Hi everyone:
I've appreciated the posts on vivid teaching moments, but wanted to share my
thoughts about the last post.
How come whenever people start talking about faith, they tend to describe it in
terms of some sort of psychological mechanism that wards of anxiety, ambiguity,
or fear. Take the comment about the research of Taylor and Fisk. Is their line
of research suggesting that people who believe in a higher power are distorting
the world in such a way that is pleasing or less threatening to them?
Could an alternative explanation be that all human beings strive to find some
sort of meaning in their experiences. Cognitive theories suggest that we
develop by reducing cognitive discrepancies and maintaining cognitive
equilibrium. That is, on a cognitive level we try to assimilate and accomodate
in order to cognitively "make sense" of our experiences. Another example is the
development of stereotypes to perceive trends or patterns among a large array of
information. Or the use of cognitive shortcuts such as automatic thoughts or
cognitive errors to process information. Or maybe the work of Viktor Frankl or
Irvin Yalom that suggests that man is motivated to find meaning in life.
In other words, is a faith in a higher power always the result of trying to
protect us from some sort of anxiety? Or could it be that instead of running
away from anxiety or fear, we are actually running towards meaning and purpose.
Or as Maslow might say, we strive to obtain self-actualization. Or, even
better, as C.S. Lewis states, we are all created with a "God-shaped vaccuum"
that we are motivated to fill.
In my clinical experience, some people do use religion or faith to ward off
anxiety and fear. But do all people use this same psychological process, or
could it be that some develop faith for less "defensive" and perhaps
more proactive reasons?
I wonder if the positive psychology research or the research on the psychology
of faith and religion have any interesting ideas to contribute to this line of
discussion.
Rod
Quoting Jim Guinee <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
> > Hi Tipsters,
> > I was asking about vivid teaching moments last week (thanks to those who
> > sent them in--I didn't ask permission to post them to the group, so don't
> > know what to do at this point), and I thought I'd pass on a vivid
> > teaching/learning moment that I don't really know what to do with now that
> > I've got it...
> > I was trying to explain paranoid schizophrenia to my intro class
> > last semester, and was casting about for a different way to look at it.
> > As I sometimes do, I tried to consider what the *opposite* of paranoid sz
> > would look like, as a way of clarifying the concept both to myself and to
> > the class. What popped into my head was the idea of belief in a
> > benevolent force that arranged your life to be positive, took care of you,
> > and loved you no matter what. Yikes, I thought, that sounds like a belief
> > in God to me! In line with the research that indicates that we often
> > distort the world in positive ways in order to feel better about ourselves
> > (Taylor & Fiske), can we see a belief in good as an example of benevolent
> > schizophrenia, that is, a positive mental illness?
> > I offered the idea to the class; I couldn't tell what they thought,
> > but I'm still thinking about this months later...
> >
> > Joe Hatcher
> > Ripon College
> > Ripon, WI 54971
> > USA
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> I don't have a relevant comment, but it made me think of the latest quote in
> my signature block.
>
> "Why is it when we talk to God we're praying,
> but when he talks to us we're schizophrenic?"
> -Lily Tomlin
>
___________________________________
Roderick D. Hetzel, Ph.D.
Rochester Institute of Technology
Department of Psychology
George Eastman Building
18 Lomb Memorial Drive
Rochester, New York 14623
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (email)
