Rachel Easley's Archive

Carl Rogers was a highly influential psychologist specializing in the field of humanism. His work led to many important contributions and he changed the way we view the world and people in a drastic way. His person-centered approach, specifically, has significant meaning for me, as someone who wants to be a counselor. In his study of personalities and how we interrelate to one another, he discovered some techniques that work well in counseling. Because of this, this theory has had wide spread success and application in many domains of psychotherapy. He worked in client-centered therapy, education, and for other groups and organizations to help people. He received many awards in his lifetime, including the Noble Peace Prize for his work in conflict resolution in South Africa as well as Northern Ireland. So what do his ideals have to teach us today? For starters, I want to comment on how much I respect and admire Rogers for work. Many of the ideas he formulated match up with my ideas, too. He focused on the individual and how we all interrelate in a web of relationships. I think it’s important to look not just at the person you are speaking to but who and where they come from. People feel an innate desire to be needed and loved, and Rogers recognized that. This is a form of redemption because it sheds light on our internal desires and provides ways to address and work towards fixing them.

Clark Hull was a renowned American psychologist that lived during the 20th century and studied many subjects while receiving his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Michigan and his PhD from the University of Wisconsin. His most important contributions were drive theory and his extensive study on how motivation and learning influence how we behave. His field of study is very interesting to me because I too have often wondered what causes us to do the things we do and what factors go into our decisions. Hull found that when we are deprived of things, it creates desires and a drive that fuels us to pursue a goal that helps us survive. This seems very logical to me. My main criticism would be neglecting the spiritual aspect of our motivation and how our beliefs move us to things that are even counter to our nature. I think often times our natural impulses and the things that push us toward being desperate, Christ calls us to do things very differently than the world around us. Certainly we are called to survive and to take the steps necessary to do that but we are also called from Scripture to fight contrary to what seems natural. While most of his most notable is noted as obsolete now, he laid the ground work for many things, such as behaviorism and the practice of hypnosis.

Gestalt Psychology

It has been an interesting journey in class lately discussing this theory. Gestalt psychology is formed primarily around the idea that perception is truth. In line with the truth of the gospel, I would say that my views do not, in many ways, align with this theory. A basic truth I am coming to realize is that I am, obviously, not perfectly reliable and I cannot even fully trust myself. Sometimes the we see things are not the way they really are. One of my favorite quotes, by Ananis Nin, says: “We do not see things the way they are; we see things the way we are.” Our perception of truth and our surroundings is altered by our subjective thoughts and emotions. We cannot be fully trusted and Proverbs 20:5 warns of this: “The purposes of a person’s heart are deep waters, but one who has insight draws them out.” As we see also with Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, shadows both metaphorically and literally cloud our judgment. However, as we saw in lecture, our brains do perceive things from a holistic perspective and I am absolutely amazed by our ability to constantly draw parallels to create clean lines. This practice helps us make sense of what we are seeing. The problem with this characteristic of our brains is that this could potentially morph what is actually true. I am continuously fascinated by the fact we can easily and quickly craft ingenious solutions to problems, without even consciously realizing it. Humans truly are incredibly made and Gestalt psychology recognizes that. To the credit of Gestalt psychologists, I will say that one thing I deeply admire is the desire to organize messy and overwhelming stimuli into patterns that are logical. Though life does not always work according to this principle, it is nice to know that we are capable of critical thinking at this level.

Darwin, a British researcher, was one the most profound forces in shaping evolutionary psychology. As a remarkable scientist, he challenged the norms of his day and lay the foundation for many important scientific principles. The basis of his theories states that many behavioral commonalities, ranging from how we interact with others to how we eat our meals, have emerged in society and remained because they helped our ancestors survive to reproduce. This idea is called natural selection: a particular genetic trait gives preference to some for reproductive success. Since we each inherit literally thousands of genes, genetic mutation also plays a part in this process. Darwin was an incredible scientist and challenged the modern thought of his day in many ways. As a Christian and someone who also passionately loves science, I align with this theory strongly and think there is no reason we cannot let science and faith co-exist. The tension of that though comes when we assert in trusting God over any knowledge of this world but I also believe in evolution, too. It’s a fundamental part of nature and a basic fact of life that species change over time. Most species of animals are different now than they were hundreds of years ago, even though they are the same basic creatures as they were previously. Darwin intended to pursue a medical career, but upon switching to university his plans changed drastically. After a five year scientific expedition, he returned to England to unravel the mysteries he had seen. He compared his studies with Scripture and asserted that the Bible was not to be taken literally. I also agree with this theory and have been challenged in my beliefs upon reading this research. Overall, I am thankful for Darwin’s inquisitive mind and his willingness to question and search the world and Scripture for answers to the hard questions in life.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/darwin_charles.shtml
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/151902/Charles-Darwin

Immanuel Kant was a German, revolutionary theorist during the Enlightenment and is well known today for many of his ideals and beliefs. He believed that everything we see, feel and think are all fabrications of our own minds and imaginations. What we experience is what we mentally create and nothing more than that. Obviously I disagree with many of these assertions but find them oddly unique and fascinating because of their intensity and the way they stood, and continue to stand out from most people. He noted that what we mentally create does not, “…necessarily pertain to every being” but, because of the interconnected nature of our lives, does to a certain extent influence everyone. This manner of thinking insinuates that there is no absolute truth in life and all we see is not concrete. In our relationship with Christ as Christians, I identify with the idea that there is more to life than what we see and that our perception of this life may be skewed, but overall, most of this sounds a little crazy to me. I believe that this life does contain real, measurable, physical things that we interact with daily and that all other human beings relate to them the same way as well. Kant produced many interesting works that led to him being widely important to the structuring of modern philosophy. Parts of it I agree with, parts of it I don’t, but all of his ideas are intriguing to me and provide a base and a good starting point of raising questions about who and what we are.

http://www.egs.edu/library/immanuel-kant/biography/
http://www.trincoll.edu/depts/phil/philo/phils/kant.html
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3f/Immanuel_Kant_3.jpg

The Renaissance was undoubtedly a time of incredible progress and movement intellectually, spiritually, and even artistically. During a point in history when so many things were moving forward, it only seems in natural progression that all major factors of life were being challenged in new ways. This onset of deep thinking and big questions gave rise to some of the most influential and important people we know today. Most of the accomplishments of the modern world centered and began in this time period. Based on knowledge, wealth, art and talent great minds refocused the priorities of many. Johannes Gutenberg, specifically, is someone that I admire and who fascinates me greatly. As a prominent believer in the Bible and the innovator of moving metal in the West, he was able to capitalize on modern printing techniques in Europe. His Bible was the first book to be extensively published and it quickly spread all throughout the world. By stimulating the literacy rate of many people, especially towards Scripture, he certainly has my respect. Since reason and skepticism were a vital part of this time, it is interesting and refreshing to me that the Bible was still something so pivotal to Gutenberg. As a devout Catholic, there are many parts of his faith that I disagree with but overall, I admire who he is and what he accomplished. He chose the Bible to be what he used his brilliant mind for and that is incredible. The method of printing he created is notable because it allowed not only for revolution in how books were made, but also for ensuring the rapid development in science, arts and, most significant to me, religion through transmission of texts.

Aristotle, a student of Plato and the founder of the Lyceum, capitalized on the observation of nature to inform how we think about and view our circumstances and the world around us. As a reaction against rationalism, he formulated a theory based on deductive reasoning. I personally have many problems with this view, mainly because it steers away from seeking to find absolute truth and tells people to pursue happiness and self-gratification in the here and now. It seems to be a very shallow and subjective way to approach problems and the world in general. As someone who loves concrete concepts and a as a firm believer in Christ, I like to believe in something far beyond what we personally see, experience, or know by trusting God. Something that reaches far beyond self-gratification being our only meaning. The most important things in this life are not, in fact, what the physical world around us shows us and beyond that, this life is not about us. However, I do like the idea of living a virtuous life and justice being highly valued. I also gravitate toward the idea of friendship being pivotal to our happiness but the notion of this life being the best and most important thing seems incredibly depressing and unambitious. I also do not agree that happiness is achieved by passively trying to coast through life. Aristotle believed in the cyclical nature of the universe and its unchanging character and, again, as a believer in Christ I believe in a vast transformation that will and even now is happening daily. Aristotle relies heavily on inference and logic, when we are taught in Scripture that we cannot trust our own hearts, we have to look to One that is greater than us.

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/aristotle.html

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle/

http://www.biography.com/people/aristotle-9188415