Chris has a problem. Chris incessantly spins his class ring on his finger while he talks. So one day Katie paid to have Chris meet some people.
Scientist one was of the Verstehen persuasion. He sat Chris down and asked him about his mother, father, uncle, childhood experiences, and traumas. He explained that all these were interconnected with his ring spinning, and to help Chris he would have to understand him, and get involved with him mentally.
Scientist two was a behavioral scientist. He did not care if Chris's mother never packed Oreos in Chris's lunch; he only wanted to experiment with Chris. He gave Katie a cattle prod, and whenever Chris spun his ring, Katie would get to shock him. If he spoke without spinning, he got an Oreo. He saw Chris's problem as remediable and non-connected with his Oedipus complex.
Last, scientist three was Rueben Abel. He told Chris that the Verstehen and behavioral (scientific) scientists were basically the same things viewed differently. They were both studying man using different assumption, such as connectedness and resultivity. Verstehen can and do experiment by asking Chris about his mother and looking for clues about the ring spinning. He said both scientists affect Chris by being there and doing anything. Abel gave Chris a big chapter to read and told him to help himself to some Oreos, then told Katie just to take away his ring when she was around. For this wonderful advice, Katie gave him mounds of money. Chris and Katie went back to class where Katie wrote a very nice essay about the people they had met.
The End
