How relevant is the study of psychology theories when we know that there are no absolutes in human perception?

Answer 1

There may be no absolutes in human perception, but you can still create models to explain and predict behavior. Your theory is only as good as its ability to do those things. This is what science does. You could ask this same question of biology, physics, or chemisty and get the same answer.

Answer 2

Well, that's sort of like saying, "What's the point of listening to another person's perspective, since none of us are omniscient anyway?"

There's simply a lot of value in looking at life in many different ways and using that information to find the bigger picture of how people develop.

I don't think we need a pure absolute in order to discover a valuable theory. As a science example, Newtonian physics was not "absolute" -- but it applied in 95% or more of all situations, enough that we could depend on it for the majority of things. Relativity was more accurate, technically, but that did not change the fact that most people only ever had to understand Newton's theory in order to function perfectly fine in life. It was as accurate as it needed to be.

Also, no theory can perfectly cover every aspect of human existence and growth; but sometimes it is useful to bite off a chunk of the problem and explore that part in detail.

Object Relations, for example, focuses on people as social animals whose development and maturity derives from interactions with primary caregivers. It ignores biological aspects of personality to focus on core environmental issues. (If it tried to incorporate biology, it would muddy what it's try to show about caregiver relationships.)

Just like when an accident occurs, police interrogate as many witnesses as possible, to get a truer account of what might have happened.

Similarly, each of the theories has a "piece" of the puzzle. And we assemble various theories to give us a full, more accurate picture of how people develop and mature psychologically. No one theory can cover all the bases.

Answer 3

if you need to act, then on what basis would you act? A theory might help....if not then try another theory....until you get one that is relevant.

Answer 4

It is only those things that are not absolute that deserve further study.