Myriah Miller's Archive

Personality

3 Commentsby   |  05.02.11  |  The Schools of Psychology (Part IV)

In reading about the theorists and their personal lives I was really struck by two things in particular. The first thing that I found really interesting was the deep connection between how their personal lives influenced their theories. Taking your life experiences and moving towards learning about humans and making other’s lives better is a really an accomplishment. This also made me very thankful for research and it’s support of these theories. Working without the support of research has the potential to be very damaging.

The second thing that I found really interesting was how many of the theorists had many personal issues or traumatic situations in their lives that reflects in their work.  I think this shows that despite difficulties that people may have experienced they can work through it to make it useful or beneficial for others. No one’s lives are perfect, and I think it’s important to stop focusing on the imperfections and focus on doing something worthwhile.

religion and psychology

3 Commentsby   |  03.21.11  |  Pre-Renaissance (Part I)

As we have talked about religion in this unit I have been really intrigued by the different approaches that psychology has towards religion. I am really interested in how personality influences religion on a personal level, and if personality does have a significant impact on religion, what implications does that have on how we approach religion and our religious community? Thinking about how individual differences and a person’s own psychological make-up might influence their beliefs has forced me to be more accepting in the thoughts and beliefs of others. If one faith group does not reflect the values and needs of all people does it mean that they are misguided in their faith, or that they are designed to believe differently?

Kierkegaard

5 Commentsby   |  02.21.11  |  Pre-Renaissance (Part I)

As I was reading through the material regarding Romanticism I found it really interesting that many of their lives were full of emotional turmoil and pain.

Kierkegaard was estranged from his father and religion during his early 20’s as a result of  his father admitting to sexual urges, but at the age of 25 he accepted them both back into his life. His love life was also plagued with troubles,he ended his  engagement to Regina Olsen after two years. After ending his engagement many described him as melancholy and withdrawn. Keirkegaard also considered a relationship with God to be both painful and happy, passionate but unfulfilled.

Different time periods of thought and learning have focused on specific things, especially in psychology. I think what we can take from this would be not to focus merely on the biological, or only on the emotional. We cannot approach things from a very specific focus or we might miss the bigger picture.

Happiness

1 Commentby   |  02.02.11  |  Pre-Renaissance (Part I)

I was really intrigued by Plato and Aristotle’s view of happiness and laws of harmony. Plato believed that injustice, wrong doing, and hedonism are signs of a sick soul that is out of harmony.  Aristotle believed that happiness comes from fulfilling one’s purpose. I would wonder if personality would play a role in an individual’s approach to the thoughts of these philosophers. If an individual was prone to expression through bold style, with a fearless personality, and whose creatice style was excessive in nature, they would be viewed as rash and wasteful by those following Platonic thought. At the other extreme those were were meek in spirit, conservative,  and quiet,  would they be wrong too? I think many times in life our view point of how things should be do not leave room for the individual differences that each one of us posseses.

Myriah Miller's Comment Archive

  1. Myriah Miller on Do you think this course in important?
    11:51 pm, 05.02.11

    I wish I had taken this class a little bit earlier because I think it would have been useful during intro to counseling. I think it would have really completed the picture and I would have understood at a better level.

  2. Myriah Miller on Rogers deserves a high-five
    11:46 pm, 05.02.11

    I really liked how Rogers was able to take his life experiences and making something useful out of them. His independent thinking in response to the theorists before him is really admirable.

  3. Myriah Miller on Existentialism--very cool, but very scary
    11:44 pm, 05.02.11

    I agree with your thoughts about how this might be scary or dangerous for others. Freud’s own theory was influenced by the antisemitism that he experienced in his lifetime.I think for it to be truly beneficial living authentically must not affect the rights of others.

  4. Myriah Miller on My Perspective on the Humanistic Approach
    11:35 pm, 05.02.11

    People are often very afraid of therapy or counseling. I think that giving the client some control over the therapeutic direction that they are taking is very important.

  5. Myriah Miller on more on free will and the like
    10:19 pm, 03.21.11

    I think without free will we are victims of our surroundings. If we say that we do not have free will we are not taking responsibility for choices that are ours to make.

  6. Myriah Miller on Old Habits are Hard to Break
    9:51 pm, 03.21.11

    I really like the concept that we cannot merely want to change, or work on having good thoughts. Instead we need to make active choices in working towards positive change. If I want to make changes in my life I can’t just think about it, I have to make a plan and take action. I think I could really learn a lot if I put some of those ideas into action.

  7. Myriah Miller on Religion: Pre-determined, or Personal Decision?
    9:40 pm, 03.21.11

    I would agree that we have choice and free will when it comes to religion, and I think most people would agree on that. I do think, however, that there are subconscious factors that influence our approach to faith and religious framework. We have control over our actions, but we may not always understand everything that contributes to our actions.

  8. Myriah Miller on Rationality & Faith
    9:31 pm, 03.21.11

    I felt the same way about some of the ideas in evolutionary psychology. Especially the thoughts about choosing partners based on traits that we wanted to be expressed. I would challenge this by asking about all of the people/relationships that do not fit that mold. What about those who do not want to have children, or those who get married despite a severe disability of one or both individuals. I would also be interested to find out how evolutionary psychology approaches the topic of homosexuality. I find the theory very interesting, but I understand some of the stumbling blocks that you felt, because I also had some unsettling thoughts.

  9. Myriah Miller on Friedrich Nietzsche
    9:33 pm, 02.21.11

    I really liked how his work paralleled and translated into Freudian theories. Their work focused on controlling powerful, irrational impulses. I think if we know how our experiences will shape us, it would shape the way we approach life. we might try harder to avoid those urges or experiences that would not make us better people.

  10. Myriah Miller on Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Society
    9:23 pm, 02.21.11

    I really liked how you looked at his theory of government but followed up with looking at his lack of support for his ideas. The Romantic period seems to be dominated by a lot of ideas, but less empirical support.