Evidence map›Paper›PMID 21833199›Full record

ArticleFrontiers in psychology2010

Quantitative methods in psychology: inevitable and useless.

Aaro Toomela

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Frontiers in psychology, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
15citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

15 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Psychology Today: Still in Denial, Still Outdated.Integrative psychological & behavioral science · 2020
    Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Review
  7. Article
  8. What are Higher Psychological Functions?Integrative psychological & behavioral science · 2016
    Review
  9. Is Personality a System? Stability, Process and Plasticity.Integrative psychological & behavioral science · 2015
    Review
  10. Review
  11. Review
  12. Appraisal of research depends upon its conceptualization.Integrative psychological & behavioral science · 2014
    Article
  13. Ideology, affect, semiotics: towards a non-personal theory of personality.Integrative psychological & behavioral science · 2014
    Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author.

Aaro ToomelaInstitute of Psychology, Tallinn University Tallinn, Estonia.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Science begins with the question, what do I want to know? Science becomes science, however, only when this question is justified and the appropriate methodology is chosen for answering the research question. Research question should precede the other questions; methods should be chosen according to the research question and not vice versa. Modern quantitative psychology has accepted method as primary; research questions are adjusted to the methods. For understanding thinking in modern quantitative psychology, two epistemologies should be distinguished: structural-systemic that is based on Aristotelian thinking, and associative-quantitative that is based on Cartesian-Humean thinking. The first aims at understanding the structure that underlies the studied processes; the second looks for identification of cause-effect relationships between the events with no possible access to the understanding of the structures that underlie the processes. Quantitative methodology in particular as well as mathematical psychology in general, is useless for answering questions about structures and processes that underlie observed behaviors. Nevertheless, quantitative science is almost inevitable in a situation where the systemic-structural basis of behavior is not well understood; all sorts of applied decisions can be made on the basis of quantitative studies. In order to proceed, psychology should study structures; methodologically, constructive experiments should be added to observations and analytic experiments.

Indexed as

causalityconstructive experimentepistemologymathematicsquantitative methodology

Identifiers

PMID21833199
PMCPMC3153748

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.