Paul E. Meehl

Person · Open Library

Born

1920

Works

11

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

Type

Group

Origin

United States

Active from

1972-10

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Recent publications · Crossref

5 total works indexed

1. Nonparametric Estimation from Incomplete Observations

   · 1958 · cited 70,813x

2. “Mini-mental state”

   · 1975 · cited 68,268x

3. Research electronic data capture (REDCap)—A metadata-driven methodology and workflow process for providing translational research informatics support

   · 2009 · cited 46,786x

4. Cytoscape: A Software Environment for Integrated Models of Biomolecular Interaction Networks

   · 2003 · cited 45,710x

5. SciPy 1.0: fundamental algorithms for scientific computing in Python

   · 2020 · cited 36,455x

via Crossref · CC0

Quotes

• “My thesis in a nutshell: "There is no convincing reason to assume that explicitly formalized mathematical rules and the clinician's creativity are equally suited for any given kind of task, or that their comparative effectiveness is the same for different tasks. Current clinical practice should be much more critically examined with this in mind than it has been."”
• “Most so-called “theories” in the soft areas of psychology (clinical, counseling, social, personality, community, and school psychology) are scientifically unimpressive and technologically worthless. [...] Most of them suffer the fate that General MacArthur ascribed to old generals—They never die, they just slowly fade away.”
• “It is simply a sad fact that in soft psychology theories rise and decline, come and go, more as a function of baffled boredom than anything else; and the enterprise shows a disturbing absence of that cumulative character that is so impressive in disciplines like astronomy, molecular biology, and genetics.”
• “a theory that has seven facts for it and three facts against it is not in good shape, and it would not be considered so in any developed science.”
• “Sir Ronald has befuddled us, mesmerized us, and led us down the primrose path. I believe that the almost universal reliance on merely refuting the null hypothesis as the standard method for corroborating substantive theories in the soft areas is a terrible mistake, is basically unsound, poor scientific strategy, and one of the worst things that ever happened in the history of psychology.”
• “You may say, “But, Meehl, R. A. Fisher was a genius, and we all know how valuable his stuff has been in agronomy. Why shouldn’t it work for soft psychology?” Well, I am not intimidated by Fisher’s genius, because my complaint is not in the field of mathematical statistics, and as regards inductive logic and philosophy of science, it is well-known that Sir Ronald permitted himself a great deal of dogmatism.”

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA