Skip to main content
Dictionary
Store
Blog
World
Help
Advertise
Chat
System Status
Information Collection Notice
Trademark Concerns
reCAPTCHA Privacy
Terms of Service
reCAPTCHA Terms
Privacy Policy
Accessibility
Report a Bug
Data Request
Contact Us
Security
DMCA
© 1999–2026 Urban Dictionary ®
Mugs
Tees
Hoodies
Pro Customization
Create unique products with your own words and definitions
Preview
Personalize Your Design
Your Word
Your Definition
The established, institutionalized set of beliefs that dominate mainstream psychology—the often-unexamined assumptions about how to study mind, what counts as psychological knowledge, what methods are valid, and what theories are acceptable. Psycho-orthodoxy includes commitments: that quantitative methods are superior, that laboratory experiments reveal psychological truth, that statistical significance matters more than effect size, that Western populations represent humanity, that individual behavior is the right level of analysis, that psychological findings are universal, that replication crises are methodological rather than theoretical. Like all orthodoxies, it provides a framework for psychological research, but it functions as gatekeeping—determining what research is published, what theories are taught, who gets tenure, and what questions are worth asking. Psycho-orthodoxy shapes not just what we know about mind but what we think it's possible to know, making certain approaches feel scientific and others "soft" or "unscientific."
Text fits
Save
Cancel