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VU Research Portal VU Research Portal Realism, Instrumentalism, and Scientific Symbiosis: Psychological Theory as a search for truth and the discovery of solutions Cacioppo, J.T.; Semin, G.R.; Berntson, G.G. published in American Psychologist 2004 DOI (link to publisher) 10.1037/0003-066X.59.4.214 document version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication in VU Research Portal citation for published version (APA) Cacioppo, J. T., Semin, G. R., & Berntson, G. G. (2004). Realism, Instrumentalism, and Scientific Symbiosis: Psychological Theory as a search for truth and the discovery of solutions. American Psychologist, 59, 214-233. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.59.4.214 General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. E-mail address: [email protected] Download date: 03. Oct. 2021 Realism, Instrumentalism, and Scientific Symbiosis Psychological Theory as a Search for Truth and the Discovery of Solutions John T. Cacioppo University of Chicago Gu¨n R. Semin Free University Gary G. Berntson Ohio State University Scientific realism holds that scientific theories are approx- Scientists are, by and large, a practical lot, and it is imations of universal truths about reality, whereas scien- sensible that readers might ask why any of this matters. tific instrumentalism posits that scientific theories are in- Given numerous demands, it is understandable why scien- tellectual structures that provide adequate predictions of tists might adopt measures or methods without thinking what is observed and useful frameworks for answering exhaustively about the underlying assumptions of these questions and solving problems in a given domain. These operationalizations or how they fit within a broader set. philosophical perspectives have different strengths and Such constraints are the stuff of which apocryphal stories weaknesses and have been regarded as incommensurate: are fashioned by philosophers of science. More than 60 Scientific realism fosters theoretical rigor, verifiability, years ago, Eddington (1939), in his book A Philosophy of parsimony, and debate, whereas scientific instrumentalism the Physical Sciences, told the story of a hypothetical fosters theoretical innovation, synthesis, generativeness, scientist who sought to study the fish in the seas. The and scope. The authors review the evolution of scientific scientist wove a two-inch mesh net and commissioned a realism and instrumentalism in psychology and propose ship on which to sail the seas. Once on the high seas, this that the categorical distinction between the 2 is overstated individual sailed to various sites, lowered the nets, hauled as a prescription for scientific practice. The authors pro- in a catch, measured and cataloged each fish, returned the pose that the iterative deployment of these 2 perspectives, catch to the deep, folded the nets, and sailed to another site just as the iterative application of inductive and deductive to repeat the procedure. After several years of investiga- reasoning in science, may promote more rigorous, integra- tion, the scientist returned to announce there were no fish tive, cumulative, and useful scientific theories. smaller than two inches in the seas. Taking the time to discuss the measures and methods we use, the underlying cience, as traditionally conceived, is like interrogat- assumptions, their strengths and limitations, and the theo- ing the Greek mythological sea demon, Proteus. retical implications of these operationalizations may pay SPoseidon commissioned him with the minor duty of dividends in the long term in science. protecting the seals of the oceans. More pertinent to the If the time scientists characteristically take to consider subject of our article is a quality Proteus possessed. He was broadly what their measures mean is the equivalent of a omniscient in matters to do with the seas and could also brief gaze, the time taken by many to think about even modify his appearance to anything he wished, any animal, more abstract philosophical issues such as scientific realism any plant, and even fire. Although elusive in his various and instrumentalism may be the equivalent of a blink. appearances, it was possible with judicious interrogation Scientists tend to inherit rather than select these perspec- and particularly with the aid of his daughter to extract the tives. This was certainly true of ourselves. But an inherited truth from him. A distinction made in the philosophy of science is whether theorists seek to discover truths or to create tar- Editor’s note. Arie Kruglanski served as action editor for this article. geted frameworks that provide adequate prediction for some domain of phenomena and help to solve problems Author’s note. John T. Cacioppo, Department of Psychology, University regarding that limited domain. The characterization of sci- of Chicago; Gu¨n R. Semin, Department of Social Psychology, Free University, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Gary G. Berntson, Department ence as being like Proteus casts the goal of scientific of Psychology, Ohio State University. theories as being to describe the world as it really is, This research was supported by National Institute of Aging Grant independently of human expectations, perceptions, and PO1 AG18911. We thank Claudia Wassman, Marilynn Brewer, E. Tory measurements. Our aim here is to examine the develop- Higgins, Penny Visser, and Cindy Pickett. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to ment of scientific realism and instrumentalism in psychol- John T. Cacioppo, Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, ogy and the implications of each for how we think about, 5848 South University Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637. E-mail: formulate, and evaluate psychological theory. [email protected] 214 May–June 2004 ● American Psychologist Copyright 2004 by the American Psychological Association 0003-066X/04/$12.00 Vol. 59, No. 4, 214–223 DOI: 10.1037/0003-066X.59.4.214 nomena. Within the conceptual domain, two philosophical approaches have influenced mainstream psychological the- ory: scientific realism and scientific instrumentalism. Scientific Realism Scientific realism holds that scientific theories go beyond data to posit the existence of nonobservable entities—such as quarks, mental representations, and social cognition— which actually exist (Thagard, 2002). According to scien- tific realists, the product of successful scientific research is knowledge that is independent of theory or methodology (although theories may still be useful devices to organize this knowledge). Psychological theories grounded in the philosophy of realism attempt to describe the world as it really is—independent of human theories, perceptions, or measurements—and to establish what actually exists in it. The depiction of science as akin to mythical Proteus falls squarely within the camp of scientific realism. Positivism, a form of scientific realism that impacted psychology for decades, was described initially by Auguste John T. Comte, who argued that humankind has seen three major Cacioppo phases in its search for understanding: the theological phase involving a search for God and spirituality, the metaphysical phase involving the search for philosophical truths, and the scientific phase involving the search for scientific perspective, like an inherited telescope, can best facts (Lenzer, 1975). Comte characterized the latter as a be appreciated for what it does and does not bring into search for positive truths that came from the collection of focus when placed within the context of what other per- facts and the application of logic independently of human spectives also reveal. perceptions and conceptions. Positivism further posited In the present article, therefore, we review the onto- that there were no ultimate differences among the sciences logical perspectives of scientific realism and instrumental- and that the same methods for studying truths about physics ism, noting some of the strengths and weaknesses of or chemistry applied to psychology. each. We suggest further that the success of calls in recent Early theoreticians in psychology adopted the position years for the reunification of psychology (e.g., Sternberg, of scientific realism in part because of the laudable goal of 2003) and for multilevel integrative theory and research building legitimate scientific theories of psychological phe- (Kessel, Rosenfeld, & Anderson, 2003) may be enhanced nomena by emulating what they thought physical scientists by capitalizing on the strengths of both ontological per- did (e.g., Watson, 1913; Wundt, 1909/1912). Scientific spectives rather than a return to the hegemony of a single realism received additional impetus in psychology when a perspective. group of philosophers known as the Vienna Circle adopted The Emergence of Scientific Realism positivism (or
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