Allg2 Flashcards
Explain the role of INFINITIES (inner-outer, future-past) in understanding human lives.
Human lives in the finalities of having been born and death. In the space between there is a
future infinity as example in form of expectations for marriage, childbirth, grandchildren or
death. On the other hand, there are markers of past infinity like graveyards and myth stories.
The two progresses are imagination (future) and remembrance (past). The point of view is
the presence. The inner infinity is destined of the own Person on deep impression but on the
things shown at the surface. The outer infinity is shaped by experiences in the outer world
like the near region as well like more distanced circumstances. Future and past doesn’t have
an end. There are things like death which seems like a border, but this border can be crossed
in a transcending way.
Explain the moral guidance functions of life course images (“staircase of life”).
The staircase of life shows an idealistic picture of a person in a certain stage of his life. It
implies how a person has to be and therefore how to act in the perspective of the lifespan.
Sometimes this leads to a conscious violation of the social norms, maybe because the
freedom of the individual seems to be threatened by the social boundaries. The physical and
psychological changes are inevitable. The reaching of a climax in human development could
evoke stress in reaching a goal not in time.
Analyze the importance of AS-IS <> AS-IF contrast (Vaihinger) and the relevance of further
differentiation of AS-IF field
AS-IS describes something, that is already happened, from the past to the present. All this
happened in an irreversible time. Because we constantly making the future out of the
present moment, we have an image how something is and how it could be (AS-IF). The how it
could be is determined by the inner appraisal of how it should be and how it must not be,
there is some space which is not rated, because it is not consciously thought. What we feel
and think is directed into the future (for the future) like the moral discourses. The system
leads a way for each individual to create future actions, which are corresponding with inner
and outer imagination of righteousness.
Explain open-systems nature of the human psyche and the double guidance of human
relations with environment.
The human psyche can be guided by others immediate or mediated or by the self with
selection and transformation of environmental influences. The guidance itself is possible
through signs. The guidance happens somewhere in the interaction of a person with the
environment and vice versa. Everything we do happens in a social world which cannot see as
a closed system. The self-rating or the rating of someone else are just snapshots which differ
in the social context and time. If we want to answer a question the future is involved and
shown in their meaning. Open systems just work with the interaction with others and the
resulting relationships. Every open system therefore must be seen in the relationship
exchange with the environment. The object of investigation is the borderline between the
system and the environment. Everything we do is connected with the world outside and
happenings like the thinking and feeling are just possible through specific functions in these
environments.
Explain the feedforward function of Einfühlung (Lipps).
Einfühlung itself is the feeling into an object, it means to make connections or relations with
this object. The process makes it easier to connect with the Umwelt. You learn something
about yourself, Einfühlung can change your actions and helps to understand certain social
constructions.
E.g.: When someone tells you an emotional story about his life, you are able to experience
similar emotions through Einfühlung.
Einfühlung (Lipps) is the central concept in our relating with the world. It becomes a FEED-
FORWARD mechanism in the development of the person, mediated by three layers of the
INTERNALIZATION PROCESS: Layer I- chat, Layer II- dialogue, Layer III- deep feeling. All these
three forms of externalization are next moments of Einfühlung that leads to further
internalization and so on. The more you feel into the world, the more complex the picture
about the world is.
How is feeling-into-world linked with the internalization <> externalization system?
The information of the environment, which varies in the feeling-into-world, is processed in
the subjective layer-system. The feelings about the world are processed there and
transforming these incoming messages into a new form (internalization) which leads to
different externalizations (in Chat, dialogue with self or other and personal feelings about the
world). The externalization again influences the internalization (like a circle). Therefore, we
create our own feeling-into-world by producing different externalization through the shift in
experiencing the environment.
- How do you understand the idea that a border SIMULTANEOUSLY separates and unites the
phenomena between it acts as a border?
If the environment has similar borders than me it unites me with it but the decision for
something is always a decision against something, so it also separates. If my borders are
strong me stay alone in the environment, is it weak, the self could be lost in the
environment. Borders can be seen as limits but also as markers to be crossed, they help us to
structure our life and can be constructed if none are there. If there is no border there is
nothing but an empty room. If we have a limit for something, these limits are resulting in
differences between the things. A and B can be divided but still have connections (two
persons are separated bodily but still connected through their friendship or love). The triplet
“Äußeres – Grenze – Inneres” arises, exists and fades in this constellation. It is not possible to
lose the borderline and to escape the center, because then there wouldn’t be a center
anymore.
Discuss the general structure of biological membranes.
The membrane separates the Cytoplasm from the extracellular fluid to keep a running and
protected system. There are specialized gates for different substances each has a specific
function for the whole. There must be specific conditions that A interferes with B (not linear).
If there wouldn’t be borders, there would be a diffuse whole. The membrane has similarities
with the triplet of Outside – Inside – Border. Humans are creating borders or limitations to
protect themselves or other.
How are Vorstellung and Darstellung related in irreversible time?
absolute Boundary: time
The Darstellung acts in the past to the present moment and creates a Vorstellung which is
acting from the present to the future.
We use past Darstellungen about moral, ethic, rights, expectations to make assumptions
about the future (Vorstellungen). The learning in the present moment also implies certain
Vorstellungen for the future (e.g. racisms).
Darstellungen of a psychological functioning are monuments (political, social, religious etc.)
Explain the notion of a sign and transformations between point-like and field-like signs.
Point-Like signs are interpreted as clear parts in an uncalculable whole. The phenomen
becomes a distinct role in a system (schematization). Field-Like signs are referring on an
indefinite subjective whole. The sign itself has no clear interpretation borders
(pleromatization). If both processes are coming together, generalizations are possible.
Describe the 4 levels of sign mediation.
There are different settings in which semiotic mediation occurs. In the immediate
experiencing level 1 signs are located. Level 1 signs are pre-verbal signs, which are presented
iconic, indexical and hybrid. In everyday interaction level 2 signs are located, also called
verbal signs they are processed with schematization. Exactly like the level 3 signs, so called
generalized verbal signs. In the Setting of contemplation about life, hypergeneralized field
signs occur (Level 4). These signs are no more accessible to verbal signs
What is value as a sign?
Humans invented economic relations. The value of an object is mediated by value markers.
The way of thinking is organized through economic relations. The cost of signs can be
expressed in price as meta-signs (signs upon signs), the value of costs (loans, etc.), the
affectivity of costs (and benefits) or Work and non-work (unemployment, leisure). Value
must be maintained in order to be valid. Value can be destroyed not only created (e.g. when
my perspective changed).
Value as the center of all affective rationality -> affect triumphs over reason.
Explain the unity of construction and destruction within the psyche.
As example, if someone constructs something which has value for him, it can be the goal of
someone else to destroy this, to the value of winning against the person. What is of value is
different for every person depending on the motivation for what he is intending (saving
money, constructing something, etc…).
Explain different economic relations between persons in human society.
There are different economic relations within the society. Like Selling and buying, Stealing,
Taxation, Robbing, Asking for donations or negotiating salaries. Only some of values are
expressable in terms of money. Economic relations are the catalytic condition for human lives
in society but only sometimes are they moved to the centre of value constructions and
maintenance.
unilateral, bilateral
Difference between ENVIRONMENT and UMWELT?
The Human UMWELT is socially guided and personally constructed. She is based on imagination. The UMWELT can be seen as a functional part of the environment. Human beings not only adapt to environments as these are but construct sub-parts of Environments into Umwelts (=they adapt environments to themselves) and saturate these with affective meanings in the construction process.
Explain Gefühlston and its maintenance by signs.
Every sensory experience starts from affective relating to the stimulus followed by cognitive
one. The affective relating (Gefühlston) continues after the stimulus is no longer there.
Affectivation of our lives is made possible by signs and their dynamics towards
generalization. It starts with a sensation trigger, which triggers an immediate affectivating
sensation from this there comes a Gefühlston framing for the immediate future and a
generalized encoding for the future. At the end of the chain stand the place of the sensuality
in relating with the world.
!
What is Gestaltungsprinzip? !!!!
Gestaltungsprinzip = Principle of form emergence:
All WHOLES strive towards FORM
(development of forms – by emergence and by design)
What are the major contributions of Ganzheitspsychologie to NAP?
- The whole has a genetic and functional primacy towards its parts.
- The whole is more (or different) than the sum of its parts.
- Complex qualities: “Certain relationships of independently variable composition of
consciousness form (as a relationship) characteristics, that claim the independent
variableness for themselves (as one). One calls these characteristics complex qualities
(Komplexqualitäten).
Explain affective hyper-generalization.
Affective hyper-generalization describes a feeling beyond the current experience (a.e. if you
are looking on a romantic picture). The field of X abstracted, then generalized & aftwerwards
it becomes a hyper-generalized X – which is also field like.
Art: its about what you feel – hypergeneralized, field-like, Einfühlung it relates you to the
painting. Art is there to affect you through the affectional channels not rational, not socially
neutral.
Explain Heinz Werner ́s ORTHOGENETIC PRINCIPLE.
The orthogenetic principle says: that the development involves differentiation, articulation
and hierarchical integration. Heinz Werner says that the living unit should be viewed as a
whole and from there be analyzed on lower units (schöpferische Analyse).
Explain Edmund Burke ́s notion of the sublime.
The sublime is an idea belonging to self-preservation. We often feel a connected emotion of
distress if the sublime appears. The excitement of ideas about pain and danger (something
terrible) are the source of the sublime. If we feel incapable to handle the emotion we try to
build distance to the object of terror or try to modify it to experience delight. The
imagination of something as infinity can be scary but the feeling into it can be pleasurable.
What is the CURVILINEARIZATION of the mind?
There is a linear opposition between pain and pleasure. In the feeling of the sublime the two
opposite forces transform to the pleasure of pain under catalytic conditions
(curvilinearization of the mind). One example of curvilinearization are religiously guided and
personally internalized social practices that turn physical self-harm into feeling of pleasure.
Explain the relations between the SUBLIME and the BEAUTIFUL.
Beautiful is different from sublime; sublime is accompanied by similar feeling of
fear/Ehrfurcht & when that goes away its followed by disinterest & then its beautiful (going
beyond border of stopping fearfulness & becoming mundane & the enjoying object without
linkage to fear but only linkage to beauty is disinterest because it has nothing to do with me)
beauty = creating border to infinity, because it is not relevant to your living/being, the idea of
having a sexual relationship to one of the beautiful objects is irrelevant
sublime = something is there – I kind of understand it but not completely
more layers than beauty has
beauty = Im interested but in a different way
if we only have a mundane world it gets boring so we create it ourselves, to just
experience it once
most of the ordinary life goes between sublime and mundane -> behavioral inconsistency is
systematic. The beautiful prepares us to love disinterestedly in sth., even nature itself, the
sublime prepares us to esteem sth highly even in opposition to our own (sensible) nature
interest that is horrifying but needed/disinterested
Transition from interest in sublime to interest in art/beauty
my interest in it is disinterest because I have no linkage to it
Trousers are demanded to put on to cover up – that comes from sublime objects, they are
horrifying because sexuality is shown & might have damage to my own self
In what ways does art make our minds free?
Art makes human free from being socially controlled – art threatens to hypergeneralize
beyond the sublime -> sublime prepares us to esteem sth highly even in opposition to our
own (sensible) nature we can resist by creating our personal meaning of the piece of art
you can interpret everything you want – mind is in a position where it can entertain within
the possible terms lot of different inner infinity -> thinking can go beyond the limits of the
society (cause art is overstepping boundaries and therefore in consuming the art I have the
possibility to do the same)
If you look into the painting (environment) the internalization can lead to the contemplation
of the sublime which is a self-dialogue – I like the naked sculpture but I wouldn’t want in my
home – vs. a deeply felt feeling of beauty (the sculpture is beautiful, genitals are also
beautiful) but still I don’t have it in my home -> clash of sublime & beauty
personal meaning making:
-> receivers freedom of interpretation
-> message of the sender takes a specific form, but the receiver still interprets is however it
wants, the receiver is the co-constructor of the message through Einfühlung into the
message – generalized & abstracted message
-> Thinking and feeling may be socially guided, but we can resist by creating our personal
meaning of the piece of art
Art can also express the total opposite of what is socially controlled. If you view art & place
yourself in it, you become free of your own Umwelt & enter a new one, which can trigger
new interpretations & relations to your own environment.
Explain Karl Bühler ́s ORGANON MODEL. How is it different from Shannon-Weaver
communication model?
Karl Bühler ́s Text “Theory of language” differs from Weaver-Shannons Text “The
Mathematical Theory of Communication” in the point, that in Bühlers Human
communication processes allow for innovation. The Shannon-Weaver model of
communication is based on technological communications that are free of innovation.
Describe and explain the SEMIOTIC DEMAND SETTING (SDS).
If a sender sends a message, he relies on a meta-communicative frame of the semiotic
demand setting (SDS). His signs make sense in the context of the sign. On the aspect of
talking there are socially normative demands for talk, which are at the same time demands
for silence (of non-talk kind), in this norm(s) are zones of promoted talking (politics, history
myths…), of possible talking and of “taboo” of talking (sexuality, money…). The zones must
be seen on a contentual basis. “Our actual conversation between the taboo and promoted
zones involve hesitant disclosure of our personal meaning systems in the ́zone of potential
talking ́”. The move from promoted zones to the taboo is liminal. Social norms apply but we
can negotiate them (e.g conventionalized expressions). The regular meaning making involves
the creation of sign hierarchies.
Note:
Why does anybody say: “Your opinion counts”?
What is the value of: “Zone of promoted Talking”?
Difficult to cross the border from: “Zone of possible talking” to the “Zone of Taboo of
Talking”
Explain the functioning of sign hierarchies in our self-regulation.
If the self wants something we can give it to the self, or we can say I should not want it, if we
take it anyways it dissolve, otherwise the mind says “I want to (want it) and then it will be
done or in the last instance the mind can say all this is nonsense, which leads to not getting
the wanted. The construction of sign hierarchies like I want X -> I should not want X -> I want
(to want X) -> all this is nonsense, mostly happens under social guidance but there is the
opportunity to defy guidance. The Person itself gets the possibility to create their own
freedom of thought by resistance if she is creating hierarchies of signs.
How are sign hierarchies socially guided?
On a moral level, there is a convention of the society about correct actions in a specific
situation. If we create sign hierarchies we take that norms into account (more or less) and
they define the way in decisions making, because there are opposing forces like moralistic
acts vs. personal satisfaction, that influence the way of acting
Explain the tension between RIGHTS and DUTIES within the human mind.
The duties and rights are facing each other. Out of their confrontation social actions evolve.
A.e. “I have the RIGHT to be myself and the DUTY to be a good citizen”. Your human right of
wanting something is being oppressed by your duty that is imposed on you. At the highest
level of encounter duties and rights are to be coordinated & your social actions are the result
of the coordination of the two aspects (prioritizing, finding solutions for the tension, avoiding
the tension altogether)
How do social norms enter into human reasoning processes?
The normative focus enters decisively into development in a specific moment. In as ordinary
felt situation different guidance systems take in place and participate in the reasoning
process. If something sublime happens an dis-equilibration period takes place and the
reasoning process gets more dispersion after this experience a new ordinary is build which
leads to a new form of re-equilibration. Forms of dis-equilibration can be seen for example in
religious public processions, military parades or public executions but also in religious
confessions or psychotherapy and mass public protests.
Compare the events of CONFESSION and PSYCHOTHERAPY.
In the setting of a confession, the confessing person is forced into a position of kneeling. This
causes that there is a symmetry of mutual invisibility and an asymmetry of the interaction
(priest decides). In the psychotherapy there should be a symmetry of interaction. The
therapists should in the best way show the participant possibilities to solve his own problems
in his own way. Both together decide what kind of interaction is present and none of them is
standing higher than the other.
Explain MINIMAL MORAL INSERTS and their function in the human mind.
Minimal moral inserts are internalized rules that are felt as righteous. The MMIs are present
in most of the ordinary conversations, key words like “should have” or “I am sorry” indicate
such inserts. They lead the mind to the thinking of “right” or “wrong” on a cultural basis. The
egocentric perspective will be diminished.
What can we learn from the Babaji Interview?
Ashok Dilemma: Indian version of Heinz Dilemma (stealing medicine for wife)
Babaji would deal with this in the following way: No. There are other ways of getting
money like selling himself or his property, he has no other way out. Stealing is bad.
Sin blocks the possibility of stealing as an option
He should try shamanistic advice alternatively or just do everything that is in his
power to save her but stealing is bad
Saving other life (even friends is okay) vs. stealing for yourself & family (not okay)
selflessness in his culture means it cant have anything to do with your loved ones since you
relate to them & your intentions might be your happiness not necessarily theirs -> every
culture has its own definitions & ideas which people abide to, nothing can ever be universally
“right” or “wrong”. Sinning is seen as “heavier” than saving someones life, although doing
good is part of their belief. Every culture has its own form of logic.
Compare INDUCTIVE, DEDUCTIVE and ABDUCTIVE ways of generalization.
Deduction & Induction: illiterate people will refuse the major premise! Knowledge must be
inductive because you can ́t talk about something you haven’t seen. From its suggestion
deduction can draw a prediction which can be tested by induction, and that, if we are ever to
learn anything or understand phenomena at all, it must be abduction that this is to be
brought about.
Abduction entails going beyond the data. When you realize that collected data is
unexplainable at the moment, you look in the past for possible explanations & you look into
the future & see if it could work. Abduction is central in science since it makes it possible to
discover new ways of explaining the phenomena that have not been observed before. In the
beginning abduction is always guessing. Semmelweis uses abduction: something new must
have led to a differentiation between the 2 wards, one has less morality rates & the other
one less – what is the carrier of death? -> handwashing is the solution he came up with. The
human mind escapes the normative mode (temporarily) by the process of abduction while
moral imperatives are given through deduction.
Explain the unity of TEACHING and LEARNING as a whole.
Learning and Teaching can happen in a formal or informal way. Both processes are oriented
towards future-zone of nearest development and the zone of proximal development. The
Russians have a word to teaching and learning as a whole, it ́s called “obuchine”. Personal
intention of learning is the crucial part of learning and teaching – what I want to learn, not
what I “should” learn. The teacher and learner are building a unit -> the unit learns faster
with double Einfühlung if someone likes the other, he learns easier, the motivation rises etc.
and the other way around. The teacher learns as well, he learns about him and the subject
and that gives the opportunity to connect what is perceived in new ways (new concepts). In
extension to George Herbert Mead ́s Self Theory, teaching is a goals-oriented process of
dialogue with oneself.
Explain the Zone of Proximal Development.
The zone of proximal development describes the zone where the learner can do something
with guidance. This layer lays between the zone in which the learner can do something
unaided and the zone the learner cannot do.
Describe G.H. Mead ́s self-system.
Meads describes the self as a social process. He sees the mind as the individual importation
of social processes helping to formulate the one ́s complete self. The individual organism
takes in the collective attitudes of others in the form of gestures and reacts accordingly with
other organized attitudes. The processed works with the instances of The I and The ME. The
ME is the social self and the I is the response to the ME. In other words, the I is the response
of an individual to the attitudes of others, while the Me is the organized set of attitudes of
others which an individual assumes. The I is the self as subject (the knower), the Me is self as
object (the known). The mid is the self-reflective movements of the interaction between the I
and the ME. Thinking as internalized dialogue.
Teaching as double dialogue
In a schematic depiction of dual dialogue after G.H. Mead there is an internal and an external dialogue. In the inward there is the I and the Me which is close to the external dialogue border. The Me does Outward projections which are working in an immediate feedback loop. The outward projections itself are of assumed roles and ideas projected into others, from there they are going back as results to the border of the internal and external. The teachers side in the learning process is the constant modulation of class control & knowledge insertions as a microgenetic process. He has to coordinate mutual goal orientations (cover up all different interests to get the students interested).
Explain the teaching-learning process as modulation of distancing.
A teacher-student relation is like a dance (=immediate interaction), the teacher is dancing
with the students, at a certain moment the teacher captivates the field of action & the
attention of the other people and in the next moment he is withdrawing & letting the learner
start to contemplate about the inserts that were given (if they need some help, they
withdraw again)
-> Playing by moving closer, moving away & letting the student develop own ways. The
teacher is not neutral, individual freedom is under constant influence of goal-oriented
learning of the teacher.
Explain Georg Simmel ́s point that peace is made in wartime and war in peacetime.
The human highest psychological functions, mediated by signs and operating under social
guidance, are vehicles of both construction and destruction. Both aggression and affiliation
are meaning-based processes. How the human psyche becomes transformed between war
and peace is a major social task of prevention of war and maintenance of peace. There is an
ordinary nature of protection against potential violence, as example shown in the Gestalt of
Arms Persons and their collective motion (military parade). Georg Simmel states that war is
prepared during peacetime and peace during wartime. He describes the state of peace as a
loop who leads to a state of war the transition zone between both states are the cultural
regulators. Results of construction can extend the state of peace and results of destruction
the state of war. Fixating the distinctions made and filling them with affective non-doubtful
value content makes dialogue no longer possible.
Describe mechanisms of willful loyalty
By uniting personal and family life histories with political loyalty in a public ritual, the stage is
set for personal internalization of willful loyalty. The I-want transforms to I-will which
describes the process of acting socially in expected ways. Opinions translate needs into
knowledge and referring to objects in term of their use, it prevents itself from knowing them.
