Positivism in Psychology

Download or read book Positivism in Psychology written by Charles W. Tolman and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.