KEY THEME: Psychological science relies on empirical evidence and adapts as new
KEY THEME: Psychological science relies on empirical evidence and adapts as new data develop.
The key integrative theme for this chapter is “Psychological science relies on empirical evidence and adapts as new data develop.” Like the Ethics theme, this one applies to the work of all psychologists. Although it seems mostly related to psychologists who are actively conducting research, it also includes psychologists who are consuming research, including health service psychologists, teachers, and psychology students.
First, let’s break this theme down into its two components:
- Relies on empirical evidence
- Adapts as new data develop
Psychological science relies on empirical evidence
Western psychology relies heavily on quantitative research (using numbers and statistics) and the scientific approach to build its theoretical foundations. There are three basic features to using the scientific approach.
- Research strives to be systematic – As Lilliard suggested, researchers must be organized and consistent in their methods of inquiry so they can trust their results.
- Research is focused on an empirical question – In the pretend play example, the question was “is pretend play related to social skill development?” Empirical questions can be answered through observation and experience.
- Research creates public knowledge – Psychologists, like other scientists, publish their work. This usually means writing an article in a peer-reviewed professional journal targeted for other scholars. The article explains their research question in the context of previous research, describes the methods used to answer the question, and presents their results and conclusions.
Psychological science adapts as new data develop
Psychological knowledge is mostly developed through theories. Theories are a well-developed set of ideas that propose an explanation for observed behaviors we see in the world – and they are often in a continuous cycle of development and testing. Theories are typically based on multiple studies conducted by different researchers over many years. No one study can lead to full understanding – we must consider different contexts and populations using a variety of methods. Additionally, despite researchers’ best efforts, sometimes methods are flawed and/or conclusions are incomplete. Publishing the research allows others in the scientific community to contribute to the conversation, detect and correct errors, and develop new ways of answering the question. Over time, theories become more refined and accurate.
As we can see in Figure 4.1, knowledge that is built through the scientific process often changes over time.
Psychological scientists ask empirical questions and make predictions (hypotheses) derived from theories and then test those hypotheses. If the results are consistent with what was expected, then the theory is supported. If the results are not consistent, then the theory might need modification and further studies are needed.
Theories are to