Personal Epistemology and Personal Experience

Abstract

The world view of students was investigated by measuring covert causal assumptions about the relationship between the person and physical and social reality. The Attitudes About Reality Scale was designed to measure a philosophical dimension ranging between a belief in social constructionism and a belief in logical positivism. These personal epistemologies are related to demographic markers such as religion and birth order, and to experiential variables such as age and sociopolitical identification. Personal epistemology may predispose individuals to seek courses with a content that is consonant with their preexistent ideology. Epistemological position, however, appears changed only slightly by exposure to courses whose paradigmatic focus emphasizes a particular relationship between the person and reality.Psychologists are becoming increasingly aware that the pursuit of knowledge is not value free. Personal experience can sensitize people to different aspects of problems and leads some to question the assumptions taken as selfevident by others lacking such experience. Correspondingly, demographic variables-seen as biographical markers of differential experience-are significantly correlated with personal epistemology. Personal epistemology may serve as one of the mechanisms by which past circumstances influence present judgments. The relationship between personal epistemology and personal experience is probably a reflexive one. Although the past influences the present, the past may also be reconstructed by present experience and new social identities. Such changes are marked by changes in personal epistemology.

Educational Experiences and Shifts in Group Consciousness: Studying Women

“…Women's studies students have also reported positive changes in their interactions with others and have attributed their willingness to adopt new roles and behaviors to the impact of a women's studies course (Stake, Roades, Rose, Ellis, & West, 1994). Cognitive effects include shifts from viewing reality as stable, deterministic, and formative of persons to viewing reality as changeable, subject to cultural and historical influence, and shaped by the person (Howe, 1985;Unger, Draper & Pendergrass, 1986).…”

HCI reality—an ‘Unreal Tournament’?

“…This difference might be explained by the diversity of the participants in our study. Both, Jackson and Jeffers (1989) and Unger et al (1986), used a homogenous populations (e.g., undergraduate psychology students), whereas our study included participants from diverse backgrounds and ages. The AAR scale appears to be ineffective for heterogenous groups, which is unfortunate, since its potential value lies in explaining differences between conflicting groups.…”

“…Our study attempted to find empirical proof of this difference. We hypothesized that the Attitude About Reality (AAR) scale (Unger et al, 1986) might be useful for measuring this difference. This bi-polar scale ranges from 'logical positivism' on the one side to 'social constructivism' on the other side.…”

“…This bi-polar scale ranges from 'logical positivism' on the one side to 'social constructivism' on the other side. Unger et al (1986) defines logical positivism as follows:…”

“…This self-reported categorization was a forced choice selection question and they were not allowed to make multiple choices. Finally, the participants had to fill in the AAR questionnaire (Unger et al, 1986) which consisted of 40 questions. Each question had to be answered using a sevenpoint Likert scale (see Fig.…”