Frame of reference (psychology)

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The reference system stands for the framework conditions of a scientific description and includes the relevant relationships ( relations ). If processes and objects are to be observed closely, the definition of the reference system ( coordinate system , position) is necessary. This definition can also include the position of the observer and / or the object and, if applicable, their movement and thus relativize the descriptions.

Gestalt psychology

The reference system is a central term in Gestalt psychology , as Wolfgang Metzger explained in 1941 in his Gestalt theory of reference systems . He is based on human perception , especially the laws of vision, but the approach of an epistemological generalization can be recognized in his guiding principles.

"1. The importance of the frames of reference. In almost all areas of the soul, apart from the clearly realized relationships between concrete structures: between the parts of a whole, between the members of a group and between neighboring, independent wholes, there is the relationship of each individual structure to its 'reference system' as the area, in which it is located and in motion, in which it has its place, its direction and its measure; this relationship is related, but not essentially, to the relationship of parts to their whole; it is psychologically just as real, just as original and just as momentous as that between the concrete structures. The stability and determination of individual places and dimensions is based on the stability and determination of the prevailing reference system and not the other way around.

2. Structure of the reference systems. A reference system (area, system of properties) in the soul is not - as the initial sentence in its extreme form asserts - a dead set of possibilities for filling it out, but has a certain structure itself, which can be more or less rich and solid.

3. Formation of the reference systems. For the development of the reference systems and their special structure, certain preconditions and limits exist in the organism, which differ depending on the sensory and subject area; However, none of these systems is fixed down to the last detail in advance, but each receives its full and special development, its ultimate determinacy and stability only on the basis of the prevailing overall conditions, ie it is itself factual; A spiritual reference system is a living whole that reacts as such to any even local stress, and by absorbing and determining it, conversely, it is also influenced and determined by it: 'confirmed' and consolidated or 'broken' and disturbed, possibly also destroyed and is transformed. In other words: every stimulus is also a system stimulus. "

Wilhelm Witte (1966), who ties in with Max Wertheimer , Kurt Koffka , Wolfgang Metzger and Henry Helson , also explains the physical and phenomenal reference system for anchoring impressions. Hellmuth Metz-Göckel in particular presented more recent gestalt psychological work on the frame of reference , among other things on the basis of the investigation of jokes whose mode of action lives from the change of the frame of reference.

General Psychology

Beyond the psychology of perception , the definition and thus also the relativization of the reference system are essential aspects in the theory of judgment formation ( cognitive psychology ) and in the psychology of attitude . Humans have the ability to deal with several reference systems at the same time, for example with regard to space and time , i. H. perceived space and experienced space.

From a linguistic and linguistic point of view, a frame of reference is used to localize an object, whereby there are different linguistic possibilities: Localization of an object in an absolute (e.g. object and cardinal direction), relative (observer, object and other reference object) or intrinsic reference system (reference on the object itself).

Action theory

In 1951, the American sociologist Talcott Parsons proposed in his book The Structure of social action to order the many aspects of action in three frames of reference.

"Thus conceived, a social system is only one of three aspects of the structuring of a completely concrete system of social action. The other two are the personality systems of the individual actors and the cultural system which is built into their action. Each of the three must be considered to be an independent focus of the organization of the elements of the action system in the sense that no one of them is theoretically reducible to terms of one or a combination of the other two. Each is indispensible to the other two in the sense that without personalities and culture there would be no social system and so on around the roster of logical possibilities. But this interdependence and interpenetration is a very different matter from reducibility, which would mean that the important properties and processes of one class of systems could be theoretically derived from our theoretical knowledge of one or both of the other two. The action frame of reference is common to all three and this fact makes certain 'transformations' between them possible. But on the level of theory here attempted they do not constitute a single system. However this might turn out to be on some other theoretical level. "

The striking and much-cited comparison of the three reference systems personality , social system and culture has a high degree of order and at the same time a heuristic function. These reference systems are independent, they cannot be reduced to one another.

See also

literature

  • Norbert Bischof: Psychology. A basic course for the discerning . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-17-020365-5
  • Wolf Lauterbach, Viktor Sarris (Hrsg.): Contributions to reference system research. Huber, Bern 1980, ISBN 3-456-80911-5
  • Wolfgang Metzger: Psychology. The evolution of their basic assumptions since the introduction of the experiment. Steinkopff, Dresden 1941, p. 135 f. 6th edition 2001 by Verlag Wolfgang Krammer, Vienna, p. 131ff, ISBN 3-901811-07-9
  • Hellmuth Metz-Göckel: Joke Structures. Gestalt theoretical contributions to joke technique . VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften 1989, ISBN 978-3531120393
  • Hans Mogel: Reference system and experience organization. Hogrefe, Göttingen 1990, ISBN 978-3801703622
  • Talcott Parsons: The social system. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1951/1991, ISBN 978-0029241905
  • Wilhelm Witte: The problem of the reference systems. In: Wolfgang Metzger (Ed.) Handbuch der Psychologie. Volume I / 1. General Psychology (pp. 1003-1027). Hogrefe, Göttingen, 1966.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Metzger: Psychology. The development of their basic assumptions since the introduction of the experiment , 1941, p. 135 f
  2. ^ Metz-Göckel 1989: Joke structures , Opaden: Westdeutscher Verlag; 2008: Closure as a joke principle. Gestalt Theory, 30 , 331-336.
  3. ^ Bishop: Psychology. A basic course for the demanding , 2008, p. 394 ff
  4. ^ Parsons: The social system . 1991, p. 5 f