Bill,
I think your question relates nicely to the idiographic/nomothetic discussion
that Mike and I were attempting. In trying to learn more about the comment
Mike made regarding idio. and nomo. being mthodologies and not entities I
have been reading Barbara Rogoff's articles regarding assessment of people
during goal-directed activities. Her view is that learning is embedded in
the context in which it occurs and that the joint behavior of teacher/student
needs to be studied [she even goes so far as analyzing patterns of behavior
and studying the statistical graphing of these patterns!]. Appropriation is
not discussed nor is internalization but rather the accomplishment of the
predetermined goal. Analytically Rogoff could separate out appropriation or
internalization and discuss that but she chooses not to and only focuses on
the predetermined goal.
In your example Nate reading could be the goal and a pattern analysis could
be applied. Interestingly enough a psychologist that accepts
internalization, Valsiner, writes about a study conducted using sequence
structurer analysis but rather applies this to only the study of individual's
obtaining a goal without the presence of an instructor. Barabara's task was
having mother's teach 6-9 year olds how to place objects on a shelf and Jaan
studied college age subjects soothing a doll to sleep [ the goal was to quiet
recorded crying].
what does idiographic/ nomothetic methodologies have to do with
appropriation and internalization? When studying goal directed activities it
is easier to not discuss this but rather focus on whether the goal was
obtained or not and what sequence of observable behaviors lead up to the goal
being achieved. Nice for instructors who want to know can sally wire a
house? or can joe rebuild a carborator? Not so nice for instructors who want
to know can archibald understand micro versus macro economics? or does
ruthanne apply the 'i before e accept after c' spelling rule?
Does behaving individually without the influence of socio ever happen? Is
this measurable as opposed to behavior influenced by socio? When idiographic
methodology is applied does this measure behaviors unique to individuals or
can that data be extrapolated to generalizable populations and if nomothetic
methodology is applied can this generalized data influence how one views an
individual's actions?
I would believe that the processing all the way down would imply that this an
entity that occurs as a whole and because of a need for analysis this is
broken up into measurable units. Yes mIke I know this is discussed in
Cultural Psychology :) I have started it and it is very helpful!
And now back to your normally scheduled stream,
eric
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