Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - talk about following the herd! psy experiment results

3leggedfrog · 03-13-2004, 12:06 PM

good point but the problem you encounter with that argument is that not all scientific research is perfectly repeatable. For an example medicine, why does some drugs work while some kill the person who its trying to fix? The answer is the variables. Each person is slightly different than everyone else. In chemistry the variables are temp, atmospheric pressure, etc so even if you mix said chemical depending on the VARIABLES you may not get your desired result. In medicine each person’s biochemistry is slightly different than anyone else. When you try to predict any behavior you have a hell of a lot more variables to deal with.

I could make my experiment repeatable in nearly any college culture but it would take me about 3 to 5 years and a hell of a lot of money just to get the sample size I wanted. Maybe longer just to test what questions I needed to ask for the experiment And it may not be true for all colleges depending on the variables at that college. For an example a religious college may not have this problem or then again it may be worse. The population size would be huge for just the United States but it would be gigantic for the world (but this study is not looking at the world only American college culture, specifically my college culture). My study is very simplistic in its beginnings a sort of “hey look at this we might want to look at this some more”. It could be true for other colleges and even other areas that’s why we publish stuff like this. It all depends on controlling variables.

As for opinion well, as with any good science all hypothesis start with an opinion then you test that opinion and the results become a theory if you are right and if you are not it may point towards a possible theory or just eliminate what you thought was true so you can look in different directions. If you are trying to find a theory that encompasses everything humans do, at this time, that’s impossible. All we can do is try to find reasons why humans do the things they do. We find a possible problem then look for answers. What we are doing is looking at the big responses that keep happening and try to find reasons why. Then we test our opinion with other tests to see if they are true then have others test it as well. Cynthetiq your statement about opinion is because we have not nailed down all the variables yet. What the psychologist is stating is that someone needs to figure out a test that can nail down all the other variables that we missed. But until that they can express their opinions. A possible explanation to test for or against.

Contrary to popular belief we are predictable animals to some extent just ask or look at someone close to you. The problems are variables that we cannot predict affecting people. For an example I can predict with a pretty high probability that if you have a buttoned shirt you would button it starting from the top working you way downwards, but since I said that it can affect you to change that behavior. You can rationalize it saying that you might miss a button and the top which are the most important anyway. But you still button your shirt from top to button don’t you? That is what psychology is looking at when we do studies. What are the common behaviors and what are the reasons why. It may not be true for everyone just like penicillin is not a wonder drug for everyone but its still warrants our attention.

03-13-2004, 12:06 PM	#22 (permalink)
3leggedfrog Psycho Location: Hiding from the penguins they come to take my sanity away!	good point but the problem you encounter with that argument is that not all scientific research is perfectly repeatable. For an example medicine, why does some drugs work while some kill the person who its trying to fix? The answer is the variables. Each person is slightly different than everyone else. In chemistry the variables are temp, atmospheric pressure, etc so even if you mix said chemical depending on the VARIABLES you may not get your desired result. In medicine each person’s biochemistry is slightly different than anyone else. When you try to predict any behavior you have a hell of a lot more variables to deal with. I could make my experiment repeatable in nearly any college culture but it would take me about 3 to 5 years and a hell of a lot of money just to get the sample size I wanted. Maybe longer just to test what questions I needed to ask for the experiment And it may not be true for all colleges depending on the variables at that college. For an example a religious college may not have this problem or then again it may be worse. The population size would be huge for just the United States but it would be gigantic for the world (but this study is not looking at the world only American college culture, specifically my college culture). My study is very simplistic in its beginnings a sort of “hey look at this we might want to look at this some more”. It could be true for other colleges and even other areas that’s why we publish stuff like this. It all depends on controlling variables. As for opinion well, as with any good science all hypothesis start with an opinion then you test that opinion and the results become a theory if you are right and if you are not it may point towards a possible theory or just eliminate what you thought was true so you can look in different directions. If you are trying to find a theory that encompasses everything humans do, at this time, that’s impossible. All we can do is try to find reasons why humans do the things they do. We find a possible problem then look for answers. What we are doing is looking at the big responses that keep happening and try to find reasons why. Then we test our opinion with other tests to see if they are true then have others test it as well. Cynthetiq your statement about opinion is because we have not nailed down all the variables yet. What the psychologist is stating is that someone needs to figure out a test that can nail down all the other variables that we missed. But until that they can express their opinions. A possible explanation to test for or against. Contrary to popular belief we are predictable animals to some extent just ask or look at someone close to you. The problems are variables that we cannot predict affecting people. For an example I can predict with a pretty high probability that if you have a buttoned shirt you would button it starting from the top working you way downwards, but since I said that it can affect you to change that behavior. You can rationalize it saying that you might miss a button and the top which are the most important anyway. But you still button your shirt from top to button don’t you? That is what psychology is looking at when we do studies. What are the common behaviors and what are the reasons why. It may not be true for everyone just like penicillin is not a wonder drug for everyone but its still warrants our attention. __________________ "enjoy life to the brim but do not spill it" quoted off my tatoo "Iam myself every day."