In the first of two experiments on the concept of correlation in adult subjects, the subjects' frequency estimates and inferences of relationship were studied relative to five different 2 × 2 distributions, each presented in a fixed sequence. In experiment II, the subjects' spontaneous strategies in subdividing and analyzing one 2 × 2 distribution were studied in a free situation. It is concluded that adult subjects with no statistical training apparently have no adequate concept of correlation (based on the ratio of the two pairs of diagonal frequencies), and that, in so far as they reason statistically at all, they tend to depend exclusively on the frequency of ++ cases in judging relationship. The need for studies involving ordinal scale and fully quantified variates is stressed.

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The current empirical paradigm for psychological research is criticized because it ignores the irreversibility of psychological processes, the infinite number of influential factors, the pseudo-empirical nature of many hypotheses, and the methodological implications of social interactivity. An additional point is that the differences and correlations usually found are much too small to be useful in psychological practice and in daily life. Together, these criticisms imply that an objective, accumulative, empirical and theoretical science of psychology is an impossible project.

Bandura's (1977) theory of self‐efficacy is translated into non‐technical language and is shown to consist of logically necessary rather than empirically testable statements. As an alternative to the dominant empiricist view, it is argued that valid theories in psychology are explications of conceptual relationship imbedded in ordinary language (common sense). This conceptual network is anterior to both observation and theorizing. The analogy between the tasks of pre‐Euclidean geometry and contemporary psychology is explored. The tasks are seen as involving explication of our implicit concepts of respectively space and people. One consequence of the stated view is that much psychological research is pointless since it attempts to verify logically necessary statements by empirical methods.