Auguste Comte (1798-1857):
Law of Three Stages, induction, socially useful knowledge

Unification of Science along with the expulsion
of metaphysics and ethics was their goal

 Theoretical terms can be linked to observation
terms or "Protocol Sentences" through theoretical
statements of the relationships between such
observations and theoretical constructs

 Verifiability principle: "The meaning of a proposition
is the method of its verification." The truth or
meaning of a statement is to be found in the
verification (proof) made by observations

Laws of Science are summary statements about
regularly correlated observations and predictions

Explanation is found in the verification of determinations
or predictions

We can make inferences about the world through
an examination of the probabilities that our
experimental treatments are due solely to chance.

 Null Hypothesis: A statement that there is
no difference between treatments and controls.
Rejecting the Null does not mean proof or verification
of the experimental hypothesis, only a lack of falsification.

 Edward Chace Tolman (1886-1959):
Purposive behaviorism

Influenced by neo-realism and gestalt psychology

Purpose and hunger could be objectively observed

 Operational behaviorism examines the functional relationships between independent anddependent variables

Intervening variables: Theoretical constructs
representing hypothetical processes) which
enable the prediction of dependent variables.
For example: B=fx(S,P,H,T,A)

 Cognitive maps: Internal representations of
the external world which are often acquired
through "latent learning"

 Clark Leonard Hull (1884-1952): Letter To Spence
Mechanism & reductionism

Mathematization of psychology: "physics envy"

Quantifiable prediction and control are goals of psychology
Underlying realism (in opposition to Mach & Bridgman)

 Hypothetico-Deductivism: "Explicitly stated postulates" derived from a theory provide testable predictions of that theory.

sEr = sHr x D x V x K - sIr - Ir

Gordon W. Allport (1897-1967):
Personology & Personality