Introduction
Every concept is simultaneously defined in two ways; the positive aspect of a definition contains understanding of what characterizes the thing referred to by the concept. (For brevity, “thing” is used to denote any distinguishable aspect of reality.) The negative aspect, in turn, contains understanding of what is notreferred to by the concept. So, in respect to the list of qualities defining a concept, there must always be something that is not characterized by the same list of qualities. Qualities that characterize a thing X and its opposite, non-X, are not defining and should therefore not be components of a definition. Further, it is important that the world can be distinguished into things at different levels of analysis and in different perspectives. Therefore, every definition is specific to a level and perspective, that is, context. These ideas need to be taken into account in defining mainstream psychology (MP), which necessarily entails the existence of...
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Toomela, A. (2014). Mainstream Psychology. In: Teo, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5583-7_667
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