The pragmatic use of metaphor in empirical psychology

Abstract

Metaphors of mind and their elaboration into models serve a crucial explanatory role in psychology. In this article, an attempt is made to describe how biology and engineering provide the predominant metaphors for contemporary psychology. A contrast between the discursive and descriptive functions of metaphor use in theory construction serves as a platform for deliberation upon the pragmatic consequences of models derived therefrom. The conclusion contains reflections upon the possibility of an integrative interdisciplinary psychology.

Affect, Belief, and the Arts

“…In the state of immanence produced through the arts and in religious acts, the sense of meaning becomes profound, i.e., noetically distinct, because affect infuses the experience, and one's memory of it, with salience (James, 1902;Gabriel, 2021a). The quality imbued thereby makes humans attentive to subtle signs and broad "truths" (Bellah, 2011).…”

Rabbit Hole Syndrome: Inadvertent, accelerating, and entrenched commitment to conspiracy beliefs

“…Thus, like the term 'conspiracy theory' itself (Douglas et al, 2021), the rabbit hole metaphor is not necessarily pejorative or used only by those who reject alternative narratives (West, 2020). The use of metaphors is endemic in psychology and, while not without downsides, it helps researchers generate creative insights and communicate them in understandable terms (Fiedler, 2004;Gabriel, 2021;Neisser, 1963). In this article, we use the rabbit hole metaphor to attempt to understand this phenomenon through the lens of psychological theory and research.…”