Surely there are laws in other fields; e.g. Boyle’s law for
gasses; the laws of thermodynamics; the law of gravity; the inverse square law
of light. It would seem that a law should be able to be defined and not at the
whim of whomever: Something like a relationship between variables which is
consistent across conditions—and I don’t think psychology has any such stable
relationships which ‘always hold’.
--Mike
--- On Tue, 8/12/08, Christopher D. Green <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
From: Christopher D. Green <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [tips] "Laws" in psychology
To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <[email protected]>
Date: Tuesday, August 12, 2008, 6:01 PM
You are free to define it however you would like Gary. My point was
only that it has not been used in a consistent way, either in
psychology, or in the rest of natural science. So the question of why
claim A is called a "law" and claim 2 isn't turns out to be more of an
fuzzy historical question (e.g. "why did they (not) do it then?") than
a strict theoretical one (e.g., "a claim is called a law when X, Y, Z")
Regards,
Chris
--
Christopher D
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Christopher D. Green
Department of Psychology
York University
Toronto, ON M3J 1P3
Canada
416-736-2100 ex. 66164
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.yorku.ca/christo/
=====================
Gerald Peterson wrote:
So psychologists conclude there are no scientific laws (in psych?) in the
sense of established, reliable relationships, or that the word is meaningless
in psychology? I take it the latter is the popular consensus? A scientific
law or principle in psychology is the same as theory or theoretical idea? That
seems to be even more confusing. Is the term that empty (for psychologists)?
Yes, psychologists (historically or otherwise) seem to use such terms rather
loosely, but I don't think the idea of a scientific law or principle is that
hard to fathom. Perhaps the problem is that some wish the term to refer to
some essentialist and rigid idea? Still wondering....Gary
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