On Mon, 27 Jun 2005, Betty Woolf wrote:

Catherine Woodgold wrote:
Betty Woolf ) writes:
[excerpts from Betty's post]

Catherine Woodgold wrote:
snips
I don't think Straus et al have any more responsibility than
anyone else to prove something about spanking; they just happen
to be doing studies on that topic. I read recently that Straus
used to be a pro-spanker but changed his mind based on the results
of the various studies he's done over the years.

Well, people usually do studies trying to prove something, at least in
my experience. Spanking either has a positive effect, a negative
effect, or no effect on a child's behavior. My stance is colored by
what studies mean in my line of work, and you may not realize that the
way you state things has a particular meaning in the world of the harder
sciences. It is that that I am reacting to when I may seem to be
responding to things you think you didn't say; by my frame of
reference, I am responding to what I think you said.

Straus is publicly known for his anti-spanking crusade and due to his
bias, he often not see the errors in his studies like the so called
"no-spanking" group in his Straus et al (1997) were actually includes
spankers!

"We are indebted to Larzelere et al for alerting us to the likelihood that our
no-spanking group includes occasional spankers. To the extent that this is
the case, the decrease in antisocial behavior that we found for children in
the "none" group may indicate an improvement in the behavior of children whose
parents spank, but do so only infrequently."

Later, he blamed it on his "secular humanism":

"Straus, for example, has made explicit the fact that his research is
motivated by secular humanism. This includes a deeply held belief that
good ends should not be sought by bad means; that all forms of interpersonal
violence, including spanking, are wrong, even when motivated by love and
concern; and that we therefore need to develop nonviolent methods of
preventing and correcting antisocial behavior. These deeply held values may
account for the failure of Straus to perceive the serious limitation of
measuring CP using a 1-week reference period."
(ARCHIVES, In Reply. March 1998)

Doan