ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on how values are integral to science, and how scientific values must guide decision-making in theory building and other aspects of psychological science. It explains the role of values as a major characteristic by which to compare and contrast humanistic and positive psychology. The chapter argues that positive psychology has often been troubled by its lack of attention to the values it tacitly endorses, whereas humanistic psychology has traditionally been much more reflective about its value-laden nature. It also explores positive psychology for its naivete in charging ahead with simple hypotheses and research designs. The chapter provides the variations of positive psychology that are inattentive to the unavoidable importance of values, and gives one case of how this has led some positive psychologists astray through thwarting its avowed goal of producing good science for human betterment. The role of values in science is a subject that has received increasing attention over the past century.
