I don't think that "law" denotes anything particularly fundamental in
psychology (other than the fact that the author decided to
ostentatiously name his or her idea a "law" rather than a "principle," a
"theory" or a "conjecture").
Also, I may be wrong, but I think that Weber only had a "fraction." It
was only after Fechner integrated over it that came to be called a
(logarithmic) "law." In any case, the phenomenon it describes turned out
not to be terribly lawful. It was superseded by "Stevens' (power) law,"
which does not terribly accurately capture the phenomenon either.
As for Thorndike's "law," it is only the age-old principle of hedonism
restated in a quasi-behavioral form.
Why would these be "laws" and, say, the graphs associated with Skinner's
schedules of reinforcement, not be? Why are these "laws" and Flynn's
discoveries about the rise in intelligence an "effect"? (an "effect" of
what? time?) I think "effect" was chosen rather than "law" mainly
because it alliterates rather nicely with "Flynn."
Let us not mistake the trappings of science for the real thing.
Regards,
Chris
--
Christopher D. Green
Department of Psychology
York University
Toronto, ON M3J 1P3
Canada
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.yorku.ca/christo/
phone: 416-736-2100 ext. 66164
fax: 416-736-5814
=============================
Michael wrote:
In a recent episode of my podcast I stated that contrary to the
advocates of The Secret (who claim that the "law of attraction" is a
"fundamental law in psychology"), I knew of only two concepts in
psychology which are referred to as "laws" - Thorndike's Law of Effect
and Weber's law. Fellow tipster Blaine Peden reminded me that there
are some more that he could think of - the Gestalt laws of perception,
Emmert's Law, and Herrstein's Matching Law. We may argue as to what
constitutes a "law" in psychology and whether the aforementioned
belong in that definition, but Blaine had a good suggestion: is anyone
in TIPS aware of any other laws in psychology? I'd be happy to amend
my podcast on this topic
(http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2008/07/21/episode-64-a-scientist-goes-looking-for-a-self-help-book/).
Thanks,
Michael
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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