Repository | Book | Chapter

179507

On abstraction, generalization, and theoretical constructions

Yair Neuman

pp. 279-286

Abstract

The process of generalization in psychology may gain better understanding by drawing on the process of generalization as performed by human beings. In this chapter, and by drawing on insights gained from the physics of computation, opposition theory, and semiotics, I suggest that generalization can be understood through the delicate balance between loss of information/difference and gain of signs. This general idea is illustrated through the way the opposition clean/dirty gains its meaning and extended to the realm of psychological theorization.

Publication details

Published in:

Valsiner Jaan, Marsico Giuseppina, Chaudhary Nandita, Dazzani Virgínia (2016) Psychology as the science of human being: the Yokohama manifesto. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 279-286

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-21094-0_16

Full citation:

Neuman Yair (2016) „On abstraction, generalization, and theoretical constructions“, In: J. Valsiner, G. Marsico, N. Chaudhary & V. Dazzani (eds.), Psychology as the science of human being, Dordrecht, Springer, 279–286.