Psychology of Pseudoscience
The Time Warp
Paper Instructions
Course Goals
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
1. Define pseudoscience.
2. Identify common pseudoscientific arguments.
3. Describe several contemporary forms of pseudoscience.
4. Exhibit improved scientific reasoning.
5. Exhibit improved writing.
This assignment directly involves Goals 2 through 5. Goal 1 is implicit.
Time Warp Paper
Your major assignment in Psychology of Pseudoscience is to help develop what I hope will be an ongoing column for Skeptical Inquirer (SI). I hope that this authentic learning experience (a) provides additional motivation because it could “matter” in the real world, (b) gives you something tangible to point to when applying for jobs or graduate school, (c) creates something that makes a small difference to people beyond our classroom, and (d) brings some credit to our class and SUNY Cortland.
Skeptical Inquirer is a nationally recognized magazine and the leading publication on scientific skepticism. I have published several articles in SI and I have come to know the editors. I pitched to them a column that involved revisiting old issues of SI to examine skeptical inquiry decades ago. I believe this is an informative way to examine pseudoscience and the paranormal. It allows scholars to consider why some forms of pseudoscience persist while others fade way. I also think that burden of proof issues are often best illustrated by showing people for how long pseudoscience proponents have failed to produce convincing evidence.
The editors are interested in this column that I have initially called The Time Warp (TTW), but they are not sure how often they can run it. That is good enough for me right now. I want to press with TTW and see what happens. I can’t promise anything, but I am hopeful that I can get at least a few of you published in SI if you are so inclined and you put in the necessary work.
Currently there are 16 of us in the class. I want to produce eight Time Warps. I have identified eight old issues of SI and I plan to assign two of you to each issue. I want each of you to create a TTW column independently (due April 25) and then work together to develop a shared final product (due May 2). I believe this is the best way to create successful columns. This method also makes it easier for me grade your individual work.
This is going to change the nature of class. Think of TTW as your job for class. The class and readings are there to help train you to succeed at your job. The better you do your job, the higher your performance review goes, just like the real world.
Independent Work – The Time Warp Column
I spend considerable time playing around with the ideal structure for TTW. I developed the following structure that balances a snapshot of a broader review and diving into a specific issue. I have provided you an example. Each TTW can be divided into six parts.
1. Opening
The opening stays the same for each column. Yay redundancy that saves time.
Welcome aboard amigos! In The Time Warp, we aren’t constrained by the space-time continuum. We use Skeptical Inquirer’s rich history to examine skepticism…from the future.
The only thing that changes is the term “amigos.” Change that to be “friends” with your designated language (Vol. 1.2 = English; Vol. 2.1 = German; Vol. 2.2 = Ukrainian, Vol. 3.1 = Hindi; Vol. 3.2 = Japanese; Vol 3.3 = Arabic; Vol 3.4 = Onondaga; Vol. 4.1 = Swahili). Confirm it with a native speaker. I don’t want to think we are writing “friends” only to learn later it means something like “food drooler.”
2. Cultural Context
One paragraph of about 70 words here to set a context for the reader about what was going on the time. For example, Volume 2.1 corresponds to Fall/Winter 1977 so look up information about what was happening at the time the issue came out – Fall, 1997. Some obvious ideas for inclusion are historical events, movies, songs, other forms of popular culture, and fashion. Stilt this towards things that skeptics would care about. I picked the move Carrie, for example, because it involves a paranormal theme – psychokinesis. Confirm everything beyond a reasonable doubt.
3. Some Skeptical Thoughts from the Time
These are just quick snippets that give an overall feel for what was published in the issue broadly. I have considered calling this section “Surface Scratchers.” I would mention the cover theme unless it is the deep dive or there is no cover theme (Vol 1.2). I would touch on all the main articles. If you want to pull from something from News and Comment or Psychic Vibrations, go ahead.
4. Humorous Side-Note or Random Shout-Out
Try to find something in the issue that is funny (Humorous Side-Note) or just worth mentioning (Random Shout-Out). Vol 1.2 has a funny story about a man who gets some sort of date (he doesn’t say exactly) probably because he could use chopsticks. These issues often contain funny pieces of news or strange predictions by psychics.
5. Deep Dive
We need to pick one issue to examine more thoroughly. I thought the best choice for Volume 1.1 was skepticism broadly as you can see in my TTW. This will likely be the most difficult part for you. You need to become a complete expert in your Deep Dive so you can succinctly summarize what the issue looked like at the time the issue was published and then consider what transpired since that time! If you are not an expert, it might show, and that would be a major problem. Use what you have learned in PSY 329 and the Psychology Major if you can.
The deep dives do not work independently like the other parts of TTW because once we deep dive a topic then we have to avoid it for a while. I have therefore mapped out several issues of SI and I have developed this deep dive plan.
Deep Dive Assignments:
• Vol. 1.2 – Cattle Mutilations
• Vol. 2.1 – Bermuda Triangle
• Vol. 2.2 – Biorhythms
• Vol. 3.1 – Astrology
• Vol. 3.2 – Ancient Aliens
• Vol. 3.3 – UFO-Aliens
• Vol. 3.4 – Moon-Related Births
• Vol. 4.1 – Creationism
6. Post-Warp Reflection
What does your time warp teach us? Keep in mind that this section should build on the unique perspective provided by time warping. Don’t just think about it like whether the topic under investigation has been supported or debunked. Really get into how the issue look at the time of publication and what happened since. Was skepticism proven right, wrong, or something in between? What can we learn from going back in time to examine this particular topic?
Independent Work – Annotated Bibliography
I want you to keep an annotated bibliography as you go. This will show some of the work you put into your column. It can also help me if I need to take your work to shape it a bit. Put every useful source you found in a reference page (APA style preferred). Write a brief paragraph underneath every reference explaining the reference and its connection to your column.
Teamwork – The Time Warp and Annotated Bibliography
It is critical that you and your partner work independently. Independent work will presumably uncover a greater number of sources and interesting points for use in the final version of TTW. The independent work will need to be combined into a single column. After your individual papers are complete, I want you to meet with your partner to create a final, improved version of TTW and the annotated bibliography.
Rubric
1. Quality of (1) introduction, (2) context, (3) surface scratchers, and (4) humorous side-note or random shout-out (SLO 3; approximately 50 Points).
2. Quality of deep dive and conclusion – identified by writing and annotated bibliography (SLOs 2 and 4; approximately 100 Points)
3. Quality of writing (SLO 5; approximately 50 points).
4. Team TTW = Possible grade adjustment.
Put these together and you can see an overarching goal. The closer your TTW is to publishable, more highly I can rate its quality.