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comment by b_b
b_b  ·  2113 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The sacred cows of psychology turn out to be straw men

I agree that sunshine is the best medicine. The snark was aimed mostly at the reproducibility problem that exists in science generally, and in psychology in particular. We have gotten very good at amassing data, but I think we have a long way to go in making sense of it.





yongshi  ·  2112 days ago  ·  link  ·  

#ditto

kleinbl00  ·  2113 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I read an article in scientific american back in 1995 or so that argued compellingly that the treatment of animal models in the modern scientific establishment couldn't help but drive them crazy, thereby effectively nullifying every single psychological study based on animal research.

I have yet to read another study saying animal models are valid despite their treatment.

I do think it's noteworthy that most of our addiction models are based on animal research, and that the Rat City studies of the 60s where community and normalcy were emphasized have contradictory results. Therefore the Rat City studies are obviously fringe science.

tacocat  ·  2113 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I think Rat City was an experiment in torture to prove the population explosion would kill us all and was the inspiration for the Secret of NIMH. Rat Park is the study you were thinking of. It's getting play in the recovery community now.

Addiction studies seem particularly hard to conduct. I've been looking for an actual reliable source for the effectiveness of AA for over a year and I can't find one. The rate of its effectiveness ranges from 5% to 95% depending on who you ask. I have given up on finding a number for the purpose of that thing I've been writing and posting here and will go with "no one can agree on its effectiveness" as my answer.

kleinbl00  ·  2113 days ago  ·  link  ·  

You're right. "Rat City" is my local roller derby league.