|
Welcome to... |
|
To contact the web manager: |
|
E-mail Colin M. Burchfield, Ph.D. |
|
4 Causes Metatheory |
|
What causes personality and personality differences? As Joseph F. Rychlak, Ph.D. pointed out in his book on Personality and Psychotherapy (link to the right), this question begs of the question of, “What is a cause?” The typical answer is, “How events are brought about, what makes things happen, how something is assembled, impetus, thrust, or motion in events.” However, this definition of a cause is a fairly recent development. From an historic perspective, Aristotle first proposed the term “cause,” using the Greek word aitia, meaning “responsibility.” Aristotle’s use of this particular word meant that, for Aristotle (again, the originator of the term “cause”), assigning a cause meant the same thing as assigning responsibility (in other words, blame) for why something existed or an event occurred. According to Aristotle, all events in experience were, at least to some extent, intending to bring about a given result or end (they had a telos, or were teleological—meaning, from the Greek, they had an end or purpose). In fact, in his Physics, Aristotle theorized that, “Nature is a cause, a cause that operates for a purpose.” Aristotle, then, was proposing a theory of how to explain events or occurrences in our world—by finding out what is responsible for their existence. In developing his theory, Aristotle borrowed heavily from three general principles developed by prior philosophers:
Aristotle brought these principles into his concept of aitia to suggest that we have a knowledge of something when we can explain it in terms of those causes that are responsible for its occurrence or existence. Each of these causal explanations—material, efficient, and formal—bears a responsibility in accounting for the nature of things. Aristotle favored using as many of the causes to explain (describe, account for) anything that we possibly could. He also believe that the more different causes we could put into our theories, the richer and more complete they would become. Aristotle round out his theory of causation by proposing a fourth principle—one more directly related to the idea of responsibility, blame, or reason for something existing or taking place: Final Causal (the basis for Agency). The principle related to final causal explanation is: To account for something, describe it in terms of that reason it has for being, or the end (goal, purpose) toward which it is intending. Use the following links to see how the grand personality theorists stack up, so to speak, on the four causes metatheory:
|
|
Use the above link (e.g., image) to purchase the book from which this information is derived. |
|
www.GivingPsychologyAway.net—The Ultimate Psychology Resource! |
