On the Nature of Scientific Method in Psychology

Abstract

Many problems relating to scientific method in psychology remain unresolved. The experimentalist-behaviorist attempt to take pure physics as a model has failed to produce the desired result. Introspection cannot be ruled out of psychological science; it is a fundamental activity of the human being. There is a measurement problem in psychology, in some ways similar to the measurement problem in physics. It must be given due weight in formulating our theories. The psychoanalytic method, both in research and in therapy, is a valid scientific tool. A distinction is drawn between stimulus-bound responses and organism-bound. If a response is stimulus-bound, the experimental approach is appropriate. If a response is organism-bound the clinical method is appropriate. The areas of perception and learning are most stimulus-bound and therefore most amenable to experimental investigation. Other areas of psychology, such as emotion, motivation and personality structure, are organism-bound and should be investigated by clinical methods. Many current formulations of scientific method ignore or overlook the measurement problem. Unwittingly many psychologists, buttressed by a faulty conception of scientific method, have limited themselves to stimulus-bound material. Even in animal psychology more weight is now being paid to organism-bound responses. The real unification of psychological science must come from the elaboration of the fundamental formula R = f(O, S). In this elaboration both experimental and clinical methods play a basic role.