Psychologist Vol 28 No 11 November 2015
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the psychologist vol 28 no 11 november 2015 www.thepsychologist.org.uk Wu-wei – doing less and wanting more The only way to succeed is not to try, argues Edward Slingerland letters 858 prisoner suicide 886 news 866 choice and control for captive animals 892 interview: Cary Cooper 904 a perceptual control revolution? 896 looking back: the Great War 944 organisational psych of Jurassic World 906 Contact The British Psychological Society the psychologist... St Andrews House 48 Princess Road East ...features Leicester LE1 7DR 0116 254 9568 [email protected] www.bps.org.uk The Psychologist www.thepsychologist.org.uk Wu-wei – doing less and wanting more 882 www.psychapp.co.uk The only way to succeed is to not try, argues [email protected] Edward Slingerland tinyurl.com/thepsychomag Prisoner suicide 886 @psychmag Graham Towl and Tammi Walker consider public management, punitiveness and professionalism Advertising Reach 50,000 psychologists Choice and control for animals in captivity 892 at very reasonable rates. Display Aaron Hinchliffe Laura M. Kurtycz looks at how to counter 020 7880 7661 882 ‘learned helplessness’ [email protected] L AURA Recruitment (in print and online A perceptual control revolution? 896 B at www.psychapp.co.uk) ERNSTEIN Warren Mansell and Timothy A. Carey introduce a Giorgio Romano 020 7880 7556 theory dating back to the 1950s that is increasingly [email protected] -K touted as revolutionising the behavioural sciences URTYCZ October 2015 issue New voices: Working in a goldfish bowl – 54,009 dispatched ethics in rural practice 900 Steven MacDonald with the latest in our series Printed by Warners Midlands plc on 100 per cent recycled ...reports paper. Please re-use or recycle. news 866 ISSN 0952-8229 who helps the Ebola helpers?; research treasure trove; mass shootings; the term ‘stampede’; event Cover reports; a new era for psychology?; and much more Chinese characters wu-wei – 892 effortless action society 910 President’s column; Branches Forum © Copyright for all published material is 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, trace the copyright holders of all Adrian Needs, Paul Redford, Sophie Scott, Mark Wetherell, Jill Wilkinson illustrations. If we have unwittingly Conferences Alana James History of Psychology Matt Connolly infringed copyright, we will be pleased, on being satisfied as to the owner’s Interviews Gail Kinman Reviews Kate Johnstone Viewpoints Catherine Loveday title, to pay an appropriate fee. International panel Vaughan Bell, Uta Frith, Alex Haslam, Elizabeth Loftus the psychologist vol 28 no 11 november 2015 the issue ...debates You may have noticed that this column has become one long, letters 858 forlorn attempt to elicit sympathy the reproducibility project; academic resilience; alien abduction; psychology’s from you readers for how hard my contribution; mental health terminology; and more team and I work. Then I talk to academics, and they are putting in ...digests more hours than I knew there were in a week. Maybe we don’t have it so using brain imaging to re-evaluate famous case studies; the toll of being ‘on call’; bad. But is the ‘nose to the and more, from our Research Digest (see www.bps.org.uk/digest) 876 grindstone’ approach outdated and ineffective? ...meets On p.882 Edward Slingerland draws on the early Chinese ideal of interview 904 ‘wu-wei’ or effortless action in order Cary Cooper tells Gail Kinman about his attempts to change organisational to argue that the only way to culture through the wide dissemination of psychological theory and research succeed is not to try. And on p.904 Cary Cooper tells us organisations careers 930 need to catch up with the research we speak to Siobhan O’Neill, on the eve of a Society briefing paper on suicide showing that working hours are not and self-harm which she contributed to; Aleesha Begum describes her work synonymous with commitment or with an autism charity; and Karen M. Zubrucky shares how a tragic event led to effective performance. a career ‘chasing memories’ as a cognitive psychologist As often seems to be the way, one on one 948 Sweden is setting an example on with Peter Fonagy, Chief Executive of the Anna Freud Centre work–life balance, with many workplaces trialling a six-hour working day for the same pay (see ...reviews tinyurl.com/yesswedecan). The signs eye on fiction 906 are positive, with efficiency and Andrew Clements provides an organisational psychology wellbeing on the up. So give perspective on Jurassic World yourselves a break – be ‘wu-wei’! Dr Jon Sutton Cosmonauts at the Science Museum, Banksy’s ‘Dismaland’, Managing Editor @psychmag Macbeth, Hangmen, BBC Horizon on whether video games http://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk are really that bad, and more 938 938 ...looks back Psychology and the Great War, 1914–1918 944 Ben Shephard considers our discipline’s involvement, on all sides Six years ago Go to www.thepsychologist.org.uk The Psychologist and Digest for our archive, including parasites, Editorial Advisory Committee minds and culture Big picture centre-page pull-out Catherine Loveday (Chair), Phil Banyard, in a Darwin- a ‘selfie’ with a difference: words Olivia Craig, Helen Galliard, Harriet Gross, inspired special and image from Natalia Kucirkova Rowena Hill, Stephen McGlynn, Peter (Open University) Olusoga, Peter Wright read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk T IM S ANDERS Science or alchemy? LETTERS We are writing following the publication of the Reproducibility At present, attempting Project (reported in The Psychologist, October 2015, p.794) replications is a low-status to encourage the Society’s Boards and its Editorial Advisory activity and publishing Group to take steps to identify effective ways to respond to the results is difficult. The the implications of the Project and implement them. We are use of databanks to keep concerned that there has been an element of complacency attempted replications and even self-satisfaction, in the reporting of the Project. It is publically available is a claimed, for example, by the Project’s corresponding author, step in the right direction, but such databanks need to be that the Project shows the essential quality of self-correction. permanently well funded, and the Society may be able to help However, the Project has attracted attention in part because it here. Even then, the balance in status between replication and is unique within psychology, and it is unlikely to be repeated original research needs to be shifted where possible. There is a regularly because it depends upon many researchers giving up place for the Society’s journals to encourage the publication of their time and resources voluntarily for little personal reward. attempted replications, and an investigation into how this could Few institutions would be happy with researchers doing so be achieved in practice without excessive increase in costs and regularly at the expense of their main research objectives. reader boredom needs to be undertaken. The collective results make very embarrassing reading for One step that might be considered by teachers of psychology psychology. The bottom line is that for any recently published at all levels, as well as textbook authors, is to cite only research significant result in a leading psychology journal, there is only that has been replicated. This means forgoing introducing some a one in three chance that the research, if repeated, would new, novel findings that might entertain students but which are produce a statistically significant replication. This lack of more likely to fail to replicate. Such a strategy could help to reliability must be a deterrent to the application or extension of support the publication of replications, if their publication was new research. Furthermore, the effect size of the repeated study necessary for the advancement of the knowledge of students and is likely to be less than half of that originally reported. Any other users of psychology. Ofqual and the various exam boards potential users or students of psychology who encounter these currently select the studies addressed in AS- and A-level exams; findings are likely to question the legitimacy of the discipline. the Society could and probably should encourage them to take Some of the reasons for the very poor replicability of similar steps. published research have been widely discussed. Selective We hope to hear that the Society, in response to the reports publishing, p-hacking, and other ways of massaging results exist, of the Replication Project, is taking a leading role in developing and strategies of registering all planned research can help to a secure knowledge base in psychology so that the science of address them, but this needs to be formally incorporated into psychology will be respected and imitated. research procedures. However, we believe that there is a further Professor Peter E.