Valid Description of Experiencings & Thereby of Behaviors & Situations

Abstract

Human consciousness consists of a flux of experiencings, some referring to one’s own or to others’ situations or behaviors. Scientific human Psychology’s most fundamental responsibility is to describe and causally explain these three kinds of psychological events, which it can do only on the basis of persons’ descriptions of their experiencings. The privacy and momentariness of experiencings prevents proof of the veridicality of descriptions of them or their referents. These descriptions can therefore qualify as scientific data only on the basis of their validity, which first depends on their conformity to the scientific definitions of the dimensions of the specific kinds of experiencings described and of the situations or behaviors these may refer to. Persons comparably trained in applying these definitions should be relied on to judge the validity of such descriptions, and only their collegially approved descriptions of psychological events can properly constitute scientific human Psychology’s data base.