Edward Sapir (1884-1939) and Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897-1941) developed the idea known as the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. Sapir and Whorf posited that the particular language we speak influences the way we see reality because categories and distinctions encoded in one language are not always available in another language (linguistic relativity). Scholars also interpret the hypothesis as
Developed by James Lovelock in his 1979 work, Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth, the Gaia hypothesis offers an understanding of the earth as a living thing, capable of change and transgression. Lovelock named his theory Gaia after the Greek goddess responsible for drawing the living world forth from chaos. The Gaia hypothesis
The publication of Michel Foucault’s first volume of the The History of Sexuality thoroughly transformed theoretical thinking around sexuality. A range of Foucault’s longstanding concerns around power, knowledge, discourse, truth, and subjectivity culminate in this text about the genealogy of sexuality in Christian western societies. With this book, Foucault attempted to write the history of
Hypotheses are assumptions about empirical (observable) phenomena. They are formulated as empirical (experience-related) statements; thus they can be either true or false – i.e., they are testable. This implies that hypotheses are tentative: their validity (truth or falseness) is subject to empirical test. In this general form, the definition also corresponds to the conventional, everyday
In 1960, Sir Alister Hardy, a marine biologist knighted for his contribution to the fisheries industry, gave a talk at the British Sub-Aqua Club (a scuba-diving club) and a month later published an article in New Scientist on that talk, called “Was Man More Aquatic in the Past?” Although the idea caught people’s fancies and
Researchers in biology have often directed their efforts toward elucidating the origins of major phyla or classification groups. While we have paid the most attention to the larger questions of transitions between classes, we are also considerably interested in the origins of orders. Cladistic methodology demands that we identify synapomorphies that define different orders but
The terms fact, theory, and hypothesis are sometimes treated as though they had clear meanings and clear relations with one another, but their histories and uses are more complex and diverse than might be expected. The usual sense of these words places them in a relationship of increasing uncertainty. A fact is usually thought of
The gravitational hypothesis is a theory that suggests that workers will gravitate, or move, to jobs that match their cognitive ability. Cognitive ability, generally speaking, is a person’s cognitive capacity or general mental capability that determines how quickly that person can process and understand concepts and ideas. It is believed to be stable once a
Just-World Hypothesis Definition The just-world hypothesis is the belief that, in general, the social environment is fair, such that people get what they deserve. The concept was developed in part to help explain observations that to preserve a belief that the world is a just place, people will sometimes devalue a victim. A just world
Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis Definition The empathy-altruism hypothesis states that feelings of empathy for another person produce an altruistic motivation to increase that person’s welfare. In the empathy-altruism hypothesis, the term empathy refers to feelings of compassion, sympathy, tenderness, and the like. Altruism refers to a motivational state in which the goal is to increase another person’s
As originally proposed by Kenneth Deffenbacher, the optimality hypothesis states that the likelihood of obtaining statistically reliable positive correlations of witness confidence and accuracy varies directly with the degree of optimality of information-processing conditions present for the witness at stimulus encoding, during memory storage (retention interval), and at memory test. The more nearly ideal the
Contact Hypothesis Definition The contact hypothesis lies at the center of social psychological research on prejudice reduction. The effort to understand if contact between groups would facilitate intergroup relations was triggered after World War II by the human relations movement. In its simplest form, the contact hypothesis proposes that contact between individuals of different groups
Matching Hypothesis Definition The matching hypothesis refers to the proposition that people are attracted to and form relationships with individuals who resemble them on a variety of attributes, including demographic characteristics (e.g., age, ethnicity, and education level), personality traits, attitudes and values, and even physical attributes (e.g., attractiveness). Background and Importance of Matching Hypothesis Theorists
The facial-feedback hypothesis states that the contractions of the facial muscles may not only communicate what a person feels to others but also to the person him- or herself. In other words, facial expressions are believed to have a direct influence on the experience of affect. This hypothesis goes back to Charles Darwin, who wrote
In scientific research, a hypothesis is a statement about a predicted relationship between variables. A good research hypothesis can be formulated as an “if-then” statement: If a child is exposed to the music of Mozart, then that child’s intelligence will increase. If students learn a math lesson by interacting with a computer, then they will
For a good many students of human behavior, the main reason why people become aggressive is that they have been frustrated. William McDougall, one of the first psychological theorists to be explicitly labeled a social psychologist, espoused this idea at the beginning of the 20th century. He maintained that an instinct to engage in combat
Social science and medical literature, including research on mental health and counseling, has frequently been based on presuppositions that all individuals who differ from members of the sociopolitically dominant cultural group in the United States (i.e., male, heterosexual, Caucasian, Western European Americans of middle-class socioeconomic status and Christian religious affiliation) are deficient by comparison. This
This article explores the Reactivity Hypothesis within the domain of health psychology, providing aт examination of its theoretical underpinnings, empirical evidence, and practical applications. The introduction outlines the origins and significance of the Reactivity Hypothesis in psychosomatic research. The first section delves into its theoretical foundations, tracing its historical evolution, key theorists, and fundamental concepts.