1.4. Clark Hull and the Role of Operationism in Theory Construction

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. CONTENTS v
3. INTRODUCTION Toward an Epistemology of Exploration in Psychology
4. 1. Topic and Main Theses of the Book 1
5. 2. Contexts of Discovery and Justification 7
6. 3. Integrating Philosophy of Science and History of Science 12
7. 4. Objects of Research: Moving Targets of Scientific Investigation 18
8. 5. Addressing the Crisis of Confidence in Psychology 20
9. 6. Does My Analysis Generalize beyond Psychology? 22
10. 7. A Quick Overview of the Chapters 24
11. CHAPTER ONE Operationism in Psychology (Some) Historical Beginnings
12. 1.1. Introduction 30
13. 1.2. Stanley Smith Stevens and the Operational Treatment of Sensations 35
14. 1.3. Of Rats and Psychologists : An Analysis of E. C. Tolman's Operationism 46
15. 1.4. Clark Hull and the Role of Operationism in Theory Construction 56
16. 1.5. Conclusion 68
17. CHAPTER TWO Operationism The Second Generation
18. 2.1. Introduction 71
19. 2.2. Early Debates (1930s/1940s) 74
20. 2.3. Some Midcentury Developments (Interlude) 81
21. 2.4. The Construct Validity of Psychological Tests (1955) 87
22. 2.5. Converging Operations 97
23. 2.6. Conclusion 100
24. CHAPTER THREE Operational Definitions as Tools
25. 3.1. Introduction 102
26. 3.2. Operational Definitions and Research Designs in Memory Research 104
27. 3.3. Operational Definitions as Tools: What Do They Do? 113
28. 3.4. Conceptual Development and Reference: Another Look at the Case Studies 119
29. 3.5. Operational Definitions vis-a-vis Philosophical Analyses of Concepts 124
30. 3.6. Scientific Concepts and Investigative Practice 129
31. 3.7. Conclusion 132
32. CHAPTER FOUR Objects of Research as Targets of Exploration
33. 4.1. Introduction 135
34. 4.2. Delineating and Describing Objects of Research : A First Approximation 138
35. 4.3. Describing Empirical Features of Objects of Research 141
36. 4.4 . Exploratory Research 152
37. 4.5. Conclusion 160
38. CHAPTER FIVE Phenomena and Objects of Research
39. 5.1. Introduction 163
40. 5.2. Phenomena vs. Data and vs. Objects of Research? Conceptual Groundwork 165
41. 5.3. Objects of Psychological Research as Explanandum Phenomena? 174
42. 5.4. Psychological Discovery as Phenomenal Decomposition? 182
43. 5.5. Toward an Analysis of Norms of Exploration in Psychology 189
44. 5.6. Conclusion 192
45. CHAPTER SIX What Kind of Things Are Psychological Kinds?
46. 6.1. Introduction 194
47. 6.2. (Natural) Kinds: Setting the Stage 197
48. 6.3. Pluralism, Mechanisms, and the Whole Organism 204
49. 6.4. Similarity Judgments at the Whole-Organism Level: Echoes from Ecological Psychology 211
50. 6.5. Psychological Kinds and Cognitive Ontology 215
51. 6.6. Conclusion 223
52. CHAPTER SEVEN Operational Analysis and Converging Operations
53. 7.1. Introduction 226
54. 7.2. Inferences in Psychological Experiments 228
55. 7.3. Experimental Inferences as Constrained by Operational Analysis 236
56. 7.4. Converging Operations 243
57. 7.5. So What Do Converging Operations Converge On? 250
58. 7.6. Conclusion 260
59. Concluding Remarks
60. 1. Introduction 262
61. 2. Main Points 262
62. 3. Current Relevance and Future Directions 264
63. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 283
64. REFERENCES 287
65. INDEX 317