<p>1. Psychology Is Alive and Well (and Doing Fine Among the Sciences)</p> <p> </p> <p>The Freud Problem</p> <p>The Diversity of Modern Psychology</p> <p> Implications of Diversity</p> <p>Unity in Science</p> <p>What, Then, Is Science?</p> <p>Systematic Empiricism</p> <p> Publicly Verifiable Knowledge: Replication and Peer Review</p> <p> Empirically Solvable Problems: Scientists’ Search for Testable Theories</p> <p>Psychology and Folk Wisdom: The Problem with “Common Sense”</p> <p>Psychology as a Young Science</p> <p>Summary</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>2. Falsifiability: How to Foil Little Green Men in the Head</p> <p> </p> <p>Theories and the Falsifiability Criterion</p> <p> The Theory of Knocking Rhythms</p> <p> Freud and Falsifiability</p> <p> The Little Green Men</p> <p> Not All Confirmations Are Equal</p> <p> Falsifiability and Folk Wisdom</p> <p> The Freedom to Admit a Mistake</p> <p> Thoughts Are Cheap</p> <p>Errors in Science: Getting Closer to the Truth</p> <p>Summary</p> <p> </p> <p> 3. Operationism and Essentialism: “But, Doctor, What Does It Really Mean?”</p> <p> </p> <p>Why Scientists Are Not Essentialists</p> <p> Essentialists Like to Argue About the Meaning of Words</p> <p> Operationists Link Concepts to Observable Events</p> <p> Reliability and Validity</p> <p> Direct and Indirect Operational Definitions</p> <p> Scientific Concepts Evolve</p> <p>Operational Definitions in Psychology</p> <p> Operationism as a Humanizing Force</p> <p> Essentialist Questions and the Misunderstanding of Psychology</p> <p> Operationism and the Phrasing of Psychological Questions</p> <p>Summary</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>4. Testimonials and Case Study Evidence: Placebo Effects and the Amazing Randi</p> <p> </p> <p>The Place of the Case Study</p> <p>Why Testimonials Are Worthless: Placebo Effects</p> <p>The “Vividness” Problem</p> <p> The Overwhelming Impact of the Single Case</p> <p> The Amazing Randi: Fighting Fire with Fire</p> <p>Testimonials Open the Door to Pseudoscience</p> <p>Summary</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>5. Correlation and Causation: Birth Control by the Toaster Method</p> <p> </p> <p>The Third-Variable Problem: Goldberger and Pellagra</p> <p> Why Goldberger’s Evidence Was Better</p> <p>The Directionality Problem</p> <p>Selection Bias</p> <p>Summary</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>6. Getting Things Under Control: The Case of Clever Hans</p> <p> </p> <p>Snow and Cholera</p> <p>Comparison, Control, and Manipulation</p> <p> Random Assignment in Conjunction with Manipulation Defines the True Experiment</p> <p> The Importance of Control Groups</p> <p> The Case of Clever Hans, the Wonder Horse</p> <p> Clever Hans in the 1990s</p> <p> Prying Variables Apart: Special Conditions</p> <p> Intuitive Physics</p> <p> Intuitive Psychology</p> <p>Summary</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>7. “But It’s Not Real Life!”: The “Artificiality” Criticism and Psychology</p> <p> </p> <p>Why Natural Isn’t Always Necessary</p> <p> The “Random Sample” Confusion</p> <p> The Random Assignment Versus Random Sample Distinction</p> <p> Theory-Driven Research Versus Direct Applications</p> <p>Applications of Psychological Theory</p> <p> The “College Sophomore” Problem</p> <p> The Real-Life and College Sophomore Problems in Perspective</p> <p>Summary</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>8. Avoiding the Einstein Syndrome: The Importance of Converging Evidence</p> <p> </p> <p>The Connectivity Principle</p> <p> A Consumer’s Rule: Beware of Violations of Connectivity</p> <p> The “Great-Leap” Model Versus the Gradual-Synthesis Model</p> <p>Converging Evidence: Progress Despite Flaws</p> <p> Converging Evidence in Psychology</p> <p>Scientific Conse</p>