Summary of text [comment] pages 87 and 88
[The psychologist may think that “he” is measuring my mental potential1a as if it were an actuality. After all, on the situation level, the content level nested form is packaged as the possibility of something that the subject might choose1b.
The psychologist may not imagine that “he” is measuring the hidden features in the actuality in the thought experiment where ‘I choose something’.]
[The only other actuality is ‘my choice2b’.
This item can legitimately be observed and measured because it belongs to the realm of actuality twice, as situation and as element in a nested form.
Again, the researcher is concealed in the way that the survey can be marked.
For example, the researcher may have already limited possibility1b to a choice from 1 to 5.]
Summary of text [comment] pages 87 and 88
[So what are survey questions actually measuring?
Something2a is the actuality that gains the subject’s attention. Yet, even this actuality is one element in a dyad.
The other element is the researcher and the conditions.
These are very difficult to assess. Consequently, the thought experiment3a treats these as constants.]
Summary of text [comment] pages 87 and 88
[In social science survey experiments, the bait is the thought experiement3a itself. The choice in the survey is the catch.
The bait inspires an upwelling in ‘the potential in me (the subject in the investigation)1a’. That upwelling tries to ‘deal with’ the bait.
Something2a emerges from and situates that upwelling.
Something2a may be an answer. But, that answer may not fit a survey question where the respondent gives a number between 1 and 51b. Something2a depends on the thought experiment3a calling it into being. My choice2b depends on the situationb.]
[The ‘fisherman3c’ is the perspective level.
The ‘hook3a’ is the thought experiment.
Yes, even psychologists are ‘fishers of ‘men”.
Yet, they know not what they do.]
[Sensible construction is characteristic of the social sciences.
In sensible construction, the perspective level is never challenged (unless, of course, something breaks).]
[The subject is not aware of the experimentalist’s perspective.
Often, neither is the investigator.
This lack of awareness does not fit the label ‘bias’.
All surveys share the same relational structure. Even a researcher who carefully tries to eliminate biases cannot eliminate this feature.]
Summary of text [comment] pages 86 and 87
[How is the psychological experiment, say a survey, like fishing?
Every something2a, that emerges from and situates the potential of the subject under investigation1b, has a hook to a thought experiment3a. That thought experiment3a reflects a perspectivec.]
