Realism, Instrumentalism, and Scientific Symbiosis: Psychological Theory as a Search for Truth and the Discovery of Solutions

Autor/inn/en	Cacioppo, John T.; Semin, Gun R.; Berntson, Gary G.
Titel	Realism, Instrumentalism, and Scientific Symbiosis: Psychological Theory as a Search for Truth and the Discovery of Solutions
Quelle	In: American Psychologist, 59 (2004) 4, S.214-223 (9 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0003-066X
Schlagwörter	Realism; Psychology; Logical Thinking; Theories; Social Sciences; Psychological Studies; Scientific Research + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Realismus; Psychologie; Theory; Theorie; Social science; Sozialwissenschaften; Gesellschaftswissenschaften
Abstract	Scientific realism holds that scientific theories are approximations of universal truths about reality, whereas scientific instrumentalism posits that scientific theories are intellectual structures that provide adequate predictions of what is observed and useful frameworks for answering questions and solving problems in a given domain. These philosophical perspectives have different strengths and weaknesses and have been regarded as incommensurate: Scientific realism fosters theoretical rigor, verifiability, parsimony, and debate, whereas scientific instrumentalism fosters theoretical innovation, synthesis, generativeness, and scope. The authors review the evolution of scientific realism and instrumentalism in psychology and propose that the categorical distinction between the 2 is overstated as a prescription for scientific practice. The authors propose that the iterative deployment of these 2 perspectives, just as the iterative application of inductive and deductive reasoning in science, may promote more rigorous, integrative, cumulative, and useful scientific theories. (Author).
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Update	2017/4/10