The 'Real-World Approach' and Its Problems: A Critique of the Term Ecological Validity
The 'Real-World Approach' and Its Problems: A Critique of the Term Ecological Validity
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DOI：
10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00721
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发表时间：
2020-04-30
影响因子：
3.8
通讯作者：
Hessels, Roy S.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Holleman, Gijs A.;Hooge, Ignace T. C.;Hessels, Roy S.
心理科学的一个流行目标是理解“现实世界”中的人类认知和行为。相比之下，研究人员通常在实验研究环境（又称“心理学家实验室”）中进行研究。批评者经常质疑心理学的实验室实验是否可以得出普遍化的结果。这被称为“现实世界还是实验室”的困境。为了弥合实验室和生活之间的差距，许多研究人员呼吁进行更具“生态有效性”的实验，以确保实验更接近并推广到“现实世界”。然而，研究人员很少解释这个术语的含义，也很少解释应该如何实现更多的生态有效性。我们认为，流行的生态有效性概念是不完善的，缺乏特异性，没有解决普遍性问题。为了摆脱“现实世界还是实验室”的困境，我们认为心理科学研究人员应该始终明确他们感兴趣的认知和行为功能的特定背景，而不是主张实验应该更加“生态有效”，以便推广到“现实世界”。我们相信这将是一种更具建设性的方式来揭示认知和行为的特定背景和通用原则。
A popular goal in psychological science is to understand human cognition and behavior in the 'real-world.' In contrast, researchers have typically conducted their research in experimental research settings, a.k.a. the 'psychologist's laboratory.' Critics have often questioned whether psychology's laboratory experiments permit generalizable results. This is known as the 'real-world or the lab'-dilemma. To bridge the gap between lab and life, many researchers have called for experiments with more 'ecological validity' to ensure that experiments more closely resemble and generalize to the 'real-world.' However, researchers seldom explain what they mean with this term, nor how more ecological validity should be achieved. In our opinion, the popular concept of ecological validity is ill-formed, lacks specificity, and falls short of addressing the problem of generalizability. To move beyond the 'real-world or the lab'-dilemma, we believe that researchers in psychological science should always specify the particular context of cognitive and behavioral functioning in which they are interested, instead of advocating that experiments should be more 'ecologically valid' in order to generalize to the 'real-world.' We believe this will be a more constructive way to uncover the context-specific and context-generic principles of cognition and behavior.