Experimental social psychology is real and scientific - a reply to Durganand Sinha

Abstract

In his critique of experimental social psychology, Durganand Sinha views experimentation as an inadequate approach to complex social phenomena, and complains that social psychology are confined to problems for which methods already exist. In this reply, I take the position that social psychologists are engaged in activity which is called "normal science" (Kuhn, T.S., The structure of scientific revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962), and that the criticisms of experimental paradigms are not as serious as they have been made to appear. Furthermore, the demonstrated capacity of experimental social psychologists to respond positively to te methodological and theoretical challenge raises the expectation that social psychology is to grow even more scientific in the years to come.