It must see, hear, smell and so on, as forms of action rather than of reproduction. Reproduction, less valued, is secondary. To act, to create, to do, is primary. Understanding More important than explanation is understanding, which stresses the importance of fully grasping the total person or the whole event rather than searching for an underlying cause. Science frequently engages in mere verbal manipulations, explaining an event by saying it is the product of antecedent conditions.
Meaning is preferred to tension reduction as an explanation for behavior.
This tenet holds that a person does things because of goals that give meaning to life rather than because of tensions which are being reduced. These tension reductions presumably reinforce or stamp in the tendency to make the same response the next time the tension occurs. But such a theory has been under sharp criticism by the more tender minded third force psychologists who find this point of view too mechanistic and animalistic. They maintain that people do things because such actions are consistent with one's own conceptual world view, not because impersonal mechanical conditions push or pull behavior. Before continuing to Module 2, complete the Progress Check for Module 1.