Applying the Psychology of Science to the Science of Psychology: Can Psychologists Use Psychological Science to Enhance Psychology as a Science?

Abstract

Added to the already tremendous diversity of subdisciplines of psychological science is the psychology of science. Although research on the psychology of science began in 1874, the field has seen a substantial expansion of activity in recent years. One particular subset of this research literature has special importance: namely, inquiries into the psychology of doing great science. These investigations may be assigned into four groups: cognitive, differential, developmental, and social. Each of these deal with critical questions that can, if answered, contribute directly to the improvement of psychology as a science. Potential applications include (a) the identification of scientific talent in psychology, (b) the education of future investigators in psychological science, and (c) the evaluation of psychology's progress as a scientific endeavor.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Feist

G.J.

(2006). The psychology of science and the origins of the scientific mind. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Feist

G.J.

(2008). The psychology of science has arrived. Journal of Psychology of Science and Technology, 1, 2–5.

Feist

G.J.

Gorman

M.E.

(1998). The psychology of science: Review and integration of a nascent discipline. Review of General Psychology, 2, 3–47.

Fisch

(1977). Psychology of science. In Spiegel-Rösing

Price

(Eds.), Science, technology, and society (pp. 277–318). London: Sage Publications.

Galton

(1874). English men of science: Their nature and nurture. London: Macmillan.

Gholson

Shadish

W.R.

Jr. Neimeyer

R.A.

Houts

A.C.

(Eds.). (1989). The psychology of science: Contributions to metascience. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Shadish

W.R.

Jr. Fuller

(Eds.). (1994). The social psychology of science. New York: Guilford Press.

Simonton

D.K.

(1988). Scientific genius: A psychology of science. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Simonton

D.K.

(2003). Scientific creativity as constrained stochastic behavior: The integration of product, process, and person perspectives. Psychological Bulletin, 129, 475–494.

10.

Simonton

D.K.

(2004). Creativity in science: Chance, logic, genius, and zeitgeist. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

11.

Webster

G.D.

(2008). An emerging psychology of science: A quantitative review of publication trends in the metasciences. Journal of Psychology of Science and Technology, 1, 6–14.