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medpundit |
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Friday, May 23, 2003Tavris assumes (correctly, for the most part) that "scientists and practitioners in psychology are distinct groups." No, says Sternberg, they are not: "Many psychologists properly view themselves as scientist-practitioners or as practitioner-scientists." But scientists and practitioners - whether medical or psychological - necessarily differ in their aims. The aim of the scientist is to understand; of the practitioner to cure. My doctor doesn't advise against "alternative" therapies, even though she doesn't believe in them, because they can't do any harm and they might help. She is happy to try anything that might work. But varying more than one thing at a time in a scientific experiment usually makes the results uninterpretable. Scientists therefore avoid the practice. The same individual may, as Sternberg suggests, be both scientist and practitioner - but not at the same time or with the same set of motives. It took me a long time to realize this difference, but it's quite true. When I first met my husband he deeply offended me by sneering at the idea that doctors were scientists. But I was a premed student then. By the end of medical school I knew he was right. The practice of medicine is based on science, to be sure, but there's a world of difference between the medical researcher and the medical practitioner. But the best part of the post is the point the author makes about the undue influence of scientific and professional organizations on public policy: The take-home message is just this. Policy makers cannot short circuit the process of deliberation on science-based issues by listening to scientific organizations. Organizations, even scientific ones, exist for all sorts of reasons; scientific truth is only one of them. So when controversial issues with a scientific component are on the table - affirmative action, global warming, the death penalty, human cloning, whatever - our leaders would do well to downplay 'official' views. Let them listen to individual arguments and make up their own minds. Yeah. posted by Sydney on 5/23/2003 07:35:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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