ABSTRACT
The post-colonial research studies in psychology with Muslim communities should be re-examined in the light of the widespread adoption and acceptance of paradigms, terminologies and research models alien to the Islāmic worldview, political and socioeconomic considerations and ontological framework. There are inherent epistemological and ontological assumptions that inform the nature and process of the research methodology. It is important to recognise that orientalist research brings some set of epistemological assumptions into the research process. The epistemological ontological and research biases are implicit in Western-oriented research in the developed and developing world and need to be deconstructed to create an indigenous or ‘Islāmise’ alternative paradigm. Biases in research is a common phenomenon and it may occur either intentionally or unintentionally and have implications for the reliability and validity study findings and falsification and misinterpretation of data can have important consequences for clinical interventions. Research biases are related to design, selection, inclusion, confounding, data collection, measurement, analysis and publication. There are also the problems associated with Questionable Research Practices (QRS), which is prevalent in published research. These include HARKing, cherry-picking, P-hacking, fishing and data dredging or mining and citation bias. Some of these QRS are applicable in the field of Islāmic psychology research. One of the Questionable Research Practices is the new trend of the creeping of ‘cherry-picking’ in Islāmic psychology. That is presenting only one side of a narrative or give it disproportional covering [of their own works] while ignoring the facts or opinions that could support alternative viewpoints. This selective bias or ‘cherry-picking’ is used as a rhetoric technique to support their own point of new. It has been suggested that partialistic evidence that is marshalled to support a particular view, decision or approach, often leads to unintended outcomes and destroys the wholistic purposes (maqasid) that are desired, instead of contributing to their achievement. In Islāmic psychology, there is a need to an openness to critical examination of the research work and the inherited knowledge from the classical and contemporary scholars. This chapter focuses on an examination of the decolonisation and deconstruction of psychology research, the epistemological ontological and research biases and its control and the limitations of Islāmic scholarship in the disciplines.
