“I walked to my car with such pride that I was living in the USA in 2024 and am an avid sports fan, and yet I totally forgot about the super game”
In Works for Me, the author writes, “Sometimes, I wonder who came up with the college curriculums, and where they are today so we could ask them things like how mathematical knowledge factors into someone being a good psychologist.” Perhaps if you met those people they would respond along the following lines:
Among the behavioral health fields, psychology is particularly quantitative. Like so many fields, statistics is part of the curriculum because it plays an important role in the majority of studies. Additionally, psychology is very heavy on the use of scales (many with complex scoring schemes) to capture and understand multiple dimensions of complex concepts and behaviors. These play a major role in testing, evaluation, and diagnosis. Accordingly, some basic math is necessary.
I understand why people might wonder what “math knowledge” has to do with being a psychologist. It is that way with every field that requires substantial study — there are aspects that just won’t make sense to someone who isn’t involved in that field. Would anyone’s “common sense” tell them to treat heart disease with poison (digitalis)? Or to treat angina (chest pain) with an explosive (nitroglycerin)?
Maybe it’s just that I’m wrong more often than most people, but I’ve learned that when I hear something that sounds ridiculous, but comes from experienced professionals and experts — they’re usually right and it’s my own lack of knowledge that caused me not to understand. A general rule that I’ve come up with is, “Common Sense + Ignorance = Nonsense.”
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