Book contents
- Toward a Process Approach in Psychology
- Toward a Process Approach in Psychology
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Change, the Final Frontier
- Chapter 2 A (Selected) Foundation for a Process Approach
- Chapter 3 The Goal of Socrates
- Chapter 4 Esteeming Entities
- Chapter 5 A Person Acting amongst Persons
- Chapter 6 Cliffhangers and Utilitarian Infants
- Chapter 7 Causes, Kings, and Interventions
- Chapter 8 (Compl)explanation and King Alfonso’s Lament
- Chapter 9 What’s in a Name?
- Chapter 10 (Un)Certainties
- Chapter 11 Troubled Waters of Heraclitus’ River?
- Chapter 12 Psychological Science as a Complex Dynamic System
- Glossary
- References
- Index
Chapter 11 - Troubled Waters of Heraclitus’ River?
A Process View on Reproducibility and Generalization in Psychological Research
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 July 2022
- Toward a Process Approach in Psychology
- Toward a Process Approach in Psychology
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Change, the Final Frontier
- Chapter 2 A (Selected) Foundation for a Process Approach
- Chapter 3 The Goal of Socrates
- Chapter 4 Esteeming Entities
- Chapter 5 A Person Acting amongst Persons
- Chapter 6 Cliffhangers and Utilitarian Infants
- Chapter 7 Causes, Kings, and Interventions
- Chapter 8 (Compl)explanation and King Alfonso’s Lament
- Chapter 9 What’s in a Name?
- Chapter 10 (Un)Certainties
- Chapter 11 Troubled Waters of Heraclitus’ River?
- Chapter 12 Psychological Science as a Complex Dynamic System
- Glossary
- References
- Index
Summary
We reflect on the relative ‘success’ versus ‘failure’ of psychology as a research field, and we challenge the widelybheld notion that we are in a reproducibility (or replication) crisis. At the centre of our discussion is the question: does psychology have a future, qua science, if the phenomena it studies are changing all the time and contingent on fleeting contexts or historical conditions? This chapter describes how there is only a reproducibility crisis if we adopt assumptions and expectations that enact a substance ontology. In contrast, we describe how variability is to be expected if we adopt a process ontology. We argue that the way out of the current ‘crisis’ is therefore not necessarily more methodological and experimental rigour, but a fundamental shift in what we should expect from psychological phenomena. We call for a prioritization of understanding the ways in which phenomena are socially situated and context-contingent, rather than an unrealistic need to replicate.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Toward a Process Approach in PsychologyStepping into Heraclitus' River, pp. 251 - 265Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022