Hines Chapter 1 The Nature of Pseudoscience
Hines' Definition of Pseudoscience - "A doctrine or belief system that pretends to be a science."
Hines' Three Characteristics of a Pseudoscience:
1. They are made up of hypotheses that are "Unfalsifiable," Hines favorite example is "psychoanalysis." E.g., Freud posits that all men have latent homosexual tendencies, if they claim they don't, then it is due to "repression."
2. They are unwilling to look closely or critically at the phenomena they claim (e.g, evidence for bigfoot?) even though such things CAN be studied scientifically.
3. They try to place the burden of proof on the "skeptic" where it does NOT belong (e.g., how can one prove 100% that UFOs don't exist?). The burden of proof belongs with the claimant. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.
The Cottingly Photos - A series of photographs were taken in the small English town of Cottingly by cousins Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths in the 1920s. The photos showed the girls interacting with real "fairies" and created a sensation.
1. The fairies were eventually identified as being "cutouts" from a popular children's book.
2. Carful analysis of the photos revealed thin threads hanging the cutouts from bushes.
3. It also came out that one of the girls worked part time for an uncle who owned a photo shop.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - English author who created the character of Sherlock Holmes (and a friend of Harry Houdini). He believed the Cottingly fairies were real and wrote a book on the subject.
Pseudoscience and the Paranormal - Accd. to Hines, the paranormal is a "subset" of pseudoscience. What sets it apart is a reliance upon explanations that are beyond the bounds of established science. ESP and ghosts are "paranormal," whereas claims for various health related gadgets, diets, and supplements are pseudoscientific but NOT paranormal.
Scientific Mistakes (N-Rays, Polywater, and Cold Fusion):
I. Rene Blondlot, N-Rays - He believed he had discovered a new form of radiation he called "N-Rays" (named for the University of Nancy).
1. They brightened electric sparks and rendered objects painted with a particular chemical "luminous."
2. They were blocked by lead (like X rays).
Robert Wood, and others, were skeptical. By arranging an experiment with Blondlot, and then secretly reversing the conditions (basically tricking Blondlot), Wood proved that N-Rays did NOT exist.
II. Fedyakin and Polywater (anomalous water) - It had a number of distinct properties.
1. Higher boiling point than normal water.
2. Lower freezing point than normal water.
3. Fedyakin claimed it to be a "purer" form of the water molecule and several hundred papers on the topic appeared during the 1960s.
It turned out that the properties of polywater were due to impurities "leaching" out of the glass tubes in which it was created and stored.
III. Pons and Fleishman and Cold Fusion - Cold fusion, if it existed, has the potential to solve our energy problems. Pons and Fleischman concluded they had succeeded because (1) their "cells" gave off heat and (2) emitted "gamma rays."
Scientists were skeptical because they called a "news conference" BEFORE their findings had been peer reviewed or published in a scholarly journal. Hines points out two reasons why even the best intentioned scientists may perpetuate a false belief.
1. When attempts at replicating an exciting new finding are made, some are bound to show positive results.
2. Findings in support of the "hypothesis" tend to be focused upon while findings that refute the hypothesis tend to be disregarded.
Defending Untenable Claims - is not limited to pseudoscience. As these examples show, it occurs in the more traditional sciences as well.
CSICOP (Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal) - was formed in 1976 by a group of scientists, educators, and others. They were becoming concerned with "how easily the public accepted almost any pseudoscientific claim."
Conspiracy Theories - This will be the first of a number of times I disagree with Hines. It does show that he has some biases of his own! (we all do).
Why Study Pseudoscientific Claims? (4 reasons):
I. The Claims might be true:
1. Mesmerism (hypnosis) - was discredited in the 1700s. Today, though controversial, it is recognized as a legitimate phenomenon worthy of study.
2. Rocks Falling From the Sky? - today we know that meteorites are real.
3. Accupuncture - early reports sounded farfetched. Again, though contriversial, it is now considered worthy of scientific study.
II. Responsibility to Inform the Public:
1. Health and Nutrition quackery costs the American public $10 billion a year.
III. Psychological Issues:
1. It is important to study "perception" and "cognitive illusions" which can contribute to continued belief in pseudoscientific phenomena.
IV. Dangers of Paranormal Claims (3):
1. Consumer Fraud - Hines points to "faith healing" and "psychic surgery." These can take money from, and cause extreme harm to, all but esp. the ill, the desperate, and the elderly.
2. The Witch Crazes - Thousands of people were burned, tortured , or hanged during European witch crazes during the 14th and 18th centuries.
3. "Occult" ideas and beliefs played a role in the rise of Nazism during the 1930s.
Hines Warns - If we accept relatively benign pseudoscientific claims (e.g., astrology and psychic prediction), then it becomes easier to accept more potentially dangerous claims (e.g., that cancer can be psychically healed, that one race is superior to all others). Is this a simple issue?
Hines Also Says - Truth is independent of belief. Is it?
Hines Chapter 5 Psychoanalysis
Why Freud's Psychoanalysis Has "Survived" - According to Hines, because of the "unfalsifiability" of its concepts.
The Central Role of, and Problem with, "Repression" - According to Hines, a major problem with psychoanalytic dream interpretation is that the concept of repression can be used to support and defend any interpretation, no matter how "absurd."
Hines' Critique of Breger, Hunter, and Lane (1971) - Breger, Hunter, and Lane (1971) had judges analyze the dream contents of patients on the days before their surgeries. They concluded that an upcoming surgery was "symbolically" represented in the dreams of the patients. The major flaw with this study was that: the judges knew what type of surgery each patient was facing prior to analyzing the dreams.
Hobson and McCarley's Dream Theory - States that dreams are triggered by random bursts of neural activity the efforts of our brains to make some sense of that activity. Events from the day or important issues that have been "on our mind" do show up in dreams but in a pretty straightforward manner, not needing "interpretation."
Wilhelm Fleiss, Nasal Reflex Neurosis, and Freud - Fleiss (inventor of biorhythms and friend of Freud) believed that the nose was a secondary sex organ and that physical problems there led to neurosis. Fleiss botched a surgery on a woman, Emma Eckstein, resulting in severe bleeding from the nose. According to Hines, Freud (whom she was also seeing) concluded that the bleeding was a symptom of "Emma's sexual longing Freud."
Freud on Leonardo - Freud applied his methods of analysis to historical figures. In his psychohistory of DaVinci, he interpreted a childhood dream or fantasy (involving a bird placing its tail in Leonardo's mouth) as an indication of Leonardo's homosexuality. I agree with Hines that this does not prove Leonardo was homosexual, however, I don't quite follow his line of reasoning.
Hines' and Joyce's "The Dubliners" - According to Hines, an instructor of his, interpreted the presence of "snow" in the short story to be a psychosexual representation of "semen," indicating that Joyce had doubts about his masculinity. Hines, of course, disagrees.
Theories of Psychosexual Development, Freud's Fecal Fascination, and "Reaction Formation" - Hines points out that Freudian theory can be made to fit any type of personality outcome and type of toilet training. If the adult is overly neat and rigid, strict parenting seems to fit. A messy and sloppy adult must have had permissive parenting. However, if we see the opposite (messy offspring of strict parents) we can call upon the defense mechanism of "reaction formation" to explain how the child (made anxious by the strict parenting) became messy and sloppy as retaliation and protection. All of this is "POST HOC" and so offers no explanation at all.
Eysenck and Wilson on Klein's (1968) Study Utilizing the "Blackie Pictures"- Subjects reported how much they were bothered by a picture of Blackie doing his business (#2). These reports were correlated with scores on a paper and pencil test of obsessive compulsiveness and Klein concluded that those scoring high on OC had strict toilet training. Problems:
1. The actual toilet training of the subjects was unknown so causality can't be inferred.
2. The Blackie Pictures Test is a "projective test" and these are notorious for their low validity.
3. Most importantly, Eysenck and Wilson (1973) offer a much simpler explanation: People who are "neat" and "tidy" will score higher on questionnaire measures of obsessive compulsiveness and they will also likely be more distressed by themes involving defecation and fecal matter than will less OC folks.
"Strangers in Dreams: An Empirical Confirmation of the Oedipus Complex" - Hall (1963) observed that, relative to females, the dreams of males featured more males, were more aggressive, and aggression was more often directed at males than females. According to Hines, Hall ignores the obvious, that this just reflects everyday life.
Eysenck and Wilson on Schwartz's TAT study - Hines cites a study by Schwartz (1956) in which responses to the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) were taken as evidence that homosexual men had poorer psychological adjustment than heterosexual men. Eysenck and Wilson (1973) suggest that these differences were due to social and psychiatric attitudes toward homosexuality at that time rather than to causes relating to psychoanalytic theory. At the time, DSM considered homosexuality a psychiatric "disorder."
Repression and the Unconscious:
The Two "Real" Causes of "Infant Amnesia" - Hines notes that "infant amnesia" has long been used to support the repression concept. Hines suggests that it is more likely that infant amnesia is due to the following two factors:
1. lack of development of the hippocampi before age 4 or 5 and.
2. very young children not yet having the use of language for encoding events.
Unconscious Cognitive Processes - Hines recognizes that we do process information unconsciously (e.g., the word "king" will prime or quicken response time to the word "queen" in reaction time studies). However, he says, this is a very different kind of processing than Freud posits in no way validates the Freudian notion of unconscious processes.
Recovered Memories and Claims of Abuse:
The Freudian Concept of Repression - Is cited by Hines as being central to the repressed (or recovered) memory hysteria that took place in the late 1980s.
E. Sue Bloom - In her book "Secret Survivor," suggested that half (50%) of all women were sexually abused as children. While a serious problem, this estimate is a gross exaggeration.
Repressed Memory Therapy - Refers to the patient "recovering" the memories and confronting the abuser. According to Hines was another dangerous aspect of this movement. Many parents were unjustly accused and much damage was done.
Elizabeth Loftus - Has produced a huge volume of work showing just how malleable memories are. A memory is NOT like a photo or film. It is a "reconstruction." We recall bits and pieces and then we (or worse someone else)
fills in the blanks.
Where Recovered Memories of Childhood Abuse Begin - Is usually in the office of a well meaning but over-zealous and/or incompetent therapist.
Hines Cites Four Methods Used in Recovering Lost Memories:
1. Hypnosis.
2. Support group participation.
3. Guided imagery techniques.
4. Drugs such as sodium pentathol.
The McMartin Preschool Case and Anatomically Correct Dolls - Hines cites the "McMartin Preschool Case" as being probably the most infamous case of innocent people being accused of child abuse. He takes particular issue with the use of anatomically correct dolls that was used in this and other similar cases.
Projective Tests and The "Illusory Correlation":
The Rorschach and Anastasi - Hines cites the Rorschach as being the classic example of a "projective test." He also cites an expert in the field of psychological testing, Anna Anastasi, as stating that "after five decades of negative results, the status of projective techniques remains substantially unchanged" (i.e., lacking in reliability and validity).
The Illusory correlation - Refers to an incorrect belief that there is a correlation between two things when there really is none (e.g., drawing a picture of a man with broad shoulders means the artist is worried about his masculinity).
(Chapman and Chapman, 1967) - Utilizing the Draw a Person (DAP) test, presented college student judges with a drawing (man with broad shoulders) and two statements, one of which describing a symptom of the person who supposedly drew the picture (1. paranoid, 1. worried about manliness). Although there was really no connection at all between the pictures and the symptoms described, the student judges did perceive relationships between the pictures and symptoms described.
(Chapman and Chapman, 1969) - Showed that trained clinicians were subject to the illusory correlation as well.
Does Psychoanalytic Therapy work? - Hines (and I) cite a number of factors that make it difficult to determine if it (or any type of therapy) works.
1. The placebo effect - is huge with any type of psychotherapy.
2. Spontaneous Remission - with so many people in therapy at any given time, there will be cases where their problems just go away.
3. Regression to the Mean - People seek out therapy when at their worst, so as time goes by their symptoms are likely to decrease with or without therapy.
Smith, Glass, & Miller (1980) - In a very well known meta analytic study demonstrated that talk therapies are better than doing nothing. All types of therapy were about equal.
Prioleau, Murdock, & Brody (1983) - However, found that talk therapies show almost no greater effectiveness than placebo therapies.
Professionals vs. Non-Professionals - Two reviews (Durlak, 1979; Hattie, Sharpley, & Rogers, 1984) initially claimed that patients treated by professionals actually DID WORSE than patients treated by untrained paraprofessionals.