Few possibilities are:

1. Psychology and neuroscience integrate more and neuroscience replaces traditional psychology

2. Virtual and augmented reality would give a new conception of human mind. One can consider digital, social media spaces as one aspect of this where boundaries between real and virtual fade.

3. Quantitative data would be more relevant from moment by moment monitoring of behaviors, rather than one time introspective self-reports. Smartphone and other similar technologies would enable this. Wearables, specially cheap brain scanners, would also fall into this category. This way the psychophysical data would be more helpful, compared to cognitive and self report data. Similarly, data from multiple sources would be analyzable at the same time to inform theories, and Big Data would gain more prominence.

4. Genetic findings would cause another paradigm sift, which they have not done much so far. And with genetics and biotechnology, an altogether new world of possibilities opens up. Rise in nanotechnology would also cause a paradigmatic shift.

5. Unfortunately, the future paradigm shifts would lead us more away from human nature, like our instincts and emotions, and there would be an evolutionary shift from things being natural to artificial. The negative side of digital world would take over healthy emotions and the pace of mental health services would not be able to capture the needs of society. New generations would only find themselves more mechanical and estranged from human nature, specially basic emotions. This disparity in meeting the needs of humans would only widen the gaps that already exist. More and more the technological advances would be mishandled by the common man, and the power to manipulate reality would increase. The need to restore peace would be even more and then we can see another paradigm shift where values and virtues would be in more demand.

6. Integration of spiritual with psychological would be a final paradigm shift. This is again slower at present because burden of religion and it's discontents are higher. Need for a universal order and one religion would increase in future, because technology is already blurring the boundaries. The gap caused by machines between natural and artificial, and the consequent increase in destructive emotions would require men to approach peace and harmony with more zeal. There would be a need for collective rise in consciousness. So currently what we call cross-cultural differences would soon diminish within a century or so. That paradigm shift would be final because all humans would aspire for common goals.

Dear Olivia Barry,

You put interesting questions.

Considering strictly the idea of Kuhn's "paradigm shift" a good example of such within the psychological field is the replacement of (orthodox) behaviourism by cognitivism - i.e. from the Skinner's abrogation of the mind to the Piaget and Chomsky's criticism of behaviourism. An emerging paradigm could be humanistic psychology in opposition to behaviourism. Positive and transpersonal psychology are also new paradigms that emerged to surpass limitations of both psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioural psychology. Another new paradigm is the constructivist psychology which pushed the threshold of cognitivism and established a new psychotherapy approach in recent years.

As you probably may have noticed the work of Thomas Kuhn cannot be taken solely since it follows a larger discussion on the demarcation line of what is scientific or not. The contemporary debate focus on the works of Karl Popper, Thomas Kuhn and Imre Lakatos - some would discuss Paul Fayerhabend's methodological anarchism. Kuhn rejects Popper's falsifiability proposal - which is the main model for the scientific research on medicine and psychology - and proposes a "puzzle solving" system. According with Kuhn it is not the test of a hypothesis but the ability of a new theoretical model to explain particular cases whereas the current model cannot that would allow science to progress. The example of cosmology given by Kuhn hardly could be applied to Psychology with the exception of the cognitive-behavioural model in opposition to the behaviourism.

In sum, psychology as field is not made by "puzzle solving" even though it is possible to notice the emergence of theoretical models that add new solutions to particular problems. The advancement of psychological models are made according with the falsifiability of hypothesis. I would say that the advancement of psychology as a science is more in tune with Lakato's methodology that focus on the resolution of Popper-Kuhn debate.

Best regards,

João P. Da Silva

Dear Olivia Barry

I offer a full-fledged paradigm shift for General Psychology and Developmental Psychology. The paradigm shift provides: (1) new, better-justified (more-likely-true) ASSUMPTIONS; (2) NEW OBSERVATIONS SOUGHT (to be made) AND (3) NEW WAYS to make those observations; (4) new standards for good, real empiricism and (5) new, unique (and wonderful-if-true) testable (verifiable/falsifiable) HYPOTHESES -- of GREAT consequence if true . This paradigm shift (which more than satisfies Kuhn's criteria) is provided via the Project on Ethogram Theory and all the References -- major papers and the BOOK -- and other material notes or links noted via the Project Log (aka Updates). Here is a link to the Project and, below that, find the 2 links to the major writings (all related and over 700 pages long). First the Project link:

https://www.researchgate.net/project/Human-Ethology-and-Development-Ethogram-Theory-A-Full-Fledged-Paradigm-Shift-for-PSYCHOLOGY

and now the links to the MAJOR References:

Article A Human Ethogram: Its Scientific Acceptability and Importanc...

AND

Book "Essentially, all Recent Essays on Ethogram Theory"

Also, for a quick overview of the major basic ideas, see the Question,

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Does_a_FULL_NEEDED_REAL_paradigm_shift_FOR_PSYCHOLOGY_also_provide_an_advanced_view_for_General_AI2

AND _ MOST IMPORTANT _ , WITHIN THAT Question, NOTE ESPECIALLY: the link provided there for the real "meat" of a quick overview -- AND here is THAT link, also repeated here-and-now: https://www.researchgate.net/post/Why_Generalized_AI_needs_to_establish_a_concrete_foundation_of_developmental_levels_stages

I assure you, if you want to understand what a paradigm shift really looks like, read these works (noted above; about 700 pages); even, if for some reason you "disagree", that at least you will have learned what is involved in a Psychology paradigm shift -- MUCH more than you can learn from Kuhn (as perhaps reflected by the 5 points in the first paragraph of this Answer ).

P.S. This paradigm shift ENDS all the nonsensical nature vs nurture debates; it provides concrete empirical bases for ABSTRACT CONCEPTS AND ABSTRACT THINKING (allowing psychology to be fully empirical, not to mention, well-grounded and well-founded ** ); AND all understandings are in terms of behavior PATTERNS (and not separate or distinct "behaviors") -- which is in accord with us being biological organisms (