Interdisciplinarity and related terms have flooded academic discourse for several decades and continue to occupy a prominent place in contemporary philosophy. Psychology in various ways reflects these trends with less explicit focus. Abundant research and theory underscore the generative epistemic potential of interdisciplinary inquiry; however, much remains unclear about how it should be defined, understood, and evaluated. Moreover, favorable sentiment is not universal; at the very least claims concerning the promises require qualification and nuance. I will draw upon prior ethnographic study of interdisciplinary laboratories and current research on the experience and trajectories of interdisciplinary scholars to highlight fundamental questions and lingering problems concerning the epistemic, social, historical, pragmatic, personal, and methodological dimensions of interdisciplinary inquiry. Finally, I will also explore implications of issues raised with reference to contemporary interdisciplinary configurations that include psychology, including cognitive science, Science and Technology Studies (STS), and psychological humanities.
Lisa Osbeck is a Professor of Psychology at the University of West Georgia. Her most recent works are Ever not Quite: Pluralism(s) in William James and Contemporary Psychology, co-authored with Saulo Araujo (Cambridge, 2023); and Person-Centered Studies in Psychology of Science (Routledge, 2022), co-edited with Stephen Antczak and containing chapters by her graduate students. She is a past recipient of the Joseph B. Gittler award, the Arthur W. Staats lecture award, and the William James Book award for Science as Psychology: Sense-Making and Identity in Science Practice (with N. Nersessian, K. Malone, and W. Newstetter, 2010). Additional works include Rational Intuition, co-edited with Barbara Held (2014, Cambridge), Values in Psychological Science (2018, Cambridge), and Psychological Studies of Science and Technology, co-edited with K. O'Doherty, E. Schraube, and J. Yen (2019, Palgrave). She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh as well as a past president of the Society for General Psychology (APA Division 1). With Nancy Nersessian she is currently working on a study of how interdisciplinary commitments affect the intellectual, social, and personal lives of researchers.
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