Re: Statistics in Psychology?

On Mon, 19 Jun 2006 01:42:48 -0700, Reef Fish wrote:

<SNIP MUCH OF POST>
The role of a DISCIPLINE such as biostatistics, or business,
or psychology, or social sciences and engineering sciences
merely have certain SPECIAL additional requirements in
topics in those disciplines that are NOT part of the standard
toolbox for statisticians.

That is why the Harvard joint medical-statistical Program,
intended for medical researchers using statistical methods,
is an 8-year Program, requiring a 4-year Harvard M.D.
AND a 4-yr. Harvard Ph.D. in the Statistics Department!

You simply CANNOT take the brightest M.D.s from the
Harvard medical school and hope to make a top-notch
research statistician out of them by anything less than a
full Ph.D. program in Statistics.

That single program should give everyone some sobering
thoughts about their own training (or lack thereof) in the
Statistics areas.

Reef Fish,

Isn't it also true that there are various levels of users of statistics?
Is it really necessary to have a PhD in Statistics to apply statistics to
discipline specific problems? You often use MDs as an analogy for the
training required by a compotent statistician. However, to further that
analogy, there are also physician's assistants and nurse practitioners
who, with considerably less training than an MD, competently practice in a
relatively independent manner, with their work reviewed in much the same
way as perhaps peer review might be expected to work.

I am not suggesting that there are not abuses of statistics by those who
are not trained primarily as statisticians. Though, it should be noted,
there is also much abuse by those who ARE trained in statistics, as
you like to point out.

I don't know if you are still following it, but there is a current thread
on the EDSTAT mailing list that addresses this issue. The OP in that
thread point to this document:

http://www.a2q.com/tech_discuss.html

and asked for feedback. Perhaps in my own self-defense, I think there is
some merit to this position.

Brett Magill
Sociologist, Public Policy Analyst, Statistics User
psyche.homelinux.net

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: statistics versus biostatistics
    ... 8-year program at Harvard, an M.D. and a Ph.D. at Harvard. ... better trained in APPLIED statistics than some of the Harvard Ph.D. ... little education. ... arguments require mathematics, and not just using a mixture ...
    (sci.stat.math)
  • Re: statistics versus biostatistics
    ... 8-year program at Harvard, an M.D. and a Ph.D. at Harvard. ... Harvard statistics department for years. ... Mathematics Department which was affiliated with a Statistics ... understand of what REAL Data Analysis and Applied Statistics ...
    (sci.stat.math)
  • Re: Newbie Statistics
    ... > i am finding that i need some pointers in the right direction. ... NOT the Harvard Medical School. ... Ph.D. in Statistics at the Statistics Department. ...
    (sci.stat.math)
  • Re: Statistics in Psychology?
    ... a psychology paper in class before, and a lot of psychology papers that are ... in their ill-practice to malpractice of statistics. ... statistics for the social sciences or engineering statistics. ... That is why the Harvard joint medical-statistical Program, ...
    (sci.stat.edu)
  • Re: Statistics in Psychology?
    ... a psychology paper in class before, and a lot of psychology papers that are ... Statisticians in statistics departments treat MOST other departments ... statistics for the social sciences or engineering statistics. ... That is why the Harvard joint medical-statistical Program, ...
    (sci.stat.edu)
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