Paradigms and Falsifiability

Falsifiability Psychology

Paradigms in psychology are standard perspectives and concepts that concern theories and research methods. Essentially, research paradigms are a way of looking at something.

The different approaches in psychology differ in views concerning paradigms.

Although psychologists may take different standpoints of the ‘best’ approach when investigating psychological phenomena, they typically agree that theories/hypotheses should be testable and able to be proven wrong. This is known as the theory of falsifiability.

Research Paradigms

In psychology research, paradigms are the generally accepted perspective of investigating a phenomenon during the current zeitgeist.

According to Kuhn, the purpose of a paradigm is to provide researchers with a theoretical framework (the conceptual scheme). This framework provides guidelines for assumptions, concepts, and methodological techniques that a researcher should consider when conducting research. It also provides a consensus on the direction and goals that research should follow.

Throughout the history of psychology, there have been changes in the predominant paradigm. Kuhn’s work explained the link between paradigms and the progression of research.

However, when there are anomalies or inexplicable results, this causes a ‘crisis.’ As the predominant paradigm can’t explain these results, there is a paradigm shift (a paradigm is replaced with a new one.) The time during the paradigm shift is called a ‘scientific revolution.’ These shifts are what allow psychology to progress.

Since its emergence as a science, psychology has had different disciplines that underwent the process of acceptance or rejection. We can think of the accepted disciplines as paradigms used during those periods. Let’s discuss some paradigms that are prominent in this current zeitgeist.

Paradigms and Falsifiability: Cognitive Approach to Psychology

Cognitive psychologists believe that behaviour and psychological illnesses are a consequence of internal cognitive processes.

Cognitive psychologists argue that humans use pre-existing schemas to interpret a situation and respond to stimuli. This is known as cognitive appraisal. Maladaptive appraisals can cause psychological illnesses.

Paradigms and Falsifiability: Behavioural Approach to Psychology

Behavioural psychologists agree that the environment and human experience shape human behaviour and cause psychological illnesses.

Some examples of learning methods that behavioural psychologists describe are:

• Modelling: imitating the behaviour of role models.

• Classical conditioning is when people form associations between a stimulus and a response, causing them to repeat actions that evoke the stimulus and, therefore, the associated response.

  • This can cause maladaptive behaviour, for example, phobias.

• Operant conditioning is when behaviours change via positive or negative reinforcement. For example, if a parent praises their child for doing their homework, they are more likely to do it again.

Paradigms and Falsifiability: Biological Approach to Psychology

The consensus of this paradigm is to measure biological, physiological, and genetic factors or variables and establish a cause-and-effect relationship between these and behaviour.

Factors that may influence behaviour and illnesses include:

• Genes: offspring inherit genes from their parents so that they may inherit illnesses or gene mutations.

• Irregularities or differences in brain functions: genetic or physical trauma may cause people to act differently. They may also cause illnesses.

• Chemical reactions: certain chemical issues in the body can explain behaviours—for example, a hormone imbalance or neurotransmitter dysfunction. High levels of testosterone have been linked to aggressiveness.

Paradigms and Falsifiability: Psychodynamic Approach to Psychology

Psychodynamic psychologists argue that the inner battle between aspects of the human personality is what causes human behaviour. Some of their theories include the following:

• The psychosexual stages suggest that late development or fixating in any of the stages can affect behaviour and psychological well-being.

• There are three parts of the personality (psyche); that are in constant conflict.

• Maladaptive behaviour happens when the ego and superego can’t combat the id, and humans give in to their impulsive desires.

Falsifiability in Research

Karl Popper, the philosopher behind the theory of falsifiability, proposed that theories or hypotheses should be testable and able to be proven wrong. For instance, they should be observable and able to be tested via experimental or observational methods.

This means that hypotheses based on subjective opinions, such as ‘vanilla ice cream is tastier than chocolate ice cream,’ can’t be regarded as falsifiable. This is because the results will always be different when tested on a different sample, and the findings will be non-generalisable.

Examples of falsifiability include:

• A hypothesis that can be proven: is the relationship between caffeine intake before a test and memory recall.

• A hypothesis that can’t be proven: unicorns are magical creatures.

Principles of Falsifiability

The principles of falsifiability suggest that:

• Researchers’ perspectives and understandings influence their observations. Popper argued that the world is ‘theory-laden’, and we use these theories to understand and explain our observations.

• Research should take a deductive approach, meaning hypotheses should be deduced based on existing theories. The researcher’s role is to support or reject theories.

• If a falsifiable theory is tested and yields significant results, then it’s accepted as scientific evidence. The current paradigm can largely impact whether a theory is accepted as scientific evidence.

Figure 1. Popper proposed the principles of falsifiability after observing a black swan.

Falsifiability Examples

Let’s look at falsifiability examples for common psychological approaches.

A falsifiable statement means that it can be proven right or wrong. Still, sometimes the results are inferences rather than directly observable behaviours, e.g. we can’t directly observe depression scores or self-actualisation levels. Still, we can measure them through means such as questionnaires.

Principles of falsifiability are important because it ensures that scientific research follows similar standards and upkeeps the advancement of psychology. Can we reach an absolute truth if every human perceives the world differently? Maybe there are several truths and that’s why we need several psychological approaches.