Soft vs Hard Science

I was trying to explain the difference between 'hard' and 'soft' science to my brother the other day, and then this article comes along:

In praise of soft science

'Hard' scientists should stop looking down their noses at social scientists, and instead share methods that could help them address pressing societal problems.

... It is the conventional wisdom in the biological and physical sciences, and within research agencies, that the social sciences are, well, 'soft', and lacking in methodological rigour.

.... Research on [global environmental issues] tend to focus on the physical nature of the phenomena in question. Study of whatever underlies the behaviour itself is too often regarded as 'soft' science and dismissed as second-rate.

I actually almost didn't do psychology because of something someone said about the 'soft' sciences not being taken seriously.

Corporate Responsibility, Personal Responsibility

Last night I attended a public viewing of The Corporation, a documentary focusing on Corporate social and environmental responsibility, or lack there of. Definitely a film worth seeing, if you haven’t already… Not only is the film put together in a comprehensive way, but it offers ideas for both corporations and individuals to start reversing our current unsustainable direction of environmental exploitation. YOU can make a difference. And, YOU can start now!

What am I going to do?... Well, the film begins by describing how corporate lawyers (in the 60s) got laws changed to recognize Corporations as legal persons, with all the rights of a legal person. A large part of the film is then devoted to describing what kind of (legal) person corporations tend to be. The case is made that Corporations exhibit extreme antisocial and aggressive behavior, with a lack of moral conscience. An individual characterized by this sort of personality would be described as a psychopath. Therefore, it is fair to say that most corporations have the personality profile of psychopaths. MY task will be to use my background psychology, to see if I can learn to “treat” this behavior: make CEOs more aware, get them motivated for change, etc. Specifically, I will start looking at programs in this area, and see if anyone is already doing this kind of work. At bare minimum, perhaps I can do a comprehensive project that addresses these issues.

Why it sucks, and we don’t care.

If “it” is the environment, then David says it best:

“The biggest change that has happened in the past 100 years, I think, is that traditionally people have always understood that we are part of nature, that everything in nature is connected to everything else, and so we have responsibilities to treat it the right way. Today we don’t see that at all. We live in a world in which everything is broken into bits and pieces and we no longer see the way everything is interconnected. And if you don’t see that everything is interconnected, then you don’t see that there is cause and effect. And when you lose any sense of causal connection, then you lose all sense of responsibility. Because you no longer see how we are affecting the rest of the world.”

~David Suzuki, "No Sacrifice Needed", Corporate Knights, Spring 2005, p. 36
or Q: "What is the greatest environmental threat to Canada or the world over the next 25 years?"

Crazy

Crazy is always just a few left turns away...

dzmAae!

I ma salawy dzmaae ta ohw humc oyu acn ecubthr hte slnEgih eagalnug nad ltsil eb dosenudrto!

Free Will and Addictions

Jeff wrote the following on free will and addictions:
“Still thinking about free will...It seems even if we do have free will to choose behaviors, our free will would not allow us the 'will' to overcome behaviors that we are addicted to.”

I would say… Free will, or the “freedom to choose”, is constrained by options available (external factors), and wants/needs/desires (internal factors). Addiction changes these internal factors leading to changes in behaviour. Through addiction, as the need for a substance strengthens, internal factors exhibit more constraint on free will. Addicts can’t overcome the need to abuse at times, and therefore have less freedom to choose than others.

Thus, yes. If you believe in “free” will then there are some who are “more free” than others.

Sorry!

Alas, we can't all be as perfect as you!

Children's Hospital (IWK) was fun.

Challenge Vader here.

Am I a tease?*

So I’m role-playing a beautiful night-elf (female) in WoW and this guy starts hitting on me (which isn’t that surprising, because guys hit on my character all the time). Before I know it he’s asking me to be his “girlfriend in the game”. I figure, why not? He’s been sweet, and given my character lots of free stuff. How can a girl say no?

That would have been fine, but then he starts asking all kinds of questions about my “real life”, to which, I tried not to lie, but kept my answers ambiguous. The nice thing about saying you’re studying psychology now-a-days is that it implies nothing about your gender. Finally, as I’m about to log off he asks me my “real name”… Ah, now we have a problem! How, at that moment, I wished to be a Pat, Jamie, Chris or Andy, anything more ambiguous than a Josh.

So… I didn’t tell him, because I figured he didn’t need to know! What good can come from finding out you just spent two hours of your life wooing a member of the same sex?

*This is a condensed version of a post I never bothered posting… Long version available upon request.