A 100 years of certitude? Social psychology, the experimental method and the management of scientific uncertainty

The British Journal of Social Psychology
S A Haslam, C McGarty

Abstract

For at least 100 years the experimental method has been used to add scientific rigour to the process of conducting social psychological research. More specifically, experiments have been used to reduce methodological uncertainty surrounding the causal relationships between variables. In this way the method has proved particularly useful in demonstrating the impact of social contextual variables over-and-above individual differences. However, problems with the method have arisen because over time experimentalists have tended (1) to define uncertainty too narrowly, (2) to emphasize uncertainty reduction, but (3) to neglect the equally important process of uncertainty creation. This has contributed to the normalization of social psychology as a science but also made the discipline more conservative and circumscribed. It is argued that experimentalists need to address broader metatheoretical and political uncertainties in order to rediscover the experiment's potency as a tool of revolutionary and progressive science.

Citations

Mar 17, 2009·Implementation Science : IS·Michelle E JordanReuben R McDaniel
Sep 7, 2006·The Journal of Applied Psychology·S Alexander Haslam, Stephen Reicher
Dec 23, 2015·The British Journal of Social Psychology·Stephen Reicher
Mar 26, 2016·Frontiers in Psychology·Igor Knez
Jun 26, 2007·The British Journal of Social Psychology·Roderick I SwaabRussell Spears
Apr 1, 2006·The British Journal of Social Psychology·Stephen Reicher, S Alexander Haslam
Dec 22, 2005·The British Journal of Social Psychology·Craig McGartyAna-Maria Bliuc
Nov 11, 2014·Conservation Biology : the Journal of the Society for Conservation Biology·A M LechnerE C Lefroy
May 26, 2017·Perspectives on Psychological Science : a Journal of the Association for Psychological Science·William B Swann, Jolanda Jetten
Sep 3, 2011·Personality and Social Psychology Review : an Official Journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc·S Alexander Haslam, Stephen D Reicher
Aug 29, 2020·The British Journal of Social Psychology·Stephen ReicherShruti Tewari

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