Re: [tips] more junk science and what to do about it

[Gerald Peterson]

What about the "big name" positive psychologists? It implies they were involved 
or consulting on this program? Do they make a few bucks for having their names 
and pictures used? 
However, I am not sure such issues are new or peculiar to Positive psychology, 
or that over-generalizing and making causal claims for correlational research 
is rare in our field. 


G.L. (Gary) Peterson,Ph.D
Psychology@SVSU


> On Nov 9, 2015, at 12:39 AM, Annette Taylor  wrote:
> 
>  
> A colleague sent me this link about a new program that will make you happy 
> and that it is "supported by science."
> 
> http://my.happify.com/o/lp32/?fl=1===HRX4AZRF65=RON=300x250=SadBrain
> 
> I decided to look up some of the books on which the website is based, on 
> Amazon, and peruse the reviews. I was flabbergasted when I saw that the book 
> Hardwiring Happiness had such high reviews: 66% of 279 reviews were for 5 
> stars! So I thought Wow, let me read the 1 star reviews, must be some unhappy 
> few people out there: and there I found what I expected to find. The book 
> HUGELY oversells the power of imaging studies to promote conclusions that 
> cannot possibly be reached with such studies. We just covered Brainwashed in 
> my critical thinking seminar and it seems that most of what I could access in 
> this book for free on Amazon fell into exactly all the traps that Brainwashed 
> mentions.
> 
> So how can they find so very many people to write such high praise for this 
> book? I'm flabbergasted.
> 
> To quote from the Amazon cite: "Hardwiring Happiness lays out a simple method 
> that uses the hidden power of everyday experiences to build new neural 
> structures full of happiness, love, confidence, and peace."
>  
> BTW no review in psycritiques
> 
> Then we have this guy: Shawn Achor received a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard 
> University and a Master of Arts in Christian and Buddhist Ethics from Harvard 
> Divinity School to promote this website based on his best-selling and highly 
> (over???) rated book, Before Happiness. This is also not reviewed in 
> psycritiques but his previous book is, The Happiness Advantage, and it is 
> royally slammed for what it is: sham. Here are a few quotes: "Surely someone 
> the New York Times describes as “A big star . . . a world-famous expert” 
> (back cover blurb) would not mistake a largely correlational and unreplicated 
> body of research for causal mechanisms of critical business outcomes!" and 
> "Positive psychology is often criticized for rushing flimsy correlational 
> research to market and peddling it as causal truth (e.g., Lazarus, 2003). 
> Critics will find the apotheosis of their foil in this book...If Salvador 
> Dali had partnered with P. T. Barnum, they could hardly have produced a more 
> ludicrous, fantastical overstatement of what “more than a decade” of positive 
> psychology research has discovered."
>  
> HOW DO WE COMBAT THIS? People are flocking to this junk and loving it and 
> spending lots of $$ on it.
>  
> I am going to write a book...I am going to put in it every single bit of 
> "Influence" (see Ciadini's work) that I can. I will retire, finally
>  
> Annette
> 
> The rest of the positive psychology coaches promoting this website don't 
> deserve mention--all of these magic bullet, quick fix authors! Penn & Teller 
> have a fabulous bullshit! episode on self-helplessness.
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Annette Kujawski Taylor, Ph. D.
> Visiting Professor,
> Ashoka University, Delhi, India
> annette.tay...@ashoka.edu.in
> Professor, Psychological Sciences
> University of San Diego
> tay...@sandiego.edu
> 
> 
> From: Annette Taylor
> Sent: Sunday, November 08, 2015 3:53 AM
> To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)
> Subject: RE: illusion
> 
> Thanks to Miguel Roig who sent me the picture that immediately showed itself 
> to be a razor blade! I don't know if the image I am attaching here will show 
> up but turn it around by 90 degrees. Then imagine a bit of foreshortening and 
> a bit of converging lines at the distance so that the lower part seems to 
> have a larger end than the farther end.
> 
> Annette
> 
> 
> Annette Kujawski Taylor, Ph. D.
> Visiting Professor,
> Ashoka University, Delhi, India
> annette.tay...@ashoka.edu.in
> Professor, Psychological Sciences
> University of San Diego
> tay...@sandiego.edu
> 
> 
> From: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) digest 
> [tips@fsulist.frostburg.edu]
> Sent: Saturday, November 07, 2015 10:00 PM
> To: tips digest recipients
> Subject: tips digest: November 07, 2015
> 
> TIPS Digest for Saturday, November 07, 2015.
> 
> 1. Illusion?
> 2. Re: Illusion?
> 3. Re: Illusion?
> 4. Re: Illusion?
> 5. RE: Illusion?
> 6. RE: Illusion?
> 7. Re: Illusion?
> 
> --
> 
> Subject: Illusion?
> From: Jim Matiya 
> 

Re: [tips] more junk science and what to do about it

[Jeffry Ricker, Ph.D.]

On Nov 9, 2015, at 7:17 AM, Michael Scoles  wrote:

> 
> Gottman?

Why not? For decades, he has been telling parents to focus on the develoment of 
emotional intelligence in their children. For example, in 1997, he passed on 
the advice of his mentor, Haim Ginott:”You want to raise a mensch who is a 
strong person” (See: 
http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/5847/do-you-want-to-raise-a-mensch-psychology-researcher-tells-how/
 )  I’m not sure that positive psychology is equivalent to “menschian 
psychology,” but the two would seem to have similarities. 

-- 
-
Jeffry Ricker, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology
-
Social/Behavioral Sciences
Scottsdale Community College
9000 E. Chaparral Road
Scottsdale, AZ 85256-2626
Office: SB-123
Fax: (480) 423-6298
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrJeffryRicker/timeline/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/jeffry-ricker/3b/511/438




---
You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@mail-archive.com.
To unsubscribe click here: 
http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5=T=tips=47324
or send a blank email to 
leave-47324-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu

Re: [tips] more junk science and what to do about it

[Michael Scoles]

Gottman?

On Sun, Nov 8, 2015 at 11:38 PM, Annette Taylor  wrote:

>
>
> A colleague sent me this link about a new program that will make you happy
> and that it is "supported by science."
>
>
> http://my.happify.com/o/lp32/?fl=1===HRX4AZRF65=RON=300x250=SadBrain
>
> I decided to look up some of the books on which the website is based, on
> Amazon, and peruse the reviews. I was flabbergasted when I saw that the
> book Hardwiring Happiness had such high reviews: 66% of 279 reviews were
> for 5 stars! So I thought Wow, let me read the 1 star reviews, must be some
> unhappy few people out there: and there I found what I expected to find.
> The book HUGELY oversells the power of imaging studies to promote
> conclusions that cannot possibly be reached with such studies. We just
> covered Brainwashed in my critical thinking seminar and it seems that most
> of what I could access in this book for free on Amazon fell into exactly
> all the traps that Brainwashed mentions.
>
> So how can they find so very many people to write such high praise for
> this book? I'm flabbergasted.
>
>
> To quote from the Amazon cite: "Hardwiring Happiness lays out a simple
> method that uses the hidden power of everyday experiences to build new
> neural structures full of happiness, love, confidence, and peace."
>
>
>
> BTW no review in psycritiques
>
> Then we have this guy: Shawn Achor received a Bachelor of Arts from
> Harvard University and a Master of Arts in Christian and Buddhist Ethics
> from Harvard Divinity School to promote this website based on his
> best-selling and highly (over???) rated book, Before Happiness. This is
> also not reviewed in psycritiques but his previous book is, The Happiness
> Advantage, and it is royally slammed for what it is: sham. Here are a few
> quotes: "Surely someone the *New York Times* describes as “A big star . .
> . a world-famous expert” (back cover blurb) would not mistake a largely
> correlational and unreplicated body of research for causal mechanisms of
> critical business outcomes!" and "Positive psychology is often criticized
> for rushing flimsy correlational research to market and peddling it as
> causal truth (e.g., Lazarus, 2003). Critics will find the apotheosis of
> their foil in this book...If Salvador Dali had partnered with P. T. Barnum,
> they could hardly have produced a more ludicrous, fantastical overstatement
> of what “more than a decade” of positive psychology research has discovered
> ."
>
>
>
> HOW DO WE COMBAT THIS? People are flocking to this junk and loving it
> and spending lots of $$ on it.
>
>
>
> I am going to write a book...I am going to put in it every single bit of
> "Influence" (see Ciadini's work) that I can. I will retire, finally
>
>
>
> Annette
>
> The rest of the positive psychology coaches promoting this website don't
> deserve mention--all of these magic bullet, quick fix authors! Penn &
> Teller have a fabulous bullshit! episode on self-helplessness.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Annette Kujawski Taylor, Ph. D.
> Visiting Professor,
> Ashoka University, Delhi, India
> annette.tay...@ashoka.edu.in
> Professor, Psychological Sciences
> University of San Diego
> tay...@sandiego.edu
>
> 
> From: Annette Taylor
> Sent: Sunday, November 08, 2015 3:53 AM
> To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)
> Subject: RE: illusion
>
> Thanks to Miguel Roig who sent me the picture that immediately showed
> itself to be a razor blade! I don't know if the image I am attaching here
> will show up but turn it around by 90 degrees. Then imagine a bit of
> foreshortening and a bit of converging lines at the distance so that the
> lower part seems to have a larger end than the farther end.
>
> Annette
>
>
> Annette Kujawski Taylor, Ph. D.
> Visiting Professor,
> Ashoka University, Delhi, India
> annette.tay...@ashoka.edu.in
> Professor, Psychological Sciences
> University of San Diego
> tay...@sandiego.edu
>
> 
> From: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) digest [
> tips@fsulist.frostburg.edu]
> Sent: Saturday, November 07, 2015 10:00 PM
> To: tips digest recipients
> Subject: tips digest: November 07, 2015
>
> TIPS Digest for Saturday, November 07, 2015.
>
> 1. Illusion?
> 2. Re: Illusion?
> 3. Re: Illusion?
> 4. Re: Illusion?
> 5. RE: Illusion?
> 6. RE: Illusion?
> 7. Re: Illusion?
>
> --
>
> Subject: Illusion?
> From: Jim Matiya 
> Date: Sat, 7 Nov 2015 18:39:14 -0600
> X-Message-Number: 1
>
> Has anyone on the list ever seen this illusion. A student submitted as a
> an example...but I have never seen it before.  I am a little slow, can
> anyone see the figure-ground illusion?
>
> I have attached the picture
>
>
>
> JIm
> retired from FGCU
>
> Jim Matiya
>
> Too often we underestimate
>  the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest
> 

[tips] an illusory illusion

[Claudia Stanny]

Apologies to those who can't receive or open attachments.
Attached is a gif file with an illusory illusion.

Can you spot the giraffe?
Warning, you have to look at this for about 20 sec or so before the giraffe
emerges.

Enjoy!

Claudia
_

Claudia J. Stanny, Ph.D.
Director
Center for University Teaching, Learning, and Assessment
University of West Florida
Pensacola, FL  32514

Phone:   (850) 857-6355 (direct) or  473-7435 (CUTLA)

csta...@uwf.edu

CUTLA Web Site: http://uwf.edu/offices/cutla/ 

---
You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@mail-archive.com.
To unsubscribe click here: 
http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5=T=tips=47326
or send a blank email to 
leave-47326-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu

RE: [tips] an illusory illusion

[Jim Matiya]

are you making fun of me??? ha!

Jim Matiya 

Too often we underestimate
 the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest 
compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the 
potential to turn a life around...Leo Buscaglia


  :) I was addicted to the Hokey-Pokey, but I turned myself around  :)


From: csta...@uwf.edu
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 2015 11:00:03 -0600
Subject: [tips] an illusory illusion
To: tips@fsulist.frostburg.edu









 

Apologies to those who can't receive or open attachments.Attached is a gif file 
with an illusory illusion.
Can you spot the giraffe? Warning, you have to look at this for about 20 sec or 
so before the giraffe emerges.
Enjoy!
Claudia_
 
Claudia J. Stanny, Ph.D.  
Director
Center for University Teaching, Learning, and Assessment
University of West Florida
Pensacola, FL  32514
 
Phone:   (850) 857-6355 (direct) or  473-7435 (CUTLA)

csta...@uwf.edu

CUTLA Web Site: http://uwf.edu/offices/cutla/




---

You are currently subscribed to tips as: jmat...@hotmail.com.

To unsubscribe click here: 
http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13283.28aec02f231f4c4baa9a4a58ae139710=T=tips=47326

(It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is 
broken)

or send a blank email to 
leave-47326-13283.28aec02f231f4c4baa9a4a58ae139...@fsulist.frostburg.edu








  
---
You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@mail-archive.com.
To unsubscribe click here: 
http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5=T=tips=47328
or send a blank email to 
leave-47328-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu

[tips] An actual illusion

[Jim Clark]

Hi

Nice illusion here

http://www.illusionsciences.com/2008/12/rotating-reversals.html

Jim

Jim Clark
Professor & Chair of Psychology
University of Winnipeg
204-786-9757
Room 4L41 (4th Floor Lockhart)
www.uwinnipeg.ca/~clark


---
You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@mail-archive.com.
To unsubscribe click here: 
http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5=T=tips=47325
or send a blank email to 
leave-47325-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu

[tips] SCIENCE-BASED MEDICINE: To debate or not to debate

[Jeffry Ricker, PhD]

Speaking of the difficulties that skeptics often face when challenging 
pseudoscience, junk science, and antiscience (were we? ... well, I think it was 
implied), here is a blog post by David Gorski about an invitation to debate 
Andrew Weil.



SCIENCE-BASED MEDICINE: To debate or not to debate: The strange bedfellows of 
Andrew Weil
Posted by David Gorski on November 9, 2015 29 Comments

The question of whether it is worthwhile to debate cranks, quacks, and 
advocates of pseudoscience has long been a contentious issue in the skeptic 
community. Those of you who’ve been reading my posts for a while know that I’ve 
always come down on the side that it is not a good idea One thing I’ve learned 
in my more than a decade of blogging, both here and at my not-so-super-secret 
other blog, is that advocates of pseudoscience love public debates. Indeed, 
whenever you see a skeptic agree to a public debate with an advocate of 
pseudoscience, it’s a damned sure bet that it wasn’t the skeptic who proposed 
it….

FULL TEXT HERE: 
https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/to-debate-or-not-to-debate-the-strange-bedfellows-of-andrew-weil/
---
You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@mail-archive.com.
To unsubscribe click here: 
http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5=T=tips=47327
or send a blank email to 
leave-47327-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu

[tips] A bit of history: analog technology for animated GIFs (illusion of motion)

[Claudia Stanny]

How timely (the one with frogs leaping into a guy's mouth is cute, if a
little gross):

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/10/these-proto-gifs-of-the-19th-century-put-todays-gifs-to-shame/280887/?utm_source=SFFB

>From the *Atlantic *article:
In 1832, the Belgian physicist Joseph Plateau invented a device he called
the phenakistoscope (from the Greek phenakizein, "to deceive or cheat")—a
rod-mounted disc that, when spun, created the illusion of motion. There was
also the thaumatrope, a double-sided card that simulated motion when it was
twirled between two pieces of string. There was also, in 1879, Muybridge's
famous zoopraxiscope.
_

Claudia J. Stanny, Ph.D.
Director
Center for University Teaching, Learning, and Assessment
University of West Florida
Pensacola, FL  32514

Phone:   (850) 857-6355 (direct) or  473-7435 (CUTLA)

csta...@uwf.edu

CUTLA Web Site: http://uwf.edu/offices/cutla/ 

---
You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@mail-archive.com.
To unsubscribe click here: 
http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5=T=tips=47329
or send a blank email to 
leave-47329-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu