I read a popular article (linked below) by the philosopher of science/statistics, Jacob Stegenga, on the lack of evidence on the effectiveness of antidepressants in treating depression. He presents and explains a number of major problems plaguing this kind of research: industry-funding, publication bias, low study quality, placebo effect combined with blind-breaking, lack of validity…
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On social engagement and being strong
“What made you decide to start a blog?” As I recruit more friends to join me at this blog (we will soon have Emma, Marian, and Margaret joining as authors!), they often ask me this question. If the blog does well in the future, people may ask me this question again. I do have an…
Spearman’s g and what cross-culture tells us
Saw this today. There exist many similar studies. They seem to say a lot. They seem to say nothing. I’ll comment on some moving parts below. Spearman’s g Found in 31 Non-Western Nations: Strong Evidence That g Is a Universal Phenomenon Abstract Spearman’s g is the name for the shared variance across a set of…
Writing a climate survey
I am currently in the process of putting together a climate survey to assess departmental climate. As a result, I’ve been looking at some existing surveys that other departments have done and, no offense, but most of them are terrible. It’s occurred to me that, of course, questionnaire construction is extremely difficult in all sorts…