Psychology defined

The thesis that the self is a story unfolding in prescriptive space is typically embraced by social constructionists as a radical alternative to naturalistic accounts of human development. Yet, the Tree of Knowledge (ToK) System proposed by Henriques (2003) implies that events at multiple levels of analysis (i.e., matter, life, mind, and culture) can be considered as conditions of possibility for the emergence of meaningful personal narratives. Thus, the ToK System represents an opportunity to recast the work of naturalists and social constructionists in a framework that is at once scientific and humanistic.

Section: Henriques' Justification Hypothesis and The Experience Of Momentioning

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Remythologizing culture: Narrativity, justification, and the politics of personalization

Quackenbush

2004

“…The life-mind joint point is elaborated in terms of BIT, which is described in greater detail elsewhere (see Henriques, 2004Henriques, , 2003Henriques, , 2000. The gist is that the evolved function of the nervous system is to guide the animal such that the expenditure of behavioral energy (e.g., as indexed by caloric use, time budgets) is biased in ways that enhanced fitness in ancestral environments.…”

Section: Links To the Motivation To Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

The motivation to control and the origin of mind: Exploring the life–mind joint point in the Tree of Knowledge System

Geary

2004

The evolved function of brain, cognitive, affective, conscious-psychological, and behavioral systems is to enable animals to attempt to gain control of the social (e.g., mates), biological (e.g., prey), and physical (e.g., nesting spots) resources that have tended to covary with survival and reproductive outcomes during the species' evolutionary history. These resources generate information patterns that range from invariant to variant. Invariant information is consistent across generations and within lifetimes (e.g., the prototypical shape of a human face) and is associated with modular brain and cognitive systems that coalesce around the domains of folk psychology, folk biology, and folk physics. The processing of information in these domains is implicit and results in automatic bottom-up behavioral responses. Variant information varies across generations and within lifetimes (e.g., as in social dynamics) and is associated with plastic brain and cognitive systems and explicit, consciously driven top-down behavioral responses. The processes that compose natural selection are harsh and unforgiving and were thus described in by Darwin and Wallace (1858, p. 54) as a "struggle for existence." Life and reproduction are indeed a struggle for most individuals of most species, and there is little doubt that human evolution was filled with many such struggles, and that people continue this struggle in many parts of the world today. Still, humans do not have to struggle quite as hard as most other species simply to exist, that is, to stay alive. As proposed by Alexander (1989), our extraordinary ability to modify (e.g., build damns) and extract resources (e.g., using other species as food) from the ecology, and then use these resources for survival and reproductive ends makes us different from other species. This difference is best captured by Alexander's proposal that at some point during human evolutionary history our ancestors achieved ecological dominance. Once an ability to dominate the ecology was achieved, there was an important shift such that the competing interests of other people and coalitions of other people became, and remains, the central pressure that influenced human evolution. From this perspective, natural selection remains a "struggle for existence," but becomes primarily a struggle with other human beings for control of the resources that support life and allow one to reproduce (Geary, 1998(Geary, , 2005.Whether or not the struggle is primarily social, human behavior and that of other species can be conceptualized in terms of an evolved motivation to control. I am not arguing individuals of all species have a conscious, explicit motive to control other members of their species (e.g., mates) or other species (e.g., prey species). Rather, the result of natural and sexual selection (e.g., competition for mates) will be the evolution of brain, cognitive, affective, and conscious-psychological systems that will be sensitive to and process the types of information that have covaried with survival and repro...

“…These integrations have been forthcoming not only in psychotherapy research (Arkowitz, 1992;Beutler & Clarkin, 1990;Norcross & Beutler, 2000;Smith, 1999;Wachtel, 1982Wachtel, , 1997, but also in personality psychology (Mayer, 1993(Mayer, -1994(Mayer, , 1998(Mayer, , 2001McAdams, 1996) and in psychology more generally (Henriques, 2004;Sternberg & Grigorenko, 2001). Such integrations make possible the idea of studying change techniques based on their specific impact on personality.…”

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How does psychotherapy influence personality? A theoretical integration

Mayer

2004

A given type of psychotherapy (e.g., psychodynamic) is associated with a set of specific change techniques (e.g., interpreting defenses, identifying relationship themes). Different change techniques can be conceived of as influencing different parts of personality (e.g., interpreting defense increases conscious awareness). An integrated model of personality is presented. Then, change techniques from different theoretical perspectives are assigned by judges to areas of personality the techniques are believed to influence. The results suggest that specific change techniques can be reliably sorted into the areas of personality. The journalist Paul Solotaroff experienced harrowing panic attacks as a young man: Tingling feet and hands, sweats, heart palpitations, and shortness of breath that were made more terrifying by a pre-existing asthmatic condition he feared might suffocate him. Haunted at day by fears of panic attacks, he found it difficult to sleep at night as well. After 11 years of selfdescribed psychic imprisonment, he got "out of jail" by taking the anti-anxiety drug Anafranil. After his dramatic improvement, however, Solotaroff desired further change. He wanted to find out who he was now that his panic attacks were over; he wanted to create a new identity. He next entered group therapy, which increased his confidence, allowed his journalistic skills to flourish, and helped him to begin a satisfying marriage. (Solotaroff, 1999, p. 23-25)