Original_To:  PGLIST
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.psycgrad
Date:         Thu, 3 Sep 1992 15:01:00 CST
              <PSYCGRAD@UOTTAWA.BITNET>
From:         Betty Harris <B1H6017@TAMVENUS.BITNET>
Subject: Re: Instrospection

Tammy wrote:
> another problem was that empirical science says both the cause and effect
> must be observable. Obviously, the stimuli in an  introspectionist
> experiment is observable, but the effect must be inferred from the
> subject's report. Does this help?
Isn't self report observable???

Remo wrote:
> Is there any reason why you can't observe subjective experience, or even
> collate multiple observations of subjective experience?
Not that I can think of.

However I've seen the word subjective used in a several different ways
during this discussion.  Subjective has been used in the context of
1) internal cognitive activity that must be verbalized or inferred from
   overt behavior,
2) differences in interpretations of the same event by multiple observers
   because of differences in their belief systems (A priori hypotheses)
3) the extent that the measurement is prone to error or bias from
   human judgment during the measurement process.

Empirical = observable
Observable can mean anything from physiological measurement (eg gsr)
reaction time, self report of internal states or behavior, recall
of factual information, observation of overt behavior, etc.

Subjective vs objective. Isn't this basically reliability and validity?
Consistency or replicability in observation across different
experimenter/observers and across different measurement methods?
If so then we can place objective and subjective on opposite ends of
a continuum and identify factors which contribute to the subjectiveness
or objectiveness of an observation (be it behavioral or self report).

Subjective                                          Objective
|-----------------------------------------------------------|
More     Prone to measurement bias                      Less
More     Prone to measurement (random) error            Less
More     Prone to subject error (Eg. self presentation,
           memory distortions, guessing hypothesis, etc)Less
More     Prone to experimenter expectancy bias          Less
Less     Replicable                                     More
Looser   Connection between observable and construct    Tighter
Many     Plausible alternative explanations             Few
Less     Reliable                                       More

And also doesn't this also have to do with the correspondence
between what we choose as the observable measure and the underlying
construct (Validity).  Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) assert that self
reports of attitudes toward performing a behavior and observing
the behavior are just two different methods of measuring the same thing
(construct).  For instance I might assess attitudes toward recycling,
and/or intentions to recycle and also measure recycling behavior.
The amount of correspondence between self report and behavior
should be a function of specificity between the verbal and
behavioral measures, the bias and error associated with each type
of measure, the external (situational) constraints on the behavior,
plus random error.

Food for thought.... can't people intentionally alter the majority of
their behavior, just as they can intentionally or unintentionally alter
their self reports...

Betty
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        TTT     TTT     TTT           Betty A. Harris
                TTT                   Department of Psychology
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     A   A      TTT    M M   M M      College Station, TX 77843-4235
    A A A A     TTT    M  M M  M      1-409-845-2566
   A       A    TTT    M   M   M      Bitnet: B1H6017@TAMVENUS
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