Page 158 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 8

Forum

2. The meeting of philosophy and psychology – the person and
the personality

The meeting between philosophical and religious thinking on the nature of
the human being and psychological concepts of human experience and be-
haviour takes place in two ways. The first is connected with the acceptance
of extra-systematic anthropological presuppositions which are more or less
useful for psychology. Psychology seeks not only to describe psycho-physio-
logical processes, but also to clarify definitively the phenomena investigated,
with the aim of creating the concept of a mature personality (Allport, Mas-
low, Rogers). The acceptance of the concept of the human being as a person
helps in clarifying definitively the context of the facts with which psychology
concerns itself (experience and activities).

The second way starts from psychological descriptions of human experi-
ence, particularly the analysis of the meaning of subjectivity and intentio-
nality and of the meaning of identity, or from the psychology of motivation,
and aims at discovering the hypothetical dispositions which are a basis for
the elucidation of the nature of the phenomena investigated .
1

Motives Personal Attributes
– the psychological perspective – the philosophical perspective

1. The path from empirical facts to
the theory
2. The path from the theory to
its empirical verification
The striving for understanding and Rationality and self-awareness
self-awareness
The striving for (personal and public) identity Identity and continuity, subjectivity
(being a agent)
The striving for self-determination and Freedom and intentionality
for a range of choices
The striving for attribution of agency and Responsibility
responsibility for one’s own behaviour

The striving for creative development and Creativity (transcendence)
going on from circumstances here and now to
future circumstances (wish for transcendence,
rising above)
The striving to retain one’s own dignity, Dignity
one’s own value
The striving to retain intimacy, Intimacy, private sphere
the private sphere, the interior world

1 H. Gasiul, Ausgewählte Methoden der Interpretation von Volitionsprozessen und voliti-
ven Freiheiten in der modernen Psychologie. Realisierung von Motiven als Grundlage für
die Entwicklung von volitiven Dispositionen. Selected Models of Interpretation of Volition
Process and Freedom of Will in Contemporary Psychology. Fulfillment of Self-motives as
a Base of Development of Volitional Disposition. In: Christian Psychology, 10, Person and
Will, Poznan, 2013, 23-46. 157