PSYC 2030 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Statistical Significance, Headache
29 May 2018
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PSYC 2030 Lecture 7 Notes
Introduction
Firstborn and Later born
• Comparisons of intelligence test scores among hundreds of thousands of firstborn and
later-born individuals indicate a highly significant tendency for firstborn individuals to
have higher average scores than their later-born siblings (Kristensen & Bjerkedal, 2007;
Zajonc & Markus, 1975).
• But because the scores differ by only one to three points, the difference has little
practical importance.
• The point to remember: Statistical significance indicates the likelihood that a result will
happen by chance.
• But this does not say anything about the importance of the result.
• The Biology of Mind In 2000, a Virginia teacher began collecting sex magazines, visiting
child pornography websites, and then making subtle advances on his young
stepdaughter.
• When his wife called the police, he was arrested and later convicted of child
molestation.
• Though put into a sexual addiction rehabilitation program, he still felt overwhelmed by
his sexual urges.
• The day before being sentenced to prison, he went to his local emergency room
complaining of a headache and thoughts of suicide.
• He was also distraught over his uncontrollable impulses, which led him to proposition
nurses.
• A brain scan located the problem—i his id’s biology.
• Behind his right temple there was an egg-sized brain tumor.
• After surgeons removed the tumor, his lewd impulses faded and he returned home to
his wife and stepdaughter.
• Alas, a year later the tumor partially grew back, and with it the sexual urges.
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