The idea that you can ask one question and it makes the point - well, that wasn't how psychology was done at the time.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the complexity of psychological research, highlighting that single questions cannot capture the intricacies of human behavior.
Daniel Kahneman's quote reflects the historical context of psychology as a discipline that has evolved beyond simplistic approaches. It suggests that the study of psychology involves nuanced and multifaceted inquiries, rather than relying on singular questions to convey deeper insights into human cognition and behavior. Kahneman's perspective urges a recognition of the sophistication required in psychological research and understanding.
In practice
This quote could be used in a psychology class to emphasize the need for comprehensive research methods.
We think, each of us, that we're much more rational than we are. And we think that we make our decisions because we have good reasons to make them. Even when it's the other way around. We believe in the reasons, because we've already made the decision.
The average investor's return is significantly lower than market indices due primarily to market timing.
Banks are run by executives, and executives protect themselves, and that does not always mean that banks are going to behave rationally.
Laziness is built deep into our nature.
Through some combination of culture and biology, our minds are intuitively receptive to religion.
You are more likely to learn something by finding surprises in your own behavior than by hearing surprising facts about people in general.
It may be well to wait a century for a reader, as God has waited six thousand years for an observer.
Scientific theories tell us what is possible; myths tell us what is desirable. Both are needed to guide proper action.
...there is simply nothing so important to a people and its government as how many of them there are, whether their number is growing or declining, how they are distributed as between different ages, sexes, and different social classes and racial and ethnic groups, and again, which way these numbers are moving.
No one knows the diversity in the world, not even to the nearest order of magnitude. ... We don't know for sure how many species there are, where they can be found or how fast they're disappearing. It's like having astronomy without knowing where the stars are.
There might be a hidden structure in pi that we simply haven't discovered.
The question now at issue, whether the living species are connected with the extinct by a common bond of descent, will best be cleared up by devoting ourselves to the study of the actual state of the living world, and to those monuments of the past in which the relics of the animate creation of former ages are best preserved and least mutilated by the hand of time.
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