PSY 4130 Lecture 8: 13

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 4130
• Professor: Shirley Griffith

Document Summary

In various forms had been active for centuries. Argues that what constitutes appropriate data are observations that are public domain. Important to avoid, or at least minimize, theoretical speculation from the data. Logical positivism (developed by the vienna circle: divided science into empirical and the theoretical, accepting theory as a part of empirical science, however, did not reduce the. It wedded empiricism and rationalism. importance of empirical observation: abstract theoretical terms were allowed only if such terms could be logically tied to empirical observations. Once operationism was presented, most psychologists agreed with the logical positivists that unless a concept can be operationally defined it is scientifically meaningless. The desire for the unification of and a common vocabulary among the sciences including psychology. One outcome of logical positivism was that all sciences were viewed as essentially the same: following the same principles, with the same assumptions and all attempting to explain empirical observations.