Psychology 0f Personal Effectiveness All You Need To Know About How To Live Happily & Effectively Timothy W. Starkey, Ph.D., ABAP

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Psychology 0f Personal EffectivenessAll You Need
To Know About How To Live Happily
EffectivelyTimothy W. Starkey, Ph.D., ABAP
Chapter 2 The Choice Is Yours

• Miami Dade College
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Determinism Vs Free Will

• Determinism - the belief in cause-and-effect
  relationships for behavior.
• Determinists believe that all human actions are
  caused by something, even if were not
  consciously aware of what the causes might be.
• Strict determinists also believe that free will
  is an illusion a belief that most people cling
  to avoid feeling powerless, or because of their
  religious beliefs.
• The theory of free will holds that humans can
  and do typically ignore so-called determining
  factors (e.g. genes, childhood conditioning) and
  freely choose how and when to act.
• Psychological theories of personality vary from
  the determinist end of the spectrum to the free
  will end. Most personality theories include both
  determinism and free will in their explanation of
  human behavior(s).

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Mixing Philosophy And Football
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Three Main Determinist Theories

• 1. Biological Theories these theories hold
  that we are almost exclusively a product of our
  genetic heritage. All of out behavior, both
  normal and abnormal, can be traced back to
  particular configurations of our genetic makeup.
• Scientific research has produced much support for
  this theory human characteristics such singing
  ability, athletic skills, sexual orientation,
  schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, activity level,
  temperament, and many, many diseases and medical
  conditions are partly or largely genetically
  determined.
• For example, the concordance rate (e.g.
  probability that two people will display the same
  trait) of schizophrenia is much higher for
  identical twins than for fraternal twins, and
  higher still than for people in general who are
  non-related (share no genetic similarity)

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• 2. Psychic Determinism. Freud believed that you
  are who you are because of how you were raised,
  and because of the emotionally significant events
  (e.g. traumas) that occurred during your
  formative years. Although many of Freuds
  beliefs have considerable clinical support, they
  tend to be limited in their dismissal of
  significant post-childhood development. They also
  tended to be so generally worded that rigorous
  scientific testing has not proven possible.
• 3. Behaviorism asserts that we are a product of
  our conditioning and learning histories. Strict
  behaviorists have insisted that only traits that
  are measurable (e.g. observable) are fit things
  for Psychology to study, and that in fact, only
  things that are measurable exist. Skinner and
  Pavlov, in particular, taught that it is our
  overall that shapes our personality and behavior.
• For example, one became a good student because
  he/she had been rewarded for successful
  studying and academic achievement. Ones
  academic history caused him/her to be a good
  student.

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Free Will and Existentialism

• Persons who believe in the Free Will Theory argue
  that these determinist paradigms only tell a part
  of the story. They may be accurate in describing
  some areas of human behavior, but they leave out
  a key component of our human existence.
• Some European philosophers in the 19th Century,
  known as existentialists (John Paul Sarte and
  Albert Camus), believed that although life
  sometimes gives you unpleasant surprises that are
  beyond your control, it is still up to you how
  you deal with them.
• In the United States, some psychologists (Abraham
  Maslow and Carl Rogers) were dissatisfied with
  both the psychoanalytic and the behaviorist
  approaches, and they developed a viewpoint now
  called Humanism. Humanists were more
  optimistic about mans nature and destiny than
  were the Existentialists, although they agreed
  with them that we became who we are by virtue of
  the choices we made along the way.

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Choices
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Locus of Control

• Proactivity (aka freedom of choice) is an
  important paradigm guiding the behavior of
  effective individuals. Obviously, a person who
  doesnt believe that it makes any difference what
  he does in a particular situation is less likely
  to try his best. Self-efficacy is a similar
  term that refers to ones belief in oneself as
  able to deal with a challenging situation or
  achieve a challenging goal hes set for himself.
• The degree to which one believes that he is or is
  not responsible for his behaviors is referred to
  as the locus of control (LOC). The LOC is on a
  continuum ranging from external (not at all
  responsible for ones behaviors) to internal
  (entirely responsible for ones behaviors.
• Individuals with an external LOC see themselves
  as victims, while persons with an internal LOC
  believe that they themselves are ultimately
  responsible for their outcomes in life.

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The Choice of Coming To Class Or Not
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Cognitive Behaviorism

• Cognitive Behavorists (Albert Ellis, Aaron Beck)
  broke with the earlier orthodox behaviorists
  over the issue of covert behavior (e.g.
  thoughts or emotions). They believed that the
  internal processing of the organism mediated in
  some way the response made to the stimulus.
• In this sense, they replaced the early
  traditional behaviorists
• S-R paradigm with their own S-O-R paradigm.
• For example, suppose a stimulus imposes upon you,
  but before you can respond, you have a thought
  about that stimulus, you imbue it with meaning.
  It is then that thought that leads to your
  particular response.
• Most psychologists believe that human behavior is
  the result of both determining (biological and
  psychosocial) forces and our inherent ability to
  choose. The degree to which a particular behavior
  arises from one or the other depends on the
  particular person involved.

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Three Ways To Increase Proactivity

• The easiest and quickest way to increase your
  proactivity is to concentrate on three (3) key
  things
• 1. Your thoughts - you cannot generally control
  what happens to you in life, but you can usually
  control what thoughts pass through your
  consciousness. If you find yourself dwelling on a
  particular negative or unpleasant thought, try
  thought stopping. Some studies suggest that 80
  or more of what we worry about vever happens
  anyway. Learn to prioritize your worrying save
  your worry time for the stuff that really
  matters.
• 2. Your language - too often we word our speech
  in the passive mode. He made me angry or I
  just couldnt get up and go to class Take
  control of your behaviors make yourself the
  actor and not the subject of your life. When
  passive speech becomes too ingrained, it can
  become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

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• 3. Your actions - set goals for yourself and
  achieve them make promises to yourself and then
  keep them (start small if necessary). Recognize
  the value of your word to others, and most of
  all, to yourself. Dont set goals that you dont
  really want to do what it takes to achieve. Dont
  say Ill call you and then not do it. Dont set
  yourself up for failure decide what you want,
  and then go for it. If you decide to lose 10 lbs,
  then start dieting and exercising and LOSE THE 10
  LBS. Effective people do the things that
  ineffective people dont feel like doing. Just
  because you dont feel like it is no reason
  (e.g. excuse) for not doing it. Dont let
  yourself down.

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• Catastrophizing (Albert Ellis) refers to giving
  yourself negative messages about a situation
  before that are greatly exaggerated. On a 10
  point scale (1 no threat and 10worst possible),
  its consistently rating things 2 or 3 points
  higher than what they actually warrant. Its
  actually talking yourself into being upset.
• Self-talk (called automatic thoughts by Beck)
  is that constant babble of running commentary
  that goes on in your head all day long.

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Common Irrational Thoughts
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• Correlation
• The correlation coefficient assess the extent
  that individuals scores on one variable are
  systematically related to scores on another.
  (e.g. if one goes up or down a lot, the other
  goes up or down a lot too)
• It involves the calculation of what is called a
  correlation coefficient, which is represented
  by r, and which may range from -1.0 to 1.0
• An r of 0 means that there is no systematic
  relationship between the two variables at all
• High positive correlation indicates the variables
  vary together in the same direction
• High negative correlation indicates the variables
  vary together in opposite directions (if one
  increases, the other is likely to decrease)
• CORRELATION DOES NOT MEAN CAUSATION!

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Examples of Correlations
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The Importance of Language
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Steps for Eliminating Erroneous Thinking
Decisions

• 1. Look for evidence dont rush to judgment.
  Separate what youre observing from what youre
  inferring. See if the negative thought fits
  the facts.
• 2. Generate other alternatives consider other
  possibilities. Most things have multiple causes.
  Remember that correlation does not necessarily
  mean causation!
• 3. Realistically consider what your situation is
  if the negative thought is true or if it is
  false. Ask yourself what the worst case could
  be and then assess how likely it might be.
• 4. Evaluate usefulness sometimes the
  consequences of holding a belief are worse than
  the belief itself (whether its true or not).
  There are times when the best strategy is to
  distract yourself from a belief instead of
  tackling it head on (e.g. when youre about to
  attempt a difficult dive from the 10 meter board
  in front of thousands).

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Some Tips for Optimism
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End of Chapter 2