Steve Bennett wrote:
So, can someone fill me in on why we're laughing at this? From the article:
To psychologists, to render the Rorschach test meaningless would be a particularly painful development because there has been so much research conducted — tens of thousands of papers, by Dr. Smith’s estimate — to try to link a patient’s responses to certain psychological conditions. Yes, new inkblots could be used, these advocates concede, but those blots would not have had the research — “the normative data,” in the language of researchers — that allows the answers to be put into a larger context.
That seems like a pretty reasonable concern to me. To destroy the effectiveness of a test that has that kind of research background to it (tens of thousands of papers!!) doesn't seem like a laughing matter. Maybe it's unavoidable. Maybe it's collateral damage. But the concern that publishing it on Wikipedia is different from publishing it elsewhere on the web seems legitimate.
It's good to know that the efforts of the jokesters seeking to remove this material was reported on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)'s National news program last night.
So what if there have been tens of thousands of papers on the Rorschachs! The geocentric universe was impervious to criticism for much longer. If the tests are truly scientific they will be just as scientific when exposed to open criticism. It's not our role to protect the incomes of those psychologists who are in denial about their game of follow-the-leader. NPOV is contrary to such occult practices.
Ec