History of Theories in Psychology (PSYC 493)

Alfred Adler coined the term “inferiority complex” and describes it as a lack of worth. This can be associated with redemption. He believed that every person had an idea of what their perfect self would be and calls this fictional finalism. People feel this inferiority complex because they have not attained this fictional finalism. The inferiority complex drives people to their perfect self, dictating the decisions that they make and creating themselves closer and closer to what they see themselves as being. However, people do not fully understand their fictional finalism, they only have an idea that drives them. Adler also believed the conscious and subconscious to be working together to achieve this goal. It goes with redemption because the ideas of an inferiority complex and fictional finalism work to make the person better and develop them in ways not otherwise possible.

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.

There have been many contributors to existentialism, but in this blog post I want to focus on Heidegger and Frankl contributions to this psycho-philosophy. First, I want to briefly mention what existentialism is. It is basically focusing on how we exist and the meaning of our existence. According to Heidegger there are tow ways to live your life: authentically or not authentically. Living an authentic life is being aware and really accepting that one day you will day.  When one realizes this he or she will be motivated to really live life and make it meaningful; he or she will truly become. (Becoming means to personally grow.) An an inauthentic life is refusing to acknowledge that fact of life. Therefore they have hinder truly understanding themselves. In addition to that, most existentialist believe that their is a meaning for everything in life. That was the main thing that helped Victor Frankl get through his time in the Concentration Camp. One thing he said was, ” Suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning”. In order to truly live life one must know their purpose and why they are living. In his book Man’s Search for Meaning he describes if the prisoners have a purpose to live like a children or wife to care for or a book to finish writing that only they can write then they would not commit suicide. The key to surviving and flourishing is living out that purpose.

However there is thrownness which can make it hard to exercise the freedom one has to becoming. However most existentialist believe

“What does not kill me, makes me stronger”

which was an original thought from Nietzsche. Frankl also quotes that in his book. The purpose of suffering is to make us stronger and to help others through their struggles. Christ even says that in this world we will have trouble in John 16, but there is hope. He overcame it and so can we! Being persecuted for your faith and suffering for it, is considered an honor in the New Testament.. Existentialist view on life is very sad to some people, but when one digs deeper it can be a fire that lights us up to start truly living. I like to put this under the category of New creation or Redemption.  I think mainly because the view looks at death right in the eye with no fear. I feel like once the New Heaven and Earth comes we will be the same way. We won’t fear death, because it will not exist anymore. Or it could be redemptive since death is more of what motivates one to live. It usually has a negative connotation, but it doesn’t have to.

PS Kelly Clarkson also has a song with this same theme.

Carl Rogers was a very complex man who provided a lot of great insight into the psychology world. His work covers such a broad spectrum and speaks to so many topics that it is very hard to pin point exactly what stage his ideas align best with. I think when you take a look at Roger’s view on personality and the idea of an actualizing tendency his ideas align best with creation. He believes that humans are born with a innate drive toward self-actualization. Self-actualizaion is essentially the realization and or fulfillment of one’s full potential. So who gave these people there potential? Who gave humans the ability to realize that there is something they are “destined” for? There must be a creator. There has to be a higher power who appointed each individual with the ability to do certain things and to reach a certain level in their achievements. I believe that Roger’s ideas of self-actualization, and other’s similar ideas, all point towards an all powerful creator who is overseeing the whole process.

On the other hand, I think when we take a look at some of Roger’s other ideas about personality, we will see more of a correlation between the Fall. Rogers talks of how people have this internal desire and need for positive regard. People need to feel accepted, loved and desired by the people around them. But through a Christian perspective this is exactly what we are called not to do. We are told to look for our fulfillment through Christ and Christ alone. We are not called to be a part of the world, just in it. So as soon as humans begin to loo for fulfillment and acceptance from the people around them, that is when we fall. We become so focused on the positive regard from others that we lose sight of who we are meant to be. We lose sight of who Christ has created us to be because we are too concerned with pleasing others that we will change our attitudes to fit what is most acceptable. Carl Rogers has many great ideas that I think can be attributed to both the ideas of Creation and the Fall.

Near the end of Maslow’s life, he began to think about a new kind of psychology that goes beyond personal experience and includes a fourth force which would be the spiritual aspects of human nature. He believed that humanistic and third-force psychology were a preparation for this acclaimed fourth force. It continues to address human needs and identity, but it goes beyond those things. He suggested that this would offer a tangible and effective satisfaction of the frustration that many desperate people have. This gives promise of life and value, instead of confusion and worthlessness.
This perfectly fits with the idea of redemption! Because of the blood we are sons and daughters of God. How can we worry about who we are, what others think, and our needs if we come to a grasp on the idea that salvation doesn’t just mean we are going to heaven, but it means that heaven is coming into us through a relationship with the holy spirit?!? There can be no doubt, hopelessness, or fear because the devil has already lost. We have been clothed by the father in purity and that brings us back to the identity of who we were created to be from the beginning, before the fall. If we focus on our true identity, sons and daughters that already please God because of his grace, we deny ourselves and everything God has we receive because we are his and ALREADY seated in the throne room of grace. We have his mind because of the holy spirit. My goodness, there cannot be doubt or fear in a Christian who knows their true identity. We weren’t called to believe in God and then live in hell until we get to heaven. We were called to die to ourselves, take up our cross and follow him while letting heaven manifest through us because of our relationship with the holy spirit!! People need to know how amazing they are because everyone was created in the image of God and everyone was washed by the blood. Maslow is right! People are broken, confused, lost, seeking their true identity, and the fourth factor of psychology brings freedom! The truth sets us free and gives us life and value; just like Maslow said, just like Jesus said. Jesus is the way, the truth, the life, whosoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. Deny yourself, learn your identity, and receive the father’s love. Seriously, almost every Christian has a problem with themselves. Once we start believing that the cross is enough this world is going to change!

Influential behaviorists like B.F. Skinner were interested in studying natural human reactions and testing them. Skinner believed that people have little control over how we turn out to be as adults, that we are ultimately a product of circumstances and children are extremely malleable. I would say that Skinner most belongs amongst Creationists because of his interest in the way humanity is- and why. Behaviorism generally studies how animals respond and react, and why their “personalities” reflect lessons learned (esp. humans).

Skinner is probably most famous for his work with operant conditioning. He was concerned with rewards and punishments that happened after the response of the experiment, which he called “reinforcements”. These dictated what responses would occur later after future trials because the subject was either more or less likely to repeat the same behavior after the reinforcement. Skinner was curious as to why we respond the way we do in different situations. He attempted to explain the production of behaviors. Many behaviorists argue that our personality is basically just a compilation of our learned behaviors and habits- in what situations an individual has been punished or rewarded. This view gives little credit to people as having free thoughts. Although Skinners contributions to psychology were considerably modern, therapists today still hold his techniques and research invaluable.

Carl Roger’s theory to avoid imposing conditions of worth on people has to do with unconditional positive regard. With unconditional positive regard, people are loved and respected for what they truly are – therefore there is no need for certain experiences to be denied or distorted (p.557). This reminds me much of redemption. When Jesus redeem came to redeem the world, he knew our experiences, our sin, and even our future failures, yet he still chose to die for us. He loves us for who we are, and therefore there is no need to deny certain experiences – we bring them to him, allow them to be exposed, and he washes them clean. It is one of my favorite parts of Christianity – there is no denying what has happened our lives, yet we acknowledge them and put them at the foot of the cross – and out of that place we receive an undeserved love. Jesus is the ultimate one who showed unconditional positive regard, and I think Carl Rogers was on to something when he stated that it is the only way to avoid labeling people and determining their worth. It is why without Jesus, it is so difficult to accept, love, and even see people for who they truly are. Through redemption, we first receive this unconditional love, and out of that place we are able to give it to other people.

I would classify Jung as a Redemption philosopher because of his work with archetypes and with categorizing people as introverts or extroverts.  Rather than behaviorists who claimed everything was learned and reinforced, Jung resonated more with evolutionary psychology saying that people had a collective unconscious which was the cumulative experiences of humans throughout their entire evolutionary past.  He explained human actions as coming from inherited archetypal projections from the past.  These inherited archetypes predispose people to see things in certain ways and to respond to them accordingly, thus affecting our actions.   Jung emphasizes the inherited predispositions, but he said that the “self” synthesizes the components of the personality to bring unity and wholeness to the personality.  He said the goal of life is first to discover and understand the various parts of the personality and then to synthesize them into a harmonious unity- which he called “self actualization.”  He also described people as naturally introverted or extroverted, but that a healthy and mature individual would have a good balance of both.

I would call Jung a Redemption philosopher because he seems to add some redeeming qualities to the Evolutionary perspective.  For some, the idea that people are the way they are at birth- because of inherited traits, is a bleak idea.  However, Jung brings some hope by theorizing a synthesizing unit that brings possibility for change.  While he still believed people were products of their past with stable traits, he also believed that understanding these traits could help one to change, adapt, and thrive in the world.

As this week as seemed to fly by, I have not been able to stop thinking about who in the world I would write about this week. I have not had the slightest idea. I have finally settled on J.B. Watson, his experiments, no matter how inappropriate they may seem, show us a very interesting side of creation. Watson showed us that our experiences can dictate how we feel about a particular stimulus. I think this is very interesting considering I have never thought about what drives or dictates how we act or feel about anything. As a believer and a human being, I have often wondered what exactly makes me tick or what makes me feel as strongly about one thing over others. Behaviors and reactions can be manipulated. Whether positive or negative, it just goes to show me how we are even more subject to the spiritual war going on around us.

Jung studied the formation of personality as well as how a person interacts with their environment whether it be mental, emotional, or physical. In reaction to these different situations we ave some archetypes that manifest. Their are four main ones according to Jung. They are persona, anima, animus, and shadow. Persona is the only part of their personality presented to the public. Anima is the female component of male personality and animus is the opposite. Shadow is one that we inherit from our ancestors. Another development was the attitudes; introversion and extroversion. Introverts are quiet and more interested in ideas than interacting with people and extraverts are outgoing and love being around people more than alone. I like the idea of having these categories to put people in, because it can increase understanding between each other. This is the main reason why I would put Jung in the Redemption category.

He believed to truly understand each other we must understand and be aware of what we have been through and to also know the person’s future goals as well. That reminds me of why we share testimonies. In church groups we share them to show the strength of God and how he used our weaknesses. Also this just helps us to understand what other people have been through and it bonds and connects us in an intimate way. For Jung, “people are pushed by the past and pulled by the future”. I really love that analogy. Many times we do dwell on the past yet Christ is our future (the hope of glory). It is this constant tug between past and present that often causes emotional distress. however, when he said that I think of it as being pushed forward by the past because the struggles one goes through can become motivation and could be used as preparation to obtain the brighter future. I also believe that is the story of redemption. Christ says no matter how bad your past is, I can make your future better. He said he came to give life and give it to the fullest.  For exampled, He changed the heart of Saul to Paul. He persecuted Christians and then he became one. The Lord redeemed him and his past and He can do it now.