Studia Psychologiczne. t. 55 (2017), z. 2, s. 13–24 PL ISSN 0081-685X DOI: 10.2478/V1067-010-0171-8 Adam Niemczyński Katowice School of Economics and Jagiellonian University DEPARTURE FROM EMPIRICISM TOWARDS THEORY IN SEARCH FOR BALANCE IN PSYCHOLOGY OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT The author marks a disproportionally small amount of work on theory in comparison to the ample production of empirical information in contemporary psychology. To restore the balance between the two, it seems nec- essary to reply to the possessive doctrine of empiricism by revealing its theory of knowledge and to matching it with the scientific worldview of positivism. The positivistic climate in science of the late nineteenth century swept up all the aspirations of nascent modern psychology. Brentano and Wundt were the first to attempt to emancipate themselves from the empiricism theory of cognition but psychology failed to followed suit. The same epistemology underlies the developmental psychology of human ontogeny being conducive to concep- tualisations in biological terms. Piaget turned out to be ingenious in his invention to elaborate the very same empiricist epistemology. Szuman also stayed under its influence, although his work on the role of upbringing in child development clearly has the power of argument for emancipation from biology. Vygotsky seems to be equivocal in this respect, too. The attempts of Brentano and Wundt consisted in arguing for the irreducibility of the mind to physiology of living organism. There is a continuous need in developmental psychology to reject the reduction of the mind to the adaptive functions of the human organism. Emancipation from the doctrine of empiricism may open the way to reaching a balance between psychological theory and research on the human mind and personality development. “Why are we carrying out our research in de- of the need to move away from empiricism. velopmental psychology in the very way that Questioning empiricism is not tantamount to we are, while holding the hope to get psycho- embracing other than the empirical sources of logical knowledge of human development?” psychological cognition. It is the rejection of The article aims to lead the reader into an interpretation, which is inadequate to these a discussion conducive to gaining a greater empirical sources. self-consciousness in developmental research. The direct reason for me proposing a dis- Such a discussion, by its very nature, belongs to cussion on the role of theory in development epistemological discourses. The title of this in- research is the dwindling interest in devel- troduction suggests that we will be attempting opmental theories that I have observed over to define the role of theory in empirical devel- the past several decades in Poland and other opmental research. countries. I have the impression that this is Thus, I posit two theses. One is the claim of driven – at least partially – by the disregard the dominance of empiricism in human devel- for theory underpinned by the convictions of opment research. The second is the assertion psychologists about the very nature of scientific 14 Adam Niemczyński knowledge. It is precisely the value of empiri- have a sufficient level of statistical confidence. cism, as a theory of knowledge, and positivism, Statistics tell us in how many cases we will ob- as the philosophy of scientific cognition culti- tain the same result when repeating the study. vating empiricism, that I call to question in We agree that we will be taking into account the name of getting knowledge of the human those and only those outcomes that stand mind and its development in the individual life a chance of turning out to be different in no course. more than in one study out of twenty repeti- tions. Once our research successfully passes these statistical tests then we have an estab- THE EMPIRICISM OF lished finding or even a series of scientific PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH findings, more modestly called results of sci- entific cognition. We easily forget that we are Empiricism is a philosophical thesis on our not waiting for 20 repetitions of our research knowledge about the world originating from as nobody seriously treats such a mass of rep- sensory experience, and only from this expe- etitions as a true postulate, not just a statistical rience. It counters the claims of knowledge façon de parler. originating from still other sources. It pervades It is this route from positing a hypothesis science with the force of an entire empire. It to the acceptance of that and only that which has established itself and settled right in both is supported with empirical data, which is psychology and developmental psychology. called the path from a scientific discovery to This has resulted in an emphasis on empiri- its acceptance. It becomes only then clear what cal studies as the sole and exclusive source of a scientific finding is and it can parade around knowledge and in the unparalleled popularity in the costume of scientific knowledge, which of the so-called psychological research meth- hols a sign of objectivity, that is, intersubjec- odology where the statistical analysis of data tive verifiability. Otherwise we don’t know collected through observation, experiments or whether our findings are of scientific value or surveys and questionnaires plays a major role. constitute metaphysics, mere speculation, de- The developmental research plans also have lusion or fantasy. They can easily be exposed their own rules as cross-sectional, longitudinal, by subjecting them to the empirical verification mixed, and sequential cross-sections of devel- or particularly and necessarily falsification. opment, which do not assume anything about Where hypotheses are derived from is of no the nature of development apart from that de- importance. And the decisions as to which velopmental changes take place with lapse of hypotheses deserve empirical verification of time within the life span of the investigated in- falsification standing a chance of becoming dividuals. The accuracy of conclusions that are a finding is particularly mysterious. drawn about the explored reality with the aid When psychology was becoming a science, of statistics are meant to result from the formal the modern philosophy of positive science was justification of these research plans. Proceeding also being born and referred to as the second according to the indications of this methodolo- positivism. It has been the philosophy of the gy is meant to ensure that we will ultimately be natural sciences of Ernst Mach (1886/2010) relying on solid foundations. and Richard Avenarius (1988/1990) with the What follows from this is that we stand on thesis of empiricism as its foundation. Its im- sufficiently solid ground when we accept these pact on psychology has been made through its and only these assertions, towards which we subsequent incarnations in the works of the Studia Psychologiczne. t. 55 (2017), z. 2, s. 13–24 Departure from Empiricism Towards Theory in Search for Balance in Psychology of Human Development 15 representatives of the Vienna Circle and un- reflection apply across all the sciences, which doubtedly still dominates it. The criticism of can ultimately be reduced to the claims of fun- empiricism of the Vienna Circle by Karl Pop- damental science in relation to the edifice of per (1935) did not take him beyond empiricism positivist knowledge about the real world. though he contributed to its development sig- This fundamental position is usually taken nificantly. However, this development does not on by physics and, lately, also by information at all weaken the anti-theoretical approach of technology, although psychology, particularly empiricism but even strengthens it, especially developmental psychology seems to reduce it to in the social sciences. This positivist concept biology since Darwin (1859) came up with the of science invariably and absolutely dominates theory of evolution, providing psychologists psychology. It does not belong to any science at with the permanent conviction on the subject all, neither the natural nor social or humanist. of their research as a multitude of psychologi- It is a philosophical thesis from the domain of cal (mental) functions of the organism which epistemology which considers all kinds of our serve the purpose of adaptation, that is, the knowledge, not only the scientific one. survival of the representatives of the homo sa- Leszek Kołakowski (2009) pointed to four piens species in the natural living environment rules that positivism imposes on scientific cog- of this species. Information Technology – inte- nition. The first is phenomenalism, that is, the grated into the mechanist tradition (l’homme belief that there is no distinction between the machine) – provides a popular model for the entity and the phenomena being cognised, and causal explanation of phenomena by cogni- searching for it under the surface of phenom- tive processes, that is, the ways (mechanisms) ena that are directly available to our research of information processing coming from the is futile. This does not mean that phenomena environment and serving, after appropriate have no causes which produce them. On the processing, the control of behaviour in the contrary, these causes – as the mechanisms of environment. That, which is psychological phenomena – are the goal of cognition using (mental) is reduced by psychologists to what is hypotheses that are directly verified by inves- biological (physiological) and mechanic, which tigating the course of phenomena.