Operationism in Psychology - What the Debate is About, What the Debate Should Be About

Journal for the Histoty of the Behavioral Sciences 41 (2):131-150 (2005)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

I offer an analysis of operationism in psychology, which is rooted in an historical study of the investigative practices of two of its early proponents (S. S. Stevens and E. C. Tolman). According to this analysis, early psychological operationists emphasized the importance of experimental operations and called for scientists to specify what kinds of operations were to count as empirical indicators for the referents of their concepts. While such specifications were referred to as “definitions,” I show that such definitions were not taken to constitute a priori knowledge or be analytically true. Rather, they served the pragmatic function of enabling scientists to do research on a purported phenomenon. I argue that historical and philosophical discussions of problems with operationism have conflated it, both conceptually and historically, with positivism, and I raise the question of what are the “real” issues behind the debate about operationism.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

  • This entry has no external links. Add one.
Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

S. S. Stevens and the origins of operationism.Gary L. Hardcastle - 1995 - Philosophy of Science 62 (3):404-424.
Methodology of psychology.C. A. Qadir - 1961 - Pakistan Philosophical Congress 8:133-144.
Observationalism in psychology.R. S. Peters - 1951 - Mind 60 (January):43-61.
Operationism.Abram Cornelius Benjamin - 1955 - Springfield, Ill.,: Thomas.
Operationism. [REVIEW]Raymond J. Nogar - 1956 - New Scholasticism 30 (3):380-382.
Operationism--a critical evaluation.A. Cornelius Benjamin - 1950 - Journal of Philosophy 47 (15):439-444.
Operationism as a cultural survival.Frank E. Hartung - 1944 - Philosophy of Science 11 (4):227-232.
Operationism analysed operationally.Hornell Hart - 1940 - Philosophy of Science 7 (3):288-313.
Is operationism unjust to temperature?Fred Wilson - 1968 - Synthese 18 (4):394 - 422.

Analytics

Added to PP
2011-10-26

Downloads
1 (#1,770,361)

6 months
1 (#1,042,085)

Historical graph of downloads

Sorry, there are not enough data points to plot this chart.
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Uljana Feest
Universität Hannover

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references