chapter 11-13
Terms
undefined, object
copy deck
- case studies
- ideographic approach (looks for the uniqueness of each individual case)
- case study: significance
- based on soundness of the analysis, opportunity to discover (induction), can provide counter-evidence
- case study: rules
- be truthful and accurate, clear in objective, professional and respectful, recognize context, evaluate in terms of original objective, write using ordinary language.
- Psychobiography: definition
- systematic use of psychological theory to illuminate or "explain" a life
- psychobiography: approach
- focus is individual life (counterplayers recognized), idiographic, not wed to single psychological theory (but dominated by psychodynamic approaches)
- psychobiography: criticisms
- too theory dependent (esp. psychoanalytic), too pathological, too methodologically loose, too simple-minded.
- Freud's proscriptions
- avoid arguments built on single clue, aviod pathographizing or idealizing the subject, aviod drawing conclusions from inadequate data.
- Da Vinci's psychobiography
- written by Freud, violated his proscriptions. determined that Da Vinci was a homo- projection and identification for Freud.
- Salience markers
- emphasis, omission (esp. affect), error/distortion, isolation (what doesn't fit), incompletion
- counterplayer
- Erikson's term to describe how one individual's life intersects with another in important ways (eg Bush and Saddam)
- Psychobiography: ethical questions
- death, affect surviving family, consent from both, public figures, cross cultures.
- Why tell stories? Interpretive
- for the self: to see purpose in human experience, to show we have effects, to put behavior in a moral context, to affirm self-worth
- Why tell stories? Interpersonal
- Relating to others: to obtain rewards (sympath, respect), to validate identity & moral worth, to inform others (socialize, warn of danger), to attract other (as portrayed, or as a good storyteller)
- historical truth: Paradigmatic mode
- what "really" happened, that "facts"
- narrative truth: Narrative mode
- how we subjectively make sense of our experiences
- False stories: appearance
- fewer 1st person pronouns, more concrete descriptions, less evaluation, less complexity
- The person as a story
- out of our own experiences, we develop stories that we tell ourselves and others; how others (and we) respond further shapes our experiences and the way we view ourselves, continuously tell and revise stories/life story
- hermeneutics
- the study and interpretation of texts, extended to the study and interpretation of life stories
- what makes a story good (narrative mode)
- internally coherent, continuous plot line, embody closure and aesthetically pleasing, probably our natural mode, generative
- Paradigmatic mode
- logical and rational, scientific and objective, unchanged meaning. Love story? behavior potencial=expectancy + reinforcement value
- annals
- listing of events in chronological order
- chronicle
- telling of events in chronological order
- story grammar
- rules that structure a well-made story with central subjects, proper beginnings, middles, and ends, and a coherence that permits us to see "the end" in the beginning.
- stories have
- a setting, human like characters (agentive), intentions, thoughts, feelings, initiating event, consequnce(s), reaction. Emphasis on problem solving
- High-point analysis: definition
- events that lead up to high/suspension points are then resolved. Emphasis on reference (what happened) and evaluation (how the narrator feels about what happened)
- high-point analysis
- orientation, complicating action, a high point, resolution and coda.
- Stories and health: Pennebaker
- After writing about traumatic event, health improved. Disclosure led to decreased stress which led to improved health.
- Adler: early memories
- reflect style of life: life goals and ways of meeting them. Memories are reconstructions, may not even be "real."
- storied life: motives
- strive for superiority- great upward drive; social interest: innate sense of connection
- fictional finalism
- the self-centered endpoint
- Tomkins: basic emotions
- hard wired, feel different and associated with unique facial expressions
- Tomkins: affect
- It motivates because of the positive affect associated with certain activities; emotions are usually about something
- Tomkins: scene
- 1 affect and 1 object
- Tomkins: scripts
- Connects scenes, helps you interpret and respond, more self-validating than fulfilling, organize and give meaning to your life.
- tranisent scenes
- of no lasting consequence, unscripted, represent much of our life
- habitual scenes
- routines, habits, have many scripts (nuclear, committment and addictive)
- How do you connect scenes to form scripts?
- Psychological magnification, affect is driving force: positive- richness in variation; negative affect- close similarities, restrict feeling (habituate)
- nuclear script
- rules that lead to ambivalence, confusion about life goals (tragedy)
- nuclear script: in childhood
- specific scene in which good things (anticipation) turns bad. negative affect connects it to other scenes
- committment script: definition
- clear, long-term goal to make the world better, to better yourself.
- committment script: formation
- origins in childhood: bad things turned good, or promise to
- sedative script
- based on scene with negative affect, affect separated from cause, sedative behavior (drinking, smoking, eating) reduces the affect. Not addicted
- preaddictive script
- starts with a sedative script. No longer simply respond, but anticipate the negative affect and respond. Not addicted.
- addiction script: pre-conditions
- experience more negative than positive affects, have a sedative script and a preaddictive script.
- addiction script: definition
- Sedative becomes an end in itself, vigilant about its absence, fear absence more than negative affect. Addiction governs behavior
- positive affect savoring scripts
- Experience more positive than negative affect (occational cig after coffee or big meal), you can take or leave the behavior.
- Tomkins: bottom line
- each person carries many scripts, scripts are interconnected and unique to each individual, affect underlies scripts and early on, magnification of scenes determines scripts.
- McAdams' Life Story Model
- Identity=life story; origins or raw material from childhood; story making beings in adolescence (fables); (re)constructed in earnest in early adulthood and continues throughout life.
- McAdams' Life Story Model: exercise
- divide life into imp. chapters, relevant ages, key events and characterss, overall sense of affect.
- McAdams' Life Story Model: need to identify
- tone, imagery, themes, nuclear eposodes, ideological setting and imago
- Narrative tone
- origins or raw material from childhood. Basic sense of the story: optimism- comedy, romance; pessimism comes from attachment and sense of self.
- Narrative imagery
- The feel of the story: drawn from the environment and culture. Affectively charged: warm, safe and happy vs. hostile, cold and sad. Bleak streets and lack of green spaces.
- Narrative theme
- motivation over time; themes of agency and communion, related to narrative tone.
- Narrative ideological setting
- Beliefs and values, once set setting changes little.
- Nuclear episodes: Adolescence and thereafter
- Turning points, selected out and reconstructed from past, possibly seemed trivial at the time.
- Narrative imagoes in Adulthood: definition
- idealized personifications of the self, includes ideal and ought selves, abstraced view of social role (profession), categorized in terms of agency and communion, one dominant imago
- imagoes
- have an origin, reflect aspects of a significant other, generally consistent with personality traits, motives and goals and philosophy of life
- anti-imago
- opposite imago, our divided selves
- Imagoes: Class 1
- High Agency: mastery, self display, assertive and powerful. eg Zeus, James Bond.
- Imagoes: Class 2
- High Agency and Communion: social power, promote relationships, actions help self and others. eg Apollo, Erin Brokovitch
- Imagoes: Class 3
- High Communion: surrender, cooperation, care and concern. Renee Zellweger in Jerry McGuire.
- Imagoes: Class 4
- Low Agency and Communion: survival and perseverance, escape. Just trying to get by. eg Tom Hanks in Castaway, John Cusack in High Fidelity
- Imagoes: Empirical findings
- most people rated themselves as low agenct and low communion (40%)
- Imagoes: Developmental progression
- none identifiable (6%), only one (24%), two unintegrated (46%), two integrated (24%).