lecture 29 from a college level introduction to psychology course taught Fall 2011 by Brian J. Piper, Ph.D. (psy391@gmail.com) at Willamette University, includes parapsychology, Freudian psychology

1. Pseudoscience
Brian J. Piper, Ph.D.

2. Goals
• Definitions
• Examples

3. Comparison
Science Pseudoscience
Age Recent Old
Empirical Yes No
Falsifiable Yes No
Replicable Yes No

4. Not (non) Science
• Psychokinesis: moving objects mentally
• Telepathy: mind to mind communication
• Clairvoyance: perceiving distant events
• Precognition: perceiving future events

5. Entertaining
• Stephen King: 34 best sellers

6. Extremely Common
N = 1000/country
2005
http://www.gallup.com/poll/19558/Paranormal-Beliefs-Come-SuperNaturally-Some.aspx

7. Higher Among Females

8. Example 1
• A Professor at UCLA gave the “Diagnostic Interest Blank”
which consisted of:
– hobbies, reading, materials, personal characteristics, job duties, and secret hopes and ambitions of one's
ideal person
• Weeks later students received “individualized feedback”:
– You pride yourself as an independent thinker and do not accept
others’ statements without satisfactory proof.
– You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become
dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations.
– At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made
the right decision or done the right thing.
Forer, B. (1949). J of Abnormal Psychology, 118, 123.

9. Example 1: Astrology
• Professor at UCLA gave the “Diagnostic Interest
Blank” which consisted of: hobbies, reading, materials, personal
characteristics, job duties, and secret hopes and ambitions of one's ideal person
• Weeks later students received “individualized
feedback”
• How effective is the DIB in revealing your personality?
– Scale from 0 (poor) to 5 (perfect), Mean = 4.3!
Forer, B. (1949). J of Abnormal Psychology, 118, 123.

10. Example 2: Rorschach Test
1884-1922
• Hermann Rorschach developed projective test
in 1921
• Lee Cronbach “There is nothing in the
literature to encourage reliance on Rorschach
interpretations”.

11. Example #3: EMDR
• Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing: imagine trauma +
follow therapists rapidly moving finger (“reprogram the brain”)
• Participant groups matched based on prior trauma (moderate), sex,
and age
• Control: imagine trauma while staring at stationary object (same
duration as experimental
*
*
Dunn et al. (1996). J Behav Therapy Exp Psychiatry, 27, 231-239.

12. Example #4: Psychoanalytic
• Sigmund Freud viewed personality as consisting
of:
– Id: basic desires
– Superego: our conscious
– Ego: provides balance between Id & Superego

13. Incorrect Ideas of Freud
• Repression: the idea of not remembering
traumatic experiences is inconsistent with PTSD
• Cocaine for Morphine Addiction: this didn’t
work
• Dreams Interpretation: weird
• Overall: not testable, few predictions

14. Comparison
Science Pseudoscience
Age Recent Old
Empirical Yes No
Falsifiable Yes No
Replicable Yes No

15. Post Freud: Thematic Apperception
Test
Ambiguous stimuli are used to generate stories that reveal personality

16. Conclusion