"Tell me how to think differently about the next person I meet."The study of the individual in a natural setting and the interpretation of behavior there brings us directly to the case we want most to know about, ourselves. Because my work is focussed on the learning of a particular child in particular situations, some people may wonder if it's so special that it carries no general relevance. Consider two criteria by which to make such judgments. Some experiences may be judged generally relevant because they involve kinds of events frequently encountered. Others may be so judged because they exhibit with unusual clarity or novelty events which are lawful. These suppositions are the main grounds of my empirical research:
Sheldon White
Through interpretation of the particular case in detail, we can arrive at the general law.
If mental phenomena are lawful in a strong sense, as physical phenomena are, then the importance of explaining the concrete case must be granted from the beginning.
If the phenomena of mind are lawful, it is reasonable to explore learning through the detailed analysis of an individual's learning.
If the richness of the experienced mind is comparatively great, in terms of its ability to bring a multitude of perspectives to bear on the solution of any particular problem, documenting that richness of mind for even one person can be a considerable challenge .
The basic corpus, consisting of the mechincal records of all experimental and working sessions (along with their transcriptions) is richly supplemented by the naturalistic observation. The primary themes of development emerged clearly, sufficiently early on, that they could serve as foci of documentation. From these main themes, I have chosen for extended analysis those whose development engages what I take to be central issues of the nature of mind. The modeling aims of my research have two bases:
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