Evolutionary Psychology and The Really Bad Day (cloud cuckoolander)
[entry code: Cloud Cuckoolander]
You want an entry, do ya? Yeah?
Let me give it then, this truth (cuz you know - that's why you frequent this hot-spot of wisdom'n'clarity). Life...sucks.
'Aight, cliche, but the wisdom is in the reason. The trouble with life, right? Is working hard provides punishment; you're psychologically conditioned AGAINST working hard. Because life ain't clean; you plan and you operate with discipline and you check off all your little objectives towards your bigger goals, and then at the end of the day, nothing worked out anyway. Half the effort was a waste, and the other half is incomplete; you gotta start all over with a new list and a bunch more compromises because of this deadline that's been pushed back.
And for what?
Because, here's the real question: when have you ever achieved something where you could look at it and say that it MEANT something - something more than simply that you actually followed through?
I suppose this second part is just the nihilist in me. Or existentialist. Not sure really - I haven't gotten to readin' up on those yet. But 'aight, that aside, just consider how often we go about doing things for those long-term goals and it all goes amess. And when it works out, how often do you find that it didn't REALLY work out? That you're just in the same sorta **** with a new name?
So then why do we do it? Even if this long term goal was worth it, we don't get the 'reward' of the long term goal, except possibly in our own deluded imaginations. And that shouldn't be enough to counter whatever's happening here and now - 'cept for Biology. Evolution. And their creative little genius-child: Ambition. That which pushes our genetic lottos to perform to the best of its abilities. We fight to thrive, even against all indicators against this being a worthwile goal.
What the hell does "thrive" even mean, anyway?
...grrr... I've had a bad day. And I realized I was being self-destructive about it (which for me, just means missing my 'bed time' and watching some of the angrier TV - not that bad at all really), but I'm in the sort of mood where 'self-destructive' feels better. I had a psychologist once who suggested behavior like this shows how I've never REALLY been parented, and that I need to buck-up and parent myself.
I don't wanna.
Oh, and a caveat: Evolutionary Psychology IS pretty cool, in how it can explain all these drives and impulses that we have (yes, even sexuality, even homosexuality). But it has a pretty serious flaw (among other flaws I'm not currently aware of I'm sure): it explains everything after the fact. Basically, the theorist would look at something that currently exits and say "hm...now what possible reason (or "reasons," if this theorist were particularly clear-headed) would evolution have for allowing that to exist, genetically-speaking?" They start with the answer and work backwards. Some argue that this is true for all science, and perhaps they're right to an extent, but evolutionary psychology is especially prone to it. On the other hand, it doesn't particularly conflict with other theories; it's great for anyone who appreciates multi-modal approaches.
I think one useful test would be to see how such theorists would handle false data; simply fabricate a study, give the theorist the result, and see what they do with it. Of course, there'd be at least two groups of theorists, so that they'd have differing results to work with.
The useful thing about evolutionary psychology (besides the multi-modality thing), is that its good for explaining things to someone in a rather detached way. It's not mom's fault; it's not conditioning's fault; it's not your fault; it just is, because a countless number of genetic traits have interacted with a countless number of environmental influences, and they've all been introduced as a result of Evolution.
No wonder Christians hate Darwin (no, I realize that's not fair - just bein' clever).
And then the other thing is, that if you can explain something, sometimes you can use the explanation to treat the behavior. And of course, THAT'S the real value; how well does the explanation lead to finding a useful treatment? Some behaviors are so rare that you could argue the anomaly is one of those that is meant for by the genetic roulette, one that's quite possibly damned to fail the next round of "natural selection." And that's fine. But things like depression, ADHD, choosing a spouse that's like your own mum, and cycles of abuse...well those aren't rare at all.
Er, so, the point is, THEORISTS : find the explanations responsible for the previously-mentioned goal-directed behavior that is punished much more than it is rewarded. And for why this behavior continues so persistently.
And uh, make it a bit more thorough than "we do so because we strive to thrive" or whatever. Cuz a) I already said that, and b) we need more of an explanation to hypothesize on effective treatments.
You want an entry, do ya? Yeah?
Let me give it then, this truth (cuz you know - that's why you frequent this hot-spot of wisdom'n'clarity). Life...sucks.
'Aight, cliche, but the wisdom is in the reason. The trouble with life, right? Is working hard provides punishment; you're psychologically conditioned AGAINST working hard. Because life ain't clean; you plan and you operate with discipline and you check off all your little objectives towards your bigger goals, and then at the end of the day, nothing worked out anyway. Half the effort was a waste, and the other half is incomplete; you gotta start all over with a new list and a bunch more compromises because of this deadline that's been pushed back.
And for what?
Because, here's the real question: when have you ever achieved something where you could look at it and say that it MEANT something - something more than simply that you actually followed through?
I suppose this second part is just the nihilist in me. Or existentialist. Not sure really - I haven't gotten to readin' up on those yet. But 'aight, that aside, just consider how often we go about doing things for those long-term goals and it all goes amess. And when it works out, how often do you find that it didn't REALLY work out? That you're just in the same sorta **** with a new name?
So then why do we do it? Even if this long term goal was worth it, we don't get the 'reward' of the long term goal, except possibly in our own deluded imaginations. And that shouldn't be enough to counter whatever's happening here and now - 'cept for Biology. Evolution. And their creative little genius-child: Ambition. That which pushes our genetic lottos to perform to the best of its abilities. We fight to thrive, even against all indicators against this being a worthwile goal.
What the hell does "thrive" even mean, anyway?
...grrr... I've had a bad day. And I realized I was being self-destructive about it (which for me, just means missing my 'bed time' and watching some of the angrier TV - not that bad at all really), but I'm in the sort of mood where 'self-destructive' feels better. I had a psychologist once who suggested behavior like this shows how I've never REALLY been parented, and that I need to buck-up and parent myself.
I don't wanna.
Oh, and a caveat: Evolutionary Psychology IS pretty cool, in how it can explain all these drives and impulses that we have (yes, even sexuality, even homosexuality). But it has a pretty serious flaw (among other flaws I'm not currently aware of I'm sure): it explains everything after the fact. Basically, the theorist would look at something that currently exits and say "hm...now what possible reason (or "reasons," if this theorist were particularly clear-headed) would evolution have for allowing that to exist, genetically-speaking?" They start with the answer and work backwards. Some argue that this is true for all science, and perhaps they're right to an extent, but evolutionary psychology is especially prone to it. On the other hand, it doesn't particularly conflict with other theories; it's great for anyone who appreciates multi-modal approaches.
I think one useful test would be to see how such theorists would handle false data; simply fabricate a study, give the theorist the result, and see what they do with it. Of course, there'd be at least two groups of theorists, so that they'd have differing results to work with.
The useful thing about evolutionary psychology (besides the multi-modality thing), is that its good for explaining things to someone in a rather detached way. It's not mom's fault; it's not conditioning's fault; it's not your fault; it just is, because a countless number of genetic traits have interacted with a countless number of environmental influences, and they've all been introduced as a result of Evolution.
No wonder Christians hate Darwin (no, I realize that's not fair - just bein' clever).
And then the other thing is, that if you can explain something, sometimes you can use the explanation to treat the behavior. And of course, THAT'S the real value; how well does the explanation lead to finding a useful treatment? Some behaviors are so rare that you could argue the anomaly is one of those that is meant for by the genetic roulette, one that's quite possibly damned to fail the next round of "natural selection." And that's fine. But things like depression, ADHD, choosing a spouse that's like your own mum, and cycles of abuse...well those aren't rare at all.
Er, so, the point is, THEORISTS : find the explanations responsible for the previously-mentioned goal-directed behavior that is punished much more than it is rewarded. And for why this behavior continues so persistently.
And uh, make it a bit more thorough than "we do so because we strive to thrive" or whatever. Cuz a) I already said that, and b) we need more of an explanation to hypothesize on effective treatments.