Saturday, 13 April 2002

You take the high road, and I'll take the low road - William of Ockham is often credited with making a statement to the effect of, "if two theories explain the facts equally well then the simpler theory is to be preferred'', This principle is widely known as 'Occam's Razor'. Aristotle (Physics book I, chapter vi) also said 'for the more limited, if adequate, is always preferable.' Or (in book VIII, chapter vi) 'for if the consequences are the same it is always better to assume the more limited antecedent.' For me, matters of faith [such as life, the universe and everything] are much better explained by a creative God, than a capricious universe. 5:32:59 PM    Comments ()

We are a product of our environment: NOT - I was mowing the front lawn today [last duty before departing for a few days] and was, for some reason, thinking about this question - that we are a product of our environment. The behaviourists [Skinner et al] would have us believe this. Others would have us believe that everything is "hard wired" in our genes. We used to think our fate was in the stars. Now we know, in large measure, our fate is in our genes.    -- James Watson, co-decoder of DNA's double helix I think the latter is much closer to the truth than the former. To suggest that we are no more than the sum of the influences that we have around us is to not understand the creative purpose that has gone into each and every human soul that has been conceived. It cheapens, and excuses human potential as some kind of fluke, and allows the mantra "If I had the opportunity that you had, maybe I would have amounted to something too" to have meaning. It excuses the interruptions of beauty and glory that daily stand in our face as some kind of "etiquette" or "manners". I say "No!" Psalm 139:13 tells us that "...you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. " This not only implies, but rather decrees God's purposeful, productive, intentional intervention in our formation. So - why are there ratbags? I wonder... 5:26:19 PM    Comments ()

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Heading back - tomorrow I leave for another residential school. This time for a unit on Developmental Psychology. I have soooooo much reading to do before class commences on Monday. Better get to it. Sorry - there won't be a lot of posting here until I get back. 9:08:13 AM    Comments ()

Phew - what a week it has been. I drove up to Armidale for a residential school at the University of New England. This was for a Social Psychology unit required for the Psychology degree I am completing. I discovered that this is the area of psychology that I wish to explore, and do my research project in. In case you didn't realise, it is social psychology that encompasses such wonderful topic areas as: Forming impressions of others Attitudes and attitude change Prejudice Social influence Interpersonal attraction Personal relationships Group behaviour Altruism Aggression One very important theory in social psychology is Attribution Theory. First proposed by Fritz Heider (1958), attribution theory is concerned with "when" and "how" people ask "Why?". Steve Booth-Butterfield puts it this way: When we offer explanations about why things happened, we can give one of two types. One, we can make an external attribution. Two, we can make internal attribution. An external attribution (get ready for this) assigns causality to an outside agent or force. Or as kids would say, "The devil made me do it." An external attribution claims that some outside thing motivated the event. By contrast, an internal attribution assigns causality to factors within the person. Or as the sinner would say, "I'm guilty, grant me forgiveness." An internal attribution claims that the person was directly responsible for the event. Here are some common examples. You are taking a class and you get test results back. You take a peek and see, ahhhhh, a 65%. You think about these disappointing results for a minute and realize what a lousy teacher you've got and how badly written the textbook is and how unfair the test was and . . . you make a lot of external attributions. What caused the 65%? Events outside of you. External things. Now, on the next test you take a peek and see, ahhhh, a 95%. Well, what can I say? When you're hot, you're hot. If you've got it, flaunt it. Some people are born great. Where's the causality? Inside of you, right? You assign causality to factors within the person and make internal attributions. ... In essence Attribution Theory shows us that people can create new attitudes or beliefs or behaviors depending upon the explanations they make. If they make external attributions ("I threw the candy wrapper in the trash can because the teacher was watching"), then they are unlikely to change their attitudes about littering. But, if they make an internal attribution ("I threw the candy wrapper away because I must be a neat person") then it is likely that they will come to view themselves as a different kind of person.   9:03:08 AM    Comments ()