Another problem with statistics

Okay no one comments on my posts about statistics probably because they're boring and they may or may not make sense.

My issue with statistics today is that they don't make generalizations about how certain types of characteristics interact, but rather how the characteristics themselves correlate.

For example, a common study will compare a certain trait like happiness to another trait like optimism. They may or may not find a correlation. The problem is that even if they do find a correlation, we cannot draw any other conclusions without doing further studies. Even with further studies, we cannot agree or disagree with any sort of general conclusion based on the collection of studies because they're all telling us that something is probably the case (not definitely the case). We just know that some things are more likely to be related to other things and we're not necessarily sure what any of these things are. This is because the focus point of the study is misdirected.

A well directed study would focus on a general axiom. An example is that characteristics that are similar will amplify the similar characteristics in an interactive context. The focus point is not on any specific characteristic, but rather on an axiom or principle that can be tested using multiple characteristics. An axiom provides the formerly lacking meaning to the characteristic constructs because we can see how things are related and what affects constructs will have on each other and other constructs. Carefully hypothesized axioms should help to identify many constructs according to a certain criteria and then provide a way to test these criteria.

The advantage of an approach that focuses on axioms is that it ties in various characteristic constructs into categories based on those axioms. We can then relate characteristic constructs in a meaningful way. Another advantage is that not only do we have information that connects characteristics, but we can also test and find exceptions to a hypothesized axiom. Exceptions can lead to other distinctions and axioms that can also be used to categorize characteristic constructs in a meaningful way. We can also tell which axioms divide characteristic constructs in the most clear cut and influential way.