Neuroscience and Consciousness: A Critical Review of Zelinski, et al’s The Happy-Productive Worker Thesis Revisited 13 October 2016 Zelenski, J. M., Murphy, S. A., & Jenkins, D. A. (2008). The happy-productive worker thesis revisited. Journal of Happiness Studies, 9(4), 521-537. Introduction Zelinski, et al (2008) look at over 70 years of research realizing that little has been revealed regarding whether happier workers are more productive. Utilizing a longitudinal literature review and experience sampling… Read More
Reflections on Tomlinson & Aron’s Relationship neuroscience: Where we are and where we might be going and Robbins’ Eugenics and psychiatry: A brief overview and history 7 October 2016 Neuroscience and humanistic psychology are part of an area of study that I believe is, by definition, designed to help people achieve, in one form or another, their highest possible evolutionary state. Both are part of a long evolutionary process, within psychology, of learning and growth. While Eugenics may be part of that evolutionary process,… Read More
Reflections on Kretzmann & McKnight’s Building Communities from the Inside Out (pp. 1-107) 6 October 2016 Kretzmann & McKnight (1993) provide us with the equivalent of a bible, one to implement asset-based community (or capacity-focused) development from the ground up. This isn’t about assessing needs, deficiencies, and problems, but discovering a community’s capacities and assets. This is an important distinction because it takes the standard way of solving community problems with… Read More
Reflections on Approaches to Quantitative Research and Butler, et al’s Meditation with yoga, group therapy with hypnosis, and psychoeducation for long-term depressed mood and Schenker and Rumrill’s Causal-comparative research designs and Implications for My Own Research 5 October 2016 While quantitative research is easier to understand after several readings (Locke, et al, 2010; Creswell, 2014), I am still not as comfortable with statistics as I would like to be in spite of two statistics classes and the insistence of a professor that I would eventually understand it. If I utilized any method, be it… Read More
Reflections on Silos in Neuropsychology, Hoffman &Dash’s Using neuropsychology to enhance existential psychotherapy, Motschniig-Pitrik & Lux’s The person-centered approach meets neuroscience, and Taylor’s William James and the humanistic implications of the neuroscience revolution 1 October 2016 Existentially and in every other way, I see everything as connected. But philosophically? Yes. Since my immersion into the social sciences a few years ago, I have noticed that the American Sociological Association (ASA) and the American Psychological Association (APA) divide themselves into several divisions each. Even with major philosophical differences, I can still see… Read More
Reflections on Personality Theory, Blatt’s Polarities of experience, Hoffman, et al’s Toward a sustainable myth of self, and Patterson’s Person-centered personality theory 29 September 2016 What is personality? It is made up of thoughts, ideas, relationships, feelings, dreams, aspirations, environment, even rebellion. At the same time, it is nothing but the figment of our dreams if one takes the Eastern and Buddhist view of existence. The readings here are becoming more fascinating and challenging, though I still find flaws in… Read More
Reflections on Correlational Research and Locke et al (Chapters 6-9), Rashid, et al’s Relationship between home literacy environment and reading achievement in children with reading disabilities, and Zelenski, et al’s The happy-productive worker thesis revisited 29 September 2016 While, I still don’t see a benefit to relying upon quantitative studies to the exclusion of all others when complex conversations, action research, and asset-based community development yield so much more nuance into a study, I do see the benefits of employing some quantitative methods to determine a direction for a qualitative study, but I’ll… Read More
Personal Reflections on My Role within Unconquered Minds and a Critique of Minkler & Hancock’s Community health assessment or healthy community assessment: Whose community? Whose health? Whose assessment? 29 September 2016 Understanding Health, Community, and Community Health How health, community, and community health are examined, utilized, and defined depend upon the representatives of the community involved. All are key, all are vital, and all are based upon the perspective of key individuals and groups. A politician will obviously differ from a health care provider, a social… Read More
Reflections on Locke, et al’s Reading and understanding research (Chapters 6-9), Creswell’s Quantitative Methods, and Krause et al’s Exploring interpersonal relationships and music listening survey 22 September 2016 While a research methods class isn’t necessarily an ideal venue to receive revelations of a personal nature, the latest readings on quantitative analysis have made me aware of how my ever devouring mind works as it continues to seek out and absorb valuable information and higher-level knowledge. Here, there is the qualitative side that is… Read More
Reflections on Personality Theory, Blatt’s Polarities of experience, Hoffman, et al’s Toward a sustainable myth of self, and Patterson’s Person-centered personality theory 22 September 2016 What is personality? It is made up of thoughts, ideas, relationships, feelings, dreams, aspirations, environment, even rebellion. At the same time, it is nothing but the figment of our dreams if one takes the Eastern and Buddhist view of existence. The readings here are becoming more fascinating and challenging, though I still find flaws in… Read More
Reflections on Combs and Krippner’s Structures of consciousness and creativity: Opening the doors of perception and Krippner’s Altered and transitional states 17 September 2016 I propose, as I have in many of my academic writings and conversations that within all of us is a vital need to create, even within the most anti-creative of us. My father may be a perfect example of this when he eschews all creative activity because it distracts from “more important things” in life,… Read More
Reflections on Charet’s Consciousness, Earley’s The Social Evolution of Consciousness and Grof’s Revision and Re-enchantment of Psychology 16 September 2016 Charet’s encyclopedia entry serves as an entry point, a definition, of consciousness. As such, it is aa general introduction, but given the work done by others in this area, including the Buddhists, Jung, and others, this definition barely cover the territory. I concentrated the majority of my analysis on the other two articles. While Early’s… Read More
Reflections on Jackson & Volckens’ Community stressors and racism and Minkler’s Introduction to community organizing and community building 14 September 2016 I appreciate the idea that we are studying a practical, on-the-ground-activist-map and an academic and analytical one. The readings of Minkler’s (2006) case studies and Jackson & Volckens (1998) illustrate this very well. While Jackson’s “reverberation theory of stress and racism” as it occurs in both the dominant political majority group and throughout the subgroup… Read More
Reflections on Locke, Silverman, Spirduso’s Reading and understanding research Quantitative Methods and MacDonald, Friedman, and Kuentzel’s A survey of measures of spiritual and transpersonal constructs: Part one 13 September 2016 The process of constantly contemplating a research topic from one class to another serves an interesting purpose in my mind. It causes me to constantly rethink this topic and others that I have dwelled on for the last few years. I see this as a powerful engagement with the topic of gender and racism propaganda,… Read More
Reflections on Donaldson, Gooler & Weiss’ Promoting health and well-being through work: Science and practice 10 September 2016 The subject of work has surfaced in several other personal and academic discussions within institutional ethnography (that is extremely difficult for me to understand) and, especially, in feminist discourse (Silvia Federici, among others) as it relates to the subject of women’s work in and out of the home. What the authors add is something additional… Read More
Reflections on Qualitative Research and Bailey, Steeves, Regan’s Negotiating With Gender Stereotypes on Social Networking Sites; McFerran, Dahl, Fitzsimons, Morales’ I’ll Have What She’s Having: Effects of Social Influence and Body Type on the Food Choices of Others, and ter Bogt, Engels, and Kloosterman’s “Shake It Baby, Shake It”: Media Preferences, Sexual Attitudes and Gender Stereotypes Among Adolescents 8 September 2016 I’ve contemplated a research topic for a few years, and even mentioned it to new friends at Saybrook as well as family and friends outside of academia because the subject of gender and racism propaganda is a subject that is at once fascinating and deeply disturbing to me, though I don’t think I can combine… Read More
Assumptions, Critical Curiosity, and Propaganda, Oh My 3 September 2016 Being born the curious type, from the beginning, I have questioned everything much to the chagrin of many around me. At this point, nothing has changed but an increased ability to apply critical thinking, though “Why” has been a key and hard question from the beginning. Analyzing assumptions are both critical to understanding biases and… Read More
Reflections on Pilisuk & Parks’ The healing web, Flower’s Building healthy cities, and Flower’s Healthy cities – healthy communities 3 September 2016 Opening up Pilisuk and Parks (1986), the first thought that came to mind is that laughter is the best medicine. Given that healthy and supportive community is necessary for our physical and emotional health and well-being, this should be obvious to most. Even though Pilisuk and Parks temper their remarks, cautioning us “not to generalize… Read More
Reflections on Locke, Silverman, and Spirduso’s Reading and Understanding Research and the Institutional Review Board 1 September 2016 The research process is something that feels very familiar to me. While I am always learning, always searching and seeking, and perpetually digging deeper, not for passages to prove q point, though that is not unfamiliar to me, but to learn, always to learn more. Locke, Silverman, and Spirduso (2010), introduce the idea of researching… Read More
Three Responses to #BlackLivesMatter, Individual Evolution, and Institutionalized Racism (A Tribute to Sandra Bland) and My Replies 27 December 2015 (Below are three responses to my previous essay. My responses are in italics.) N.’s Response: Michael, I just read your paper with great interest. You make a number of important points. However, you say repeatedly that not every group needs to follow all of the 10 steps [required according to IndividualEvolution.org] to be successful. However,… Read More