Steve Bennett wrote:
So, can someone fill me in on why we're laughing
at this? From the article:
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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