(source)

Raymond Cattell (20 Mar 1905 - 2 Feb 1998) English-American psychologist who applied mathematical techniques to the study of psychology and developed the 16 Personality Factor (16PF) test. Short biography of Raymond Cattell >>

Raymond Cattell
“Psychology is…in language which no one understands”

Illustrated Quote - Medium (500 x 250 px)

Click here or image for larger picture

(source)

(source)

“But psychology is a more tricky field, in which even outstanding authorities have been known to run in circles, ‘describing things which everyone knows in language which no one understands.’”

— Raymond Cattell

From The Scientific Analysis of Personality (1965).

More Raymond Cattell quotes on science >>

Raymond Cattell was an internationally known personality theorist. In his book, The Scientific Analysis of Personality, Cattell reviews his experimental, quantitative and statistical research in personality testing. Measurement is the domain of physical science, but its application in psychology is less obvious. In his introductory survey, distinguishing between the two fields of science Cattell writes:

“In physical science, at least until recently, the layman could go a long way in understanding the essentials with little disciplining in method. But psychology is a more tricky field, in which even outstanding authorities have been known to run in circles ‘describing things which everyone knows in language which no one understands.’”

Cattell had long believed that measurement can be used in personality testing. Thirteen years earlier, in the preface to his book, Factor Analysis (1952), he wrote1:

“If the comparatively coarse problems of the engineer can be mastered only by a thorough grounding in mathematics, how much more exquisite must be the mathematical sense of the practitioner concerned with the prediction or control of human behavior?”

To this, Gordon V. Anderson, writing a book review at that time showed skepticism: “However desirable a grasp of statistical techniques may be, it is rather specious to place the research problems of human behavior on a continuum with those of physical science, implying a similarity which may not exist.”2

Nevertheless, Cattell pursued his research, applying the scientific method in his chosen field, because he understood that, as historically long-known in the physical sciences, progress began with unsubstantiated theories, followed by objective testing.

Nature bears long with those who wrong her. She is patient under abuse. But when abuse has gone too far, when the time of reckoning finally comes, she is equally slow to be appeased and to turn away her wrath. (1882) -- Nathaniel Egleston, who was writing then about deforestation, but speaks equally well about the danger of climate change today.

Carl Sagan: In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) ...(more by Sagan)

Albert Einstein: I used to wonder how it comes about that the electron is negative. Negative-positive—these are perfectly symmetric in physics. There is no reason whatever to prefer one to the other. Then why is the electron negative? I thought about this for a long time and at last all I could think was “It won the fight!” ...(more by Einstein)

Richard Feynman: It is the facts that matter, not the proofs. Physics can progress without the proofs, but we can't go on without the facts ... if the facts are right, then the proofs are a matter of playing around with the algebra correctly. ...(more by Feynman)

Quotations by: • Albert Einstein • Isaac Newton • Lord Kelvin • Charles Darwin • Srinivasa Ramanujan • Carl Sagan • Florence Nightingale • Thomas Edison • Aristotle • Marie Curie • Benjamin Franklin • Winston Churchill • Galileo Galilei • Sigmund Freud • Robert Bunsen • Louis Pasteur • Theodore Roosevelt • Abraham Lincoln • Ronald Reagan • Leonardo DaVinci • Michio Kaku • Karl Popper • Johann Goethe • Robert Oppenheimer • Charles Kettering  ... (more people)

Quotations about: • Atomic  Bomb • Biology • Chemistry • Deforestation • Engineering • Anatomy • Astronomy • Bacteria • Biochemistry • Botany • Conservation • Dinosaur • Environment • Fractal • Genetics • Geology • History of Science • Invention • Jupiter • Knowledge • Love • Mathematics • Measurement • Medicine • Natural Resource • Organic Chemistry • Physics • Physician • Quantum Theory • Research • Science and Art • Teacher • Technology • Universe • Volcano • Virus • Wind Power • Women Scientists • X-Rays • Youth • Zoology  ... (more topics)