Blog: Ross Pomeroy, "The Six Stages of a Failed Psychological Theory"

Not directly about ME but perhaps of interest, considering the subject matter.

https://www.realclearscience.com/bl..._stages_of_a_failed_psychological_theory.html

 

Now doesn't that ring true. May well ring truer in the not so distant future.

 

Just my perspective but it seems to me that psychological theories and their research suffer from reductionism that rises to the level of the absurd.

There are so many individual variables embedded in larger family, cultural and environmental variables. Psychological research takes tiny little atoms of being to examine and creates whole worlds out of it. Hubris.

 

I can't help but always think of the celestial spheres. They were built out of the same principles: superficial observations and fabricating a plausible explanation that describes only the most superficial observations, as long as you don't mind that one planet that does a loop-back and the many small contradictions. Or that it actually explains nothing, describing a possible explanation is not the same as an actual explanation. *cough* FND *cough*.

It's what a pre-science discipline does when careful observation and experimentation can't resolve problems. The same as without strong experimental data, costing billions, theoretical physics can only go so far. At some point you have to make very careful observations with expensive machines and even more extremely careful experiments in order to test hypotheses. That takes thousands working on the same problem, not small teams doing the same small stuff in circles by their lone selves.

Psychology is still stuck at the "well, the spheres look so cool and we got nothing else". A very important and worthwhile endeavor but I really wish people stopped being so damn certain about the partial stuff we have for now. It's indicative, there's nothing definitive yet. Certainly nothing that be pointed to as a default explanation to decide the fate of millions.