Wikipedia:USEP/Courses/Pseudoscience and Psychology (Ken Swan)

Course information

University: University of Florida
Course title: Pseudoscience and Psychology
Professor name: Ken Swan
Professor's Wikipedia username: lkswan (talk · contribs)
Course start date: 8/23/12
Assignment due date: 11/28/12

Course description

Scientists tend to dislike discussing the “paranormal.” Ghosts, we are assured, do not really exist. Bigfoot is a myth, all alleged psychics are charlatans, and telepathy is the stuff of cheesy science- fiction stories. We may therefore safely file such notions away in our mental file cabinet under the heading, “For Entertainment Purposes Only.” But how can we be sure? Millions of people worldwide sincerely believe in phenomena most scientists consider unbelievable. The popular press reports eyewitness accounts of miracle cures and unexplainable occult happenings on a near daily basis. How can we tell the difference between what we would like to be true and what is actually true? And—this is perhaps the more interesting question for psychologists—why do so many people believe in such weird things?

The more we learn about the extraordinary capabilities of the human brain, the clearer it becomes that our reasoning machinery is woefully fallible. We subconsciously seek out information that confirms what we already think. We reliably see patterns where none actually exist. We often base our judgments on single anecdotes rather than valid statistical information. Enter the world of pseudoscience—claims presented so that they appear scientific even though they lack supporting evidence and plausibility—ready-made to capitalize on these evolutionarily hard-wired features. In this course we’ll delve deep into the philosophy and methods of psychological science to answer the question of how we know what is and isn’t so, tackling a host of odd, paranormal, and popular (but erroneous) psychological claims along the way.