World of Psychology

Questions to Answers We Already Know

By John M Grohol PsyD
December 28, 2004

We all formulate questions based upon the answer we want to hear.

Isn’t that that the truth? You see, there, I formulated a question in such a way as to make the response inevitably a “Yes.”

In theory, this is all just a word game. In science, researchers formulating questions to answers they already know (or suspect) leads to data that is inherently biased (yet not acknowledged as such in peer-reviewed journals).

This is the basis of Grohol’s Bias Principle, which you’ll hear more about in the new year!


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6 Comments to
“Questions to Answers We Already Know”

I’m doing a project in school on psychology because it’s something i’m looking into doing after i finish hich school and im having a hard time getting some answers to questions i have, so im wondering if you have some answers for me, like the strength psychology has in the workforce compared to other careers, if there are many people into this career path and is it worth doing? if you have any answers to these questions it would be a great help to me.. thanks so much!

- erika, st.john’s, newfoundland.

Dear erika

Let me answer your second question first. We humans are in this world. Also so many will come to this world. But we have our own way of life, we know or we adjust ourselves to the everchanging world. so condidently choose PSYCHOLOGY as your career, so that one or other day you will become a notable psychologist of our era.

For your first question, psychology is every thing. Without psychology nothing will exist in this world. If you want to understand or to adjust to your environment or to adjust your elders or to extract work from your subordinates you need to understand the psychology of work culture.

if you could give me some insite as to why my husband seems to like taking on the role of a marter. he admits he likes when he is forgotten about or by himself to feel sorry for himself. he actually admits to enjoying the feeling of feeling sorry for himself. we were wondering why would this be. what does he gain by doing this. hope to get a response thanks much linda.

When a person enjoys feeling sorry for him/herself it is a form of self-pity wihout any responsibility for one’s own happiness. So you can feel a victim of things and this makes you feel good about yourself because you feel you are not to blame for your misfortune. When you feel you are not to blame, essentially you feel that you are “right” and the world is “wrong” so this is a way of creating understanding and equity in a world that is not easily understood or fair.

is the person who doesn’t like to talk much,doesn’t tell his secrets to any body and most of the times he is alone has psychological problems?and why he behave like this?

This might seem an odd subject, but my landlord came on to me. I talked and will admit even flirted with him one day as he came over to mow the lawn.
After thinking about it i decided this was not right for me. So the next two times me came over to mow I didn’t go out or even say hi. Then one day I seen him up town and he was abrupt and a bit rude. Since then he has been driving by my house every night at 9:30 pm. I am thinking he is trying to get a reaction from me. He is very educated man and also has study psycology…that is why I think he is going for a reaction. Can you help? tell me what to do?

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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 28 Dec 2004

 


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