Psychologism as a style of reasoning and the study of persons

“Psychologism” is proposed as a “style of reasoning” dominant in psychology that has set the agenda for determining what counts as psychological phenomena, their nature, and how they are to be investigated and understood. The assumptions of psychologism and particularities of its procedure are detailed and, subsequently, illustrated by example using the psychological study of attitudes. The failure of psychologism is raised and an alternative to the conception of persons implicit in psychologism is discussed as an initial step in forging a style of reasoning adequate to psychological inquiry.