Psychology and the Scientific Method
Rodney Dangerfield of Sciences: “I don’t get
no respect.” Why?
 Parapsychology and guilt-by-association
 Self-help industry: “Anything goes”
 Media logic: Entertainment rules
 Psychology is a young, “inexact” science
Folk Wisdom and Common Sense
It’s all common sense: The “heads I win, tails
you lose” problem
Everyone’s an expert: Personal “theories”
Strongly-held life assumptions, cultural
beliefs and wishfull thinking: Resistance
Contradictory “psychofacts: Opposites
attract vs. Birds of a feather flock together
The Canons of the Scientific Method
 Determinism: All events have systematic
causes
 Systematic empiricism: Relying on
structured observation
 Public verification: Replication and peer
review
 Testable theories: ie., A solvable problem
Validation and confirmation quality
(risky, precise predictions)
The falsification criterion (Popper)
Qualification and “If-then” logic
 Parsimony: Occam’s razor
 Probabilistic reasoning: “On average…”
Nomothetic vs. idiographic prediction
Philosophy of Science
Thomas Kuhn: Paradigm shifts in science
Normal science and its “revolutions”
Schools of thought as “ideologies,” religion
(I) Introspection and Psychodynamic Schools:
(Europe in late 1800s, to mid 1900s)
Introspection: Examining one’s own thoughts
Psychodynamic theories: Freud, Jung
Unconscious motivations. Case studies.
Logical Positivism School: A negative reaction
to an “all in the head” science and to
“untestable” theories whose concepts cannot
be reliably measured
Require “operational definitions” for concepts:
Concrete procedures for “objective observation
Problem of internal states? Hunger, anxiety?
(See and hear, vs. replicable and repeatable?)
Blurring link between concept and measure?
(Intelligence is what the IQ test measures)
(Versus multiple operations model)
(II) Behaviorism: The American Reaction
Adopt “practical,” adaptation approach of
logical positivism (Skinner, Hull)
Stimulus-Response models
S is a concrete feature of the “situation”
R is an observable behavior elicited by S
Cognitions and feelings as “epiphenomena:”
Irrelevant: Empty head/ black box metaphor
Social engineering: Just change reinforcers
Concurrent focus: “Personality” is secondary
An Example: Research on Relationships
Gottman: The marital interaction studies
Micro-behavioral coding schemes of a
discussion of a marital problem: SPAFF
Dissatisfaction in marriage associated with
negative reciprocity cycles and lack of
“editing,” especially by women
“Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse”
Criticize/blame or contempt/belligerent
behaviors associated with defensive and
stonewall/withdraw reactions by partner
Polygraph results suggest “physiological
linkage:” One partner’s irritation and anger
“sets off,” annoys the other.
(III) Field Theory
Kurt Lewin, a pioneer in social psychology
Physics: Electrical fields and atoms are not
directly observed but instead inferred in
terms of their indirect consequences
Weak version of positivism: If mechanisms
not directly observed then link to concepts
that are, often in terms of consequences
Retain theoretical concepts such as thoughts
and feelings if they prove to be useful in
predicting observable consequences
People’s interpretation of the situation S
often may influence their response
This interpretation is shaped by personality
and needs of the person: B = f (S,P)
Examples from Relationship Research
Markman, 1985:
Talk table procedure to study people’s
moment by moment interpretations of the
motives behind their partner’s behavior
r =.60 correlation with divorce for newlyweds
Simpson, Rholes & Philips, 1996:
Marital interactions coded as in Gottman
Each partner rates the other’s behavior
Insecure attachment, low self-esteem
partners see rejecting, negative behavior even
when observers see no evidence of it
These perceptions then predicted own bad
behavior “in return” (a self-defeating
prophecy: expect rejection, then cause it!)
IV Modern Mechanism Models: A
Revolution in Scientific Method
External stimulus –Internal Mechanism-Response models
The mechanism or mediator could include:
Conscious, self-reported thoughts
Unconscious reactions
Self-reported affect and mood
Physiological or neurological measures
This link is moderated by personality and
personal history of learning: The mediation
chain holds for some people but not others
Coming Full Circle with Freud: Preconscious
States as Predictors
Unconscious hurt and anger: Murray
Implicit attitude tests: Reaction time on
computer to associations of partner name
and valenced words (sunshine vs vomit)
Transference reactions: Andersen
Resemblance of another person to own
mother predicts reaction to other
Baldwin: Superego, the Pope and sex anxiety
Subliminal pictures of the Pope make St.
Jerome’s females very anxious when they
read a sexy Cosmo article
Bargh: Reading about an old person makes
you walk more slowly out of the lab
Our Biological Heritage
MRI: Aron
What part of the brain is the seat of love?
Love and changes in brain chemistry
Love as social glue until the baby is safe?
Simpson & Gangestad: Darwin’s heritage
Women normally like sweet, kind guys
Ovulating women prefer hunky guys with
“good” genes
MacDonald & Leary: Co-opted brain parts!
Social pain really hurts: Using the
physical pain center as a social signal
Greenough: The brain “prunes” neural
centers it doesn’t use early in life
Romanian orphan studies: Stunted social
needs and desires