So Useful as a Good Theory? The Practicality Crisis in (Social) Psychological Theory

The structure and evolution of social psychology: a co-citation network analysis

The present study examined the thematic composition and temporal evolution of social psychology through a co-citation network analysis of 80,350 articles published from 1970 through 2022. Six primary thematic clusters were identified: a broad "Classic Social Psychology" cluster most prominent in the 1970s and 1980s; "Traits & Affect" and "Social Cognition" clusters most influential in the 1990s; and "The Self," "Intergroup Relations," and "Big Five" clusters emerging after 2000. A small seventh cluster dedicated to COVID-19 and conspiracy theories emerged around 2021. These trends fit a narrative of generational shifts within distinct social and personality psychology traditions.

Developmental psychopathology as a meta-paradigm: From zero-sum science to epistemological pluralism in theory and research

In a thoughtful commentary in this journal a decade ago, Michael Rutter reviewed 25 years of progress in the field before concluding that developmental psychopathology (DP) initiated a paradigm shift in clinical science. This deduction requires that DP itself be a paradigm. According to Thomas Kuhn, canonical paradigms in the physical sciences serve unifying functions by consolidating scientists' thinking and scholarship around single, closed sets of discipline-defining epistemological assumptions and methods. Paradigm shifts replace these assumptions and methods with a new field-defining framework. In contrast, the social sciences are multiparadigmatic, with thinking and scholarship unified locally around open sets of epistemological assumptions and methods with varying degrees of inter-, intra-, and subdisciplinary reach. DP challenges few if any of these local paradigms. Instead, DP serves an essential pluralizing function, and is therefore better construed as a metaparadigm. Seen in this way, DP holds tremendous untapped potential to move the field from zero-sum thinking and scholarship to positive-sum science and epistemological pluralism. This integrative vision, which furthers Dante Cicchetti's legacy of interdisciplinarity, requires broad commitment among scientists to reject zero-sum scholarship in which portending theories, useful principles, and effective interventions are jettisoned based on confirmation bias, errors in logic, and ideology.

Addressing climate change with behavioral science: A global intervention tournament in 63 countries

Effectively reducing climate change requires marked, global behavior change. However, it is unclear which strategies are most likely to motivate people to change their climate beliefs and behaviors. Here, we tested 11 expert-crowdsourced interventions on four climate mitigation outcomes: beliefs, policy support, information sharing intention, and an effortful tree-planting behavioral task. Across 59,440 participants from 63 countries, the interventions' effectiveness was small, largely limited to nonclimate skeptics, and differed across outcomes: Beliefs were strengthened mostly by decreasing psychological distance (by 2.3%), policy support by writing a letter to a future-generation member (2.6%), information sharing by negative emotion induction (12.1%), and no intervention increased the more effortful behavior-several interventions even reduced tree planting. Last, the effects of each intervention differed depending on people's initial climate beliefs. These findings suggest that the impact of behavioral climate interventions varies across audiences and target behaviors.

Creativity in Scientific Research: Multidisciplinarity Fosters Depth of Ideas Among Scientists in Electronic "Brainwriting" Groups

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to examine the potential benefits of multidisciplinarity among agri-food researchers working in small groups to generate ideas to stimulate innovation in the context of a laboratory project.

BACKGROUND

Research on the role of multidisciplinarity in scientific research teams remains limited, particularly regarding the generation of ideas to innovate in a real laboratory project, and on a task with a real challenge for innovation.

METHOD

Researchers and agri-food research staff were assigned to small groups of either multidisciplinary or unidisciplinary composition to produce ideas on a cross-cutting theme for an innovative laboratory project using an electronic "brainwriting" application.

RESULTS

A greater depth in idea generation (number of ideas per category) was observed in the multidisciplinary condition than in the unidisciplinary condition.

CONCLUSION

The main benefits of this study were to experimentally examine the effects of multidisciplinarity in small scientific research groups on the production of ideas in a field study conducted on the premises of an agri-food laboratory.

APPLICATION

This study provides advice on how to promote innovative projects by stimulating ideation processes, which includes constructing small multidisciplinary groups and using an electronic "brainwriting" technique.

Use of Assistive Technologies and Alternative Means by Older People: The "Actional Model of Older People´s Coping with Health-Related Declines"

This paper presents the "Actional Model of Older people´s Coping with Health-Related Declines" to explain the use of a broad range of action alternatives of older persons for dealing with current or anticipated diseases, functional declines, activity limitations and participation restrictions. The general background is the action-theoretical model of intentional self-regulation of human development (e.g., Brandtstädter, 2006; Rothermund & Brandtstädter, 2019). Yet, our model provides an increased specification of major model components toward the situation of older people coping with current or anticipated health-related declines. The model development follows an adapted theory construction methodology (TCM) by Borsboom et al. (Perspectives on Psychological Science, 16(4), 756-766, 2021) and adapted principles for constructing practically useful theories by Berkman & Wilson (Perspectives on Psychological Science, 16(4), 864-874, 2021). Regarding content, we further draw on models of the use of assistive technologies (ATs) and medical services, qualitative studies on reasons for using ATs, and quantitative studies on health-related goals. The resulting model includes these components: (1) Discrepancies between perceived or anticipated and desired health-related development, (2) health-related discrepancy reduction and prevention goals, (3) action possibilities for reducing or preventing health-related discrepancies, (4) further motivating and demotivating goals, (5) beliefs about effective means for reaching the goals (2) and (4), (6) generation of the particular coping actions by goals (2) and (4) in combination with beliefs about effective means, (7) external context factors, and (8) modes of joint decision-making and decision-making on behalf of older people. The explanatory and practical value of the model are discussed as well as its implications for future research and geropsychology teaching.

The Importance of Measuring Mental Wellbeing in the Context of Psychological Distress: Using a Theoretical Framework to Test the Dual-Continua Model of Mental Health

The dual-continua model of mental health suggests that psychological distress and mental wellbeing operate on two distinct yet related continua, both uniquely contributing to overall mental health. Previous literature provides support for the dual-continua model; however, inconsistent methodologies lacking a common theoretical underpinning have led to findings that are difficult to compare across studies. Using archival data, this study aimed to test the following three theoretically derived criteria proposed to accurately examine the dual-continua model: (1) confirming independent existence, (2) disconfirming bipolarity, and (3) quantifying functional independence.

METHOD

In total, 2065 participants (female n = 1193; 57.8%) completed two online assessments (minimum 30 days apart) measuring psychological distress, mental wellbeing, and demographic information.

RESULTS

In total, 1.1% of participants experienced high distress as well as mental wellbeing confirming that psychological distress and mental wellbeing exist independently (Criterion 1). Bipolarity (Criterion 2) was partly disconfirmed: mental wellbeing consistently decreased as symptom severity increased for depression; however, anxiety and stress did not meet bipolarity requirements. Functional independence (Criterion 3) was established: longitudinal analysis found that participants reliably and simultaneously increased (2.7%) or decreased (4.2%) in distress and mental wellbeing, while cross-sectional analysis showed that psychological distress only explained 38% of the variance in mental wellbeing.

DISCUSSION

Findings provide further support for the dual-continua model through analysis of the proposed assessment criteria, suggesting a further need to measure the dual-continua model at the subdomain level, e.g., depression, anxiety, and stress, as opposed to global psychological distress. Validation for the proposed assessment criteria provides important methodological foundations for future studies.

A manifesto for applying behavioural science

Recent years have seen a rapid increase in the use of behavioural science to address the priorities of public and private sector actors. There is now a vibrant ecosystem of practitioners, teams and academics building on each other's findings across the globe. Their focus on robust evaluation means we know that this work has had an impact on important issues such as antimicrobial resistance, educational attainment and climate change. However, several critiques have also emerged; taken together, they suggest that applied behavioural science needs to evolve further over its next decade. This manifesto for the future of applied behavioural science looks at the challenges facing the field and sets out ten proposals to address them. Meeting these challenges will mean that behavioural science is better equipped to help to build policies, products and services on stronger empirical foundations-and thereby address the world's crucial challenges.

Suicide capability within the ideation-to-action framework: A systematic scoping review

Suicide capability is theorised to facilitate the movement from suicidal ideation to suicide attempt. Three types of contributors are posited to comprise suicide capability: acquired, dispositional, and practical. Despite suicide capability being critical in the movement from ideation-to-attempt, there has been no systematic synthesis of empirical evidence relating to suicide capability that would enable further development and refinement of the concept. This study sought to address this synthesis gap. A scoping review was conducted on suicide capability studies published January 2005 to January 2022. Eleven electronic databases and grey literature sources were searched returning 5,212 potential studies. After exclusion criteria application, 90 studies were included for final analysis. Results synthesis followed a textual narrative approach allocating studies based on contributors of suicide capability. Most studies focused on investigating only one factor within contributors. Painful and provocative events appear to contribute to acquired capability more so than fearlessness about death. Whilst emerging evidence for dispositional and practical contributors is promising, the small number of studies prevents further conclusions from being drawn. An unexpected additional cognitive contributor was identified. The focus of a single factor from most studies and the limited number of studies on contributors other than acquired capability limits the theoretical development and practical application of suicide capability knowledge. Given that suicide is a complex and multifaceted behaviour, future research that incorporates a combination of contributors is more likely to advance our understandings of suicide capability.

Stressor reflections, sleep, and psychological well-being: A pre-registered experimental test of self-distanced versus self-immersed reflections

Evidence supports the effectiveness of cuing people to analyse negative autobiographical experiences from self-distanced rather than self-immersed perspectives. However, the evidence on which this expectation resides is limited largely to static snapshots of mean levels of cognitive and emotional factors. Via a pre-registered, randomised controlled trial (N = 257), we examined the differential effectiveness of self-distanced relative to self-immersed reflections on mean levels and within-person variability of sleep duration and quality as well as psychological well-being over a 5-day working week. Except for sleep quality, we found that reflecting from a psychologically distanced perspective, overall, was no more effective for mean levels and within-person variability of sleep duration, well-being, and stress-related factors than when the current self is fully immersed in the experiential reality of the event. We consider several substantive and methodological considerations (e.g., dosage, salience of stressor event) that require interrogation in future research via experimental and longitudinal observational methods.

Advances on Self-Regulation Models: A New Research Agenda Through the SR vs ER Behavior Theory in Different Psychology Contexts

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory (1986) influenced the development of several complementary models of the construct of Self-Regulation. Building on the foundation of Self-Determination Theory, SDT (2000), and Zimmerman's Self-Regulation Theory, SR (2001), with their assumptions, contributions, goddesses, and limitations, we come to the Self- vs. External Regulatory Theory, SR-ER (2021). Finally, we integrate recent evidence demonstrating the explanatory adequacy of the SR vs. ER model for different psychological constructions in different settings related to education, health, clinical practice and social work. Complementary, a new theoretical and empirical research agenda is presented, to continue testing the adequacy of SR vs. ER assumptions, and to better understand the behavioral variability of the different constructs studied.

What Can Educational Psychology Learn From, and Contribute to, Theory Development Scholarship?

One of the field of psychology’s stated goals is to produce scholarship with findings that benefit the world. Over the last 10 years, psychology scholarship and its presumed societal benefits have been called into question due to the field’s history of questionable research practices, racism, and epistemic oppression. Calls for methodological, ethical, and practical reforms are essential to building a psychological science that is just, effective, reliable, and beneficial. Recently, these calls have been complemented by a push to reform how theory is developed and used in psychology. There is great need for better understanding and implementation of theory development, both in the field of psychology broadly as well as in its subdisciplines, including educational psychology. At the same time, educational psychologists have much to contribute to the tripartite calls for methodological, ethical, and theory reforms. In this paper, I explore theory development in psychology by discussing the importance of developing both the descriptive and explanatory aspects of theory as well as the need to refine how theory is evaluated and integrated. Then, I review how innovations and practices in educational psychology can inform the broader theory reform movement in psychology writ large. Finally, I identify important future directions for further advancing theory reform in psychology, including addressing ableism in the field, increasing the field’s hospitability for theory revision, furthering theory development transparency, and more deeply integrating theory development into preparation programs.

The cost of crisis in clinical psychological science

Yarkoni has argued that psychology is facing a generalizability crisis, but the real cost of this crisis is obscured by a focus on topics from psychology's most academic subfields. Psychology is also filled with applied subfields, and it is within those subfields - especially clinical science - where the cost of a generalizability crisis will be most severe.

Working With More Creative Coworkers and New Product Development Team Performance

This study proposes that working with colleagues who have similar levels of open personality can enhance a person’s social exchange relationship with teammates, which then inspires the person’s creativity. This study also draws on the idea-journey model of creativity and innovation to propose that the positive relationship between team members’ aggregated similarity in openness personality with teammates and the performance of the new product that the team develops is stronger when members of the team possess low levels of openness personality in aggregate. Examining data collected from Taiwanese new product development team engineers, we find support for these arguments.

Integrating explanation and prediction in computational social science

Computational social science is more than just large repositories of digital data and the computational methods needed to construct and analyse them. It also represents a convergence of different fields with different ways of thinking about and doing science. The goal of this Perspective is to provide some clarity around how these approaches differ from one another and to propose how they might be productively integrated. Towards this end we make two contributions. The first is a schema for thinking about research activities along two dimensions-the extent to which work is explanatory, focusing on identifying and estimating causal effects, and the degree of consideration given to testing predictions of outcomes-and how these two priorities can complement, rather than compete with, one another. Our second contribution is to advocate that computational social scientists devote more attention to combining prediction and explanation, which we call integrative modelling, and to outline some practical suggestions for realizing this goal.

Biodiversity conservation as a promising frontier for behavioural science

Human activities are degrading ecosystems worldwide, posing existential threats for biodiversity and humankind. Slowing and reversing this degradation will require profound and widespread changes to human behaviour. Behavioural scientists are therefore well placed to contribute intellectual leadership in this area. This Perspective aims to stimulate a marked increase in the amount and breadth of behavioural research addressing this challenge. First, we describe the importance of the biodiversity crisis for human and non-human prosperity and the central role of human behaviour in reversing this decline. Next, we discuss key gaps in our understanding of how to achieve behaviour change for biodiversity conservation and suggest how to identify key behaviour changes and actors capable of improving biodiversity outcomes. Finally, we outline the core components for building a robust evidence base and suggest priority research questions for behavioural scientists to explore in opening a new frontier of behavioural science for the benefit of nature and human wellbeing.

Are we speaking the same language? Call for action to improve theory application and reporting in behaviour change research

Inconsistencies are evident in definitions and interpretations of theory, application of theory, and reporting of theory use within the behaviour change field impeding cumulative knowledge advancement. Standardised frameworks and methods are needed to support the definition, application, and reporting of theory, and to assist researchers in understanding how theory should be applied to build cumulative knowledge over time. Progress is being made with the development of ontologies, taxonomies, methods for mapping interventions, and coding schemes; however, consolidation is needed to improve levels and quality of theory use, and to facilitate the translation of theory-driven research in practice. This paper discusses the importance of rigorous theory application and reporting in health-related behaviour change research and outlines the need for a standardised framework that supports both researchers and practitioners in designing, implementing, and evaluating theory-driven interventions in a concrete and consistent manner. To this end, several recommendations are provided to facilitate the development of a standardised framework that supports theory application and reporting in the behaviour change field. Concrete and consistent theory application and reporting will permit critical appraisal within and across studies, thereby advancing cumulative knowledge of behaviour change over time.