Re: Theory, and Why It's Time Psychology Got One

Posted by Bruce Sherwood on
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/Theory-and-Why-It-s-Time-Psychology-Got-One-tp6988785p6990776.html

I was intrigued to read somewhere that as recently as about a hundred
years ago there were criticisms of "lab" experiments, even in physics,
because what can you learn about Nature with a contrived unNatural
experiment?

Bruce

On Sat, Nov 12, 2011 at 10:51 PM, ERIC P. CHARLES <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Also... Having theories about normally living humans derived from rats in a
> Skinner box is no worse, at least in principle, than having theories about
> natually occuring chemicals derived from experiments with purified chemicals
> in a sterile lab. I have never seen colleagues in other sciences criticized
> for controlling for extraneous variables. Is it really that surprising or
> problematic that behavior is more predictable when we can control the
> environment, but less predictable when we cannot control the environment and
> do not know about an organism's past history?
>
> (Apparently cranky,)
> Eric

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