Can averages explain a human life? (with Steven C. Hayes)

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How much of psychology is built on a statistical illusion? What happens when we mistake population averages for truths about individual lives? Can a person ever really be understood through traits measured at a few isolated moments? Why do simplified categories feel so authoritative even when they fail to capture lived experience? What does it mean for a science of mind to ignore time, context, and development? How much of what we call personality is just a byproduct of how we choose to measure people? If most of what matters is situational, what kind of science would we need instead? Why are average-based explanations so intuitively appealing even when they may mislead us? What gets lost when human beings are treated as snapshots rather than processes? Could clearer thinking begin by questioning the categories we rely on most?

Dr. Steven C. Hayes is an Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of Nevada, Reno and President of the Institute for Better Health, a 45-year old charitable organization dedicated to better mental and behavioral health.

Links:

• Steven's website

• Hayes et al.: Evolving an idionomic approach to processes of change: Towards a unified personalized science of human improvement

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