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2 - Defining and Redefining Phenotypes

Operational Definitions as Open Concepts

from Part I - Clinical Psychological Science

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2020

By
Peter Zachar ,
Eric Turkheimer  and
Kenneth F. Schaffner
Edited by
Aidan G. C. Wright  and
Michael N. Hallquist
Aidan G. C. Wright
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
Michael N. Hallquist
Affiliation:
Pennsylvania State University
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Summary

Focusing primarily on descriptive phenotypes for psychopathology, this chapter reviews the history and philosophy of operational definitions, emphasizing their provisional nature under the auspices of open concepts. It also reintroduces an important feature of operational definitions as originally proposed, namely the role of conventions in both defining and redefining the meaning of empirical concepts. It tentatively suggests that a shift toward a scientific realist conception of construct validation had the perhaps unintended consequence of obscuring the intrinsically provisional nature of concepts for psychological phenotypes. It explicates open concepts with the examples of schizophrenia, the five factor model of personality, and endophenotypes.

Keywords

endophenotyperadexfacet theoryconventionalism factor analysisfive-factor modelPercy Bridgman
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Research Methods in Clinical Psychology , pp. 5 - 17
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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