Positivism versus people

what should psychology be about?

William J. Baker

pp. 9-16

in: Charles W. Tolman (ed), Positivism in psychology, Berlin, Springer, 1992

Abstract

Psychology, in both its scientific basis and its various applications (i.e., psychology as both science and art), poses a unique set of problems in both arenas. People are both the investigators and the investigated. The direct and indirect consequences of this, the profound effects of having aware, self-conscious, and context-sensitive beings in both these roles and, therefore, inescapably interacting and affecting each other in these roles, must be understood. Our philosophy of psychology must make full allowance for the consequent profound differences between the inanimate and the animate sciences and, within the latter, for the further profound differences between the simply animate and the self-conscious animate.