Psychology of science

The psychology of science is a branch of the studies of social science defined most simply as the study of scientific thought or behavior. It is a collection of studies of various topics. The thought of psychology has been around since the late 19th century. Research on the psychology of science began in 1874, the field has seen a substantial expansion of activity in recent years. The specific field of psychology as a science first gained popularity mostly in the 1960s, with Abraham Maslow publishing an influential text on the subject (Maslow, 1966), but this popularity faded, only re-emerging in the 1980s (e.g., Simonton, 1988). Other studies of science include philosophy of science, history of science, and sociology of science or sociology of scientific knowledge.

The psychology of science applies methods and theory from psychology to the analysis of scientific thought and behavior, each of which is defined both narrowly and broadly. Narrowly defined, "science" refers to thought and behavior of scientists and technologists. More broadly defined, "science" refers to thought and behavior of anyone (past and present) of any age engaged in problem finding and problem solving, scientific theory construction, learning scientific or mathematical concepts, scientific modelling, testing plausible rival hypotheses, or other scientific reasoning. The methods of psychology that are applied to the study of scientific thought and behavior include: psychohistorical, psychobiographical, observational, descriptive, correlational, and experimental techniques (e.g., Gholson et al., 1989; Giere, 1992; Kowlowski, 1996; Magnani et al., 1999; Carruthers et al., 2002; Feist, 2006; Proctor & Capaldi, 2012; Feist & Gorman, 2013).

The psychology of science includes research in many subfields of psychology, such as but not limited to neuroscientific, developmental, educational, cognitive, personality, social, and clinical (Feist, 2011). A recent branch of psychology of science investigates attitudes towards science and science skepticism (e.g. Rutjens, Heine et al., 2018; Rutjens, Sutton et al., 2018). Gregory Feist's 2006 book The Psychology of Science and the Origins of the Scientific Mind (Feist, 2006), and the 2013 edited book Handbook of the Psychology of Science (Feist & Gorman, 2013) review and integrate many sub-disciplines of psychology.