Psychology of Science

The psychology of science is the study of scientific thought and behavior, a branch of the social sciences. Narrowly defined, it examines the thought and behavior of scientists and technologists; more broadly, it studies anyone engaged in problem solving, hypothesis testing, scientific reasoning and related intellectual activity, including how children make organized sense of the world, what comprises scientific talent and interest or growing disinterest, and even the appeal of pseudoscience. Research in the field dates to 1874, gained prominence in the 1960s through the work of Abraham Maslow, declined afterward, and experienced a resurgence beginning in the 1980s that has continued into recent decades; the psychologist Gregory Feist reviewed and consolidated the field's scattered literature and called for its establishment as a unique discipline, publishing The Psychology of Science and the Origins of the Scientific Mind in 2006 and helping found the International Society for the Psychology of Science and Technology. The field applies psychological methods, including psychohistorical, observational, correlational and experimental techniques, and draws on developmental, cognitive, educational and social psychology while complementing related disciplines such as the philosophy of science, history of science and sociology of scientific knowledge.