內容大鋼
在今天的大眾媒體和圖書市場上，到處充斥著關於潛能提升、心理操控、色彩星座、催眠讀心等偽裝成心理學的主題，更有一些偽心理學家、所謂的心理治療師打著心理學的旗號欺世盜名，從中漁利。在浩如煙海、良莠不齊的心理學信息面前，如何拔除迷霧，去偽存真，成為一個明智的心理學信息的消費者呢？這本書將教給你科學實用的批判性思維技能，將真正的心理學研究從偽心理學中區分出來，告訴你什麼才是真正的心理學。
本書英文版首版于1983年面世，30多年來一直被奉為心理學入門經典，在全球頂尖大學中享有盛譽，現在呈現在讀者面前的是英文第11版。這本書並不同於一般的心理學導論類教材，很多內容是心理學課堂上不曾講授的，也是許多心理學教師在教學中感到只可意會而不可言傳的。作者正是從此初衷出發，以幽默生動的語言，結合一些妙趣橫生、貼近生活的實例，深入淺出地介紹了可證偽性、操作主義、實證主義、安慰劑效應、相關和因果、概率推理等心理學中的基本原則。與上一版相比，第11版更新了最新的研究資料和實例以及290篇新文獻。
本書不僅適合於心理學專業的學生，有助於建立心理學研究中必要的批判性思維技能與意識，而其通俗易讀性也非常適合所有對心理學感興趣的讀者，它將幫助你糾正對心理學的種種誤解，學會獨立地評估心理學信息，用科學的精神和方法理解自己和他人的行為。此外，由於心理學與其他學科的共通性，本書也不失為一本精彩有趣的科學哲學類讀物。
目錄
Preface
1 Psychology Is Alive and Well
(and Doing Fine Among the Sciences)
The Freud Problem
The Diversity of Modem Psychology
Implications of Diversity
Unity in Science
What, Then, Is Science?
Systematic Empiricism
Publicly Verifiable Knowledge: Replication and Peer Review
Empirically Solvable Problems: Scientists' Search for Testable Theories
Psychology and Folk Wisdom: The Problem with "Common Sense"
Psychology as a Young Science
Summary
2 Falsifiability: How to Foil Little
Green Men in the Head
Theories and the Falsifiability Criterion
The Theory of Knocking Rhythms
Freud. and Falsifiability
The Little Green Men
Not All Confirmations Are Equal
Falsifiability and Folk Wisdom
The Freedom to Admit a Mistake
Thoughts Are Cheap
Errors in Science: Getting Closer to the Truth
Summary
3 Operationism and Essentialism:
"But, Doctor, What Does It Really Mean?"
Why Scientists Are Not Essentialists
Essentialists Like to Argue About the Meaning of Words
Operationists Link Concepts to Observable Events
Reliability and Validity
Direct and Indirect Operational Definitions
Scientific Concepts Evolve
Operational Definitions in Psychology
Operationism as a Humanizing Force
Essentialist Questions and the Misunderstanding of Psychology
Summary
4 Testimonials and Case Study Evidence:
Placebo Effects and the Amazing Randi
The Place of the Case Study
Why Testimonials Are Worthless: Placebo Effects
The "Vividness" Problem
The Overwhelming Impact of the Single Case
Why Vivid Anecdotes and Testimonials Are So Pofent
Tile Amazing Randi: Fighting Fire With Fire
Testimonials Open the Door to Pseudoscience
Summary
5 Correlation and Causation: Birth
Control by the Toaster Method
The Third-Variable Problem
Why Goldberger's Evidence Was Better
The Directionality Problem
Selection Bias
Summary
6 Getting Things Under Control:
The Case of Clever Hans
Snow and Cholera
Comparison, Control, and Manipulation
Random Assignment in Conjunction with
Manipulation Defines the True Experiment
The Importance of Control Groups
The Case of Clever Hans, the Wonder Horse
Clever Hans in the 1990s and in the Present Day
Prying Variables Apart: Special Conditions
Intuitive Physics
Intuitive Psychology
Summary
7 "But It's Not Real Life!":
The "Artificiality" Criticism and Psychology
Why Natural Isn't Always Necessary
The Random Sample Versus Random Assignment Confusion
Theory-Driven Research Versus Direct Apphcations
Applications of Psychological Theory
The "College Sophomore" Problem
The Real-Life and College Sophomore Problems inPerspective
Summary
8 Avoiding the Einstein Syndrome:
The Importance of Converging Evidence
The Connectivity Principle
A Consumer's Rule: Beware of Violations of Connectivity
The Great-Leap Model Versus the Gradual-Synthesis Model
Converging Evidence: Progress Despite Flaws
Types of Converging Evidence
Scientific Consensus
Methods and the Convergence Principle
The Progression to More Powerful Methods
A Counsel Against Despair
Summary
9 The Misguided Search for the "Magic Bullet":
The Issue of Multiple Causation
The Concept of Interaction
The Temptation of the Single-Cause Explanation
Summary
10 The Achilles' Heel of Human
Cognition: Probabilistic Reasoning
"Person-Who" Statistics
Probabilistic Reasoning and the Misunderstanding of Psychology
Psychological Research on Probabilistic Reasoning
Insufficient Use of Probabilistic Information
Failure to Use Sample-Size Information.
The Gambler's Fallacy
A Further Word About Statistics and Probability
Summary
11 The Role of Chance in Psychology
The Tendency to Try to Explain Chance Events
Explaining Chance: Illusory Correlation and the Illusion of Control
Chance and Psychology
Coincidence
Personal Coincidences
Accepting Error in Order to Reduce Error: Clinical Versus Actuarial Prediction
Summary
12 The Rodney Dangerfield of the Sciences
Psychology's Image Problem
Psychology and Parapsychology
The Self-Help Literature
Recipe Knowledge
Psychology and Other Disciplines
Our Own Worst Enemies
Our Own Worst Enemies, Part Ih Psychology
Has Become an Ideological Monoculture
Isn't Everyone a Psychologist? Implicit Theories of Behavior
The Source of Resistance to Scientific Psychology
The Final Word
References
Name Index
Subject Index
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