[Predictability of change].

Abstract

The present paper considers the predictability of behavioral changes as a pragmatic-epistemological criterium of empirical corroboration of theory. The predictability itself remits us to a broad spectrum of points of view, I.E. one related to Epistemology, another related to Psychological Theory, another which will consider the scientist himself as a psycho-social cognitive being, and, at last, one related to Ethics. It emphasizes the value of the statistical prediction and its value of semicertainty with which it allows us to work in the field of Social Psychology. However, the conditionability the epistemological behavior of the scientist is subject to is not to be superseded. The author points out the need for desisting from a scientific posture that switches the professional practice of Psychology into a mere diffusing of the Philosophy of Behavior--instead of resorting to technics aiming at modifying a behavior the patient feels as unpleasant or unadapted.