title: The abandonment of latent variables: philosophical considerations.
abstract: Cramer et al.'s critique of latent variables implicitly advocates a type of scientific anti-realism which can be extended to many dispositional constructs in scientific psychology. However, generalizing Cramer et al.'s network model in this way raises concerns about its applicability to psychopathology. The model could be improved by articulating why a given cluster of symptoms should be considered disordered.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Auburn University, Montgomery, AL 36124, USA. pzachar@aum.edu
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zachar
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000145:classification* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D010684:Philosophy