Generalizations are necessary for communication, cognition, general human understanding. If you try to reject them you will be rendered incapable of discussion,

Generalizations are necessary for communication, cognition, general human understanding. If you try to reject them you will be rendered incapable of discussion, communication, thought about nearly any relevant or interesting issue. Positions (1) (2) (3) are nearly axiomatically true -- if we are to generalize at all, and we must, we need to look for positions and people to generalize from. The very purpose of a professional organization is to aid us in doing this. Members of these organizations use it as a mental model to generalize "my professional community" and "the leaders of my professional community". If you look at her resume, she is the former head of this and about 4 other high-prestige psychologists professional organizations, and a high ranking member of nearly every organization she is eligible to be a part of as a psychologist. She is the very definition as "well-respected representative of her field". She is a fine target for generalization. What you have not brought to the field are conflicting reports from other psychologists contradicting her or suggesting she is not an appropriate representative. Jimmy Carter and John McAfee are readily directly contradicted -- if you ask me to provide sources for numerous professionals in the field suggesting they are not the standard I can do so easily and so can you (though Jimmy Carter is a weird selection -- he is not a professional, and both are telling, since neither of them work in their field anymore)