I emphasize the problems of confirmation biases, post hoc fallacies, illusory correlations, and self-serving biases as promoting the overconfidence typically seen when treatment advocates are not concerned about systematically assessing efficacy. I stress the idea of control/comparison groups and predictive hypotheses to help overcome (some of) these biases. Thus, students can see one major problem was not thinking/noticing conditions where people did NOT improve, or those that improved WITHOUT treatment (I have them think of this four-fold table).
Also good opportunity to discuss problems with naive observation/intuition and personal experiences versus systematic and controlled tests of our ideas. G.L. (Gary) Peterson,Ph.D Psychology@SVSU On Jan 12, 2013, at 12:17 PM, "Jim Clark" <j.cl...@uwinnipeg.ca> wrote: > Hi > > I'm curious what people would identify as among the top 10 (or 5 or whatever) > reasons that we need research to determine the efficacy of treatments for > psychological disorders. I'm thinking of an exercise were students try to > explain why people once believed in ineffective and even harmful treatments > (e.g., bloodletting), setting the stage for understanding the need for well > designed research. Or if people know of a concise statement of these, that > would be great as well. > > Take care > Jim > > > James M. Clark > Professor & Chair of Psychology > j.cl...@uwinnipeg.ca > Room 4L41A > 204-786-9757 > 204-774-4134 Fax > Dept of Psychology, U of Winnipeg > 515 Portage Ave, Winnipeg, MB > R3B 0R4 CANADA > > > > --- > You are currently subscribed to tips as: peter...@svsu.edu. > To unsubscribe click here: > http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13445.e3edca0f6e68bfb76eaf26a8eb6dd94b&n=T&l=tips&o=22843 > or send a blank email to > leave-22843-13445.e3edca0f6e68bfb76eaf26a8eb6dd...@fsulist.frostburg.edu > <Jim Clark.vcf> --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=22845 or send a blank email to leave-22845-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu