What do you think the term “paradigm” means in science?

Question

What do you think the term "paradigm" means in the field of psychology? To what do you attribute the similarities/differences?

Answer 1

A paradigm is a universally accepted mindset (although susceptible to change, called a "Paridigm Shift"). Thousands of years ago, it was an accepted paradigm that the world was flat (meaning everyone believed it), until explorers like Columbus and Vespucci proved otherwise. Another accepted paradigm was that the earth was the center of the universe and the sun revolved around the earth... then Galileo shifted that paradigm.

Answer 2

In science it should be an assumed logical order for things, such as Newtonian physics was before Relativity and Relativity before quantum physics.

If string theorists are correct, the paradigm would change in each dimension.

In psych it should be easy because people are still people, but the paradigms seem to reflect the learning of the day more than any absolute logical order as in physics.

My paradigm? Expect change as technology gives us more insight into how the brain works.

Answer 3

A paradigm is a school of thought regardless of subject. Science and psychology both have many paradigms depending upon the specific research you're looking at. Your question is way too vague.

Answer 4

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What do you think the term “paradigm” means in science?
What do you think the term "paradigm" means in the field of psychology? To what do you attribute the similarities/differences?

Answer 5

I think it is to refer to the set of practices that define a scientific discipline during a particular period of time. Kuhn (a scientist) seemed to prefer the terms exemplar and normal science, which have more exact philosophical meanings. However, in his book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions Kuhn defines a scientific paradigm as:
"what is to be observed and scrutinized,
the kind of questions that are supposed to be asked and probed for answers in relation to this subject,
how these questions are to be structured,
how the results of scientific investigations should be interpreted. "

Alternatively, the Oxford English Dictionary defines paradigm as "A pattern or model, an exemplar". Thus an additional component of Kuhn's definition of paradigm is:

"how is an experiment to be conducted, and what equipment is available to conduct the experiment. "

Thus, within normal science, the paradigm is the set of exemplary experiments that are likely to be copied or emulated. The prevailing paradigm often represents a more specific way of viewing reality, or limitations on acceptable programs for future research, than the much more general scientific method.

An example of a currently accepted paradigm would be the standard model of physics. The scientific method would allow for orthodox scientific investigations of many phenomena which might contradict or disprove the standard model; however grant funding would be more difficult to obtain for such experiments, in proportion to the amount of departure from accepted standard model theory which the experiment would test for. For example, an experiment to test for the mass of the neutrino or decay of the proton (small departures from the model) would be more likely to receive money than experiments to look for the violation of the conservation of momentum, or ways to engineer reverse time travel.

A more disparaging term groupthink, and the term mindset, have very similar meanings that apply to smaller and larger scale examples of disciplined thought. Michel Foucault used the terms episteme and discourse, mathesis and taxinomia, for aspects of a "paradigm" in Kuhn's original sense.

Simple common analogy. A simplified analogy for paradigm is box in the commonly used phrase "thinking outside the box". Thinking inside the box is analogical with normal science. The box encompasses the thinking of normal science and thus the box is analogical with paradigm.

In the psychological realm: Handa, M.L. (1986) introduced the idea of "social paradigm" in the context of social sciences. He identified the basic components of a social paradigm. Like Kuhn, Handa addressed the issue of changing paradigm; the process popularly known as "paradigm shift". In this respect, he focused on social circumstances that precipitate such a shift and the effects of the shift on the social institutions, including the institution of education. This broad shift in the social arena, in turn, changes the way the individual perceives reality.

Another use of the word paradigm is in the sense of Weltanschauung. For example, in social science, the term is used to describe the set of experiences, beliefs and values that affect the way an individual perceives reality and responds to that perception. Social scientists have adopted the Kuhnian phrase "paradigm shift" to denote a change in how a given society goes about organizing and understanding reality. A “dominant paradigm” refers to the values, or system of thought, in a society that are most standard and widely held at a given time. Dominant paradigms are shaped both by the community’s cultural background and by the context of the historical moment.

By this time I am sure you can see how the differences and similarities emerge, I could dissertate longer but I am sure you get the idea.

Hope that helped!

Answer 6

a shift in point of view or perception. Imagine you are driving and another driver cuts you off nearly causing an accident. So you follow him. He pulls into his driveway and you jump out of your car to yell at him. He starts sobbing because his wife died in the hospital. The moment that you realized that his dilemma was greater than yours you experience a paradigm shift.

Answer 7

The key concept is "exemplar" or "model", as distinguished from explanation, doctrine, or theory. What made Kuhn's notion philosophically interesting was that he was presenting it as an unexplicated component of science, something passed on by means whose workings are opaque, that is, by example, as opposed to being communicated in explicit, comprehensible concepts and words. Newton's text, "Principia Mathematica", was a paradigm, and to grasp it, one would have to engage in a way of viewing physics like the way Newton viewed physics. The paradigm is the component of what is conveyed in the "Principia", which like a joke, you either get or you don't.
___A "paradigm" can also apply to a way of experimenting, or to other methods of doing science.
___A paradigm is related to a set of assumptions that lies behind the explicit words and conscious thoughts of scientists. And, just as authentically questioning assumptions is rarely accomplished, but often claimed, it's a pretty good rule of thumb to dismiss 99% of claimed "paradigm shifts" as lesser intellectual accomplishments, or at best, shifts in very minor paradigms involving modifications of relatively shallow assumptions.
___There really shouldn't be much difference between paradigms in science and in psychology, other than the focus of the respective inquiries of the two disciplines, though Kuhn would explicitly deny that social science paradigms qualify as paradigms.
___Anyone is free to use the term "paradigm" in its original sense of "exemplar" or "model", of course, though it's a bit intellectually disingenuous to try to steal some of the intellectual import of Kuhn's concept without abiding by his use of the term, or without specifying, "not in Kuhn"s sense".