Geoff W. Sutton Blog

Park Closed 2023 Geoffrey W. Sutton & Bing AI   It's September 29th and the US is about to shutdown again- -that is, the government closes nonessential operations. Of course, what's "essential" isn't decided by us--the citizens of this great nation. Surely, there is a more effective way to avoid this recurring event and the horrific costs to our financial and wellbeing. I do think our government wastes too much of our money, but shutdowns are not the best way to get change. Every election makes a difference. When we elect big spenders, we pay the price. Sometimes, we may decide some spending is a good idea--depends on our politics. The Cost of A Shutdown - It's Not Just Financial Were you planning a trip to a National Park? They shutdown. The parks will close. You lose planned enjoyment. Some parks are open and some with minimal services. It will require some investigation to know what's available and what is closed. Were you going to fly somewhere? L...

Viewing a Sacred Book 2023 by Geoffrey W. Sutton & Bing AI   Are Conservative and Progressive Christians Trading Insults? I'm in the process of writing about the assessment of spirituality, which I hope to complete by the end of the year. I've come across articles and research measures attempting to clarify the related concepts of fundamentalism and biblical literalism. And so, I have a question about the meaning of these terms and wonder if there is a way to delineate different approaches that recognizes differences but does not appear to denigrate the perspective of people with different views. Here's a summary of what I've found. Researchers have examined differences within religious traditions in the way subgroups of people communicate about their beliefs and live out their faith. Writing in Christianity Today (2023) Tim Pietz begins his essay on fundamentalism by noting the negative connotation of two of the terms (bold added for emphasis): “ Fundamentalist ” ...

  Anchors are the labels at the end points of a rating scale. For example, a researcher may ask respondents to rate an item on a five-point scale of agreement ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. The two endpoint labels,  strongly disagree and strongly agree,  are the anchors. Ad Learn more about Creating Surveys Geoffrey W. Sutton, PhD  is Emeritus Professor of Psychology. He retired from a clinical practice and was credentialed in clinical neuropsychology and psychopharmacology. His website is    www.suttong.com   See Geoffrey Sutton’s books  on    AMAZON          or    GOOGLE STORE Follow on      FACEBOOK     Geoff W. Sutton           TWITTER    @Geoff.W.Sutton       You can read many published articles at no charge:    Academia    Geoff W Sutton ...

  Pants on Fire 2023 Geoffrey W. Sutton & Bing AI CLIMATE SCIENCE and the Unscientific MIND Challenging Thoughts About Climate Science and Psychological Explanations   Climate science has become a political football. The teams of political rivals seek to exploit research about climate science to score points they can trade in for political power. Their fans cheer and sneer and look for penalties. Now a scientist seems to reveal a weakness. Good scientists can look back on their studies and those of others to identify what should have or could have been considered. It’s the never ending quest we read in scientific journals, “more research is needed.” Patrick Brown is a climate scientist. He’s caught some attention for his opinion piece about other variables that could account for the world’s wicked wildfires. Shannon Osaka does a good job of telling the complex story in WAPO, but I’m not sure the details will change the game. But then he changes fields to bec...

  Intruder Room My wife asked our grandson about school. As part of his response, he told about the new "Intruder Room." Have you seen them? I used to work as a psychologist in schools. You can imagine we dealt with some horrific situations. Most of us care about our children and all those fine teachers and staff trying to provide a safe learning environment.  I've been in some schools in the past few years and I wondered how safe they would be--especially when a school shooting would hit the news. It's a new school year now. After labor day, students and teachers ought to be engaged in learning again. Now there's something new to learn. How does an intruder room work? How safe is it? I'm a bit skeptical having grown up when we were told to get under our wooden desks in case the Russians dropped a nuclear bomb on us. I asked  Bing's chat-- here's what I got. ____________________________ An intruder room is a safe space designed to protect students and ...