Table Of ContentMaking Statistics Easy by
Getting your PENIS out in
the Classroom
Professor Andy Field
@
ProfAndyField
Outline
Part 1:
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Why should students love statistics?
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Part 2:
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Why do students hate statistics?
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Part 3:
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Can we make them like statistics more by exposing
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them to my PENIS?
@
ProfAndyField
Intelligent Laypeople
A Scientist (Arguably)
@
ProfAndyField
Statistics is a life skill
Utts (2003) some core skills:
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1. When causal relationships can and cannot be inferred.
2. The difference between statistical significance and
practical importance.
3. The difference between finding ‘no effect' and finding
no statistically significant effect.
4. Sources of bias in surveys and experiments, such as poor
wording of questions, volunteer response, and socially
desirable answers.
5. Understanding that variability is natural, and that
‘normal’ is not the same as ‘average’ (e.g., child
development).
Gordon (2004)
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7% of Psychology students think statistics is generally
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useful
16% thought it was useful for psychologyJ
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@
ProfAndyField
How the contraceptive pill
works
@
ProfAndyField
The Daily Mail Said...
“Women may suffer a permanent decline in sex drive after
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taking the contraceptive pill, researchers have said.”
“A number of sexual dysfunction effects are associated with the
!
Pill, including dulled libido ... Until now it has always been
assumed that these are reversible, and cease to be a problem
as soon as a woman comes off the Pill. But new research
suggests that the effect on libido might be long lasting or even
permanent.”
“A team of American researchers ... studied 125 young women
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attending a sexual dysfunction clinic. Sixty two were taking oral
contraceptives, 40 had previously taken them, and 23 had never
been on the Pill.”
“The scientists measured levels of SHBG in the women every
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three months for a year, and found they were seven times higher
in users of the Pill than in women who had never taken them.”
“Levels declined in women who had stopped taking the Pill, but
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remained three to four times higher than they were in those with
no history of using oral contraceptives.”
@
ProfAndyField
The Layperson Might Think
At Best:
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SHBG levels were seven times higher in users of
-
the Pill than in women who had never taken
them (80%)
Although levels of SHBG in women who stopped
-
taking the pill were 3-4 times higher than
women who had never taken the pill, this is not
a meaningful difference (33% agree)
At worst:
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The OC causes permanent loss of Libido (33%)
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The OC causes sexual dysfunction (50%)
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Women taking the Pill are at risk from
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permanent loss of libido even when they stop
taking it (83%)
GPs should inform women of this risk when
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prescribing the pill (100%)
@
ProfAndyField
Panzer et al.
250
Lower
200
)
B
G
150
H
S
(
o
d 100 Baseline
i
b
i >120 Days
L
50
Normal
0
Never Taken On Pill Stopped
Pill Taking Pill
Group
Panzer et al.
250
Lower
209
200
)
B
G
150
H
S
(
o Never Taken Pill
d
100
i 80
b Stopped Taking Pill
i
L
42
50 35
Normal
0
Baseline > 120 Days
Group
The Psychologist Copy
Editor ...
“Women with sexual dysfunction may suffer a permanent (well, up to 3-6
!
months or a year) decline in levels of SHBG after taking the contraceptive pill,
researchers have said.”
! “A number of sexual dysfunction effects are associated with the Pill, including
dulled libido ... Until now it has always been assumed that these are reversible
and in the current research SHBG did actually decline a lot after coming off of
the Pill, and cease to be a problem as soon as a woman comes off the Pill. But
new research suggests that the effect on SHBG might be long lasting or even
permanent even though we only have data over, on average 3-6 months.”
! “The scientists measured levels of SHBG in the women every three months for a
year (well, some of them, the average was 3-6 months), and found they were
seven (in a parallel universe where 7 = 5) times higher (at baseline, not after
they’d come off the pill) in users of the Pill than in women who had never taken
them.”
! “Levels declined in women who had stopped taking the Pill, but remained three
to four times higher (in another parallel universe where 3 to 4 means 2.29) than
they were in those with no history of using oral contraceptives. However,
women in the discontinued group were followed up on average for 73 days less
than never users (or 38 days less for the long term follow up group).”
Subjective libido was never compared at follow-up in discontinued users and
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never-users, so we don’t really know a lot about libido one way or another.
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ProfAndyField
Description:Understanding that variability is natural, and that. 'normal' is not the same as 'average' (e.g., child development). ! Gordon (2004) ! 7% of Psychology
