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Message: <blockquote data-quote="cmbarona" data-source="post: 4630734" data-attributes="member: 71281">Yup. The short answer: psychology uses tons of statistics in their research, so psychologists need to know statistics. The long answer: 1) Psychology deals a lot with concepts called "hypothetical constructs." Take one of these constructs for example: let's say, inhibition. It's hypothetical because it can't be measured. You can measure a lot of things that point to it, however: how likely a person is to say a socially inappropriate comment before and after drinking alcohol, for example. 2) Because of these hypothetical constructs, a lot of psychology research has to use statistics. There is no 100% in psychology, as there might be in some cases in other sciences. Because of this lack of 100%, we use statistics to measure the likelihood of a theory. There is only likelihood in psychology, not certainty. 3) Because of this aspect of psychology, statistics is a bigger focus for us than for many other fields. Psychologists therefore have made their own mark on the field of statistics by sheer necessity. One of my friends was a statistics major, and he was surprised at just how much of statistics was not invented by strict mathemeticians, but by psychologists needing to design their studies. I have to take his word for it, since I only really studied the stuff I need for psychological research, but I do believe he's accurate in his assessment. By "statistically trained psychologist," I did mean for research purposes. Statistics should fuel the field's application of assessment and treatment. Say, for example, we need to research two things: is old treatment A for a phobia really better than new treatment B? We can only answer that question based on statistics. Sorry, this has been a long tangent. It's just a pet peeve of mine to hear people mock a concept based on how it sounds rather than ask what it means.</blockquote>

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