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isoglossian commented on the word retrospective falsification
The unconscious distortion of past experience to conform to present psychological needs.
April 9, 2009
isoglossian commented on the word retrospective falsification
Definition is found here
April 9, 2009
vanishedone commented on the word retrospective falsification
That link won't work; if you use square brackets, Wordie tries to link to a corresponding word page. You have to use HTML for external links, <a href="http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/retrospective+falsification">like this</a>.
April 9, 2009
isoglossian commented on the word retrospective falsification
Thanks, VanishedOne, I got it. Are there other codes or lists of them?
April 10, 2009
vanishedone commented on the word retrospective falsification
Just click on the 'Some HTML is allowed' link above the comment box.
April 10, 2009
seanahan commented on the word retrospective falsification
Interesting, I wonder what the connection is between this and cognitive dissonance.
April 10, 2009
isoglossian commented on the word retrospective falsification
So seanahan, I think the most distinct difference I'm able to grasp from these two words is(I'm not a psychology major, anyway~) whether it is dominated by consciousness. retrospective falsification is an unconscious behavior and I came upon that in a documentary on (mildly debunking) extrasensory perception(ESP). A psychologist disagreeing with the possibility of someone predicting the future(especially some disastrous events) gave another explanation on the "predictors"' claims using this phrase. He said that the predictors may unconsciouslly rearranged their memory to better fit their claims, without self-awareness. There is a Chinese phrase that I can think of called "事�?�诸葛亮" has a similar connotation to retrospective falsification but with derogative tone. (I'm wondering if there are wordies for other languages like Chinese and there might be crosslinks between different languages which I don't think Wikipedia has even achieved, maybe I could make one~) And from my understanding of cognitive dissonance I think it should be a conscious behaviour, even though it is still very vague to know, let alone to prove, how is conscious and how is unconscious. Additionally, they may be different in emphases and effective situations or context(trivial).
Concepts are all degenerated at the very beginning(maybe the singularity before the Big Bang), uh hmm...
April 11, 2009
seanahan commented on the word retrospective falsification
Actually, my understanding of cognitive dissonance is that a person chooses their current beliefs and actions, seemingly because they consciously want to, but in their subconscious they are striving to reduce cognitive dissonance. If a person knows about the cognitive dissonance, they either change their mind, or act as if it didn't occur at all, even though it is a major factor that contributes to their decision.
April 13, 2009
xntrek commented on the word retrospective falsification
(n) the unconscious distortion of past experience to conform to present psychological needs.
May 8, 2009