An exploratory study of topic-specific variation in epistemic beliefs among psychology students.

ABSTRACT:

Background

How individuals conceive knowledge and knowing plays a crucial role in psychology education. While often examined at the domain level, the Theory of Integrated Domains in Epistemology (TIDE) suggests that epistemic beliefs may also vary at the level of specific topics.

Methods

We investigated whether epistemic beliefs of psychology students differ depending on the topic under consideration and tested the hypothesis that beliefs would cluster by subdisciplinary proximity (i.e., clinical vs. cognitive topics). Using the Epistemic Thinking Assessment (ETA), we implemented three scenarios addressing depression, schizophrenia, and language acquisition. A counterbalanced repeated-measures design was used with 480 first-year psychology students. Multilevel modeling was a

SUBMITTER: Adam L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12894252 | biostudies-literature | 2026

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature