Summary of Presentation:
This chapter is titled Psychology and the Healthy Mind; the habit and emotion chapter of James' book The Principles of Psychology are a focal point of this chapter. It is an understatement to say the making of this book was a difficult task. "'It seems to me that psychology is like physics before Galileo's time, –not a single elementary law yet caught a glimpse of,'" (Allen quoting James 318). His book was used as a textbook in many universities after it was published.
"Minds of all kinds, James discovered, are pliable things, not exactly fragile but not exactly rigid either," (Kaag 73).The relation of plasticity and habit is that it is easier to change or evade habits while younger. James didn't believe all is lost though when one is "a walking bundle of habits. "He believed that by laying habit bare and revealing its inner workings, he could help his reader harness, and to some extent control, its power," (Kaag 73). A positive outcome of habit is in an example of a pianist refining his skills. "Thus, an impulse which originally spread its effects over the whole body, or at least over many of its movable parts, is gradually determined to a single definite organ, in which it effects the contraction of a few limited muscles," (James 73). Habit increases speed, efficiency, and accuracy. It also lets the mind wander and think about other things than the habitual task being performed.
Kaag then moves onto the chapter about emotions. In this part of Kaag's chapter he relates the topics in James' chapter to the "fake it til you make it" explored in the 2nd chapter of Kaag's book. James believed emotions are tightly bound to actions and bodily states. The main takeaways I got from his emotion chapter were an extended version of that, and that something must trigger an emotion. James believed the actions associated with an emotion are the triggers of that emotion. Another way of phrasing this is emotion devoid of expression and practical consequences is largely meaningless. Kaag acknowledges that one can go through an action associated with an emotion without feeling the emotion but that given enough time and commitment the emotion will emerge via action. He talks about having to cold bloodedly go through desired emotions before they can be achieved.
In the final section of the chapter Kaag mentions that the end of the principles explains how the book as a whole is a manual for circumventing forces that impede free will.
Additional Sources:
This video linked is a woman talking about general self improvement journeys and applies William James' ideas to them. A strong focus seems to be his "two things he hates a day" idea. She talks about misconceptions about pushing through actions one doesn't really want to participate in but knows it will help them in the future if they stick to it. It is applicable to breaking bad habits or forming good ones. Stick to something difficult enough and it will become second nature.
Another main focus is the initial thought process of "I hit my limit" which isn't always going to be the limit. She says after someone gets past that it should become easier unless they actually hit their limit.
I remember when I was first trying to learn how to work a manual transmission on a dirt bike that was probably too powerful for me. I struggled with getting out of first and half the time I got out of first I couldn't control it. My dad was going to sell it if I didn't learn how to drive it and keep it from rotting away in the garage. I thought I would never get it down after the first couple of days of trying, but I stuck to it and after finding the source of the issue I got it down. I had a bad habit of both not letting out the clutch in a smooth manner and not giving it enough gas. Of course it took some time to get rid of those habits, but I got to a point where I could take off from a stop easily.
Many in our time don't agree wholeheartedly with James' theory of emotion. When it is brought up it is for history and that it made the building blocks of theories that followed it. An aspect that is utilized today is the biofeedback loop. Reverse engineer the theory to elicit a desired emotion. This is what Kaag focuses on when he talks about the emotion chapter. He wanted to be calmer, he thought only calm people could do yoga, he did yoga and became calmer.
I unknowingly utilized a similar principle while I was cliff jumping in October. The first jump I did was off of the highest jump at the location, and I didn't look over the edge before I did it. I just got a running start and made my leap. I didn't land the best but I survived. When I attempted to make the following jumps, from much lower heights. I would look over the edge. I eventually put two and two together, seeing my distance from the water was preventing me from jumping, I did the same thing I initially did. When I removed the "Big Bear" from the equation I found jumps significantly easier.
The tallest jump also had the longest swim back which affected my bodily state. This likely influenced my perception of what the next jump would be like and thus intimidated me more.
https://www.sfu.ca/~kathleea/Emotions.html
Everything above the Conceptual Framework of Emotions heading focuses on William James.
Two authors' takes on James' theory of emotion are presented.(both disagreeing)
Both are introductions to their arguments not their complete argument but their entire arguments can be found with the source next to their name.
"From what I remember James didn't say they were blatantly related but more so indicated that there could be relations" - This is vague, and you don't want to just report on what you think you remember; look into the James-Lange theory of emotion (and link to a good discussion of it, such as you might find at the online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) so you can speak more confidently about what James had to say about the relation between emotion, habit, bodily states, etc. And avoid including content you have to issue disclaimers about ("Even though the video is a little bit more subjective and not as well researched it has its value").
ReplyDeleteBreak those last two paragraphs up, and get rid of gratuitous info (such as the 11-yr old).
In general, see if you can find your more authoritative (though still personal) voice.