文档介绍：A Response on Concepts, Laws and
Measurement in Social Psychology
Lise Wallach and Michael A. Wallach
DUKEUNIVERSITY
appreciating Kimble's (2001) praise of our paper
(Wallach & Wallach, 2001), we argue against his reduction of mental states
to behavioral dispositions. Crandall and Schaller (2001) make five points in
criticism of our argument that much research in social psychology is
plagued by circularity. We show that their first point is based on a mis-
understanding, that their third point is irrelevant, and that their last two
points do not attempt to answer our argument. This leaves their second
point as Crandall and Schaller's only actual counterargument-namely that
confidence in a measure for a construct is independent of confidence in
the construct's relationships to other constructs. We show this claim of
independence to be false.
KEYWORDS: behaviorism, circularity, measurement, operational definition,
psychological laws, social psychology
Needless to say, we are deeply gratified by Professor Kimble's (2001)
praise of our paper (Wallach & Wallach, 2001). In view of all on which we
agree with him, it may seem churlish of us to attend to an area of some
disagreement-namely the status of psychological concepts. Were we not to
do so, however, it might appear as if the price of Kimble's agreeing