[President_Elect_Shang]

Sure Kamog, let me see if I can help out. In psychology today there are two prevailing viewpoints; called a paradigm you may look the word up in a dictionary if I am not clear enough. These are not the only two mind you, just the major two. The Cognitive paradigm attempts to understand behavior not just (over simplified) by the actions or behavior of the organism, but also by the mental processes going on in the brain. The Behavioral paradigm is not attempting to infer or understand the mental process, it is much too difficult because it cannot be measured or quantified, and thus it is scientifically inadequate. An example may help:
You open the fridge door to get milk.
Cognitive paradigm: Not sure what they would say, maybe along the lines of you open the fridge because you are thinking about how thirsty you are. To be clear you will need to find someone of this discipline and ask him or her the same question.
Behavioral paradigm: In the past you have had success at getting milk by going to the fridge and opening the door, the proximate cause may be inferred as a signal from the brain in response to a chemical imbalance that creates thirst. I could go on further but it not important for our example. Why did you get milk? Heck if I know ask a biologist. What is the signal from the brain? Ask a neuroscientist.
As to the xenophobia yes it is the topic of the discussion. If you read what Q wrote in his post he is applying xenophobia to all species. This is what makes it reification. To be clearer he is moving it from a topic of discussion and applying it to humans etc as if it is a real and quantifiable thing. For comparison (not a very good one mind you but it makes the point) we may debate what a rock is made of (quartz, gypsum, granite) but we do not debate the rock itself. We can debate the notion or concept of xenophobia in all it’s forms, but we cannot measure it with our current technology, so we must avoid giving it permanency. The English language however is structured to give all things a name and place in the world and this can cause and has caused for many misunderstandings. For example the psychologist Richard Dawkins was physically attacked and badly beaten because a layperson did not take the time to understand what he was saying. Psychologists are not here to take away god or confuse and confound you. Psychology like any other science is here to improve humankind and since it is still a relatively new discipline (only about 150 or so years old) there remain many misunderstandings and bigotries toward the field and it’s students. I am getting wordy again so let me cut this post off now.

[ December 07, 2002, 23:23: Message edited by: President Elect Shang ]