MetaFilter posts tagged with Psychology and Culture

Intelligence Tests

kliuless — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 10:40:00 -0800

Is Psychometric g a Myth? - "As an online discussion about IQ or general intelligence grows longer, the probability of someone linking to statistician Cosma Shalizi's essay g, a Statistical Myth approaches 1. Usually the link is accompanied by an assertion to the effect that Shalizi offers a definitive refutation of the concept of general mental ability, or psychometric g." Myths, Sisyphus and g - "Over the years I have not encountered a single endorser of Shalizi's article who actually understands the relevant subject matter. His article is loved for its reassuring conclusions, not the strength of its arguments. I am sure many 'thinkers' resisted Darwinism, the abandonment of geocentrism, and even the notion that the Earth is a sphere, for similar psychological reasons." Nuthin' but a 'g' thang

So I've always had the intuitive hypothesis that there are different types of intelligence; that different people tend to process information in different ways, whether due to habit or nature. But then there are all those people who say that intelligence can be boiled down to a single factor, the mysterious "g" (which I assume stands for either "general intelligence" or "gangsta"). Since this went against years of casual observation, I was somewhat pleased to see the eminent Cosma Shalizi write an essay debunking the notion of "g". But then I saw this blog post defending the notion of "g", and claiming that Shalizi makes a bunch of errors. Basically, the disagreement revolves around the question of why most or all psychometric tests and tasks seem positively correlated with each other. Shalizi points out that this correlation structure will naturally lead to the emergence of a "g"-like factor, even if one doesn't really exist; his opponent points out that if no "g" exists, it should be possible to design uncorrelated psychometric tests, which so far has proven extremely difficult to do. The latter post, by a pseudonymous blogger calling himself "Dalliard", contains a bunch of references to psychometric research that I don't know about and have neither the time nor the will to evaluate, so I'm a bit stumped. Normally I'd leave the matter at that, shrug, and go read something else, but I realized that my intuitive hypothesis about intelligence didn't really seem to be explicitly stated in either of the posts. So I thought I'd explain my conjecture about how intelligence works. In a nutshell, it's this: What if there are multiple "g's"? ...just imagine several dozen hyperplanes, and project them all onto one hyperplane... Remember that psychometric tests are simple mental tasks, but most of the mental tasks we do are complex, like computer programming or chess or writing. And for those tasks, learning and practice matter as much as innate skill, or more (for example, see this study about the neurology of chess players). Therefore, everyone can be "smart" in some way, if "smart" means "good at some complex mental task".

also btw To Make Mice Smarter, Add A Few Human Brain Cells (previously)

Folk Neuroscience

Scientist — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 20:22:09 -0800

Folk Neuroscience: how inaccurate neurological concepts have become cultural staples.

Freedom from....

zarq — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 08:41:22 -0800

The New York Times asks seven 'experts': Does makeup ultimately damage a woman’s self-esteem, or elevate it? The Essays * Red Lips Can Rule the World by Natasha Scripture, blogger and writer about 'women’s issues and dating mishaps' for the Huffington Post. * Must This Get Political? by Phoebe Baker Hyde, author of "The Beauty Experiment" * Look Your Best, Feel Your Best by Scott Barnes, makeup artist and author of "About Face" and "Face to Face." * A Choice, Not a Requirement by Deborah Rhode, law professor at Stanford and author of "The Beauty Bias." * It’s What You Make of it by Nancy Etcoff, assistant clinical professor at Harvard Medical School and research psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital. Author of "Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty." * Using Makeup Shows Love for Yourself by Mally Roncal, makeup artist and the founder of Mally Beauty. * Women Should Do What They Want by Thomas Matlack, The Good Men Project Responses * The Last Psychiatrist: No Self-Respecting Woman Would Go Out Without Make Up * AutoStraddle: Let's Queer The NYT 'Debate' About Women And Makeup * Jenna Saunders at Jezebel: When Is Wearing Makeup A "Choice"? * Wild Beauty: Does Makeup Hurt Self-Esteem? Is The New York Times Sexist for Asking? * Echidne of the Snakes: On Makeup, Gender and the New York Times Also See * The Naked Face Project (Two Women. Sixty Days. No Makeup. No Shaving. No Primping. What Happens Next?) * About-Face (Site provides women and girls with skills to critically examine media messages that affect their positive self-image / Previously on Mefi) * Previously on Mefi: In the Eye of the Beholder, or a Bar of Soap? Covers Dove's Real Beauty ad campaign which was also discussed in Wrinkled and Rankled and The Eye of the Beholder. Dove still offers a website devoted to helping improve the self-esteem of young girls and women, including a Self Esteem Toolkit and Resources

It's the end of the world and they know it

zarq — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 22:40:53 -0800

The most-watched show in the history of the National Geographic Channel isn't Wild, Taboo or even the longest-running documentary series on cable tv: Explorer. It's Doomsday Preppers, a show that documents the "lives of otherwise ordinary Americans" as they prepare for the end of the world. "We struggled with this," Kathleen Cromley, a NatGeo executive producer, says after a screening of the series. "Our preppers have really strong beliefs and they are not always supported by mainstream science. As a network, we are concerned about factual accuracy."
All but one of the 20 episodes that have aired to date can be watched online. Season One (2011-2012) 1) "Pilot" 2) "Bullets, Lots of Bullets" 3) "I Hope I Am Crazy" 4) "Back to the Stone Age". Here's a BuzzFeed profile of Tim Ralston, creator of the "Crovel." (Half-shovel, half-weapon: the Crovel has made Ralston millions in sales.) 5) "It's All Gonna Hit the Fan" 6) "You Shall Not Fear" 7) "Nine Meals Away from Anarchy" 8) "Into the Spider Hole" 9) "It's Gonna Get Worse" 10) "Close the Door, Load the Shotgun" 11) "Disaster Doesn't Wait" 12) "I Suggest We Run" 13) "Extreme Prep Edition" Additional Clips: Season 1 Season 2 (2012-2013) 1) "You Can't Let Evil Win" 2) "Am I Nuts or Are You?" 3) "Bad Times All the Time" 4) "The Time of Reckoning" 5) "Taking from the Haves" 6) "You've Got Chaos" (Not yet online) 7) "Escape from New York" Additional Clips: Season 2

A hidden children's health crisis.

davidpriest.ca — Tue, 01 May 2012 11:39:07 -0800

A chronic public health disaster. Complex trauma and toxic stress puts children into a state of reflexive fight, flight, or freeze responses to a perpetually threatening world. The traditional authoritative response only serves to reinforce those behaviours and, perhaps worse, has long-term health consequences:

With an ACE score of 4 or more, things start getting serious. The likelihood of chronic pulmonary lung disease increases 390 percent; hepatitis, 240 percent; depression 460 percent; suicide, 1,220 percent.

One doctor describes it as “a chronic public health disaster”. Remediating this problem is going to require listening, kindness, and parachutes.

Avoid the News

jason's_planet — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 16:58:00 -0800

Avoid the News: Towards A Healthy News Diet. (large-ish PDF) Go without news. Cut it out completely. Go cold turkey. Make news as inaccessible as possible . . . . After a while, you will realize that despite your personal news blackout, you have not missed – and you’re not going to miss – any important facts. If some bit of information is truly important to your profession, your company, your family or your community, you will hear it in time – from your friends, your mother-in-law or whomever you talk to or see. When you are with your friends, ask them if anything important is happening in the world. The question is a great conversation starter. Most of the time, the answer will be: “not really.”

more of the same

kliuless — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 08:11:14 -0800

Life after Capitalism - Beyond capitalism, it seems, stretches a vista of... capitalism:

We cannot approach utopia in terms of material welfare because we can always imagine how increased resources could give us a more comfortable and rewarding life. Or perhaps it is better to say that from the standpoint of every previous century we have surpassed utopia, but failed to stop and properly appreciate the accomplishment. An equally important answer, of course, is that Utopia does not require merely command over nature. It requires command over self, and command over society as well. Command over self is a matter of psychology. [W]e have not achieved utopia--in spite of immense material wealth--because we have approached it as a problem of engineering, and it is in fact a problem of psychology.

With over half the world still impoverished, it'll be a while before all our material needs are met and wants satisfied (+ we can imagine quite a bit, as Han Solo sez) still the marginal utility of wealth diminishes and so but if you can ignore positional goods, conspicuous consumption and status effects, what we'll literally be left with, it seems, are our values.

Mooing Vuitton in the verdant fields of a mall.

nickrussell — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 06:42:19 -0800

"What was lost in the realm of economic exchange is reclaimed in the realm of cultural/semiotic performance. Branding also identifies the product relative to the chain of signifiers constituting its brand “family,” in the same way that ranchers brand livestock with the sign of their ranch." [via]

The WEIRD ones

bardophile — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 07:19:41 -0800

Westerners vs. the World: We are the WEIRD ones

What Is It About 20-Somethings?

reenum — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 13:51:11 -0800

Twenty-somethings today don't quite fit the definition of adolescence or adulthood. This has thrown the human development gurus for a loop. With the past couple of generations taking longer to become "adults", social scientists are trying to decide whether or not this period in a person's life needs to have a separate classification.

Study: Lesbian Parents Raise Better-Behaved Kids

zarq — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 10:06:39 -0800

A nearly 25-year study has concluded that children raised in lesbian households were psychologically well-adjusted and had fewer behavioral problems than their peers. Results were published this month in Pediatrics: the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. (Abstract. Free PDF. Scribd). Time Magazine: Study: Children of Lesbians May Do Better Than Their Peers FoxNews: Children of Lesbian Couples Do Well in School, Life Gawker: The Secret to Having a Perfect Child: Be A Lesbian Background on the issue from Religious Tolerance.org: Same Sex Parenting / Results of Studies / Beliefs of Conservative Christians / Conclusions

"No matter what ideas the human mind generates, they must never be quashed."

zarq — Fri, 28 May 2010 14:34:40 -0800

New Scientist Special Report: Living in Denial. Includes articles by Michael Shermer, founding publisher of Skeptic Magazine Articles: * When a sceptic isn't a sceptic * How corporations manufacture doubt * Why sensible people reject the truth * Unleashing a lie * Questioning science isn't blasphemy * The truth is our only weapon

Shades of Kitty Genovese

zarq — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 09:05:51 -0800

Homeless man Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax was stabbed several times in the chest while saving a woman from a knife-wielding attacker in New York City. He then bled to death while dozens of people walked by -- one stopping to snap a picture of the dying man with his cameraphone before leaving the scene. Regarding the title of this post: Wikipedia on Kitty Genovese and an article on the "Bystander Effect" and her case, 45 years later from NPR. Also, The Murder of Kitty Genovese: "The epitome of public apathy...or gross exaggeration by the New York Times?" PsychWiki: The Bystander Effect.

"One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important."

kliuless — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 09:24:34 -0800

Stress: Our collective mood - "there seems to be a correlation between stress and lack of holidays. More important, however, is whether a relationship exists between either and economic performance. The data is equivocal. On average Americans put in an extra two hours a week compared with UK workers. Yet both countries had almost identical crises, while lazier nations fared considerably better." also btw: Why Women Don't Want Macho Men (cf. A Theory for Why Latvian Women are Beautiful) & Study Shows People In Power Make Better Liars (The psychology of power or The Duke and Dirty Harry)

he of the weird al hair and santa claus beard

kliuless — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 18:14:25 -0800

R.Sapolsky on the uniqueness of humans in relation to the rest of the animal world (via)

Culture Jamming and Reality Hacking

netbros — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:07:43 -0800

The Art of the Prank offers insights, information, news and discussions about pranks, hoaxes, culture jamming and reality hacking around the world. Includes topics such as The History of Pranks, The Prank As Art, and the Sociology and Psychology of Pranks. Get pranking. Recent posts include: Mexico 17 Brazil 0 soccer match, The Pynchon Hoax, and a Microsoft Viral stunt.

The Saddam Sessions

kliuless — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 22:33:50 -0800

Saddam's Confessions - Given Saddam Hussein's central place in the American Consciousness over the last couple decades and particularly in recent years, I found 60 minutes' interview with FBI interrogator George Piro pretty fascinating.

"The road to hell is paved with happy plans."

amyms — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 20:40:37 -0800

In Praise Of Melancholy. We are eradicating a major cultural force, the muse behind much art and poetry and music. We are annihilating melancholia. Does an overemphasis on the pursuit of happiness cause us to miss an essential part of a full life? Via.

Boy Gets in Trouble at School with "No Touching" Policy

shivohum — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 12:02:46 -0800

Boy's Hug Lands Him in Trouble At School With "No Touching" Policy. 7th grader Hal Beaulieu "hopped up from his lunch table one day a few months ago, sat next to his girlfriend and slipped his arm around her shoulder. That landed him a trip to the school office." Handshakes could be gang signs, and officials note, "in a culturally diverse school...families might have different views of what is appropriate." The PTA President remarks: ""Even high-fives can get out of hand ... someone can get bonked in the head." (CNN News Video)

Metafilter: Best of the Web??

Gyan — Fri, 07 Oct 2005 06:16:11 -0800

Research by dumb, ignorant Yankees on national stereotypes.

Frontier Psychology

Argyle — Wed, 30 Apr 2003 10:45:02 -0800

Frontier Psychology - Does Frontier Psychology drive America in a direction that the rest of the world cannot comprehend? Roughly defined as "the effort on the part of Americans to come to grips with untamed elements of nature and, by taming them, to reorganize their society" We see it everywhere, even in Buffy. Europe appears to value stability over mobility and change, in opposition to America. Prof. Richard Slotkin has written extensively about these concepts. An interiew with audio clips is here. (Real)
Are America's recent domestic and international policy decisions attempts to tame "untamed elements" around it?

How Culture Molds Habits

fable — Tue, 08 Aug 2000 21:37:53 -0800

How Culture Molds Habits is a fascinating article. Read this article, tally another point for nurture. I've long thought this was true, but Nisbett's supposedly gathered rather a lot of data proving it is so. The article raises some interesting parts of the study, but I think the ramifications bear some considering. I'd be interested in reading the full study when it's published, but I haven't a clue where to get the Psychological Review. And can you imagine what the advertising execs will do with this stuff? Ads tailored to the way you think. Wheee. It does, of course, raise some fun questions about religion and politics.