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Explanation in personality psychology: “Verbal magic” and the five-factor model
Scientific psychology involves both identifying and classifying phenomena of interest (description) and revealing the causes and mechanisms that contribute towards these phenomena arising (explanation). Within personality psychology, some propose that aspects of behavior and cognition can be explain...
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Routledge
2011
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4241598/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25431525 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09515089.2010.548319 |
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author | Boag, Simon |
author_facet | Boag, Simon |
author_sort | Boag, Simon |
collection | PubMed |
description | Scientific psychology involves both identifying and classifying phenomena of interest (description) and revealing the causes and mechanisms that contribute towards these phenomena arising (explanation). Within personality psychology, some propose that aspects of behavior and cognition can be explained with reference to personality traits. However, certain conceptual and logical issues cast doubt upon the adequacy of traits as coherent explanatory constructs. This paper discusses “explanation” in psychology and the problems of circularity and reification. An analysis of relations and intrinsic properties is then developed to address the logical requirements necessary for circumventing these problems. An examination of McCrae and Costa's defense of traits as explanatory constructs, in terms of “tendencies” and “dispositions” highlights logical issues that prevent traits, so defined, from explaining trait-like behaviors and cognitions. The logical requirements for a coherent trait-explanatory account are outlined and possible explanatory directions in trait-approaches are discussed. The ongoing tendency towards fallacious reasoning in psychology and suggestions for preventing this are further examined. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4241598 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2011 |
publisher | Routledge |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-42415982014-11-25 Explanation in personality psychology: “Verbal magic” and the five-factor model Boag, Simon Philos Psychol Articles Scientific psychology involves both identifying and classifying phenomena of interest (description) and revealing the causes and mechanisms that contribute towards these phenomena arising (explanation). Within personality psychology, some propose that aspects of behavior and cognition can be explained with reference to personality traits. However, certain conceptual and logical issues cast doubt upon the adequacy of traits as coherent explanatory constructs. This paper discusses “explanation” in psychology and the problems of circularity and reification. An analysis of relations and intrinsic properties is then developed to address the logical requirements necessary for circumventing these problems. An examination of McCrae and Costa's defense of traits as explanatory constructs, in terms of “tendencies” and “dispositions” highlights logical issues that prevent traits, so defined, from explaining trait-like behaviors and cognitions. The logical requirements for a coherent trait-explanatory account are outlined and possible explanatory directions in trait-approaches are discussed. The ongoing tendency towards fallacious reasoning in psychology and suggestions for preventing this are further examined. Routledge 2011-04-01 2011-04-04 /pmc/articles/PMC4241598/ /pubmed/25431525 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09515089.2010.548319 Text en © 2011 The Author. Published by Taylor & Francis. This is an Open Access article. Non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly attributed, cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way, is permitted. The moral rights of the named author(s) have been asserted. |
spellingShingle | Articles Boag, Simon Explanation in personality psychology: “Verbal magic” and the five-factor model |
title | Explanation in personality psychology: “Verbal magic” and the five-factor model |
title_full | Explanation in personality psychology: “Verbal magic” and the five-factor model |
title_fullStr | Explanation in personality psychology: “Verbal magic” and the five-factor model |
title_full_unstemmed | Explanation in personality psychology: “Verbal magic” and the five-factor model |
title_short | Explanation in personality psychology: “Verbal magic” and the five-factor model |
title_sort | explanation in personality psychology: “verbal magic” and the five-factor model |
topic | Articles |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4241598/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25431525 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09515089.2010.548319 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT boagsimon explanationinpersonalitypsychologyverbalmagicandthefivefactormodel |