My wife and I are addicted to House (on DVD, so don't say anything about the current season). In trying to find a reason why I should be able to count my House-watching time as being productive, I came across the reason that Dr. House would be a fantastic psychology professor (except for the whole drug abuse/harassment thing). I'm currently teaching Critical Thinking at California State University at San Bernardino, and I thought about all of House's advice that I could use in class.
For example, he could teach:
1. How do we calculate risk assessment?
House: "Take risks; sometimes patients die. But not taking risks causes more patients to die, so I guess my biggest problem is I've been cursed with the ability to do the math."
2. Do theories or principles apply to all situations?
Foreman: "Occam's razor. The simplest explanation is always the best."
House: "And you think one is simpler than two?"
Cameron: "I'm pretty sure it is, yeah."
House: "Baby shows up. Chase tells you that two people exchange fluids to create this being. I tell you that one stork dropped the little tyke off in a diaper. Are you going to go with the two or the one?"
3. Should self-assessment measures be treated with caution?
House: "It's a basic truth of the human condition that everybody lies. The only variable is about what. The weird thing about telling someone they're dying is it tends to focus their priorities. You find out what matters to them. What they're willing to die for. What they're willing to lie for."
4. Is statistical accuracy important?
Foreman: "Her oxygen saturation is normal."
House: "It's off by one percentage point."
Foreman: "It's within range. It's normal."
House: "If her DNA was off by one percentage point, she'd be a dolphin."
5. Why are IQ tests more than just a simple score (as in Alan Kaufman's conception of intelligent testing?
House: "Labs, schmabs. A good diagnostician reads between the labs."
6. Why is the Slippery Slope argument a logical fallacy?
House: "Slippery slope -- today we withhold porn, tomorrow it's clean bandages."
7. Why might informed consents still allow in errors?
House: Why do they even bother putting an age restriction on these things when all you have to do is click "yes- I am 18!" Even a seventeen year-old could figure that out.
8. How can we handle missing data?
House: "You don't think non-answers tell me anything?"
9. How can the laws of probability be applied to our everyday life?
House: "Eight units in this building; gotta be a pervert like me living in at least one of 'em."
10. What are the dangers of overanalyzing?
House: "Is that fun for you? Analyzing everyone else's fun away?"
And finally,
11. What the standard interplay between an advisor and the student?
House: "I thought I'd get your theories, mock them, then embrace my own. The usual."
Special thanks to the website House MD Quotes, which supplemented IMDB as a source for quotes!
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