Guest notimeforus Posted August 18, 2007 Report Share Posted August 18, 2007 I'm doing essay title 5 for may 2008 and I could need some help to get started if someone has any ideas. 5. “…we will always learn more about human life and human personality from novels than from scientific psychology.” (Noam Chomsky). To what extent would you agree? Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruan Chun Xian Posted August 18, 2007 Report Share Posted August 18, 2007 Ah, I remember discussing this title with Lc (yes, we're geeky enough to discuss TOK titles over MSN ). Granted, she was looking over an essay for someone and wanted my opinion. Generally we agreed that this is a quite complicated title that's hard to get a clear argument going but that was just our opinions. But anyway. To start, I think you need to explain the ways that we use novels and pysch to "learn more about life and human personality". Talk about the Ways of Knowing used in these 2 areas. Maybe evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each way of knowing in the 2 areas. Then maybe compare any similar or contrasting ways of knowing between the 2 areas. Then answer the question, to extent to you agree with the assertion above. Anyone else can give more direct help? Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest notimeforus Posted August 18, 2007 Report Share Posted August 18, 2007 Well, that's a good idea to start with. Thanks! (: Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
winter Posted September 6, 2007 Report Share Posted September 6, 2007 Novel = written from subjective experience for different reasonsSPsychology = written from subjective POV for different reasons. Difference - one is trying to be objective about it.While we exist, we can never completely see something entirely objectively (or can we?) We can learn a lot about an author from what they write.We learn very little about the researchers in SPsych.Consider measures of personality - the Myers Briggs, and the 'number' system (1-9) for example. Are there limitations to these? Are these limitations present in novels? Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest valem Posted November 4, 2007 Report Share Posted November 4, 2007 I'm confused with scientific psychology don't they mean scientist that observe ppls behaviour? if so we could actually learn a lot from scientific psychology and we don't have to forget that generalisations in the human behaviour cannot be made....... may be this is wrong, thats what i thought.... pleassse reply:) Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest steph Posted November 25, 2007 Report Share Posted November 25, 2007 since the quote is from chomsky and not from ib, theres probably a bit more leeway about what you can talk about in regards to scientific psychologya good field of psychology then to look into then is behaviourism. bf skinner and john watson are good behaviorists to research for this especially, as they stuck to pretty scientific methods, and not just psychologic philosophy. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kc4293 Posted November 26, 2007 Report Share Posted November 26, 2007 I am also doing this title. I think the question is kind of open-ended in a way, since it doesn't define any exact branch of psychology or novels. Also, is it possible that both have their merits? Maybe we need both to get an understanding? Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Negin Posted November 27, 2007 Report Share Posted November 27, 2007 Ok, after searching a bit on Google, here's what I found:"...scientific psychology (commonly called behaviorism)..." - skeptically.org/scpsy"Behaviorism comprises the position that all theories should have observational correlates but that there are no philosophical differences between publicly observable processes (such as actions) and privately observable processes (such as thinking and feeling)." - WikipediaIsn't that exactly the opposite of what many writers believed though? We've read so many books that had a character think one thing but do an action that completely contradicted the thought.Anyway, hope it helps to some degree! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jnichols Posted December 4, 2007 Report Share Posted December 4, 2007 I am doing this topic as well. I wanted to start with defining human life (more of a generalization or referring to the group of people) and human personality (individuality). I don't know whether or not to speak about cognative (as Chomsky was) or behaivorist psychology (which says that thoughts are what shape an individuals actions)I'm sort of lost as to examples..I googled the quote and I believe Noam Chomsky was referring to Victorian novels. Even if he wasn't, wouldn't these still show excellent examples of human life through novels?I'm so lost. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIO-AQUA Posted December 7, 2007 Report Share Posted December 7, 2007 I've finally chosen this topic.. The key to writing a good TOK essay is to plan first. If you're doing this title, then check the following: 1- What is scientific psychology? Don't refer to dictionaries or encyclopedias. 2- What are novels? Same here. 3- Which is subjective and which is objective? Maybe both? 4- Which ways of knowledge will you be tackling? Perception, Reason, Language, Emotion? Choose at least 2. 5- What are the limitations and values of the ways of knowledge in addressing your title? * Remember not to include your opinion in the introduction or the main body. Always (if you have to) include it towards the very end. * Remember that examiners will practically examine every statement you include. "How do you know?" "On what basis?". Ask yourself these questions. * The TOK Essay is NOT a pain. It could be a break from all the internal assessments if you put your mind to it. It's philosophy, so it's basically how you think and perceive things around you. Hope this has helped. Have a nice day everyone. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kc4293 Posted December 12, 2007 Report Share Posted December 12, 2007 Yay! I'm finished! I think it was actually sort of fun to write once I got going. I really liked this topic, though of course I have no idea what grade I'm going to get. Oh, I hate not knowing! Oh, well, it's done! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest iber2468 Posted December 27, 2007 Report Share Posted December 27, 2007 Really really helpful link.http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2...ook_at_the.htmlI bookmarked it before writing my essay, but never went back to it, DRAT! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nerosaccompianist Posted February 14, 2008 Report Share Posted February 14, 2008 I'm doing essay title 5 for may 2008 and I could need some help to get started if someone has any ideas. 5. “…we will always learn more about human life and human personality from novels than from scientific psychology.” (Noam Chomsky). To what extent would you agree? I actually was just printing off my title 5 paper. I took a somewhat differant approach. Of course, I came to the classic conclusion that you simply cannot say that one area of knowledge is more useful than another, but the approach I took analyzed instances where psychology and literature are linked. For example, Alfred Tennyson's "In Memorium A.H.H" illustrated the Kubler-Ross stages of grief long before Elizabeth Kubler-Ross came up with her psychological theory. This sort of suggests that, though less exactive and generalized, literature moves faster than psychology because it describes emotions and situations that have not yet been given a specific word and have not yet been scientifically hypothosized. There are several similar situations where I drew different conclusions about the nature of each, including Oedipus Rex and the Oedipus complex, Virginia Woolf's illustration of mild depression as discussed by psychologist Andrew Solomon, etc. In any case, I won't rewrite my paper anymore...One thing I regret about my paper is the fact that the correspondace between psychology and literature seems to create a somewhat new field altogether, presenting new knowledge problems in the fact that the correspondace itself can be somewhat fallacious if the two connected items, for example, draw different conclusions or are connected through false allusions, which I discussed. I would recommend NOT simply babbling on about relativism as if it is a religion. Sure, bring up problems of knowledge, etc, but remember to give justifications and insight into what we may actually be able to conclude and the counterclaims to each justification you give. Good luck! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nerosaccompianist Posted February 14, 2008 Report Share Posted February 14, 2008 Novel = written from subjective experience for different reasonsSPsychology = written from subjective POV for different reasons. Difference - one is trying to be objective about it.While we exist, we can never completely see something entirely objectively (or can we?) We can learn a lot about an author from what they write.We learn very little about the researchers in SPsych.Consider measures of personality - the Myers Briggs, and the 'number' system (1-9) for example. Are there limitations to these? Are these limitations present in novels?You can make generalizations in human behaviour, they're just subjective and never true 100% of the time. Stereotypes exist for a reason; some sort of pattern in behaviour brought them about... Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ksckatie Posted January 15, 2009 Report Share Posted January 15, 2009 I'm writing a paper on the same topic, title 5. What knowledge issues could I use in my paper? Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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