September 8th, 2006 Posted in Psychology

New tools for psychology research

Old psychology uses blunt, inappropriate methods. Researchers look for simple cause and effect relationships and view matters in terms of yes/no and humans either do or don’t act in certain ways. Physics is not that simple, and self aware human study of ourselves certainly is not.

New tools are required to deal with psychological research. The very language that we use shapes our thoughts and colours our research topics and papers. The use of Korzybski’s E-prime is required to increase specificity. E-prime removes the words “is” and “isn’t”, and forces you to write from a subjective point of view. It is also necessary to qualify each statement rather than making sweeping generalisations that are inaccurate.

Principles of system dynamics and research into complex systems need to be drawn upon. The mind cannot be studied in terms of cause and effect and needs to be approached as the complex system that it is, influenced by many variables in varying strengths.

Thirdly, human behaviour is socially influenced, so needs to be researched in it’s social context. Research needs to be a case of working with people rather than experimenting on them. Studies should make explicit the social context. Researchers should state their background, political agenda and any influences that might encourage them to take a certain stance. The funding source should be plainly stated. All human society is socially constructed, science included. To study ourselves effectively, we need appropriate tools – these tools are available, but currently used sparingly.