> I agree with both of them but there seems to be more to it. I have been on
> the Board of Editors of a Psych Journal for ten years. Five of the eight
> or more papers that I review annually are small variations on existing
> literature. For a made up example, someone did a study with food reward.
> This person replicated the study using water as a reward. Two years later,
> they submit a second paper where its the same study but food is used
> mon-wed-fri, and water is used tues-thurs. The study was done with rats,
> so someone replicates it with pigeons. I am not saying that this kind of
> work has no value. It seems that there is a lack of imagination out there
> these days.
>
> Rip Pisacreta, Ph.D.
Yes, but who is responsible for the lack of imagination?
In a recent article (1995, Prof Psych: Res & Practice), Karon (Mich State)
argues that the academic system and how students are trained by the
faculty is largely responsible for the lack of imagination in today's psych
research.
Karon draws from Bakan (1967), who in "On method: Toward a
reconstruction of psychological investigation" argues that the real intention of
the academic system is to ensure that students will never become a
competitor of the faculty. Therefore, research is often made intellectually
uninteresting and painful.
Further, Karon argues that:
1) the oversimplified paradigms imposed on doctoral research are such that
few American Departments of Psychology would grant a doctorate for any
research that Erik Erikson or Jean Piaget ever did.
2) helping students do interesting, important, and/or creative research has
nothing to do with getting the faculty member's grant research done
This sounds like the advice I was given when asking a faculty member at
Illinois how to get my dissertation done: "THINK SMALL."
Further, Karon suggests a formula for getting published:
1) Investigate something trivial
2) Investigate it by a technique that is well-known and frequently used
3) Find exactly what everyone would predict you would find
Mostly someone else's .02
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Jim Guinee, Ph.D.
Training Director, Counseling Center
Adjunct Professor, Dept. of Psychology & Counseling
Dept. of Health Sciences
President-Elect, Arkansas College Counselor Assoc.
University of Central Arkansas
313 Bernard Hall Conway, AR 72035
(501) 450-3138 (office) (501) 450-3248 (fax)
"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks
of changing himself." -- Leo Tolstoy
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