L1 Nature, culture, subject Flashcards
who is this person and how did they become that way? model
development (past) -> context -> person -> experiences and acts (present) -> goals and motivation (future)
zie schrift
uitleg model: context en person
- everything always starts with experiences,
- always take place in a certain context (no context = symptoms are meaningless)
- other important component is the person: not everyone experiences events in the same way
in any clinical situation, the question “…” is crucial
who is this person and how did they become that way?
human groups get cultural histories due to the ….
continued transmission of conventions
➢ Cultures develop oral and then written traditions and stories about who ‘we’ are and how ‘we’ came to be
➢ By telling these stories and reflecting on them we change our understanding of who we are.
➢ The histories of individuals can be located within these larger histories of the multiple ‘we’s’ to which we belong
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3 types of origins
natural origins (evolution)
cultural origins
individual origins (birth)
three perspectives on personality
- universal (human nature)
- particular (human cultures)
- singular (human live)
some common confusions and mistakes
- naturalizing cultural categories (eg. treating race as a natural kind: it is in fact cultural)
- reducing every aspect to cultural narratives (the evolved physical body and brain are important limits for what is culturally possible)
- forgetting about the cultural and subjective position from where the author speaks
- treating all acounts as equally subjective opinions
two key steps in the evolution of human cooperation
- obligate collaborative foraging
- group-mindedness
obligate collaborative foraging =
- young children already have a tendency towards joint intentionality.
- humans have a great capacity for shared goals and shared mental states.
- within this context, shared meanings and shared stories can come to existence
-> humans are from birth particularly attuned to sharing mental states with other humans
joint intentionality =
A concept used (by Tomasello) to describe a uniquely human evolutionary adaptation. It implies that humans are extremely attuned to sharing their intentions and working towards joint intentions. This sets the stage for forms of intensive cooperation far surpassing that of other mammals
group mindedness=
- due to the strong possibility of shared intentionality, humans develop a capability for conventions
- children from then on are born in a world full of pre-existing conventional structures that they grow into and only later and partially become aware of
- in this they are introduced in a pre-existing symbolic order: the universe of signs and meanings typical for humans
cultural practices are different from behavioural traditions because their practicioners understand them as shared in the group: we have all agreed to do them in a particular way, even though we know there are other ways in which we could do them.
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wat is first nature en wat is second nature
first nature: universal human nature (collaboration and group-mindedness) -> individual life story
second nature: particular cultural histories -> individual life story
the psychological self =
the reflexive arrangement of the subjective “I” and the constructed “me”.
I= first person perspective
me= messages from the others
development of the self according to McAdams
vanaf 0: actor (traits and social roles, that result in and from repeated performances on the social stage of life)
vanaf 5: agent (goals and values)
vanaf 20: author (life narratives)
the self as actor=
first we discover what society says we are, then we build our identity on performance in that part. if we uphold this performance, we are rewarded with social affirmation of our identity (therefore we are created in the performance).if we bungle the performance, we show that we do not merit the part, we are destroyed (literally).
persona =
(self as actor)
masker & karakter: what your meaning is in the perspective of others
appearance (may be disconnected from the subjective experience)
the self as agent =
to make choices and, move forward in life in a self-determined and goal-directed manner. towards the future.
welke factoren horen bij human agency
intention, violition, will, purpose, some modicum of personal control
agency vs autonomy
agency= actions, control (be independent, be the driver of change)
autonomy= decisions, making choices independent from external pressure
the self as author =
narrative identity, to integrate the reconstructed past, experienced present and imagined future into the “me”
nature=
Does not directly refer here to distinguishing nature and nurture at an individual level. Nature here refers to ‘human biology’- that is approaching the human organism within its ecology and as part of an evolutionary history. The natural sciences (mainly biology) are most appropriate here.
nurture=
Refers to the development of a specifically human ecology which is characterized by ‘joint intentionality’ and ‘symbolic interaction’ and is part of a cultural history which is traditionally referred to as ‘civilization’. The humanities (anthropology, sociology, political economy) are most appropriate here.
subject=
Refers to the undeniable first-person experience that emerges from the birth of a new human organism (nature) into a pre-existing world (culture). It is part of the individual live history. Phenomenology, existentialism and life stories are most appropriate here.
first nature=
The influence of human evolutionary history on individual development.
second nature=
The influence of human cultural history on individual development.
nurture=
The specific ways in which the direct environment in which we are born shapes us into an individual (interaction of first and second nature).
conventional cultural practices=
A concept used for a second step in evolution, in which humans are starting to understand themselves as part of a shared community of ‘us’. Cultural traditions are distinguished from behavioral traditons. In the latter useful behaviors are learned, but only in the first conventions (that may not have direct use) are transmitted over generations. This allows for much more complex symbolic interaction and sets the stage for cultural development (and intergroup conflict).
symbolic order=
Concept referring to the fact that the world into which we are born is not simply a natural ‘umwelt’, but structured by the symbolic interactions over the generations which have shaped a particular pre-formed understanding of the world that shapes our world-understanding and our ‘being-in-the-world’.
Baby/body enters a structure of institutions and ways of being together that will soon be internalized
schema=
a particular memory-pattern resulting from nurture (learning history, interaction of first and second nature), which pre-structures our understanding of new situations
personality =
specific, typical ways in which a person has learned to behave throughout their lives
voorbeeld van iemand die depressief kan raken en hoe
context = lack of connection
symptoms = depressive feelings
- felt like no one was taking care of her
-> slowly learned to become vulnerable - development = hard to consider herself important, therefore not allowed to express feelings and emo problems
- not much in contact with emotions + what she wanted to do and became disconnected with who she was
4 different approaches of personality
- scientific theories
- personal narratives
- multicultural perspectives
- own personal development
wat is zo belangrijk aan essay van J baldwin
- how being a person is connected to history, present time and personal subjective position
- important figure in civil rights movement
hoe integreert ‘the fire next time’ in de theorie
life chapters: profound religious crisis
key scenes: at 13 he was stopped by a cop that made speculations about ancestry and sexual prowess (he was made fun of)
entering a symbolic order: he needed to learn to be good not just to please/avoid punishment from parents but also from society
