Authors:

Levey, A.B. & Martin, I.

Reference:

Year of publication:

1987

CBU number:

2168

Abstract:

This is the second in the open forum series described above. It is based on contributions to a symposium on Theories in Psychophysiology organised by the authors for the 14th Annual Conference of the British Psychophysiological Society. Three attitudes to theorising are identified on the basis of the general discussion which the symposium engendered. Not surprisingly, in a discipline committed largely to empirical research, theory tended to be perceived as having a role secondary to data collection. The first attitude is that theory merely organises data into a comprehensible pattern. The second attitude is that theory goes beyond the data in a sense which is inimical to empirical research. The third is that theories provide investigators with an excuse for collecting the data that interest them. Some of the implications of these essentially empiricist views are explored.