Taxonomy as a contextualist views it

Abstract

The Henriques' article, "Psychology Defined" (this issue, pp. 1207-1221), reflects an underlying philosophy of science that emphasizes coherence as its truth criterion. The taxonomic efforts that result are of unknown value when viewed from other philosophical positions. From the point of view of functional contextualism, the primary metric of successful science is not coherence per se, but the precision, scope, and depth of the analysis as a means of predicting and influencing psychological phenomena. Henriques presents neither data nor specific research proposals that would allow even the beginning application of such a metric. Thus, the proposed taxonomy has no known value when viewed contextualistically. Since the practical goals of clinical psychology are very similar to those of functional contextualism, clinical psychologists interested in making a practical difference will have few current empirical reasons to be attracted to this Keywords: taxonomy; contextualism; philosophy of science; pragmatism; behavior analysis All scientists bring assumptions to their work because no symbolic or analytic system can function without assumptions that lie outside of the system itself. Philosophy of science helps scientists recognize, appreciate, and harmonize their assumptions.I have found it helpful to think through complex psychological issues in terms of the major philosophical division proposed by Pepper (1942). The three general systems that seem most relevant to this paper are mechanism, organicism, and contextualism.Mechanists seek a comprehensive model of the machine that is the world, and from that point of view, the present exercise is true to the extent that it reveals the underlying parts, relations, and forces that make up reality. Predictive verification or falsification is the primary metric of truth.Organicists seek an appreciation of the way disparate features unite into an organic whole that reflects the purpose and development of the entire system. Coherence is the primary metric of truth.

Toward a useful mass movement

“…Of course, the other issue is whether or not the ToK System and its various propositions will be able to "deliver the goods" (Rand & Ilardi, 2005, p. 14) in terms of research programs, and, as Hayes' (2004) commentary makes clear, it will obviously be important to develop novel lines of research that examine the precision and depth of the proposal in both basic and applied domains. As a clinical psychologist, I am attuned to the need for these ideas to have practical implications and some headway has been made in this direction.…”

“…However, they are not scientific justifications. Ultimately then, in contrast to Slife who argued that those who subscribe to such notions are defined out of the science game with "little intellectual justification" (2005, p. 112), the fact of the matter is that such constructs are defined out because they violate virtually every tenant of scientific thinking, such as connectivity, consilience, coherence, empirical validity/falsifiability, heuristic value, functional utility, and parsimony (see Hayes, 2004;Stanovich, 2001;Wilson, 1998). 10 Slife spoke of theistic psychologists in the context of discussing spiritual therapy interventions.…”

“…4 This assertion is, admittedly, a conjecture, and those who disparage any conceptual analysis without immediate data collection (cf. Hayes, 2004) are, of course, free to proceed with their current methodological commitments and not concern themselves with issues of "pure" theory. But facts are theory laden, and what is lacking is not data collection efforts, but the manner in which our data are organized.…”

“…This level of analysis raises profound questions about the nature of knowledge itself, and several contributors posed crucial questions and offered incisive analyses about philosophical issues (e.g., Hayes, 2004;Presbury, 2004;Quackenbush, this issue;Slife, this issue;Shealy, this issue;Viney, 2004). Space limitations combine with the complicated nature of the subject matter to prevent a detailed exposition of all the relevant epistemological and ontological issues.…”

Perspectives on the nature of being, becoming and reality from contextual behavioral science

“…As a result, a large body of literature has been published over the years, with numerous contributions examining the importance of philosophical issues and the direct connection between Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and its functional contextual philosophy (e.g., Biglan & Hayes, 1996;Hayes, 2004;Hayes, Hayes, Reese, & Sarbin, 1993;Long, 2013;Vilardaga, Hayes, & Schelin, 2007). This literature has addressed a very important and critical question: What is reality?, a question that in philosophy, falls under the rubric of "ontology", a branch of metaphysics that deals with the nature of being, becoming, existence, or reality, and that has been approached from a variety of philosophical traditions (e.g., essentialism, phenomenology, etc.…”