Casting Nets and Testing Specimens: Two Grand Methods of Psychology

Written for researchers and methodologists in the fields of psychology, education, and behavioral science, this volume looks at the assumptions behind research methods and the kinds of information that can be properly extracted from them. The author focuses particularly on two types of methods--the method of relative frequency and the method of specimens--and demonstrates that almost all research methods within the social sciences fall within these two categories. Runkel argues that although both methods can deliver useful information about human behavior, most social scientists have been using the method of relative frequency for the wrong purpose--to discover how the human animal, as a species, functions. The method of relative frequency can be used effectively, Runkel asserts, only to estimate behavioral trends in a population. To learn how the internal workings of a species enable it to do what it does, the method of specimens must be employed.

Divided into five sections, the volume begins by discussing research areas in which the method of relative frequencies can provide relevant information--making catalogs or maps of behaviors, estimating statistics, predicting where or under which conditions certain kinds of behavior are likely to occur and the proportions in which they will occur. Part Two examines what the method of relative frequencies cannot do--reveal secrets about the behavior of humans and other living creatures. The next two sections describe the method of specimens and look at the contributions it can make to social science research. Following a detailed discussion of such topics as causation, invariants, control theory, and testing specimens, Runkel explains how the method of specimens can actually enable us to make working models of human behavior. The final section looks at action research as a combination of the methods of relative frequencies and specimens and argues the merits of the method of possibilities--an informal but useful strategy that lies beyond the two methods under discussion.