World Views and Their Influence on Psychological Theory and Research: Kuhn-Lakatos-Laudan

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter demonstrates the ways in which the understanding concerning the functioning of rival scientific research programs in psychology has evolved along lines that are consistent with the philosophical evolution from Kuhn to Lakatos and Laudan. An often asked question about the possibility of compromise is addressed with respect to the rival mechanistic and organismic programs. Today the mechanistic and organismic positions are best interpreted as scientific research programs or traditions including hard cores, positive heuristics, and families of theories. These programs bring metaphysical and methodological commitments into the essential body of science and in so doing they exert a determining influence on theories, basic terms, and research strategies. Of the currently available world views, only mechanism and organicism seem adequate to form constituent parts of scientific research programs. The Lakatos and Laudan analyses provide an adequate interpretation for the rival relationship between the mechanistic and organismic programs. These analyses also provide a more adequate rational explanation for comparing these programs in the context of scientific progress. Compromises between the two programs must be suspect because, in fact, they tend to destroy the integrity of one or the other program.