Illusion of Control

[say_kiss]

Im in such a weird mood tonight. First of all, im completely wore out from working 12 hour days. I was seriously falling asleep at like 10 every night. Speaking of which, i have to get up in 3 hours to drive all the way to Dayton for a one hour meeting...fun. Ummmmmm....so ya, Student Painters is actually going really well, i have 4 kids hired

Comments

[anonymous]

Hey it's Hogan - I'm finally replying to one of your journal entries! Hmmmm this entry seems like a summary of what we talked about a few weeks ago. Ok I see what you are saying here, and I agree with you to some extent but I’m not entirely convinced. I think people are given second chances, and given the same kind of situation again, they do make different decisions. Your theory sounds nice on paper, but in real life, how valid is it? I guess I am being influenced by a behaviorist point of view and looking more at how humans actually act rather than what theory says they should do. How could you prove that given the exact same situation different decisions absolutely could not be made?

What separates our unique “struggling process” from each other? What makes me react to the same situation differently than you? You are strong on the environmental side, but there has to be something innate about each of us that makes us react in certain ways. I have to acknowledge at least to some degree that there is a core to each of us determined by biology. Maybe it is in the unconscious, since we only use like what, 10% of our brain? Maybe those unconscious thoughts and drives are what is driving us to make certain decisions. How do the personal schemas not change due to the environment? Or do we just use different schemas with the changing environment? You said what makes up our schemas are biology, environment, peers, parents… then how could those schemas be set in stone if environment is in the picture? What explains when people do things ‘out of character’ and totally not expected, did they have a specific schema for doing an opposite reaction? It is interesting, all this stuff.

Good point that we can’t control the environment. Well actually, according to your theory, we don’t have control over ourselves, either. Maybe some people favor the free will side because it is what they want to believe in order to be hopeful about the future. If they believed everything was out of their control, then wouldn’t they just become lax and pessimistic about their future? Maybe it is one of those things that no one really will know, so instead of backing up what they feel may be true, they side with the optimistic free will side because that is what will get them by and keep them motivated. It provides a reason to be proactive and go for what you want, because even though you may not have any control over anything, at least you gave it your best shot. No regrets. Well, that’s my thoughts…. I may have contradicted myself, who knows, but I’m just thinking about things…