Chapter 1: Two Different Worldviews
The Framework of Individual Psychology
Most of us have been socialized into a world whose philosophical assumptions (basic
epistemology) are firmly rooted in a Western, Lockean scientific tradition.
By socialization, we mean the process, both implicit and explicit, by which one learns the
appropriate behaviours and ways of thinking consistent with a particular social group
Informal socialization occurs in our families
Formal socialization occurs in schools
In both places we’re taught the rules that enable us to become productive members of our
society. Thus, being educated in Western society, one is likely immersed in a perspective
derived from the thinking of John Locke.
In other words, being immersed in what’s referred to as the world of modernism
For example, taught that linear cause/effect thinking is appropriate and that any
problem is solvable if we can find an answer to the question. Why?
From this perspective, it’s believed that event A causes event B (A->B) in a
linear (unidirectional) fashion.
We, therefore, hold A responsible for B, or blame A for causing B. Why did B
happen? Because A did such and such
Another way of expressing the same idea is to say that A did something to B and then
C happened (A->B->C)
Consistent with the Lockean tradition, to understand the world as consisting of subjects
and objects, or Xs operating on Ys
From this point of view, reality is considered to be separate from us, to exist
outside our minds
Thus, meaning comes from external experience and we are recipients: we
recognize order rather than create it
Further, if we can reduce sequences of reality (which we believe to be “out there”)
into their smallest possible components (reductionism), then we can uncover the
laws according to which the world operates
We understand the world to be deterministic and to operate according to lawlike
principles, the discovery of which will reveal some absolute truths about reality
We as individuals are seen as reacting to and/or being determined by our reality rather than
as creating it
According to this tradition, the appropriate scientific methodology is empirical and
quantitative; knowledge must be pursued by means of observation and
experimentation
The results of such experimentation must be measurable and objective
And not only is the subject separate from the object of his/her observations,
but reality and theories about reality are seen as either/or black-or-white, right-or-
wrong explanations
When beliefs as such were translated from the physical sciences into behavioural sciences,
they were interpreted into theories that described human behaviour as determined either by
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, internal events and/or by external environmental sequences to which persons
may react
Behavioural scientists embraced the notion of the mind/body dualism inherent in the
belief that mind and reality exist independently of each other
Thus, I as subject/mind can view object/reality from a distance without imposing my
values or beliefs on object/reality
This premise has led us to believe that both objective measurement and a value-free
science are possible and to distrust the subjective dimension as being nonscientific
Premises such as these are consistent with the belief in individualism
The individual rather than the community traditionally have been at the heart of all
social and political speculation
Thus, with the emphasis on the individual as well as its consistency with the Lockean
scientific tradition, psychodynamic theory fit and was well received and warmly
embraced in the United States
Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, theories based either on Freudian notions
or on reactions to them proliferated
As a result, we have a variety of individual psychologies, intrapsychic theories,
learning theories, and therapies that combine elements of these psychologies and
theories, all of which are expressions of basically the same worldview
They all focus on the individual and share similar fundamental beliefs
An examination of individual psychologies reveals that each is based on a foundation that
includes most of the following assumptions about reality and its appropriate description:
Asks, Why? Laws and lawlike external reality
Linear cause/effect Historical focus
Subject/object dualism Individualistic
Either/or dichotomies Reductionist
Value-free science Absolutistic
Deterministic/reactive
To illustrate this worldview, we may think of each of these intrapsychic and learning theory
approaches as slices of an individual psychology pie (see Figure 1.1)
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