A philosophy of science for personality theory Book

The psychologist's conception of his science involves more than a set of abstract principles, more than an operating manual for the design of research and the construction of theory. Each philosophy of science in psychology is intimately bound up with an image of man, a disciplinary identity, and a system of basic assumptions and values regarding the aims, problem areas, and investigative methods with which psychology should properly concern itself. Until recently, the scientific orientation in American psychology has been predominantly "demonstrative" rather than "dialectical." The prevailing approach has been tough-minded, extraspective, technically rigorous, operationalistic. The aim of this text then is to offer a new, less constraining philosophy of science—-an approach suited to the development of personality and clinical and social psychology. It also offers a philosophy of science that will serve to free as well as to discipline the scientific imagination, as it advances the notion that our scientific efforts should draw creatively on both the "demonstrative" and the "dialectical" traditions without being constrained by either.