Progress in Psychological Science. The Importance of Informed Ignorance and Curiosity-Driven Questions

Bibliographic Data

ID6070699
AuthorsLucas B Mazur (0000-0002-7816-588X, Jagiellonian University, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume54
Issue3
Pages613-624
Publication date2020-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueIntegrative Psychological and Behavioral Science (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1932-4502 • E-ISSN: 1936-3567
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s12124-020-09538-z
PMID32451959
OpenAlexW3029081240
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited26

In recent decades we have seen an exponential growth in the amount of data gathered within psychological research without a corresponding growth of theory that could meaningfully organize these research findings. For this reason, considerable attention today is given to discussions of such broader, higher-order concepts as theory and paradigm. However, another area important to consider is the nature of the questions psychologists are asking. Key to any discussion about the scientific status of psychology or about progress in the field (scientific or otherwise) is the nature of the questions that inspire psychological research. Psychologists concerned about scientific progress and the growth of theory in the field would be well served by more robust conversations about the nature of the questions being asked. Honest, curiosity-driven questions—questions that admit to our ignorance and that express an active and optimistic yearning for what we do not yet know—can help to propel psychology forward in a manner similar to the development of theory or paradigm. However, existing as it does in the “twilight zone” between the natural sciences and the humanities, psychology is fertile ground for questions of wide-ranging natures, and thus the nature of progress in the field can be variously understood, not all of which will be “scientific.” Recent psychological research in three areas (cognition, memory, and disorders/differences of sex development) are discussed as examples of how curiosity-driven questions being asked from a position of informed ignorance can lead to progress in the field

Curiosity · Epistemology · Ignorance · Psychological science · Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology · Child and Animal Learning Development · Cognitive Abilities and Testing · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology

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