Personal Research

Category: psychology

  • The Space Between Stimulus and Response

    —

    by

    bill
    in ,

    Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.  —  Viktor E. Frankl If you are aware of a recurring pattern of acting counter to your interests, you have a puzzle to solve: Why do you do…

  • It Looks Different Than It Feels

    —

    by

    bill
    in ,

    If you want the present to be different than the past. . . study the past – Spinosa I’ve been using the metaphor of the "puppy and puppy-trainer" for the Experiential and Abstract Processing Systems. However, to focus on the collaborative relationship between the two perspectives, I’ll switch to the "tennis-player and coach."  When you…

  • Doing Personal Research

    —

    by

    bill
    in ,

    We don’t receive wisdom. We must discover it for ourselves after a journey than no one can take for us nor spare us.  —  Marcel Proust Some general principles to guide your personal research Subjective experience is state-dependent — that is, phenomena such as perception and motivation are greatly influenced by your current emotional state. When you…

  • The Soul Illusion

    —

    by

    bill
    in , ,

    I think my quarry is illusion. I war against magic. I believe that, though illusion often cheers and comforts, it ultimately and invariably weakens and constricts the spirit.  —  Irvin Yalom Some otherwise competent individuals repeatedly and knowingly act counter to their own interests. They are not intending to hurt themselves; they are taken in…

  • Know Thyself!

    —

    by

    bill
    in , ,

    Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.    —  Aristotle Bad things happen, and some suffering is unavoidable. But you can create additional suffering for yourself and others by the way you react to the things that happen. A popular way to create unnecessary suffering is to interpret the things that happen from a…

  • The Karma of Behaving Badly

    —

    by

    bill
    in ,

    Men are not punished for their sins, but by them.  —   Elbert Hubbard Performance becomes easier with practice. In fact, with enough practice, performance can become autonomous—that is, it requires no conscious attention at all. Consider activities such as driving a car or using a computer keyboard. When first attempted, performance is slow, hesitant, and…

  • The Imp of the Perverse

    —

    by

    bill
    in ,

    God’s error was forbidding the apple. If He would have forbidden the serpent, then Adam would have eaten the serpent. –George Bernard Shaw People often end up doing exactly what they tell themselves not to do. The intention to suppress a response has the perverse effect of making that response more likely. Edgar Allan Poe…

  • The PIG

    —

    by

    bill
    in , ,

    No temptation can ever be measured by the value of its object. — Sidonie Colette The Problem of Immediate Gratification (the PIG) is our name for the principle that immediate payoffs are far more influential than delayed payoffs—even if the latter is much larger (e.g., choosing $1 now over $10 tomorrow). The other side of…

  • Ruminative Self Focus

    —

    by

    bill
    in

    The secret to being miserable is to have the leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not.  —  George Bernard Shaw We are all self-focused. Thoughts related to the self —  how I feel, why I feel that way, what other people think of me — are compelling. When this tendency is combined with the recursive…

  • Recursive Traps

    —

    by

    bill
    in ,

      "It is often possible to discern a structure to people’s difficulties, in which internal states and external events continually create the conditions for the recurrence of each other."  — Paul Wachtel Blushing is an example of a recursive structure. If blushing is embarrassing for me, then any feedback that I am blushing enhances the physiological…