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You're conflating a number of ideas, but the overall trend in your post is towards a debunked theory of science called positivism. You should research that.

by tedks 12y ago

pbhjpbhj 12y ago
Is your contention that [social] psychology need not rely on an empirical approach. How then are you to claim it's "scientific". Perhaps the best question to ask here is what do you consider, succinctly, to be the basis of the scientific method? I did indicate that I'm happy to accept other methodologies as beneficial and am certainly not wedded to positivistic approaches in all fields of human understanding. Are you perhaps pushing the meaning of "repeatable" in the current context beyond the bounds of "supporting the same breadth of conclusion with equal confidence". It is however not scientific to rely on unrepeatable experimental results. If an experiment is unrepeatable then the conclusions are proved false. Note that the question at hand is not whether the initial experiment is valid or useful. Science after all is axiomatic and the world, generally, non-deterministic so far as one can tell [though I know there are many dissenters on this point].
- tedks 12y ago
  Well "pbhjpbhj," like I said, you're confusing logical positivism with science. Positivism, the idea that we can only believe propositions which are proved correct, lost favor in the late 1800's. Modern science, including social psychology, is in the vein of scientific theory called operationism. Like I said before, you should research this, because you don't know what you're talking about.
  - pbhjpbhj 12y ago
    We're not talking about multiple metrics, the exact same metric is being used in empirically identical circumstances and the results are conflicting. The only way to square that position is to assume the conclusion is wrong or the data is wrong. Essentially the epistemological underpin isn't important; operationalising a system no more allows for unrepeatability in empirical data than does any other consistent scientific method - after-all if unrepeatability were allowed then the logical basis would be self contradictory. Rather than arguing from abstract implications about my assumed knowledge why don't you address the question at hand?

You're conflating a number of ideas, but the overall trend in your post is towards a debunked theory of science called positivism. You should research that.

by tedks 12y ago

You're conflating a number of ideas, but the overall trend in your post is towards a debunked theory of science called positivism. You should research that.

pbhjpbhj 12y ago

Is your contention that [social] psychology need not rely on an empirical approach. How then are you to claim it's "scientific". Perhaps the best question to ask here is what do you consider, succinctly, to be the basis of the scientific method? I did indicate that I'm happy to accept other methodologies as beneficial and am certainly not wedded to positivistic approaches in all fields of human understanding. Are you perhaps pushing the meaning of "repeatable" in the current context beyond the bounds of "supporting the same breadth of conclusion with equal confidence". It is however not scientific to rely on unrepeatable experimental results. If an experiment is unrepeatable then the conclusions are proved false. Note that the question at hand is not whether the initial experiment is valid or useful. Science after all is axiomatic and the world, generally, non-deterministic so far as one can tell [though I know there are many dissenters on this point].

tedks 12y ago
Well "pbhjpbhj," like I said, you're confusing logical positivism with science. Positivism, the idea that we can only believe propositions which are proved correct, lost favor in the late 1800's. Modern science, including social psychology, is in the vein of scientific theory called operationism. Like I said before, you should research this, because you don't know what you're talking about.
- pbhjpbhj 12y ago
  We're not talking about multiple metrics, the exact same metric is being used in empirically identical circumstances and the results are conflicting. The only way to square that position is to assume the conclusion is wrong or the data is wrong. Essentially the epistemological underpin isn't important; operationalising a system no more allows for unrepeatability in empirical data than does any other consistent scientific method - after-all if unrepeatability were allowed then the logical basis would be self contradictory. Rather than arguing from abstract implications about my assumed knowledge why don't you address the question at hand?