Week 1 - Intro East and West Flashcards
Positive Psychology
Asking what is right about people instead of wrong
A scientific and applied approach to uncovering people’s strengths and promoting their positive functioning
Self-Determination Theory
Amotivation vs. Extrinsic vs. Intrinsic
The need for growth drives behavior
Gaining mastery over challenges and new experiences helps to develop a sense of self
Intrinsic motivation increases goal-driven behavior
–When people are motivated by internal rewards (ex. Desire to gain knowledge), they have higher self-determination
Increase intrinsic motivation through friends, long-term goals
Extrinsic - motivated by material rewards
undermining effect
when external rewards spoil intrinsic motivation
Upon providing an external reward motivation falls - intrinsic motivation undermined
Martin Seligman - Father of Positive Psychology
Raising children is about identifying and supporting the strengths that they have
Components of Positive Psychology
1- Scientific and applied approach
2 - Uncovering human strengths while keeping cultural context in mind
3 - Promoting positive functioning
————–Above baseline - thriving
Other subfields focused on human weaknesses:
Applied psychology
Psychopathology
——-Exclusively focuses on weakness - broken down functioning
——-How to we get them to be more functional
Psychiatry
——–How do we fix
The “Fourth Wave” of Psychology
- The disease model - cure the illness
- Behaviorism - stimulus/response
- Humanistic Psychology - fulfill potential - carl rogers - unconditional positive regard
- Positive Psychology - authentic happiness and a good life
Pre WW2 - psychology had 3 missions:
psychology aimed to cure mental illness
make people’s lives more fulfilling
identify/nurture high talent
After WW2 - 2 events changed
Veterans Admin was created - practicing psychologists could make a living treating mental illness
National Institute of Mental Health was created - psychologists discovered they could get grants for research on mental illness
Shift towards researching pathology
The two other missions were forgotten - also the study of strength and virtue
Treatment is not just fixing what is broken, it is nurturing what is best within ourselves.
Presidential Task Force on Prevention, headed by Suzanne Bennett Johnson and Roger Weissberg - best practices in prevention, training in prevention, and health promotion
Medical model of personal weakness and damaged brain - left the mental health professions ill-equipped to do effective prevention
Best work is on amplifying strengths than repairing weaknesses
Humans are seen as passive
We respond to stimuli or reinforcements
Conflicts from our childhood created adult behaviors
Psychologists looked to repair damage
Seligman outlined how to work in this new field
Underlying question: How can we prevent mental illness in those who are genetically vulnerable or live in maladaptive environments?
Pathologizing doesn’t help us prevent mental disorders - looking at behavior and deciding it is a problem
Certain strengths help us resist mental illness: courage, optimism, interpersonal skill, work ethic, hope, honesty, and perseverance - protective
Practitioners must help amplify strengths - identify what people are good at and bring them up
By learning about the effects of behavior and mental well‐being on the body, clients can become physically healthier
Going From Neg to Pos - Pos story
Positive story about being stranded at the airport - very positive reaction, praise, request for similar stories - people want to see and hear about the good in others
Positive psychology offers a look at the other side—that which is good and strong within a cultural context, along with normative ways to nurture and sustain these assets and resources.
A Balanced, More Complete View of Human Functioning
Look at strengths and weaknesses, stressors and resources
Tempting to solely focus on the good or bad but it is not good science
Psychologists adhered to pathology model
They were bright, well-meaning scientists
Operated within particular circumstances of that time
Their descriptions are accurate
They were able to help
But, this picture is incomplete
The portrayal of humankind is incomplete
–Must examine weaknesses and strengths of people in various cultural groups
—Must examine stressors and resources in environments
Views of Reality that Includes + and -
Reality negotiations and social constructions
–Moving toward agreed-upon worldviews
–Remember that the “facts” are socially constructed
We decided to develop these strategies to help you attain life’s three most important outcomes:
connecting with others,
pursuing meaning, and
experiencing some degree of pleasure or satisfaction.
Specifically, love, work, and play have been referred to as the three great realms of life
Western cultural values
hope and physical reward
Eastern cultures
emphasize enlightenment and transcendence
“A good fortune may forebode a bad luck, which may in turn disguise a good fortune.”
Chinese proverb - world and its inhabitants are in a perpetual state of flux
There will be good and bad times
Expectation of desire for balance distinguishes Easterners views of optimal functioning from the more linear path taken by Westerners to resolve problems and monitor progress
Easterners - adaptive and mindful - move with the cycle of life until the change process becomes natural and enlightenment is achieved
Western Influences:
Athenian
moral virtues, intellectual virtues
Importance of political community: people with good virtues create a political community and then act as a model for others
Virtue and human strength - Plato and Aristotle
Aristotle described 11 moral virtues and intellectual virtues
A and P empasized the influence of the political community - had on the development and maintenance of these virtues
people with good human virtue create such a community and then can provide a good model for others so that the masses also develop such human excellence.
Aristotle believed that government should be charged with the development of virtue in a particular society via early education (i.e., in childhood) and training
W - Judeo-Christian -faith hope and charity
Bible contains discussions of virtues in many chapters and verses
Seven Heavenly Virtues” by Thomas Aquinas
Ten Commandments given by Moses in the Old Testament as directives toward cultivating certain strengths within the Jewish tradition
Seligman (2004) interpret the acts that the commandments prohibit as falling under the category of particular cardinal virtues: “Justice is implied in prohibitions against murder
Beatitudes discussed in the Book of Matthew give a series of virtuous traits (e.g., meekness, being a “peacemaker,” mercy, righteousness, etc.) that are said to be pleasing to God
Talmud - being a hospitable host, particularly to the poor; being fair in decision making and judgments; and seeking peace in everyday life
W - Islamic - disagreement over western or eastern
incorporates many virtues recognizable in other philosophical traditions and categorizes them as moral obligations - gratitude, love, kindness, courage, supporting the poor as a duty
Look out for your brother, especially if you have a lot to offer
Giving to the poor is a requirement
W - Anishinaabe Traditions
The Ojibwe, part of the Anishinaabe, tell a story that guides values in this cultural group, known as “The Seven Grandfathers’ Teachings.”
First elder of the tribe was said to have received knowledge from each of the seven grandfathers with the purpose of these gifts being to help the people live a good life and to respect the creator, the earth and each other
Seven values each represented by a different animal
Wisdom, love, respect, bravery, honesty
Eastern Influences:
Confucianism - founded by Confucius
Emphasis on morality as a cure for evils and looking out for others
Leadership and education are central to morality
Emphasis on morality as a potential cure for the evils of that time - encourages looking out for others - golden rule
Taking care of others in the group
Attainment of virtue - 5 virtues - humanity, treat others well, etiquette and sensitivity for others feelings, wisdom and truthfulness
Striving towards enlightenment
E - Taoism - Lao-Tzu
Followers must live according to the Tao
the concept of the Way is a moving head and “refers simultaneously to direction, movement, method, and thought”
difficulty in understanding the Way stems from the fact that one cannot teach another about it
understanding flows from experiencing the Way for oneself by fully participating in life.
both good and bad experiences can contribute to a greater understanding of the Way.
humanity, justice, temperance, and propriety must be practiced by the virtuous individual without effort
Goals: achieving naturalness and spontaneity in life
Virtues: humanity, justice, temperance and propriety
E - Buddhism by Buddha
Seeking the good of others is woven throughout the teachings of “the Master” or “the Enlightened One”
Buddha teaches that suffering is a part of being and that this suffering is brought on by the human emotion of desire.
In Buddhist philosophy, Nirvana is a state in which the self is freed from the desire for anything - ascended beyond human needs
End goal - a life full of love, compassion, joy, and self-control
both premortal and postmortal nirvana states are proposed as possible for the individual.
Postmortal nirvana may be similar to the Christian idea of heaven.
The paths to achieving these virtues within Buddhism require humans to divorce themselves from the human emotion of desire to put an end to suffering.
E - Hinduism
emphasize the interconnectedness of all things.
One’s goal within this tradition would be to live life so fully and so correctly that one would go directly to the afterlife without having to repeat life’s lessons in a reincarnated form
quest of one’s life is to attain ultimate self-knowledge and to strive for ultimate self-betterment
Karma - better placement in reincarnation due to good actions in the previous life
“Good action” is also encouraged in the sense that, if one does not reach ultimate self-knowledge in one’s life and thus does have to return to Earth via reincarnation after death, the previous life’s good actions correlate directly with better placement in the world in the subsequent life - karma.
Most people are collectivist
Lots of overlap in terms of what we value - not completely separate
Important to mention that the same word doesn’t necessarily mean the same concept: Ex. wisdom
Judeo-christian - understanding god’s plan - impossible
Confucianism - transform and regulate social order
Ojibwe - cherishing knowledge
To sum up - we will try to learn from different traditions in order to understand what the good life is
US - land of the rugged individualist
Any person with a good idea can succeed in the pursuit of personal goals through hard work
Think of themselves in isolation
Equal rights and freedom- depending on the subculture
Capitalist economy
Individualism was linked to the emphases on equal rights and freedom found in the US as well as the country’s capitalistic economy and open frontiers
Personal and individual goals, as exemplified by the construct of hope, seem to be the primary tool of the “rugged individualist
Emphases in Individualism
Concern for the individual greater than concern for the group = individualistic
when the average person in a society is disposed toward individual independence
3 Core Emphases Individualism
Sense of independence
–individualistic societies - norm for each person to see themselves as independent of the surrounding group of people
Desire to stand out relative to others - Need for Uniqueness
—people follow their own motives and preferences instead of adjusting their desires to accommodate those of the group
–individualistic person thus sets personal goals that may not match those of the groups to which they belong
—Have to be moderately similar to others
—Uniqueness attributes affect social acceptability
—Attractiveness of scarce commodities
Use of the self/indivdual as the unit of analysis in thinking about life
—-explanations of events are likely to involve the person rather than the group.
—the various definitions of individualism draw upon worldviews in which personal factors are emphasized over social forces
Secondary Emphases individualism
individualistic person pursues what is enjoyable to him or her, in contrast to collectivistic people, who derive their pleasures from things that promote the welfare of the group.
people in individualistic societies often are somewhat informal in their interactions with others, whereas people in collectivistic societies are more formal in their interactions, as they attend to the expected and important norms that determine such behaviors
tend to be rather short term in their thinking, whereas collectivists are more long term in their thought patterns.
Goals are for oneself
Pursuit of what is enjoyable for oneself
Group norm may be followed but only when personally advantageous
When to pursue relationships?
Short term thinking
Informal social interactions
Hunter-gatherer ancestors’ behavior
Survival
Social bonds
Elliot Aronson “social animals”
Social psychologists have argued that people prosper when they join together and work toward shared goals
Default setting
Core Emphases Collectivism
Average person disposed toward group interdependence
Dependence
–Draw meaning and existence from being part of an important group of people
—Goes with expectations of the group, concerned with the welfare of the group, and is dependent upon the other members
Conformity (Need to fit in)
—Oyserman - assumption that groups bind and mutually obligate individuals
—Inherent social approach in which the movement is toward ingroups and away from outgroups
Perception of the group as the fundamental unit of analysis
—-reflect close linkages in which people see themselves as part of a larger, more important whole.
Secondary Emphases Collectivism
Collectivist is defined in terms of the characteristics of the groups to which they belong
Pay closer attention to the rules
Subjgate personal needs for those of the group
Satisfaction stems from the group’s reaching its desired goals and from feeling that one has fulfilled the socially prescribed duties as a member
Interchanges between people are characterized by mutual generosity and equity
Interpersonal relationships pursued even when there are no obvious benefits to be attained
Formal in interactions - monitor social context carefully to form impressions of others and to make decisions
Lower need for uniqueness
Emphasis on maintaining harmony
Demographics Related to Collectivism
People in lower social classes are more likely to be collectivist in their perspectives
More collectivist as they grow older
The Stories We Tell
Western fairytales - hero fights alone and takes on dangers singlehandedly - individual independence is valued over needing someone elses assistance
—Transactional if there is helping
—Personal gain despite potential loss to another
—Many stories emphasize seeking personal fortune
Eastern - harmony, interdependence, sharing, collaboration
Western - independence, personal gain (sometimes despite potential loss), or fortune
Orientation to time
Western - individuals look to the future, strengths valued reflect future-oriented thinking
Eastern - looking backward and recognizing the wisdom of their elders
Thought Process
Eastern - circular thinking style - yin yang
—Circular and constantly changing nature of the world
—Dark part represents the feminine and passive and the light side represents the masculine and active
Easterner - if you achieve happiness, unhappiness is close
Aim for balance - strength of endurance
Great suffering will be balanced by great happiness
Western - happiness has a straight line to the goal - looking carefully for obstacles and finding possible ways around them - strength of hope used to achieve this
identity dimension
“a set of personal attributes which have a common core of meaning”
Compassion
Western - Aristotle
Greeks - happiness = life with no ties to duty and the freedom to pursue individual goals
Eastern - confucianism, taoism, buddhism, hinduism
Confucian - discussed within the concept of jen - encapsulate all other virtues
Taoist - humanity also reflects behaviors that must occur naturally without premeditation
Buddha - karuna is woven throughout buddhism as a virtue on the path toward transcendence
Nirvana - complete harmony, balance, and equilibrium
Harmonious social network - harmony central to happiness
Often mistakenly equated with conformity
Reflected in the virtue of justice
Cassell - 3 requirements for compassion
(1) the difficulties of the recipient must be serious,
(2) the recipient’s difficulties cannot be self-inflicted
(3) we, as observers, must be able to identify with the recipient’s suffering
“unilateral emotion” (Cassell, 2009, p. 394) that is directed outward from oneself
Possessing compassion helps the person to succeed in life and is viewed as a major strength within the Eastern tradition
may come more naturally to a person from a collectivist culture than to someone from an individualist culture
—compassion is essential for dealing with daily life tasks
