Quotes About Metatheory

Developmental psychology is a metatheory that is built on the idea that mental processes and behavior change over time, from one mental process to another in a progressive manner. Mental processes are built from and upon previous ones. Behaviors are built from and upon previous ones.

In fact, extracted from the metatheory, the central element of Festinger's theory boils down to this: A person can experience an unpleasant state of arousal (state of dissonance) that can be quantified by a ratio (the dissonance ratio; see Chapter 2, this volume, for further explanation) and is reduced when this ratio decreases. Cognitions are relevant and taken into consideration only to the degree that they allow for composing this ratio.

A consistent theory T cannot postulate its own consistency, although the consistency of T can be postulated in another consistent theory. (An exercise for the reader: Is it possible to have a pair of consistent theories S and T such that each postulates the consistency of the other? It follows from what has been said above that the answer is no.)