HILL Seminar, Prof. James Lamiell – an invitation

On 11.05.2023, our guest will be Prof. James Lamiell from Georgetown University with a talk “Statisticism in Psychology: What Is It? How Was It Contracted? Is There a Cure?”.

Guest: Prof. James T. Lamiell

Date: Thursday 11.05.2023, 5:00 pm (Warsaw time)

Title of the talk: Statisticism in Psychology: What Is It? How Was It Contracted? Is There a Cure?

At its inception in the late 19th century, experimental psychology was aimed at discovering the general laws presumed to govern the psychological functioning of individuals. It was understood that a general law would be one common to all of the individuals investigated; that is, true of each one of them individually. Already by the turn of the 20th century, however, psychological scientists were increasingly conducting treatment group experimentation, a form of inquiry suited to revealing statistical regularities true on average for aggregates of experimental subjects. The desired preservation of epistemic continuity between the two forms of experimentation required the adoption of thinking and aligned discursive practices that indulged the interpretation of knowledge about aggregates as if it provided, at the same time, knowledge of the individuals within the aggregates. The errors of reasoning built into such interpretations manifest what I have termed ‘statisticism’ in psychological science. This conceptual malady prevents the widespread realization that what was once psychology has long since been superseded by a discipline that is, effectively, a species of demography. In this presentation, I will discuss the historical rise of statisticism, and urge its widespread recognition and eradication in the interest of reviving a true psychological science.

James T. Lamiell earned his Ph.D. at Kansas State University in 1976, and joined the faculty at Georgetown University in 1982, where he is currently Professor in the Psychology Department. His scholarly interests are in the history and philosophy of psychology. His earlier work focused on the psychology of subjective personality judgments, and he has also written extensively on methodological issues pertaining to personality research more generally. Please find a more detailed bio note on his website.

Lamiell, J.T. (2020). On the systemic misuse of statistical methods within mainstream psychology. In J.T. Lamiell & K. Slaney (Ed.). Problematic Research Practices and Inertia in Scientific Psychology: History, Sources, and Recommended Solutions (pp. 8-22). Routledge.