Between Doubt & Data – How We Really Measure Psychology

Recent studies in personality psychology suggest that climate activists glue themselves on the street to satisfy their narcissist need for attention and virtue signaling (Zacher, 2024, 2026). I demonstrate just how flawed the theory, methodology, logical reasoning, data collection and statistical analysis must be to reach such a conclusion, and I offer suggestions, not in the form of a checklist, how to improve research in personality, social and environmental psychology.

Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes, but how do we measure these things? Should depressive symptoms be assessed by clinicians or by patients? Should environmental behavior be measured by the duration of your morning shower, by the number of ecological dishwasher tabs or by your miles and more account? Using examples from clinical and environmental psychology, this talk shows that who reports, who observes, and how behavior is measured profoundly shapes the conclusions in psychological science.