Reconsidering philosophy of science pedagogy in psychology: An evaluation of methods texts.

Abstract

Some have suggested that philosophy of science pedagogy in psychology is largely positivist and anachronistic. The present work assesses that pedagogy via a detailed analysis of all philosophy of science assertions made in 9 commonly used research methods texts. The resulting analysis describes a generally consistent philosophy of science narrative across all of the texts analyzed. That narrative is defined by the ontological assumptions of an independent and determinate reality; the related assumptions of empiricism, fallibilism, objectivism, and universalism; and the epistemological practices built on these assumptions-namely, operationalism, quantification, reliability and validity, and falsificationism. This analysis does, indeed, suggest a generally positivist philosophy of science pedagogy and so accords substantially with existing critiques, though some treatments, including those of realism and of multiple methods, showed more contemporary readings of philosophy of science. Following this analysis is a brief discussion of the possible relevance to psychology of reforms, undertaken in general science education, whose intent has been to make science teaching more current with respect to philosophy of science. These reforms suggest that concepts and scholarship from the history and philosophy of science could be used to frame research methods, such that these can be presented, not as abstract and independent truth procedures, but as contested and complex histories of socially and politically embedded practices.

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