Positivism in Psychology

Positivism needs further scrutiny. In recent years, there has been little consensus about the nature of positivism or about the precise forms its influence has taken on psychological theory. One symptom of this lack of clarity has been that ostensibly anti-positivist psychological theorizing is frequently found reproducing one or more distinctively positivist assumptions. The contributors to this volume believe that, while virtually every theoretically engaged psychologist today openly rejects positivism in both its 19th century and 20th century forms, it is indispensable to look at positivism from all sides and to appraise its role and importance in order to make possible the further development of psychological theory.

1. Positivism Versus People: What Should Psychology Be About?.- 2. The Demise of Logical Positivism: Implications of the Duhem-Quine Thesis for Psychology.- 3. Neopositivism and Perception Theory.- 4. Positivist Conceptions of Induction and the Rejection of Classificatory Methods in Psychological Research.- 5. Antecedents of Operationism: A Case History in Radical Positivism.- 6. Operationism, Scientism, and the Rhetoric of Power.- 7. Watson's Positivism: Materialist or Phenomenalist?.- 8. Positivism and the Prospects for Cognitive Science.- 9. Positivism and Cognitive Psychology: A Second Look.- 10. Problems and Prospects for Cognitive Constructionism in Postpositivist Psychology.- 11. Positivist Influences in "Environment-Behavior" Studies: Egon Brunswik and Contemporary Social Ecology.- 12. Mediating Between Mentalism and Objectivism: The Conventionality of Language.