the psychologist vol 29 no 1 january 2016 www.thepsychologist.org.uk Why demography needs psychology Gillian Pepper, Lisa McAllister and Rebecca Sear consider fertility and population dynamics letters 2 reproductive health matters 30 news 12 the psychologist guide to… careers 62 you and your baby pull out looking back 78 how biases inflate scientific evidence 36 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 Why demography needs psychologists 26 www.psychapp.co.uk Gillian Pepper, Lisa McAllister and Rebecca [email protected] Sear look for psychological answers to questions about fertility and population tinyurl.com/thepsychomag dynamics @psychmag Reproductive health matters 30 Advertising Olga van den Akker argues that psychological Reach 50,000+ psychologists research and policy are surprisingly at very reasonable rates. embryonic, struggling to keep pace with CPL technological developments 275 Newmarket Road 26 Cambridge, CB5 8JE Advertising Manager How biases inflate scientific evidence 36 Matt Styrka Angela de Bruin and Sergio Della Sala consider 01223 273 555 an example: the cognitive benefits of bilingualism [email protected] New voices: Depression – more than the sum December 2015 issue of its symptoms 42 55,319 dispatched Eiko Fried with the latest in our series for Printed by budding authors Warners Midlands plc on 100 per cent recycled ...reports paper. Please re-use or recycle. 36 what would you include in an after-school ISSN 0952-8229 psychology club for primary-age children?; countering security threats; BPS call for action on Cover refugees; 5 minutes with Dr Zoey Malpus; genetics Fiona Webster, and education; psychology’s impact on policy; www.facebook.com/ reports from Psychology4Students; and more 12 makebelievebaby © 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]. 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International panel Vaughan Bell, Uta Frith, Alex Haslam, Elizabeth Loftus the psychologist vol 29 no 1 january 2016 the issue ...debates I try to ensure that each January is a rebirth, of sorts, for The Psychologist. letters 2 This month, alongside articles now including the President’s Letter; a response to Oliver James’s letter last month on population dynamics and on genes and heritability; trustworthy data; behaviour in schools; the public health reproductive health, you may notice agenda; Antonia (Toni) Whitehead; Jane Wardle; and more the odd new arrival. In the centre pages, you will opinion: King of the Ghosts 46 find our first ‘The Psychologist James Russell reflects on nearly half a century of doing psychology guide to…’, this one on ‘you and your baby’. We hope that a warm glow ...digests of parental pride will prompt you to pull it out and pass it on, to spread feeling like an expert can make you closed-minded; sports psychologists the word about psychology, The understand surprisingly little about the ‘yips’; does it matter whether or not pain Psychologist and the Society. medication is branded?; the ideal therapist; and more, in the latest from our free Speaking of the Society, at the Research Digest (see www.researchdigest.org.uk/blog) 22 other end of the lifespan are those particular pages. They’ve been killed ...meets off, but live on throughout: it’s all a Society section. The President’s column becomes a President’s interview 44 letter (see p.5), our figurehead right Almuth McDowall and Céline Rojon caught up with John Rust, long recognised as in amongst the membership with one of the UK’s foremost experts on psychometrics a new brief to actively prompt careers 62 discussion and debate. we talk to Alison Soutter about her work in Australia protecting children, and hear More development is imminent, from Peter Beaman about the unseen, unsung heroes – psychology technicians including an app and new formats. As The Psychologist turns 28, it’s one on one 80 time to turn back the clock and grow with Kitrina Douglas, Leeds Beckett University up all over again. Please do look out for and respond to our reader ...reviews survey: it’s your chance to shape us. Dr Jon Sutton ethical challenges and academic fraud; Tibet’s secret Managing Editor @psychmag temple; Floating Points; The Divided Laing; Mindful Parenting; Beasts of No Nation; The Truth About Child Sex Abuse; Celts at the British Museum; and more 68 the psychologist 69 ...looks back Screwed up, little despots? 78 Alice Violett turns to late 19th- and early 20th-century psychologists for the origins of stereotypes around only children 6 years ago guide to… you and your baby The Psychologist and Digest Go to www.thepsychologist.org.uk Editorial Advisory Committee for our archive, The Psychologist guide to… Catherine Loveday (Chair), Emma Beard, including a special you and your baby centre-page pull-out Phil Banyard, Olivia Craig, Helen Galliard, issue on social In the first of an occasional ‘guide to’ Harriet Gross, Rowena Hill, Stephen inclusion series, designed for you to pass on McGlynn, Peter Olusoga, Peter Wright to your family and friends, we get simple evidence-based tips for those first few months read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk Flailing against a tide of evidence LETTERS ‘What’, asks clinical psychologist Oliver James, ‘would lead to acceptance of the null hypothesis of the Human Genome Project as regards psychological traits?’ (Letters, December 2015). The answer to this question is a scientific literature that looks very different indeed to the existing one. In his letter, James exploits the complex nature of behaviour genetics to sow confusion about what geneticists have found. James concedes that genes influence height, but then denies that the same is true for psychological traits. Yet the evidence for both inferences comes from exactly the same scientific methodology. All kinds of behaviour- genetic investigations (twin studies, family pedigree studies, adoption studies, and newer DNA-based studies) show consistent results when it comes to height and to psychological traits such as IQ, personality, and many other psychological measures [links can be found with the online version of this letter, via http://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/debates]. James refers to Robert Plomin telling The Guardian ‘I have been looking for these genes for fifteen years and I don’t have any’, but this is an out-of-context quote mine. To be clear, we can know that a trait is genetically influenced (from methods such as twin studies) without knowing the specific genes involved (knowledge about which comes from different methods, such as genome-wide association studies). Thus, Robert Plomin is noting that, whereas we know that many psychological traits are strongly heritable, we do not yet know many of the specific genes involved genetic results are on the way. Since we are only at the beginning (the reason for this is that very large studies are needed to of our use of genome-wide association studies, and since very have the statistical power to detect specific genetic associations; large samples are needed to detect the very many genetic these take longer to put together than the average study). There variants that relate to psychological traits, nobody sensible is nothing contradictory or surprising about this. should expect that we would know a large proportion of them In any case, James is out of date: genome-wide association by now. Just take a look at Figure 1 in the 2014 Nature article studies in 2014 and 2015 have uncovered specific genes related from Jonathan Flint and Marcus Munafò (tinyurl.com/zj4ypld). to educational performance, to IQ, and to the personality trait As sample sizes have increased, so have the number of genetic of neuroticism. Even larger studies with even more impressive variants found (in this case linked to schizophrenia). THE PSYCHOLOGIST NEEDS YOU! …and much more We rely on your submissions throughout the publication, and in return we help you to get your message across to a large and Letters contribute diverse audience. These pages are central to The Psychologist’s role as a forum for communication, discussion and controversy among all ‘Reach the largest, most diverse audience of psychologists in the UK members of the Society, and we welcome your contributions. (as well as many others around the world); work with a wonderfully Send e-mails marked ‘Letter for publication’ to [email protected]; supportive editorial team; submit thought pieces, reviews, interviews, or write to the Leicester office.