7 Sternberg papers: 351 references, 161 self-citations

Robert Sternberg, editor-in-chief of Perspectives on Psychological Science (PoPS), published 7 papers in PoPS in the last 2 years. The papers contain 351 references; 161 of these references (46%) are self-citations. This pattern doesn’t seem limited to his papers published in Perspectives: 51 of the 66 references (77%) in a recent paper on intelligence are… Read more »

Academia: trapped in the upside down of publishing

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TL;DR: this post explains the basics of academic publishing; highlights several severe problems; discusses the recent activities of the American Psychology Association (APA) targeting psychological researchers; suggests some ways forward; and ends with an unexpected plot twist: an APA journal invited me to join their editorial board while I was writing this APA-critical blog post…. Read more »

Assistant professor, APS rising star, and some papers

Three brief personal updates. After living in 6 countries in the last 12 years; after affairs and short relationships with Ludwig Maximilian’s University Munich, Free University Berlin, University of Michigan, Arizona State University, University of Leuven, and University of Amsterdam; and after 3 years as a very happy postdoc … I thought I should start… Read more »

All mental disorders are brain disorders … not.

Summary: Mental disorders are commonly defined as “brain disorders” in the literature. I show in this blog that this notion remains speculative, and share a 10-week syllabus / reading list about theon the topic about the nature of mental disorders. Update, 2024: the main arguments around reductionism in this blog post are part of my… Read more »

Becoming a journal editor in 15 minutes: a 3-step tutorial

To boost your academic career, early career researchers should consider picking up at least one associate editor position for a scientific journal. After all, spending countless hours on administrative duties will get you a long way in science. Below I provide a 15-minute 3-step tutorial on how you can easily do that, based on my… Read more »

When small samples are problematic

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A few days ago, Richard Morey started a discussion on Twitter arguing that small samples are not inherently problematic. In the interesting discussion that ensued, I kept thinking about clinical psychology and clinical trials, where I believe that small samples are problematic. To explain my position, let’s look at situations where small samples are fine,… Read more »

Are we asking too much? A list of competencies people expect me to have

Working between disciplines is exciting, and I wouldn’t want to have it any other way. Psychology has become much more interdisciplinary in recent years, and there was a discussion today on social media whether psychologists should ‘know math’. This reminds me of the statement Plato had famously engraved at the door of his Academy in… Read more »

The tone-police police, rude dudes, & how to be social on social media

TL;DR: The tone-police police on social media must take responsibility for silencing early career folks in psychological science debates on social media. I also talk about rude dudes, a dinner with Dawkins, and Coyne calling my work “insufferable pomposity”. Introduction: the tone-police police and social media We founded a roleplaying website in 2001 that quickly… Read more »

New paper: “What are psychological constructs?”

One of the fundamental shortcomings of the empirical psychological literature on mental disorders, personality aspects, intelligence, or emotions is that there is a lack of depth regarding the discussion what these psychological constructs are. Researchers often use statistical models such as factor models and find 3 depression factors or 5 personality factors, but it remains… Read more »