Continuity in psychology refers to the “ability to continue on the same way continuously indefinitely.” It’s basically about who we are and who we have become.
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Different psychologists proposed different theories about continuity in psychology, but there was strong opposition found in their theories. Some suggested memory defines us, but others proposed that it is not the case. Continuity psychology is based on Gestalt Theory and Locke’s theory. Locke’s theory proposed that a “person’s identity is a matter of psychological continuity” your memory is your conscious.
In contrast, Gerald’s theory deals with vision and forms continuous patterns of objects forever. Both these theories emphasize memory being as your conscious. In contrast, another philosopher has argued that memory can never take the form of consciousness when the person does not remember the things when it reaches a certain age.
Another philosopher Reid has also opposed this theory; when you age, you cannot remember every detail of your memory, neither can your past define you. When an accident happened, and you broke your arm, and 40 years later, the same accident happens, and you broke your arm these two, you cannot be the same person as you were 40 years before. He argued that does that person still exist, how do character, desires, and beliefs affect that person.
Another philosopher, Joseph, has equally opposed Locke’s theory. “Butler said that Locke did not realize that consciousness existed before identity, so your identity cannot be your consciousness.” What can be a relation between our identity and consciousness when our consciousness is always changing. Our cells are continually dying, and new ones are replacing them. “We change as we get older, and sometimes that change can be so drastic as to include loss of extremities or a plastic surgery operation that changes your looks completely. Does that mean that you are no longer who you were before”.? Of course not. It just changes your appearance, not your mentality, identity, or consciousness.
Locke’s theory did not provide any justification for memory. If a person commits a serious crime, but he has no memory of it, does that mean that memory will define who he is? When he has no memory, but he did a bad thing, can he get away with this?
These all theories suggest that memory does not define a person; it does not tell us who we are; as a person grows, all things change, he will not be the same person as he was in his childhood.
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