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Gregg Henriques, Ph.D., is a

Professor of Psychology at James
Madison University.
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A unified approach to psychology and philosophy

by Gregg Henriques, Ph.D.

Considerations Regarding the Unification of Psychology

Five key domains involved in unifying psychology.
Published on August 22, 2014 by Gregg Henriques in Theory of Know ledge

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As evidenced by the Review of General Psychology June 2013 special issue, the most recent issue of
the Journal of Theoretical and Philosphical Psychology , claims by evolutionary psychologists that
their perspective represents a unifying view, books by Arthur Staats and myself , and recent
discussions on the Society for Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology list serve , it seems that the
idea of unifying psychology (or generating a general theory of psychology) is getting about as much
attention as it ever has. Yet a cursory review of this literature shows enormous diversity in
approaches. Consider that although Fiona HIbberds lead JTPP article was explicitly directed at
unifying psychology, it nonetheless is a very different kind of project than mine or the approach by

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evolutionary psychologists.

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This diversity suggests that we need some organization of this discussion,

and the goal here is to provide a snapshot of the key issues that seem to
be involved in attempting to unify the field of psychology. Specifically, I
identify five broad domains that I believe should at least be considered in
attempting to produce a general, workable framework: A) Problems of
Definition and Identity; B) Philosophical Issues; C) Theoretical Issues; D)
Empirical Issues; and E) Practical/Applied/Professional Issues.
A. Definitional/Identity The second chapter of the book outlining my
unified approach is called The Problem of Psychology and one of the
central claims it makes is that psychology has had so many different
definitions and conceptions that no one knows what it means. As such, I
believe it is essential for any author of a general theory or proposal to
unify the field to define their use of the term as explicitly as possible. This
is frequently not done and leads to much confusion. One reason for the
confusion is that there are several issues that are embedded in the
concept of psychology and what it might mean, and these issues can be
summarized as follows:
1. What exactly is the subject matter that the proposal is claiming
psychology to be directly concerned with? Is it, for example,
concerned centrally with experiential consciousness, human
reflective self-awareness, cognitive/mental processes, overt
behavior or some combination therein?
2. What, exactly, is the proposed relationship between animals and
humans and how does this relate to the subject matter? Is the
prosed conception of psychology concerned with all animals, some
animals, or no animals except humans? What makes humans
different or is there no dividing line?
3. Related to subject matter is the question of the institutional identity
of psychology that one is proposing. Is the proposed Psychology
a science, an allied health profession or a collection of studies in
the humanities or none of these? Similarly, what are the proposed

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The need to be known and valued by

self and others.

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anthropology, sociology, medicine, counseling and social work?
B. Philosophical Issues Almost everyone, it seems, views psychology as
some kind of knowledge system, and thus it follows that there are deep
philosophical questions. Psychology is likely to be a particularly stickywicket when it comes to philosophy because the knower-known
relationships are particularly complicated. In addition, psychologys
relationship to philosophy has been particularly confounding. Some of the
major philosophical issues seem to be:
1. Conceptual/Semantic What are the meanings of the terms used
(e.g., mind, self, behavior, cognition, consciousness) and their
conceptual relation to one another? Hibberds paper on
metaphysics is an example of someone attempting to articulate
what a foundational conceptual framework for psychology (and
existence writ large) might look like.
2. Philosophy of Science Exemplified by the modern versus postmodern divide, analyses here focus on the kind of knowledge
psychology produces (e.g., are lawful processes discovered or
narratives constructed?). This domain also relates to whether
psychology is conceived of in terms of a natural or social science or
humanistic enterprise (or some other philosophical entity).
3. Worldviews/Assumptions Theistic psychology has been promoted
by some prominent members of division 24, arguing that a
naturalistic worldview is simply an assumption, one that is
different from a theistic assumption. Those who argue for the
evidence of mystical/parapsychological also bring a challenge to a
conventional worldview. Thus, one must be clear about the
worldview the proposal is embedded in.
4. Values As Steve Quackenbush has argued that, the problem of
value is central to any general theory of psychology and must be
addressed. The reason is that claims about what psychology is
have direct implications for claims about the nature of being human
and thus will at least indirectly (and may be even directly) impact

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our value systems.

5. Historical Social Contextual Issues Knowledge systems are not
built in a vacuum but reside in particular socio-historical contexts. A
perspective on where the knowledge emerges from and how it
relates to other broad knowledge systems should be considered.
C. Theoretical Issues This refers to the nature of the causal explanatory
matrix for the phenomena. Some key questions regarding theoretical
issues are:
1. How does the subject matter of psychology (identified in domain
one) come to be, what causes it to change, what is its potential,
why does it wither and die?
2. How does the theory relate to folk psychology (the everyday notion
that people have that animal/people behave the way they do
because of beliefs, desires and capacities)?
3. How does it deal with mainstream psychology? Is it a new
perspective? Does it reject mainstream perspectives? How does
the proposed theory mesh with major paradigms (e.g., behavioral,
cognitive, psychodynamic, humanistic, physiological, evolutionary,
cultural)? Does it attempt to integrate some or all? Does it dismiss
some or all?
4. Is the perspective explicitly defined against any particular
knowledge system?
D. Empirical This refers to issues of research and methods of fact
gathering. Some of the key questions regarding empirical issues are as
follows:
1. How does the system address the enormous body of empirical work
that has currently been done? Programs of research exist on
everything from reinforcement and punishment to sexual behaviors
and attraction to learning and memory to cognitive dissonance and
ego defenses to child development and parental attachment to
cultural influences on perception and on and on. While no system

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could address every line of research in detail, what is the general

relationship between the proposed system and the broad swath of
empirical research? What research seems validating of the
system? What seems troubling or inconsistent?
2. What does the system say about what kinds of methods are
valuable and what kinds of methods are suspect in generating
knowledge? Does it address the tensions between quantitative
versus qualitative data? Or the tensions between Individual versus
aggregate data analysis (e.g., Jim Lamiell makes the strong
argument that psychologys current obsession with aggregate data
has major implications for the kinds of questions to which
psychology is getting answers)?
3. Does the framework advocate for a particular methodology? Is the
framework testable/falsifiable? Does it lead to new empirical
questions or new methodologies?
E. Practical/Applied/Professional Implications Currently, far more
psychologists function as mental health professionals than theorists or
researchers. Thus any serious proposal must address issues of
application and the profession. Some key questions regarding issues of
application and the profession include:
1. Stemming from the claims about the nature of the subject matter,
what does the proposal say about living the good life? What is
animal or human well-being?
2. What are states of being that the proposal suggests we ought to be
promoting?
3. How does the proposal view the current state of the profession? Is
the professional institution synonymous with the science or is it
separate? Should the three practice areas of psychology (clinical,
counseling, school) remain distinct or should they be blended into a
more global professional identity?
4. What of the current state of assessment and therapy? What are
the implications of the current proposal for the fragmented state of
psychotherapy? Does it implicate some paradigms as likely being

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more valid than others?

5. What message does the vision have for society at large? What are
the implications for education, government, sustainability and the
current ways we organize our knowledge systems and our view of
ourselves (related back to the problem of value)?
6. How does the view align with, support, or invalidate certain political
or cultural positions?
As a discipline, psychology has been fragmented from the start. James,
Wundt, Freud, Watson, Vygotsky, Rogers, Festinger, Gergen and many
other major contributors to the field have all had remarkably different
conceptions. This fact and the daunting list above may well be considered
to be a nod to the pluralists like Sigmund Koch who argued the field was
and would always be a collection of studies. However, that conclusion
forces us to accept the chaotic, fragmented state of knowledge and it
seems many are now wondering if we can in fact develop more holistic,
coherent, integrative (or even radically different) approaches. Those who
do so would be wise to consider all that is involved. If unification--or at
least a more coherent view of the field--is to emerge, it will emerge when
scholars reference their various approaches in relationship to the
domain(s) they are trying to address.

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