Because it would be unethical to try to deliberately provoke children into aggressive behaviour, the boys were then asked to complete a commonly used cognitive task to measure how aggressive they felt in response to the feedback. This involved completing a series of words. For example, the letters “gu_” could become either “gun” (aggressive) or “gut” (not aggressive).
What the fuck is this drivel?
This ‘study’ doesn’t study aggression at all. It studies how different people perform in a game of mad libs and then calls some of that aggression.
I’m sure there is a way to measure toxic masculinity. But I grew up in the video game era when people thought playing Mortal Kombat would turn you into the fucking Columbine shooters. It’s all bullshit fake pseudo-psychology.
Be very wary of this fake science. There are good researchers out there but this methodology described here is some of the worst shit I’ve seen for proxy aggression ever.
Such an experiment might be a better test to distinguish between call of duty players and kids that are into biology. Yes, word association in this case is just a load of bull
This ‘study’ doesn’t study aggression at all. It studies how different people perform in a game of mad libs
Exactly. Word completion tasks are impossible to separate from confounding factors: the subject’s vocabulary, their family ideolect, their family culture, their local culture, their ability to spell (especially a problem in English), children’s tendency to try and please the adults around them…
I’m sure there is a way to measure toxic masculinity.
There are several. Many would even pass IRB review. This “study” has so many flaws that it should be a practice exercise for first-year research students, not something that The Conversation, of all publications, is flogging.
Isn’t this backwards? Isn’t it on the onus of the psychologists out there to prove that word completion tasks are good measurements for aggression?
Statistically / politically speaking, the traditional measurements are like, “Gun Murders per Capita”. You know, actual people killing each other, serving as the basis of an argument or indicators of aggression.
Statistically / politically speaking, the traditional measurements are like, “Gun Murders per Capita”. You know, actual people killing each other, serving as the basis of an argument or indicators of aggression.
That’s not what the study is about though. It’s about the relation between aggression and masculinity, how do you measure this with a murder per capita number? You also cannot play with someone’s masculinity and give them a gun, and see what happens.
Science is not perfect, especially in a field like psychology. You can’t read people’s mind. So we find alternate ways to measure things. Doesn’t mean it’s BS pseudo/fake science. It’s just science.
Science is not perfect, especially in a field like psychology.
No kidding.
Your argument to prove the efficacy of this is basically “Trust in the decades of Psychological Research”. To which I have to say…
My Psychology teacher from High School warned me that Psychology started as a Freudian Pseudo-science, turned into a Phrenology pseudo-science to help make Japanese people look dumber for WW2 propaganda purposes, and then had a bunch of poorly done experiments in the 1950s-1980s for various political games.
Anyone who has studied anything about psychology and its history as a subject is, and should be, 100% skeptical of everything. Including long-standing (decades or even century long) traditions like… IQ Tests or Freudian Psychosexuality.
It’s just science.
Psychology has a huge incident rate into pseudo-science / fake topics. I’m sure there’s legitimate discoveries in here but I’m also sure that a huge amount of this field is bullshit.
But maybe I’m just a closted mother-lover in my subconcious who is suppressing my feelings of anger towards my father. My Asian skull is smaller than white people skulls so I can’t think quite as well as some of you out there. Let along deal with issues of statistical auto-correlation or other such issues that occur in more modern studies.
Its not the science that’s bad per se, its the politics that always get in the way. Psychology has a huge number of bad actors in it. And when the ultimate discussion point is “Look at these people… AGGRESSIVELY answering these word-game puzzles with more aggressive words. This proves that they’re more aggressive”… I’m rolling my eyes into the back of my head so hard that I’m honestly throwing this entire piece away. Its not science by my standards.
But if its science by your standards, that’s… fine I guess.
I get that we don’t want to return to the 1970s where we get children to push a button to shock animals, and then determine the length-of-time or frequency of this to use as a proxy as “aggression”. And I understand the need and struggle of modern psychologies to try to come up with modern tests that are humane and effective.
But I have severe concerns that this test isn’t testing anything at all, aside from the biases of the tester.
Right, it wasn’t that long ago that they left dogs in electrocution cages over the weekend to study PTSD. By not long ago I mean they tried to do it again recently but were shot down by their particular ethics board.
I’d say if you are concerned, then the door is open to start a career in psychology research. But I think you’d struggle to move your emotions and pre-convinced notions out of your own way.
This is literally an article about culture: traditional masculinity and it’s alleged effects on an individual.
Note: I think the argument makes sense. My only qualm here is that the evidence listed fails to pass my muster. I think it’s a good question and a worthwhile study. I just wish the evidence was stronger.
What the fuck is this drivel?
This ‘study’ doesn’t study aggression at all. It studies how different people perform in a game of mad libs and then calls some of that aggression.
I’m sure there is a way to measure toxic masculinity. But I grew up in the video game era when people thought playing Mortal Kombat would turn you into the fucking Columbine shooters. It’s all bullshit fake pseudo-psychology.
Be very wary of this fake science. There are good researchers out there but this methodology described here is some of the worst shit I’ve seen for proxy aggression ever.
Such an experiment might be a better test to distinguish between call of duty players and kids that are into biology. Yes, word association in this case is just a load of bull
Exactly. Word completion tasks are impossible to separate from confounding factors: the subject’s vocabulary, their family ideolect, their family culture, their local culture, their ability to spell (especially a problem in English), children’s tendency to try and please the adults around them…
There are several. Many would even pass IRB review. This “study” has so many flaws that it should be a practice exercise for first-year research students, not something that The Conversation, of all publications, is flogging.
Do you have research experience in psychology or something, to unequivocally say that word completion tasks are BS pseudo/fake science?
Isn’t this backwards? Isn’t it on the onus of the psychologists out there to prove that word completion tasks are good measurements for aggression?
Statistically / politically speaking, the traditional measurements are like, “Gun Murders per Capita”. You know, actual people killing each other, serving as the basis of an argument or indicators of aggression.
Word fragment completion tasks have been used for decades, what makes you think no one made sure it’s an effective way to measure things like aggression? Quick google search for example https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1053482212001039
That’s not what the study is about though. It’s about the relation between aggression and masculinity, how do you measure this with a murder per capita number? You also cannot play with someone’s masculinity and give them a gun, and see what happens.
Science is not perfect, especially in a field like psychology. You can’t read people’s mind. So we find alternate ways to measure things. Doesn’t mean it’s BS pseudo/fake science. It’s just science.
No kidding.
Your argument to prove the efficacy of this is basically “Trust in the decades of Psychological Research”. To which I have to say…
My Psychology teacher from High School warned me that Psychology started as a Freudian Pseudo-science, turned into a Phrenology pseudo-science to help make Japanese people look dumber for WW2 propaganda purposes, and then had a bunch of poorly done experiments in the 1950s-1980s for various political games.
Anyone who has studied anything about psychology and its history as a subject is, and should be, 100% skeptical of everything. Including long-standing (decades or even century long) traditions like… IQ Tests or Freudian Psychosexuality.
Psychology has a huge incident rate into pseudo-science / fake topics. I’m sure there’s legitimate discoveries in here but I’m also sure that a huge amount of this field is bullshit.
But maybe I’m just a closted mother-lover in my subconcious who is suppressing my feelings of anger towards my father. My Asian skull is smaller than white people skulls so I can’t think quite as well as some of you out there. Let along deal with issues of statistical auto-correlation or other such issues that occur in more modern studies.
Its not the science that’s bad per se, its the politics that always get in the way. Psychology has a huge number of bad actors in it. And when the ultimate discussion point is “Look at these people… AGGRESSIVELY answering these word-game puzzles with more aggressive words. This proves that they’re more aggressive”… I’m rolling my eyes into the back of my head so hard that I’m honestly throwing this entire piece away. Its not science by my standards.
But if its science by your standards, that’s… fine I guess.
I get that we don’t want to return to the 1970s where we get children to push a button to shock animals, and then determine the length-of-time or frequency of this to use as a proxy as “aggression”. And I understand the need and struggle of modern psychologies to try to come up with modern tests that are humane and effective.
But I have severe concerns that this test isn’t testing anything at all, aside from the biases of the tester.
Right, it wasn’t that long ago that they left dogs in electrocution cages over the weekend to study PTSD. By not long ago I mean they tried to do it again recently but were shot down by their particular ethics board.
I’d say if you are concerned, then the door is open to start a career in psychology research. But I think you’d struggle to move your emotions and pre-convinced notions out of your own way.
Or perhaps there’s a simpler option here than me switching careers over a disagreement.
The simpler option is for me to ignore this paper.
That’s sure is some verbose ignoring you’ve been doing.
Sure, jan. Well I’ve had enough of your armchair psychology for today.
You could’ve just started with “psychology is a fake science” and saved me some time.
You’re talking about statistics and sociology. The article talks about a psychology research. How do you make research in psychology?
This is literally an article about culture: traditional masculinity and it’s alleged effects on an individual.
Note: I think the argument makes sense. My only qualm here is that the evidence listed fails to pass my muster. I think it’s a good question and a worthwhile study. I just wish the evidence was stronger.