When it comes to diversity training, I know whereof I speak. Having been subjected to 40 weeks worth during psychologist school – and that’s just for starters – I should be as “culturally competent” as they come. If aliens ever visit Earth I should be sent to greet them. …
Denver’s Diversity Training Video and its Place in the Diversity IndustryRead More »
The world is full of pointy things and sad situations. It is also a wonderful place. I was first exposed to that lesson as a toddler. It happened after my yellow balloon escaped while I was playing in the back yard. …
Q: In light of your previous intellectual truck-bombings of such junk-psych as the “conservative crybaby” study, I was interested in getting your opinion on a new study put out by NYU and UCLA’s psych departments claiming that the brains of left-wingers are more “tolerant of ambiguity and conflict” than those of right-wingers, based on a simple letter-recognition test. …
Dial M for Misinterpretation: Psychology’s Latest Attack on ConservativesRead More »
In 1994, the controversial book The Bell Curve examined intelligence in American society and asserted that whites outperform other races on IQ tests. The American Psychological Association was quick to respond, launching a task force to meticulously scrutinize the methodology behind the book. Throughout dozens of publications, a veritable contest took place: who could most eloquently and irrevocably discredit The Bell Curve? The book was called polarizing, biased, and specious. …
Curing Conservatism: Psychology’s Abuse of ResearchRead More »
Last month, I examined one of the studies embraced in the current Psychology Today article, “The Ideological Animal” (Dixit, 2007). That study asserted that conservatives, among numerous other deficits, are lower in openness to experience and integrative complexity than liberals, and that people choose conservatism because it serves to reduce their inherent fear and anxiety (Jost, et al., 2003). The poor dears. …
How to Spot a Broken Study: The Baby Conservative ProjectRead More »
You may have heard the news by now. People who hold conservative political opinions are suffering from a syndrome in need of a cure. How do we know this? Because a professor of psychology has demonstrated it to be so. The news has been getting a lot of press lately. …
A Methodology Critique in Defense of Those Wascally WepublicansRead More »
The crime of domestic violence is given special status in the U.S. criminal justice system. Rather than simply facing financial penalty or incarceration, batterers are often remanded to special treatment programs with the purpose of diverting them from the prison system. The most common forms of treatment for men who abuse women stem from the Duluth model (National Institute of Justice, September 2003). The underlying theory of this model is that batterers act out of a need to control their partners, and that changing the need to control others is the most efficient way to eliminate battering behavior. …
It’s Time for Domestic Violence Treatment to Grow UpRead More »
