Common Sense, Intuition, and Theory in Personality and Social Psychology

Theoretical work in personality and social psychology benefits from a well-developed understanding of the prior empirical and theoretical work on a problem and from informed intuitions. Intuitions develop about a subject matter through years of study, investigation, and problem solving, just as chess masters develop a sophisticated set of cognitive structures that change the very appearance of the chess board. In part because the subject matter is so personal, students new to personality and social psychology arrive with many intuitions, prior beliefs, and naive theories about social processes and behavior based on unsystematic experiences and observations. These intuitions can hinder or foster theoretical progress. The role of mentors, critiques, and empirical tests in minimizing the deleterious effects of these entry biases is discussed. Refined scientific intuitions are also subject to error, however, so means of minimizing these errors are also discussed.