Predicting behaviour is notoriously difficult, easier with a group than an individual. This reminds me of a quote from Sherlock Holmes in one of the stories:
"While the individual man is an insoluble puzzle, in the aggregate he becomes a mathematical certainty." - The sign of Four
However, with that said, studies into obedience by Milgram etc can reveal probabilistic behaviour of individuals. There is always a certain level of uncertainty in the behaviour of any given individual, although you can build up a gradual picture of how likely they are to behave in a certain way.
To illustrate this point: Imagine two chess players one likes to attack and one likes to play positionally and choke the opponent's play. It would be very rare for either one to play contrary to their habit, an evolutionary path of chess playing would take hold where the player will stick to a style that gets him the most wins.
In this way, we can build up a personality profile of the chess player, and so too, in life we can gather certain insights into the profile of an individual.
Mental states are assessed via evaluations which themselves go through an evolutionary and scientific process for efficacy. The same process by which the Rorshach has now been abandoned by the greater number of psychologists has happened to countless other types of evaluation due to error prone or bias validating mechanisms.
The question of how to evaluate a mental state has long been of interest to philosophers and poets alike, long before there was even a discipline called psychology. It is only now, that we are developing the qualitative and quantitative evidence which can reveal the inner and often private world of the mind.
Predicting behaviour is notoriously difficult, easier with a group than an individual. This reminds me of a quote from Sherlock Holmes in one of the stories:
However, with that said, studies into obedience by Milgram etc can reveal probabilistic behaviour of individuals. There is always a certain level of uncertainty in the behaviour of any given individual, although you can build up a gradual picture of how likely they are to behave in a certain way.
To illustrate this point: Imagine two chess players one likes to attack and one likes to play positionally and choke the opponent's play. It would be very rare for either one to play contrary to their habit, an evolutionary path of chess playing would take hold where the player will stick to a style that gets him the most wins.
In this way, we can build up a personality profile of the chess player, and so too, in life we can gather certain insights into the profile of an individual.
Mental states are assessed via evaluations which themselves go through an evolutionary and scientific process for efficacy. The same process by which the Rorshach has now been abandoned by the greater number of psychologists has happened to countless other types of evaluation due to error prone or bias validating mechanisms.
The question of how to evaluate a mental state has long been of interest to philosophers and poets alike, long before there was even a discipline called psychology. It is only now, that we are developing the qualitative and quantitative evidence which can reveal the inner and often private world of the mind.