Casting Nets and Testing Specimens: Two Grand Methods of Psychology [Hardcover]

Philip Julian Runkel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1990 | ISBN-10: 0275935337 | ISBN-13: 978-0275935337 | Edition: First Printing

Examines assumptions behind research methods and the kinds of information that can be extracted from them. The author focuses on the methods of relative frequency and specimens. He asserts that relative frequency can be used effectively to estimate behavioural trends in a population.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

PHILIP J. RUNKEL is Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Education at the University of Oregon.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Praeger Publishers; First Printing edition (August 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0275935337
• ISBN-13: 978-0275935337
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,698,854 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars An Epochal and Generally Unrecognized Masterpiece, May 16, 2008

By 

Bruce I. Kodish (Pasadena, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Casting Nets and Testing Specimens: Two Grand Methods of Psychology (Paperback)

A major contribution to the study and practice of socio-psychological research. Runkel's prescriptions understood and followed would revolutionize the behavioral sciences. The specific methods used by people who call themselves behavioral and medical scientists have a basis in theories, often unexamined ones. Runkel shows what statistical studies of groups of people, which he calls the method of relative frequencies or "casting nets" can do and what it cannot do: tell anything specific about the nature of individuals. Runkel shows how the scientific study of the individual can get done, what he calls "the method of specimens." It requires a radical shift in the understanding of human behavior, including your own. He also discusses action research and the usefulness of single trials, the "method of possibilities," often dismissed as providing only anecdotal evidence, which can usefully demonstrate the possibility of accomplishing something. An epochal work.