Abstract
In recent decades we have seen an exponential growth in the amount of data gathered within psychological research without a corresponding growth of theory that could meaningfully organize these research findings. For this reason, considerable attention today is given to discussions of such broader, higher-order concepts as theory and paradigm. However, another area important to consider is the nature of the questions psychologists are asking. Key to any discussion about the scientific status of psychology or about progress in the field (scientific or otherwise) is the nature of the questions that inspire psychological research. Psychologists concerned about scientific progress and the growth of theory in the field would be well served by more robust conversations about the nature of the questions being asked. Honest, curiosity-driven questions—questions that admit to our ignorance and that express an active and optimistic yearning for what we do not yet know—can help to propel psychology forward in a manner similar to the development of theory or paradigm. However, existing as it does in the “twilight zone” between the natural sciences and the humanities, psychology is fertile ground for questions of wide-ranging natures, and thus the nature of progress in the field can be variously understood, not all of which will be “scientific.” Recent psychological research in three areas (cognition, memory, and disorders/differences of sex development) are discussed as examples of how curiosity-driven questions being asked from a position of informed ignorance can lead to progress in the field.
Highlights
It is “the right question, asked the right way, rather than the accumulation of more data, that allows a field to progress.” (Firestein 2012, p. 98)In recent decades we have seen an exponential growth in the amount of data gathered within psychological research
The main aim of the current piece is to suggest that, before looking for unifying (“scientific”) theories, psychologists interested in the scientific progress of the field should look into the nature of the questions being asked and the degree to which those questions open the door to the possibility of scientific progress in the first place
We will examine some characteristics of the kinds of questions that allow for the possibility of scientific progress, and we will briefly look at some areas in psychology in which we see such questions being asked
Summary
It is “the right question, asked the right way, rather than the accumulation of more data, that allows a field to progress.” (Firestein 2012, p. 98). Study after study is conducted to test various hypotheses, and yet in psychology at large there is little consensus regarding the core concepts in use, and there is a general absence of broader theories or overarching paradigms that would allow for the meaningful organization of research findings (Valsiner 2017; Zagaria et al 2020). For this reason, considerable attention today is given to discussions of such broader or higher-order concepts as theory and paradigm, and rightly so. Unless we are pushed forward by our ignorance and curiosity, and allow ourselves to be pulled forward by what we find outside of ourselves in response, the scientific status of psychology will remain standing on what Zagaria et al (2020) call “clay feet.” The question of psychology’s scientific status and the possibilities of scientific progress in the field pertain not so much to whether or not psychology can stand on its own, as whether or not it has anywhere to go
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