TY - JOUR
T1 - A constructivist approach to the development of personal epistemic assumptions and worldviews
AU - Botella, Luis
AU - Gallifa, Josep
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was carried out with the support of a grant (DOGC 1708, 15.02.1993) awarded by the Generalitat de Catalunya to Luis Botella. This article is based on a paper presented at the Tenth International Congress on Personal Construct Psychology, Townsville, Australia, July 1993. We thank Robert Neimeyer for his helpful comments on a draft of this article.
PY - 1995
Y1 - 1995
N2 - We discuss a constructivist model of epistemic development based on the notion of increased complexity. This model proposes that as cognitive complexity increases by means of cycles of validation and invalidation, personal epistemic assumptions shift from positivism to constructivism, and preferred worldviews shift from mechanism to organicism—as defined by Pepper's (1942) taxonomy of world hypotheses. We report two studies in which we found, as predicted, a significant relationship among overall cognitive complexity, constructivist epistemic assumptions, and an organicist worldview. However, our attempt to discriminate the effects of the two theoretical dimensions of cognitive complexity (differentiation and integration) was not successful. Our data also indicate a dichotomy of ways of knowing: One is characterized by cognitive simplicity, objectvist epistemic assumptions, and a mechanistic/formistic worldview; the other is characterized by cognitive complexity, constructivist epistemic assumptions, and an organicist/contextualist worldview.
AB - We discuss a constructivist model of epistemic development based on the notion of increased complexity. This model proposes that as cognitive complexity increases by means of cycles of validation and invalidation, personal epistemic assumptions shift from positivism to constructivism, and preferred worldviews shift from mechanism to organicism—as defined by Pepper's (1942) taxonomy of world hypotheses. We report two studies in which we found, as predicted, a significant relationship among overall cognitive complexity, constructivist epistemic assumptions, and an organicist worldview. However, our attempt to discriminate the effects of the two theoretical dimensions of cognitive complexity (differentiation and integration) was not successful. Our data also indicate a dichotomy of ways of knowing: One is characterized by cognitive simplicity, objectvist epistemic assumptions, and a mechanistic/formistic worldview; the other is characterized by cognitive complexity, constructivist epistemic assumptions, and an organicist/contextualist worldview.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=21844503394&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/10720539508405238
DO - 10.1080/10720539508405238
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:21844503394
SN - 1072-0537
VL - 8
SP - 1
EP - 18
JO - Journal of Constructivist Psychology
JF - Journal of Constructivist Psychology
IS - 1
ER -