-------------------------------------------------- On 24 Feb 2009 at 21:39, Christopher D. Green wrote:
"Here's more in the list of ridiculous correlational studies that are sensationally publicized as finding causation effects." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7906355.stm In a similar (jugular) vein, the following might also be of interest: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/588146 (worth a look if only for its great title: "Waterboarding and Wilcoxon: What Medical Researchers Might Learn About Statistics From the CIA") Oh yes. As Harris pointed out in _The Nurture Assumption_, this also applies to studies showing family effects on personality. She calls it the "divide-and-conquer technique", and quotes (p. 19) the following real summary of a socialization study: "Mothers' total expressiveness, mothers' positive expressiveness, and mothers' negative expressiveness were all positively correlated with girls' peer acceptance, but not with boys' peer acceptance. Conversely, fathers' total expressiveness and fathers' negative expressiveness were positively correlated with boys' acceptance, but not with girls' acceptance. Fathers' positive expressiveness was not related to boys' acceptance, but was related to girls' acceptance". Stephen ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University e-mail: [email protected] 2600 College St. Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7 Canada Subscribe to discussion list (TIPS) for the teaching of psychology at http://flightline.highline.edu/sfrantz/tips/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
