The article illustrates the difficulty defining and measuring psychological traits, concepts, and characteristics. The article also illustrates how worldview philosophies are presented under the banner of "science," a banner under which this research is unqualified to stand.
In his column Mr. Hutson reports on research from the University of Toronto. Researchers measured the "religiousness" and "spirituality" of approximately 1,300 people in the US and Canada. The measures of "religiousness" and "spirituality" were then correlated with the political orientation (conservative or liberal) of the subjects.
You may ask yourself, as I did, how does one measure religiousness and spirituality?
The researchers asked subjects, "how important they feel church services are" and whether they've "ever felt deeply connected to the universe." Feel church is important -- you are religious. Feel connected to the universe -- you are spiritual.
How then does one measure conservativeness and liberalness? The researchers used the “right-wing authoritarianism” (RWA) and the “social dominance orientation” scales. What biases do you think the "right-wing authoritarianism" might have?
Prepare your students to be wise critics of psychological research.
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