Science of psychological phenomena and their testing.

Abstract

There is no crisis of replication and generalizability in psychological science, only misunderstanding or forgetting the fundamental nature of psychological phenomena and resultant implications for empirical testing. Stability-variability is the central feature of every psychological phenomenon, meaning that brain-mind interactions can only create stable patterns from which there will always be deviations. Psychological phenomena are not comparable to COVID-19 vaccines that were very effective (95%) initially for almost everyone for a long time. Replications cannot be the gatekeepers of scientific psychological knowledge, only constructive additions and explorations contributing to theory development and measurement improvement. Once a logically justified and theoretically well-developed hypothesis is presented, the phenomenon exists as long as one of the following conditions is true: (1) it has not been shown logically that the phenomenon cannot exist or (2) it has not been shown empirically that the phenomenon does not exist. Like in physics and other sciences, generalization to theory is critical in psychological science, but less important relative to hypothetical (phantom) populations. Initial COVID-19 vaccines were effective because they worked for the right theoretical reason, the mRNA mechanism. This central principle holds true for psychological phenomena as well, with findings generalizing to the theoretical explanation regarding the presence and manifestations of behaviors brought about by the brain-mind interactions, or stated differently, generalization of psychological phenomena to specific behaviors and under specific conditions as proposed by the theory. Instead of the narrow focus on generalization to hypothetical populations, psychological phenomena and associated generalization could more productively be examined from the nine proposed perspectives. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).