The Psychologist Vol 28 No 5 May 2015
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the psychologist vol 28 no 5 may 2015 www.thepsychologist.org.uk The political animal A special feature on the eve of the United Kingdom General Election letters 338 back to the ballot box 360 new President 380 becoming an MP 364 authorial identity 384 developing strong and diverse leaders 368 careers 408 the age of celebrity politics 372 Contact The British Psychological Society the psychologist... 48 Princess Road East Leicester LE1 7DR ...features 0116 254 9568 [email protected] www.bps.org.uk The Psychologist www.thepsychologist.org.uk www.psychapp.co.uk Back to the ballot box 360 [email protected] Our journalist Ella Rhodes meets researchers in psychology and politics in search of answers tinyurl.com/thepsychomag to voter apathy @psychmag Becoming an MP 364 Helena Cooper-Thomas considers the Advertising transition into the role, and how this compares Reach 50,000 psychologists at very reasonable rates. with other workplaces Display Aaron Hinchcliffe 020 7880 7661 Developing strong and diverse political 368 [email protected] leaders Recruitment (in print and online Jo Silvester and Madeleine Wyatt look at at www.psychapp.co.uk) the issue of training for politicians, and its Giorgio Romano 020 7880 7556 relationship with work psychology [email protected] The age of celebrity politics 372 April 2015 issue Sharon Coen considers psychology’s role in 45,232 dispatched a modern phenomenon Printed by 354 Warners Midlands plc on 100 per cent recycled paper. Please re-use or recycle. New voices: The ‘minority’ man? 376 Jessica McCarrick with the latest in our series ISSN 0952-8229 for budding writers Cover 10 Downing Street, the official Teach and learn: In search of an authorial residence of the First Lord of the identity 384 Treasury, a role usually held by James Elander looks beyond plagiarism the Prime Minister © Copyright for all published material is 384 held by the British Psychological Society unless specifically stated otherwise. As the Society is a party to the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) agreement, articles in The The Psychologist is the monthly publication of The British Psychological Society. It provides a forum for Psychologist may be copied by libraries and other organisations under the communication, discussion and controversy among all members of the Society, and aims to fulfil the main object terms of their own CLA licences of the Royal Charter, ‘to promote the advancement and diffusion of a knowledge of psychology pure and applied’. (www.cla.co.uk). Permission must be obtained from the British Psychological Society for any other use beyond fair dealing authorised by copyright legislation. For further information Managing Editor Jon Sutton Journalist Ella Rhodes about copyright and obtaining Assistant Editor Peter Dillon-Hooper Editorial Assistant Debbie Gordon permissions, e-mail Production Mike Thompson Research Digest Christian Jarrett (editor), Alex Fradera [email protected]. The publishers have endeavoured to Associate Editors Articles Michael Burnett, Paul Curran, Harriet Gross, Rebecca Knibb, Charlie Lewis, trace the copyright holders of all Wendy Morgan, Paul Redford, Mark Wetherell, Jill Wilkinson illustrations. If we have unwittingly Conferences Alana James History of Psychology Nathalie Chernoff infringed copyright, we will be pleased, on being satisfied as to the owner’s Interviews Gail Kinman Reviews Emma Norris Viewpoints Catherine Loveday title, to pay an appropriate fee. International panel Vaughan Bell, Uta Frith, Alex Haslam, Elizabeth Loftus the psychologist vol 28 no 5 may 2015 the issue ...digests Amongst a glut of political coverage on the eve of the UK General an election special on the psychology of voting, from our free Research Digest Election, I hope you will stomach our (see www.researchdigest.org.uk/blog) 354 own feast. The authors make some fascinating links across the discipline to shed some light on how ...debates to get voters to the ballot box, what letters 338 happens when they are there, how in defence of inferential statistics; training costs; when is a Dr not a Dr?; autism; we can support and develop data analysis in sport; words and sorcery; and more politicians, and the influence of our celebrity culture on politics. ...reports The pieces are not ‘politically charged’, but writing in The news 348 Psychologist can be and has been. is science broken?; the Germanwings crash; Big Bang; breastfeeding; and more Although I try hard to keep my own politics out of the publication (yet society 390 over the years readers have labelled Dorothy Miell’s final President’s column; Spearman Medal and Outstanding me as everything from ‘war- Contributions through Doctoral Research Award winners; an introduction to the mongering neo-con’ to ‘bleeding Psychobiology Section; and more heart liberal’!), I am more than happy to receive ‘political’ pieces if ...meets they are backed by evidence and relevant to our audience. At a Society interview 380 conference once I listened to Steve from civvy street to theatre of war: our editor Jon Sutton talks to incoming Society Reicher, one of the most passionate President Jamie Hacker Hughes, Military and Veteran Specialist and Visiting and political psychologists I know, Professor at Anglia Ruskin University rail against the ‘rhetoric of careers 408 tediousness’ which affects much of we meet Robert Williams, the ‘flying psychologist’, and clinical psychologist psychology. Political debate is rarely Jane McCartney tedious, so it will always find a place in our pages. one on one 428 Dr Jon Sutton with Sonia Livingstone, Professor of Social Psychology at the London School of Managing Editor @psychmag Economics ...reviews Life After Suicide, Louis Theroux, Chappie, and much more 418 ...looks back Filming trauma 424 Edgar Jones explores the making of an innovative film designed to show the treatment of soldiers suffering from shell shock Three years ago The Psychologist and Digest Go to www.thepsychologist.org.uk Editorial Advisory Committee for our archive, Big picture centre-page pull-out Catherine Loveday (Chair), Phil Banyard, including a special Are prisoners calmer when their Olivia Craig, Helen Galliard, Harriet Gross, feature on replication cells are pink? Image from research Rowena Hill, Stephen McGlynn, Tony (also available in by Oliver Genschow. Words by Wainwright, Peter Wright digital edition at Christian Jarrett for our Research tinyurl.com/psycho0512) Digest read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk In defence of inferential statistics LETTERS In February Basic and Applied Social Psychology (an American population mean or effect size), and the variability or precision Psychological Association journal) announced that it was of that estimate. As Smith and Morris (in press) point out, when banning the reporting of null hypothesis significance testing we know both an effect size and its CI we can make a much procedures (NHSTP) and more useful interpretation of the confidence intervals (CI) results of our research than when (Trafimow & Marks, 2015). We T we have an effect size alone. We IM are writing to express our hope S know of no alternative to standard that the journals published by the ANDERS errors in some form, such as CIs, British Psychological Society will for describing the likely variability not be lured into similarly in our effect size if we repeat our banning CIs and distancing research. Given the relatively small psychology from medical research sample sizes of much psychology in which CIs are routinely research, the CIs of the effect sizes employed. We believe that CIs can be disconcertingly large and offer an as yet undeveloped but remind researchers that a simple potentially very valuable tool for effect size, or other point estimate, psychologists to interpret their can suggest a precision that is not data (see e.g. Smith & Morris, in justified. Failure to report this press). Any ban that involves variability does not make it go throwing out the CI baby with the away but does expose those NHSTP bathwater should be following up the research to avoided. dangers of misinterpretation. Trafimow and Marks (2015) Trafimow and Marks’s (2015) condemn CIs because, they say, ‘A solution to the banning of NHSTP 95% confidence interval does not and CIs is to require bigger sample indicate that the parameter of sizes and the reporting of descriptive interest has a 95% probability of being within the interval. statistics with frequency and distributional data. In general, such Rather, it means merely that if an infinite number of samples information is welcome. However, the reason for the original were taken and confidence intervals computed, 95% of the development of NHSTP was that it is always necessary to decide confidence intervals would capture the population parameter.’ whether or not to act in the future as if a real effect is likely. CIs It is true, as Cumming (2012) points out (p.79), that a 95 per of effect sizes give good guidance to such decisions, but it is not cent confidence interval refers to the whole process of taking clear upon what evidence these fundamental decisions will be a sample and calculating a CI, 95 per cent of which will capture based if CIs and NHSTP are banned. the population mean. However, it follows that the 95 per cent Another issue with demands for larger samples is that CIs that you calculate will most likely capture the population psychology researchers are inevitably faced with limitations parameter. through cost and time upon the number of participants that they The great value of CIs is that they provide valuable can test. Resources devoted to doubling sample sizes for one probabilistic information about the true location of the study are not then available for new research questions. If the population mean. NHSTP deals with the normally uninteresting original sample size was, in fact, sufficient, there is a serious null hypothesis: the probability of the data if the difference or ethical and practical question of whether an unnecessary relationship is zero, or some other specific value.