[ExI] addiction

[William Flynn Wallace]

Here's the idea:  for the purpose of doing studies, we have to have
measurements, very preferably in numbers of some sort, that we can do again
and again and get very similar results.  In psychology this is difficult.

That calls for operational definitions:  the concept is defined by the
measurements used.  That enables us to say intelligence is the score on the
STanford/Binet test, which sounds silly to most people.

But that is exactly what we are looking for.  We are not trying to tell
what the concept is.  That usually calls for words that themselves need
defining, like what I wrote in response to Dave.  Synonyms just won't
work.  'Willpower means not quitting.'  OK, now - just what does that
mean?  We now have to define 'not quitting'.  No good.

>From Google:  ' *the operational definition of anxiety could be in terms of
a test score, withdrawal from a situation, or activation of the sympathetic
nervous system*.

All of those are behaviors that we can easily measure and agree upon.  bill
w

On Sat, Apr 9, 2022 at 4:48 PM Will Steinberg via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> Willpower is the ability to physically execute plans.   That's a simple one
>
> On Sat, Apr 9, 2022, 5:34 PM William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat <
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
>> Dave, that's not bad.  It does contain words that could be turned into
>> experimental manipulations.  But it still lacks the measurement function.
>> What is short term?  Long term?  How will we define gratification?  All
>> problems of measurement.   bill w
>>
>> On Sat, Apr 9, 2022 at 2:46 PM Dave S via extropy-chat <
>> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>>
>>> On Fri, Apr 8, 2022 at 7:29 PM William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat <
>>> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> and until someone comes up with a noncircular definition of willpower
>>>> (which would not make me wrong) I rest my case.
>>>>
>>>
>>> "Willpower is the ability to resist short-term gratification in pursuit
>>> of long-term goals or objectives."
>>> https://www.apa.org/topics/personality/willpower
>>>
>>> -Dave
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> extropy-chat mailing list
>>> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
>>> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat
>>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> extropy-chat mailing list
>> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
>> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat
>>
> _______________________________________________
> extropy-chat mailing list
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20220409/610b5ced/attachment.htm>