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Mediational theorizing focuses on mediate or interdependent considerations in a line of action, and can be construed in completely mechanistic terms as when we describe the actions of a lever or a thermostat. Predicational theorizing focuses on the immediate organization of meanings in relation to each other and cannot be understood mechanistically. Mediational theorizing is said to occur in the midst of a left-to-right flow of influence, whereas predicational theorizing is said to occur from a broader to a narrower extension of meaning. Predications can therefore be thought of in either a top-down or a right-to-left alignment as well as the left-to-right direction of meaning extension. It is argued that psychologists are willing to take a predicational view of their own behavior as theoreticians and scientists, but that they describe the human beings they study in terms of a mediational formulation. Historical reasons for this state of affairs are presented. It is also shown how mediational theorizing is flawed, requiring informal "homuncular' theories to enter into the presentation. The presentation closes with a request that psychologists make themselves the measure of their subject matter, and that therefore more predicational theorizing be attempted in the future.

DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4612-3902-4_12

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