psychologistic
- adjective
- /ˌsaɪkəˈlɒdʒɪstɪk/
- Specialized
- Many debates about moral issues are often too psychologistic, focusing solely on individual motivations and ignoring broader social contexts.
Examples
-
Mikel Dufrenne claims that "operational theories of art, which have today supplanted psychologistic ones, emphasize the result of the creative process and are wary of an analysis of feeling."
Academic text (2003) -
The second obstacle is another illusion dear to the romantic, psychologistic nineteenth century: that which wants a work to express, as an effect does its cause, the personality of its author.
Academic text (1999) -
There's a philosopher, Diane Rathman, and she has a paper on a site on the psychologistic account, I suppose, of sororities paradoxes.
-
The psychologistic approach to understanding culture often overlooks the influence of historical and economic factors.
-
In discussions of morality, a psychologistic interpretation can neglect essential societal influences that shape behaviors.
Synonyms
Describing explanations that focus on people's minds, thoughts or intentions rather than physical causes
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
psychologistic = psychology (transparent) = psychology + istic
The adjective is formed by adding the productive suffix '-istic' to the recognizable noun 'psychology', yielding 'relating to or interpreting in psychological terms'.
Etymology
Psychologistic comes from psychology, which comes from the Greek psyche meaning 'mind' or 'soul', and the ending -istic meaning 'relating to', like in realistic. So a psychologistic explanation looks at things mainly through the 'mind' or people's feelings and often misses other important social or historical reasons.