New Books Network Uljana Feest, "Operationism in Psychology: An Epistemology of Exploration" (U Chicago Press, 2025)
May 10, 2025
Uljana Feest, a philosophy professor at Leibniz University in Hanover and author of "Operationism in Psychology," delves into the historical roots of operationism in psychology. She discusses how defining concepts like memory requires clear experimental designs and the implications this has for scientific exploration. Feest highlights the challenges of studying psychological phenomena amid epistemic uncertainty, particularly in light of the replication crisis. The conversation emphasizes the significance of operational definitions and the evolving nature of psychological research methodologies.
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Feest's Academic Journey
- Uljana Feest started as a psychology student fascinated by what psychology actually does and how it links concepts to experiment designs.
- Her journey led her to combine psychology and philosophy, culminating in research on operationism and experimental methods.
Object of Research Concept
- An "object of research" in psychology is epistemically blurry: there's an assumption of something real, but its exact nature is unknown.
- Researchers define and refine these objects by progressively clarifying what they aim to study through experiments.
Objects as Phenomena Clusters
- Objects of research like memory are clusters of multiple phenomena, not single regularities.
- Researchers use behavioral and mechanistic phenomena both as explananda and as evidence for these broader objects.