On abstraction, generalization, and theoretical constructions
pp. 279-286
in: Jaan Valsiner, Giuseppina Marsico, Nandita Chaudhary, Virginia Dazzani (eds), Psychology as the science of human being, Berlin, Springer, 2016Abstract
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.