I previously wrote regarding the difficulties of measurement in a science with no bad incomplete nomenclature. Psychology is a scientific discipline that is concerned with the measurement, prediction, and explanation of complicated macro-level phenomena that we often have difficulty identifying and explaining. Like emotion.
Emotion is a powerful force. So powerful, in fact, that it can move entire populations to migrate, to fight, and to die. And yet, in our day to day lives, many of us do not like to acknowledge how we feel. Emotions can get in the way. Indeed, certain psychopathologies may have their roots in emotion avoidance (think: depression, anxiety, certain somatic disorders). In other words, you get anxious to avoid feeling sadness. You get depressed to avoid feeling anger or pain.
It all makes sense, really. If emotion really is such a powerful force, then we know intuitively the devastating effects it can have on our lives, and most of us have stuff to do, and really can’t be bothered. Some of us also are probably more prone to strong emotion than others, which makes things more difficult for those who have to sort them all out. (This is part of my two-factor lay-theory of psychopathology: extremes of sensitivity or intelligence = bad news for your mental health.)
But here’s the point I really want to get to: we do not know how to measure emotion.
Asking people (self-report) often doesn't work, unless they are particularly self-aware and willing to share with you. ‘Objective’ measures (physiology) are often used, but they can be confounded by anything from hot coffee to a hot research assistant.
Emotion used to be reviled as a topic of study in psychology because it was thought of as too fluffy: “If we can’t measure it, it doesn’t exist”. I think this was misguided. After all, emotion is too powerful a motivator, and I think that having ignored it in science and theory so far is part of the reason we can’t explain or don’t understand a lot of what’s going on in the world today. We have to stop being afraid of measuring things that we don’t understand. After all, I don’t understand what light is (a wave AND a particle? For serious?) But I could measure it anyway.
We have to step up to the challenge in psychological research today of addressing the issues that matter: motivation, beliefs, pain, emotion. The big ones. The scary ones.
Yes, the methodology will be complicated and a pain in the butt. But big deal! Check out how complicated it is to measure light.
No comments:
Post a Comment