Abstract
Correlation coefficients are social inventions that capture certain aspects of reality from a particular scientific perspective. Different facets of correlation coefficients are important for science. Usually the mathematical side of the bases for correlation coefficients have received the most attention. There is, however, another facet of correlations that is exceedingly important for science—the interpretation of correlational findings within conceptual spheres of one or another scientific discipline, and in the process of social communication of these disciplines with the lay public. Only one aspect of the interpretation of correlations—the issue of attribution of causality to different possible agents—has been given wider attention. However, even that attention has been more practical than theoretical. Numerous statistics “cookbooks” have tried to remind their users of the difficulties involved in making straightforward causal attributions on the basis of empirical correlational data. Users of these manuals may, but need not, accept such calls for caution.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Bertalanfly, L. von. (1955). An essay on the relativity of categories. Philosophy of Science, 22 (4), 243–263.
Bloom, A. (1981). The linguistic shaping of thought. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Brandt, L. W. (1973). The physics of the physicist and the physics of the psychologist. International journal of Psychology, 8(1), 61–72.
Bruner, J. (1973). Beyond the information given. In J. Bruner, Beyond the information given: Studies in the psychology of knowing (pp. 218–238). New York: W. W. Norton.
Buss, A. R. (1978). The structure of psychological revolutions. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 14, 57–64.
Cohen, L. J. (1981). Can human irrationality be experimentally demonstrated? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 4, 317–331.
Dixon, R. A., & Nesselroade, J. R. (1983). Pluralism and correlation analysis in developmental psychology: Historical commonalties. In R. M. Lerner (Ed.), Developmental psychology: Historical and philosophical perspectives (pp. 113–145). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Elsasser, W. M. (1966). Atom and organism: A new approach to theoretical biology. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Elsasser, W. M. (1970). The role of individuality in biological theory. In C. H. Waddington (Ed.), Towards a theoretical biology (Vol. 3, pp. 137–166). Chicago, IL: Aldine.
Elsasser, W. M. (1981). Principles of a new biological theory: A summary. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 89, 131–150.
Galton, F., (1876). A theory of heredity. Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 5, 329–348.
Galton, F. (1886). Family likeness in stature. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, 40, 42–73.
Galton, F. (1888). Co-relations and their measurement, chiefly from anthropometric data. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, 45, 135–145.
Galton, F. (1904). Eugenics: Its definition, scope and aims. Nature, 70 (1804), 82.
Ghiselin, M. T. (1974). A radical solution to the species problem. Systematic Zoology, 23, 536–544.
Gower, B. (1982). Astronomy and probability: Forbes versus Michell on the distribution of the stars. Annals of Science, 39, 145–160.
Hargraeves, D. H. (1980). Common-sense models of action. In A. Chapman & D. M. Jones (Eds.), Models of man (pp. 215–225). Leicester: British Psychological Society.
Hull, D. L. (1976). Are species really individuals? Systematic Zoology, 25, 174–191.
Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. (1972). Subjective probability: A judgement of representativeness. Cognitive Psychology, 3, 430–454.
Kvale, S. (1983). The quantification of knowledge in education: On resistance toward qualitative evaluation and research. In B. Bain (Ed.), The sociogenesis of language and human conduct (pp. 433–447). New York: Plenum Press.
Levi, I. (1983). Who commits the base rate fallacy? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 3, 502–506.
Maxwell, J. C. (1875). Theory of heat (4th ed.). London: Longmans, Green, & Co.
Mayr, E. (1972). The nature of the Darwinian revolution. Science, 176, 981–989.
McNemar, Q. (1969). Psychological statistics (4th ed). New York: Wiley.
Quetelet, L. A. J. (1842). A treatise on man and the development of his faculties. Edinburgh: W. & R. Chambers.
Rosenthal, R. (1984). Meta-analytic procedures for social research. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Sheynin, O. B. (1984). On the history of the statistical method in astronomy. Archive for History of Exact Sciences, 29 (2), 151–199.
Smedslund, J. (1963). The concept of correlation in adults. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 4, 165–173.
Tocqueville, A. de. (1956). Democracy in America. New York: New American Library. (Original work published 1835).
Tulviste, P. (1981), Mõdernise keelelisest ja tegevuslikust relatiivsusest (On the linguistic and activity-bound relativity of thinking). Keel ja Kirjandus, 24, 6 329–336 (in Estonian).
Whorf, B. L. (1956). Language, thought, and reality. Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1986 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Valsiner, J. (1986). Between Groups and Individuals. In: Valsiner, J. (eds) The Individual Subject and Scientific Psychology. Perspectives on Individual Differences. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2239-7_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2239-7_6
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-2241-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-2239-7
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive