Exam 1_Evaluating Theories Flashcards
What are a personae and the role they played in ancient Rome?
Personae is a mask someone wears. It is the version of themselves they choose to show others (How they want to be seen). They wore them in plays to portray emotion in Rome. The stadium was very large, and people often could not see facial expressions.
List and explain the 5 philosophical assumptions of theories.
Pessimist vs Optimist: Personality & behavior are stable and unchanging, or can changes occur throughout life?
Reactive vs Proactive: Do we initiate our own activities or simply react to outside stimuli?
Hereditary vs Environment: Behavior learned or ingrained by traits?
Free will vs Determination: People have control of and understand the motives behind their behavior, or are human behaviors determined by internal/external forces over which they have little or no control over.
Unique vs Alike: Are people unique or similar in nature?
Explain the 4 philosophical views of human motives.
Negative: Humans are born evil and destructive. (Freud, evolution, & biblical views)
Positive: Humans are inherently good if given the right circumstances. Events block our paths, leading to negative behavior. (Maslow & Rogers)
Neither: No control over destiny due to genetics or environment. (Behaviorists like Skinner & disposition-trait perspective)
Diverse: Both positive and negative people. Decisions change their value in life. (Cognitive theorists & existentialist)
What are soft-determinism, hard-determinism, and free-will?
Hard determinists: Behavior is outside of our control.
Soft determinism: Humans make decisions that can change the outcome in life, but influenced by limited circumstances.
Free-will: A person is the product of his or her decisions and is the guide to their destiny.
Explain the 6 criteria for evaluating any theory. For example, a theory should have empirical support gathered from scientific experiments.
Comprehensiveness: Does it account for all behavior?
Applied value: Does it solve real-life problems?
Testability: Can it be verified or refuted?
Heuristic value: Does it provoke research?
Empirical support: Is it factual or does data support theory?
Simplicity: Parsimony, simplest explanation. Occam’s Razor principle.
