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Peder M Isager

@isager.bsky.social

300 followers 82 following 64 posts

Associate professor at Oslo New University College. Dungeon Master. Website: http://pedermisager.netlify.app

pedermisager.netlify.app

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Peder M Isager @isager.bsky.social · 12d

Indeed, I'm looking forward!

Peder M Isager @isager.bsky.social · 12d

Extremely honored to recieve Oslo New University College's science award for 2025. ONH has been a fantastic base to conduct my research at for the past 4 years, and I have an amazing team of colleagues around me to thank for that. From the bottom of my heart, thank you all!

Reposted by Peder M Isager

Julia M. Rohrer @dingdingpeng.the100.ci · Aug 19

Okay everyone, things are getting serious. I’m going to teach research methods again, 1st year psychology undergraduates. What would you cover with respects to philosophy of science, the research process etc.? I’m not very happy with the textbook stuff so I’m open to all ideas!

Peder M Isager @isager.bsky.social · Aug 17

True, and maybe that should be emphasized in the blog post. Will consider adding a section at the end of the post. Any sources you'd recommend I'd cite in a section like this?

Reposted by Peder M Isager

Daniel Lakens @lakens.bsky.social · Aug 15

An abbreviation (ABB) in a journal article (JA) or Grant Application (GA) is rarely worth the words it saves. Every ABB requires cognitive resources (CR) and at my age by the time I'm halfway through a JA or GA I no longer have the CR to remember what your ABB stood for.

Peder M Isager @isager.bsky.social · Aug 15

To be clear, the point of this post is not to say only experiments support causal inference and correlational research never can. Quite the opposite in fact. If that was your takeaway, I may need to add some language to clarify.

Peder M Isager @isager.bsky.social · Aug 15

The motivation for picking the example in this post was simply that I wanted a thought experiment that a 1st year undergraduate in most areas of social and health science could wrap their head around without any additional reading.

Peder M Isager @isager.bsky.social · Aug 15

I actually use the history of smoking~cancer research as my running example when introducing our bachelor students to research design and experimental vs observational research. It's a terrific example, albeit on a tragic subject.

Peder M Isager @isager.bsky.social · Aug 15

Yes, one of several practical problems. You have to assume a perfect implementation for the hypothesis diagram to be true without caveats. Still, coming from a field where none of this is made explicit in most textbooks, I think understanding the unrealistically perfect case can be helpful.

Peder M Isager @isager.bsky.social · Aug 15

Given that I wanted to cap the post at ~1000 words a lot of nuance will obviously be lost. Still, I think this post provides a useful preface to a proper causal inference introduction like Pearl's primer book.

Peder M Isager @isager.bsky.social · Aug 15

Thanks for the reference, will check this out! I absolutely agree, and I don't think I say anything of the sort. However, I wanted to write a post that in very simple terms lays out the causal graphical logic underlying the textbook statement "you have to use experiments to make causal claims".

Peder M Isager @isager.bsky.social · Aug 14

Later on the authors recommend abductive inference. I agree with the recommendation. However, abduction that leads us to a causal conclusion is just causal inference by another name. Saying that causal inference is not allowed is not sage advice. Better to emphasize that causal inference is hard.

Peder M Isager @isager.bsky.social · Aug 14

I understand that sensible causal inference based on (cross-sectional) correlations can be hard. Very hard. But that does not mean our goal should not be causal inference. If a network modeling approach invalidates any causal inference, I question the usefulness of such a modeling approach.

Peder M Isager @isager.bsky.social · Aug 14

Can we infer causal relations from undirected network models of mental disorders? Some authors apparently say no. Personally, I don't see what network models are good for if they can't help us understand disease etiology (i.e. causality).

Quote from onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Peder M Isager @isager.bsky.social · Aug 13

Absolutely, feel free!

Peder M Isager @isager.bsky.social · Aug 8

I mean, randomized control is usually mentioned in any explanation, but why is randomization to begin with? Why does randomization and manipulation give experiments a leg up on observational research when it comes to causal inference? This blog post is an attempt to explain why, briefly.

Peder M Isager @isager.bsky.social · Aug 8

New blog post! Why experiments are the gold standard for answering causal questions (pedermisager.org/blog/why-exp...). Many text books insist on experimental evidence to draw causal inferences bvut don't fully explain exactly what gives experiments their special powers.

Peder M Isager @isager.bsky.social · Jul 1

The idea that if you're a poor researcher you should automatically be assigned to teach instead makes about as much sense as the idea that if you're a poor teacher you should automatically be assigned to do research instead.

Peder M Isager @isager.bsky.social · Jul 1

"Those who cannot do, teach" is, I think, another sacred cow of academia. "Those who cannot teach, do" strikes me as equally true. A good teacher seems more valuable to the academy than a good researcher, on average.

Peder M Isager @isager.bsky.social · Jul 1

RE @nulliusinverba.bsky.social ep 59: Meehl seems to assume that research is harder than teaching; teachers should be paid less and if you can't do interesting research you're "demoted" to teaching. Why not the opposite? Why not pay teachers more and say "if you cannot teach, do"?

Peder M Isager @isager.bsky.social · Jul 1

Currently on chapter 2 "Chaos and unpredictability". Before reading this chapter, I highly recommend watching this Numberphile's video (www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETrY...) which is a neat little introduction to chaos, and is really helpful for developing an intuition about bifurcation plots.

The Feigenbaum Constant (4.669) - Numberphile

YouTube video by Numberphile

www.youtube.com

Peder M Isager @isager.bsky.social · Jul 1

Currently reading "Complex Systems Research in Psychology" (santafeinstitute.github.io/ComplexPsych/). If you're interested systems psychology/psychopathology, give this a read. van der Maas gives a very broad introduction to the topic, and supplements text with R code and practical exercises.

Complex Systems Research in Psychology

santafeinstitute.github.io

Reposted by Peder M Isager

Daniel Lakens @lakens.bsky.social · Jun 26

I often talk about the need for psychology to improve. That is because I think it is worth improving. It would be very helpful if I could easily provide a few dozen examples of the contributions that have been made to support that conviction. I know they exist. I would just like them in one place.

Peder M Isager @isager.bsky.social · Jun 26

Just discovered "Mental health professionals’ attitudes towards the network theory of mental disorders" by @leahschumaker.bsky.social & Levente Kriston (osf.io/462cs). Fascinating read. Partly confirms suspicion I've had for a while that therapists see NTMD as "nothing new" (but see pub for details)

Reposted by Peder M Isager

simine vazire @simine.com · May 8

My editorial on how journals can earn trust.

We often use journal names as proxies for quality. This is bad bc it’s not valid. But it could be. Editors could make journal name a valid signal. And we could place value on journals that show us how they do that.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....