, sexual urges, or sexual behaviors involving
cross-dressing
• B. The fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors cause clinically
significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or
other important areas of functioning”
• Situates distress as a psychiatric pathology, rather than as a
consequence of social stigmatisation, transphobia, homophobia,
oppressive gender policing, etc.
• Gender dysphoria
• “people whose gender at birth is contrary to the one they
identify with”
• Why exactly is this a psychiatric diagnosis?

25. “Positive”
behaviours?
• Not attempting
to flee from
slavery

26. “Positive” behaviours?
• Disciplining
children by
hitting
them*
(*NB: Not the face!)

27. Is Psychology a means of achieving
the ‘good life’?
Ψ

28. “Positive psychology”
•By pitching a positivity-negativity axis,
invokes a particular (i.e., arbitrary)
moral frame of reference
•Promotes satisfaction with the status
quo, discourages dissent
•Falls foul of the person-situation
controversy

29. Is Psychology a virtuous discipline?
Ψ

32. Inbar & Lammers
(2012)

34. On “women's [under-]representation in tenured positions in
science and engineering at top universities”:
• “…different availability of aptitude at the high end…”
• “…in the special case of science and engineering, there are issues of intrinsic
aptitude, and particularly of the variability of aptitude…”
• “I did a very crude calculation [regarding sex differences in grade-school
maths]…you get five to one, at the high end”
• “…combination of the ‘high-powered job hypothesis’ and the differing
variances probably explains a fair amount of this problem.”

35. http://www.ehow.com/info_8783846_difference-between-qualitative-quantitative-
approaches.html

38. “Peer-reviewed journals, positivist epistemology, and
quantitative methods
The Psychologist
(2006)
On behalf of the British
Psychological Society’s
Standing Committee for
the Promotion of Equal
Opportunities
“[In addressing discrimination against women] the
new Qualitative Methods in Psychology Section should
also provide an important forum…” (p. 96)
work...to reduce women’s
participation in psychology.” (p. 96)

39. Hyde (2005; 2014)

41. HTTP://XKCD.COM/385/

42. WTF *is* Psychology?!?!
Ψ

43. Hyde et al. (2008). Science, 321,494-5

44. 441 samples
Total n = 1,286,350
Total effect size, d = 0.05
≈ 0.0625% of variance
» 99.9375% of variability
in scores due to factors
other than gender
Lindberg et al. (2010). Psych Bull, 136(6),1123-35

45. Issue AdvocatePure Scientist
Honest Broker
of Policy
Alternatives
Science Arbiter
Stakeholder modelLinear model
View of science
View of
democracy
Pielke, R. A., Jr. (2007). The honest broker: Making sense of science in policy and
politics. Cambridge: University Press.
Bottom-up
Top-down
Psychology, psychologists,
and values

46. Values psychology
does NOT have
• Altruism
• Inclusivity
• Equality
• Justice
• Liberalism
• Positivity
• Hope
Values psychology
DOES have
• Objectivity
• Transparency
• Clarity
• Accuracy
• Rigour
• Honesty

47. The Point of Psychology
• The use of empirical methods to resolve
uncertainties in our understanding of the human
condition
• Like gossip or punditry, but with independently
verifiable data
• Psychology’s key strength is its objectivity
• Whenever psychology self-describes as ‘liberal’ or
‘progressive’, it loses credibility as when being
maligned as ‘masculinist’ or 'Western’

48. • Is Psychology a tool with which to pursue and
promote social justice? (Yes)
• When psychologists obstruct social progress, it is
usually because they are bad at psychology
• Injustices and inequality are -- by definition --
demonstrable
• Resolutions rely on more and better clarity, more and
better accuracy, more and better verifiability, more and
better replicability, more and better objectivity, etc.
• Fleeing science is not a solution, fleeing science is what
they want you to do
The Point of Psychology