Ontological critique: A philosophical tool for advancing social psychology

Jenkins, Matthew 2021. Ontological critique: A philosophical tool for advancing social psychology. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

Replication failures indicate that we have reason to doubt the generalisations made from the original experiment to the original conclusion. This thesis argues that the proposed statistical responses to the replication crisis in social psychology are necessary for long-term progress in the research programme but remain insufficient without a supplementary approach which targets the theoretical frameworks which justify the conclusions drawn. Beginning by offering an account of the replication crisis in social psychology, the thesis then turns to addressing some extant approaches to parsing the literature into more and less reliable. In contrast to these approaches, the ontological critique is proposed as an approach which explicitly addresses the problems in social psychological theory. This ontological critique is a tool for unpacking the theoretical justifications which underpin the generalisations made when constructing conclusions from data. Proposed desiderata approaches to model choice for implicit cognition are addressed in chapter 3 and presented with problem cases from within the extant literature. These cases give us reason to prefer the ontological critique if it can be shown to be fruitful. The subsequent three chapters are studies in the application of the critique to the trait picture of attitudes, the mainstream model of attitudes, and the Cognitive-Affective Personality System as a model of attitudes, respectively, with the aim of demonstrating this fruitfulness. Each introduces the relevant theoretical framework before applying the ontological critique, illustrating both the directions of clarification and refinement for each account of attitudes and the utility of the critique. The final chapter draws together the conclusions reached throughout the thesis and relates this project to other approaches to the crisis in psychology.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	English, Communication and Philosophy
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General)
Funders:	SWW DTP
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	22 October 2021
Last Modified:	10 Dec 2022 02:56
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/145002

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