Laura Jane Hood's Archive

Third Force Psychology

0 Commentsby   |  04.23.13  |  Student Posts

There has been a movement amongst the modern American psyche that places a lot of focus on the most important idea in Existential Psychology, impending death. The modern American psyche encourages a do now, do you mindset-because after all, you’re not going to be young forever or alive for that matter. We have embraced the glorification of busy lives that are full of events and projects that strive to fulfill. We admire people who take off on spur of the moment trips to “experience” life. We constantly seek and desire ways to be better, happier people because we fear the idea of dying before we’ve lived a life worth living.

Psychoanalytical Thought

2 Commentsby   |  04.11.13  |  Student Posts

An entire branch of art and expression is rooted in psychoanalytical ideas. Abstract art is often said to be expressions of subconscious ideas and feeling. Shapes, lines, and colors express urges, emotions, and desires that lay benith the surface. In addition to this, art can itself be considered a defense mechanism in which Id impulses are sublimated into a culturally acceptable form, art.

Behaviorism

3 Commentsby   |  04.02.13  |  Student Posts

If you’ve ever watch an Ax, or Tag, or any cologne commercial you know that they all pretty much work the same. Wear our spray, hot girl likes our spray, get hot girl. What we’re seeing here is classic signs of behavioral conditioning. By introducing the potential for a favorable reward (hot girl) we are more likely to achieve the desired behavioral outcome (buy and wear our spray). This particular add is a personal favorite of mine. Here, not only are men being promised the potential for hot girls, they are also being promised that this spray will turn them into astronaut reminiscent beings. This same idea governs the motives behind hot girls in beer commercials and virtually all other forms of advertising. Body Spray Commercial

Blog 3

2 Commentsby   |  03.05.13  |  Student Posts

Many questions arise when we discuss questions concerning Evolutionary Psychology. My conservative political, religious, and education background give me all the drive, argument, and desire to completely dismiss this branch of science and psychology. However, I do not want to do that. In fact, I believe Evolutionary Psychology to hold multiple important insights. My question, however, is how far does this go? I would venture to say that most of us are very comfortable with certain ideas surrounding evolutionary psychology. Parental instincts is one possibility. We all pretty universally agree that humans, over time, have developed a more refined way of raising and protecting children. But what about evolutionary psychology’s impact on things like emotions, and how they are produced and expressed. At what point do we say we smile because we are happy and not because we have been biologically and behaviorally conditioned to do so? And while we are asking that question, let’s ask this one “What is happy? Why is that happy?” At what point are we more than tissue and chemicals and nerves? At what point do we become people with souls? At what point do responses cease to be biological and become your personality? How far does this go?

Blog Post 2

2 Commentsby   |  01.29.13  |  Student Posts

As a student of theology, I spend a lot of my time reading, dissecting, and talking about scripture. Recently, one of the main topics of conversation, both in my classes and amongst my friends, has been the idea of soul and spirit. What do these terms mean? Where did they come from?

We can see a clear impact from Greek thought when applied to the notion of soul. As we sit down to try and understand what the term soul means we may not realize that we are already at, to some extent, a disadvantage.

The soul we read about in Old and New Testament scripture alike was written from the, expectantly, Jewish standpoint. This view believes that physical body and the spirit combine to make the soul. As Westerners, our thoughts concerning soul have been vastly shaped by the Greeks. The Greeks believed soul to be a portion, specifically a third, of the total human.

Whichever way you define soul it is clear that Greek thought has shaped our Western understanding, and therefore our exegetical approach. While this is a very specific example of the prevalence of Greek thought in our modern Western world, it is and indicator that classical Greek thought is still alive and well.

Blog One: The Good Life

2 Commentsby   |  01.20.13  |  Student Posts

The good life is an interesting concept. I really don’t think there is one specific definition or explanation of the “good life”. That seems like an obvious statement, that not everyone will agree on what makes life, well life. But I venture to say that there isn’t one specific explanation or definition of the good life for a person. As you age, as you grow, as you learn and develop your belief of what the good life is changes. As a child the good life is mac and cheese and chicken patty dinner, catching fire flies, and extra recess. As a middle and high school student the good life is passing that test you didn’t study for, getting out of having to do your chores at home, and getting asked to the school dace by that really awesome guy. Now that I sit here as an adult, or someone who is at least very quickly morphing into something that looks very similar to an adult, my understanding of the good life has, and I assume will continue to, change. Right now my understanding of the good life has everything to do with placement and purpose. The good life is living, studying, doing, loving, and exploring things that you have a passion and skill for. It is being in community and relationship with people who love, support, equip, and encourage you to grow into all of that more and more every day. I’m a firm believer that well all have a purpose in life. I’m also a firm believer that, while over arching themes exist, your purpose in life changes over time. Maybe the good life is living in your purpose for the moment. Running in your lane, burning at your wattage, or whatever other cheesy saying you can think up. There is a place you belong, there is a work you are specially created to do, there are people that are suppose to be a part of all of this. That is your lane. It is unique and specific to you. So maybe, just maybe, living the good life is living in your lane. Maybe living the good life is doing the things and being the person that only you can be and do.

Laura Jane Hood's Comment Archive

  1. Laura Jane Hood on Raymond Lowe - Blog #6
    8:40 pm, 04.24.13

    I agree a lot with the comment you made about Third Force’s value of free will and its presence in American culture. I would say that there has never been a society that value free will more than modern Americans. We live in a consumer culture that wants options to choose from. We tell our children that they can work hard, make it past things and become anything they want. We don’t accept excuses well, and we hold people who take responsibility for their lives and choices in high esteem. We value choice and our “innate” ability and right to make it.

  2. Laura Jane Hood on Third Force Psychology
    8:32 pm, 04.24.13

    I agree with the idea that American’s adopt the Third Force ideals, but I sometimes wonder how well we do this. I know a lot of parents, and I would venture that you do as well, who push their children so hard to be involved in and successful at something, ANYTHING, that those children end up being slaves to something they have no passion for and find not enjoyment in. If we’re seeking to fulfill Third Force ideals, than this is exactly the opposite.

  3. Laura Jane Hood on Blog 4: Behaviorism
    11:01 pm, 04.03.13

    I like what you’ve said here about behaviorism being the most applicable form of psychology, and I would agree with that. It is true that is it extremely prevalent in advertising and I believe this to be true because of how easily applicable it is.

  4. Laura Jane Hood on Blog 4: Behaviorism
    10:58 pm, 04.03.13

    This is a great example! I am a nanny and I see this real life example of conditioning all the time in the families I work for. Most recently, and effectively, I’ve seen almost this exact thing done with M&Ms and a star chart.

  5. Laura Jane Hood on Nature V.S. Nurture
    11:52 am, 03.06.13

    I really like what you had to say here Forrest, and I agree with it. I think nurture, environment, and conditioning play a MASSIVE role in the creation of who we are as humans. I don’t think it can be ignored that children who grow up in homes where abuse is present are more likely to be a abusers or victims, even if these children are adopted. This is one example but I think it speaks deeply to the idea that environment is vastly important.

  6. Laura Jane Hood on Blog three evolutionary psychology
    11:46 am, 03.06.13

    I liked what you had to say about this theory mainly applying to broad behavior patterns. I wonder how much of that behavior is actually evolved versus socially conditioned. Even if we accept the idea that genetic evolution aids in this social conditioning, it is technically not evolutionary psychology.

  7. Laura Jane Hood on Blog Post 2
    10:28 am, 02.01.13

    Gavin,
    First let me say, that I love this movie and I love that you used it. After seeing this movie for the first time, I walked out of the theater and turned to my sister and said, “Is this real life. Has someone been playing me my entire life.” I had a feeling that exactly aligned with what you are saying here and I agree with you that Hollywood has taken hold of Scholasticism and its conversation about perceptions of reality. I have a good friend who’s dad always says, “Perception is reality”, it is a statement that interests me more and more every day.

  8. Laura Jane Hood on Blog post 2
    10:23 am, 02.01.13

    I agree with, and really like, your point that Greek philosophers began a process of thought that is incredible.

    I would push back on your thought that people are still on this path however. You are correct, there is a fraction on the population that desires more knowledge, deeper insight. But I would say that, more than ever, we live in a society that accepts what is fed to us. We want quick, sound bite, information. We want to know “the facts”, and know them quickly, so that we can then continue on with our day. Rarely, do we spend time on our own researching these things. I would say that more than ever we believe what we believe because we’ve been told to believe it.

    But I don’t think this is new. The philosophers of Greece were stretching ideas and norms. The vast majority of people around them were also fine knowing what they knew because they were told to know it.

  9. Laura Jane Hood on Blog 1: The Good Life
    10:11 pm, 01.21.13

    Raymond,
    I agree with your thoughts here, very much. I know that I value my family a great deal and that they do truly add vastly to my life in an important, meaningful, and positive way. I think that your thoughts about what you consider the good life speak a lot to a strong character as well. I find it easy to believe that one who considers family and friends as the foundational building blocks of a “good life” values them over other things. You value them over money and possessions and status. And that, that speaks to a character that will live and work to ensure that not only he, but everyone he loves, continues to abide in and embrace the good life.

  10. Laura Jane Hood on Blog One: The Good Life
    10:05 pm, 01.21.13

    Tyler,

    My grandfather has said many, many incredibly valuable things to me in my life. I find and believe him to be the wisest person I have or will ever meet. He has more life experience than I can ever imagine having. I hear his voice in my head as I prepare to make major life choices, and it is his approval I seek above any other earthly figure. All of that being said, and you now knowing how much weight is behind this statement, I will now tell you that he would completely agree with you. He tells me all the time to keep doing what I love. He tells me without relent to pick a career that I love, because I have to get out of bed and go to that same job every day for forty years. He also gives me that same advice about marriage. To marry someone who I truly love and like and admire, because I have to get out of bed and do life with and love them for forty plus years. It is some of the greatest advice I’ve ever gotten and you have stated it again here. And in reality I think what both of these things boil down to are passion. Having a passion for your husband/wife, your children, your home, your friends, you career, your church, the bean plants in the back yard. Having a passion about life, all of life.