This section will deal primarily with stress... we will get to that, its nice to break up the flow every now and then, kick back, and take things easy. I will do so now in two different ways, firstly, by delaying the talk about stress. Secondly, I will not be including any pictures in this aside... this is to give myself a break from hunting down the "perfect image" to go along with each article while still maintaining what I hope you, the reader can see as a fairly nice and established flow to things. Still with me? haven't fallen asleep yet? great.
Let's talk about circular reasoning. Circular reasoning has come up twice in fairly significant ways throughout the course of the semester. The first time we observe it is in discussion of William Sheldons constitutional theory or body type personality (as an aside to the aside... was it an unwritten rule somewhere that to study psychology your name had to be William or James?) A prime example of his theory states that a "mesomorph", which is someone who is "sturdy, athletic, big muscled" has a personality described as "love for physical activity" if you can't see the circular reasoning yet allow me to paraphrase the example used in the linked wiki page.
"Mesomorphs love physical activity, because people with muscular bodies enjoy exercising"
Not only do we know this not to be true (unfortunately for the rest of us, some people have metabolisms that make them naturally muscular with little or no effort on their part) but very little is described about each somatotype aside from what would typically result due to dietary habits. When Sheldon does make a stretch to describe secondary aspects such as "all endomorphs (heavier set) are jolly", the scientific studies on the matter fall apart, not holding up to scrutiny.
"Frank drinks too much because he is an alcoholic"
This phrase is quoted directly from the textbook and is the second example of circular reasoning we encounter in our studies. This time around, however, the authors acknowledge that this IS circular reasoning and provides us with tools to avoid getting into just that. The following information is taken directly from the text (linked in an earlier section).
In order to avoid circular reasoning, employ the following skills when thinking critically: Understand the way definitions shape how people will think about issues, Identify the source of those definitions, and Avoid the logical fallacy in working with definitions and labels, as labels do not have any explanatory value.
To paraphrase I find that when trying to describe a new topic to an individual, especially something that may be theoretical in nature, try your best to describe it as you would to an individual new to the english language. while it is okay to assume a basic understanding in language. If you remove labels and complicated terminology, and are still able to get your point across, you are probably doing a more effective job of defining what you are trying to.
...Thats all for this aside. Lets move on to everyone's least favorite topic. STRESS!
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