Literature DB >> 32363525

Psychology Today: Still in Denial, Still Outdated.

Aaro Toomela1.   

Abstract

The questionable state of psychology as a science has been pointed out repeatedly over last hundred years. Sometimes programs to overcome the obvious limitations of psychology have been also proposed. So far, in vain. Zagaria with coauthors (this issue) bring the subject up again. They demonstrate that psychology today is characterized by the incoherence of definitions of core constructs and lack of consensus in the scientific community. The authors also suggest that psychology would do better by adopting a research program of a specific form of evolutionary psychology. In this paper I show, mostly on the basis of my earlier works on the same subject, that shortcomings of psychology today go much deeper than the authors of the target article have discussed. Psychology today is characterized by fundamental epistemological and methodological problems. As the same shortcomings characterize the version of evolutionary psychology advocated by Zagaria and coauthors, it is not the best candidate to ground the future of psychology. I suggest the psychology misses unifying psychology of a specific kind, which basic principles were outlined by Vygotsky almost a century ago.

Keywords:  Epistemology; Methodology; Paradigm; Psychology; Unifying theory

Year:  2020        PMID: 32363525     DOI: 10.1007/s12124-020-09534-3

Source DB:  PubMed          Journal:  Integr Psychol Behav Sci        ISSN: 1932-4502


  2 in total

1.  Toward a Cultural Evolutionary Psychology: Why the Evolutionary Approach does not Imply Reductionism or Determinism.

Authors:  Andrea Zagaria; Agata Ando'; Alessandro Zennaro
Journal:  Integr Psychol Behav Sci       Date:  2021-04-20

2.  The Principle of Inversion: Why the Quantitative-Empirical Paradigm Cannot Serve as a Unifying Basis for Psychology as an Academic Discipline.

Authors:  Roland Mayrhofer; Fabian Hutmacher
Journal:  Front Psychol       Date:  2020-12-07
  2 in total

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