Observation Oriented Modeling

James W. Grice (B.S., Wright State University; Ph.D., University of new Mexico) is a professor of psychology at Oklahoma State University. his work appears in such journals as Multivariate Behavioral Research, Psychological Methods, and the Journal of Personality. His computer program, Idiogrid, is in circulation in over 30 different countries worldwide.

"James Grice's timely and important book is a methodological tour de force. It marshalls a number of telling criticisms of the traditional variable-centered approach to behavioral research and offers a methodologically coherent alternative in the form of Observation Oriented Modeling. Appropriately grounded in a realist philosophy, observation oriented modeling is a person-centered methodology that enables the researcher to effectively test causal hypotheses and theories by using purpose-constructed software. The book will be an instructive companion for graduate students and professional researchers alike. Behavioral researchers need to be apprised of the limitations of their orthodox methodology and provided with an alternative that promises to advance our psychological knowledge of people. Grice's ground-breaking book does both in a highly accomplished fashion."--Professor Brian Haig, University of Canterbury "A learned, detached examination of the well springs of modern psychology. As a university discipline, psychology came into its own in the early part of the twentieth century in the shadow of the positivism of the Vienna Circle. To the extent that psychology has been colored by the shallowness of positivism, it has been disadvantaged in both theory and in practice. A philosophy which effectively limits scientific inquiry to description and prediction has little explanatory power. Grice shows clearly the limitations of such a method and argues for a return to the common sense realism of Aristotle and its recognition of the explanatory value of the metaphysical concept of human nature and irs role in causal explanation. Rarely since the work of Mortimer Adler has there been such an indepth study of the philosophical bias of much contemporary research in psychology."--Jude P. Dougherty, Editor. Review of Metaphysics