3.5 Functional Contextualism vs. Traditional Psychology
This emphasis on events or actions is an important characteristic of functional contextualism. In a general sense, it can be said that many psychologists analyze human behavior in terms of nouns or things, whereas functional contextualists analyze it in terms of verbs or actions.
Functional Contextualism
| Analytic Goal | Method |
|---|---|
| Prediction and influence of psychological events |
From the previous information provided, this knowledge check did not give me enough information to confidently differentiate between most psychologists and functional contextualist.
I agree
I agree with the above comment, but I defaulted to the mentalism approach discussed in my grad school courses.
This very page contains the information you need to complete this activity: “many psychologists analyze human behavior in terms of nouns or things, whereas functional contextualists analyze it in terms of verbs or actions.”
Thus, the task with this activity is to identify which of each pair of statements corresponds with the information provided above. In other words, is a statement saying that most other psychologists focus on a NOUN or thing? Then it is the correct choice. Is a statement saying that functional contextualists focus on a VERB or action? Then it is the correct choice.