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Psychology as a Science
| When psychological scientists speak to or write for general audiences,
they should take the opportunity to model the key themes of scientific and critical
thinking: that what we know is inseparable from how we know it; that opinions must
be based on evidence; that not all opinions have equal validity; and that science
gives us probabilities - only pseudoscience gives us certainties. |
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- Carol Tavris, Social Psychologist. In APS Observer
(2001) |
Behaviorism
| Of course Behaviorism "works." So does torture. Give me a no-nosense,
down-to-earth behaviourist, a few drugs, and simple electrical appliances, and in six
months I will have him reciting the Athanasian creed in public. |
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- W. H. Auden (1907-1973). English poet. A Certain World: A Commonplace Book
(1970) |
Psychoanalysis
| Considered in its entirety, psychoanalysis won't do. It's an end
product, moreover, like a dinosaur or a zeppelin; no better theory can ever be
erected on its ruins, which will remain for ever one of the saddest and strangest of
all landmarks in the history of twentieth century thought. |
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- Peter Medawar, New Zealand-born British immunologist and zoologist. The Hope
of Progress (1972) |
Memory & Cognition
| If X is an interesting or socially significant aspect of memory, then
psychologists have hardly ever studied X. |
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- Ulric Neisser, Cognitive Psychologist. In Practical Aspects of Memory
(1978) |
| Memory is the quintessence of human experience without which we cannot
make progress, cannot learn from experience, and cannot develop a personal identity. |
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- David Chamberlain |
Academe
| In the last analysis, I believe that the academic business is not just
a profession or trade; it comes down to being a calling. The calling is to perpetuate
knowledge, and add to it, and hold it dear, and transmit it to others. |
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From the text of a speech by Henry Gleitman at the 1983 meeting of the APA. |
| The juvenile seasquirt wanders through the sea searching for a suitable rock or coral to
cling to and make its home for life. For this task it has a rudimentary nervous system.
When it finds its spot and takes root, it doesn't need its brain anymore so it eats it.
It's rather like getting tenure. |
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- Daniel C. Dennett, Professor. In Consciousness Explained
(1991) |
Education
| Constant testing no more addresses the problems with education than constantly putting an overweight
person on the scale cures obesity. |
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- Anna Quindlen, In Newsweek, June 13, 2005. |
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