PSY336H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Psy, Deconstruction, Neuromuscular Disease
PSY 336 Lec 06
Tuesday October 18, 2016
It’s hard to come up with all the white things in the whole universe, but when you zoom in to
someone much smaller – ex. The fridge – it somehow gets easier to think of the white things.
Why is that?
This is kinda like heuristics, priming, etc.
Prof asks to write down some kind of problem in your life, pick a big one, really serious, and
bloody good.
On a scale of 1-5, where 1 is absolutely impossible, and 5 is totally for sure, what is the
probability that you will solve this big problem of yours in the next 6 months?
Also write down the name of somebody towards whom you feel a lot of tenderness.
Also pick something that’s relatively destructive to you, could be a habit or behaviour:
procrastination, partying, thinking patterns, eating problems etc. just something you do that you
know realistically is not good for yourself.
Now go back to the big problem in your life, how can you fix this thing, or even just make some
progress towards it.
We can play with framing a little bit to stimulate creativity. But you won’t tend to play with
framing in life if you were feeling negative (sad, depressed, unwanted etc) – negative emotions
tend to limit our creativity. They prevent us from “opening the fridge” (change of framing).
When we say what is your big problem, we activate some schemas and frames, such as the
schema of your self concept, and what is “a big problem.” Then you would go to look for
solutions in that frame. The problem is that a big frame like the universe is not easy; a big
concept limits our creativity.
So prof asks us to just think about ourselves as a cognitive system: forget about yourselves, and
all you are is a cognitive system. As a cognitive system, you can think about (all cognitive
processes) attitudes, beliefs, schemas, interpretive/attribution tendencies, expectations, personal
standards, other people’s standards that you carry around with you (internalized judgments from
other people), judgments, labels, and goals.
Now whatever your problem is, cognitive processes must have something to do with it one way
or another. Once you look at yourself as a cognitive system, can you come up with more
solutions to your problem now? Anything to do with beliefs, attitudes, judgments, labels etc.?
Now lets think of yourself as just the emotional system: moods, triggers, specific emotions that
are powerful to you, coping, physiological manifestation of those emotions, cognitions that
reinforce emotions, the feedback between cognitions and emotions, other emotions that you
don’t experience that might counter balance your current state, etc. Are there new solutions to
your problem now?
Now think of yourself as a physical system (just your body): sleep, eating, exercise, posture, self-
care, beauty, clothes (how you present your body), etc. Are there new solutions?
Think of yourself now as a environmental system: your bedroom, the clutter on your desk,
websites you visit, other places you get info from, society resources, books, etc. What things
from this perspective can help you with this problem?
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
It"s hard to come up with all the white things in the whole universe, but when you zoom in to someone much smaller ex. The fridge it somehow gets easier to think of the white things. Prof asks to write down some kind of problem in your life, pick a big one, really serious, and bloody good. Also write down the name of somebody towards whom you feel a lot of tenderness. Also pick something that"s relatively destructive to you, could be a habit or behaviour: procrastination, partying, thinking patterns, eating problems etc. just something you do that you know realistically is not good for yourself. Now go back to the big problem in your life, how can you fix this thing, or even just make some progress towards it. We can play with framing a little bit to stimulate creativity.
