Re: Researched reasoning for relative contact

[John M Price PhD <jmprice@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 3 May 2001, Sherrill Clark wrote:

> Dear Rolf and others:  I guess I'm having some trouble with this one 
> and I am responding to the list to perhaps initiate a conversation 
> about our field and about the uses of social research in general.
> 
> In this instance it seems to me that we "know" that relatives are 
> preferred especially when safety is accounted for, why do we need 
> "research" to back this up?   Is research being used in a very 

The question is not what is preferred, but rather what is better.  I
submit that we don't know that unless decent, methodologically sound
research is actually done.  Otherwise, all we are dealing with is folk
psychology and tales of aged spouses, as it were.

Humans have a rather immense capacity to see patterns where none exist,
and miss those that are there, but hidden or not considered important due
to cognitive set.  We tend to confirm our positions, rather than challenge
them.  All this is useful day to day, and for survival in our ancestor's
age, but these do not assist in actually coming face to face with real
facts.  There, the rigorous application of the scientific method is best
in eliminating these 'superstitions', and policies based on facts are
always going to be of help to more people than those based on what we
believe rather than actually know.

As an example, using this situation, in your experience, how many times
has relative placement been decidedly bad in outcome?  If you actually
spent the time to do a little research on your own case files, would that
number be the same?  People tend to remember those events which support
their preconceptions, and keeping a decent countof events which both
support *and* contradict them is usually an eye opening experience.  

Finally, as you are but one person; can you assume your cases are
representative of the rest of the world?  Here, again, applying decent
methods to assessing the issue will give a more usable picture of what is
going on, rather than a look into what might be a skewed and extremely
small sample.

> conservative (political) way to slow decision making or to drive 
> policy?  Should it?

Actually it seems they are being conservative toward claims by authority -
they are not accepting any such 'claims to knowledge'.  What has been
asked for is a summary of facts on this issue.  Yes, facts, real,
demonstrated facts, should always rule the day when they are available.  
How they are applied in any specifc situation is a matter of judgement, of
course, but that is always better than an opinion without solid bases in
the data.  

-- 
John M. Price, PhD                                     jmprice@calweb.com
Life: Chemistry, but with feeling!      |      PGP Key on request or FTP!
Comoderator: sci.psychology.psychotherapy.moderated          Atheist# 683