Psychology 0f Personal Effectiveness
All You Need To Know About How To Live Happily & Effectively
Timothy W. Starkey, Ph.D., ABAP
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Miami Dade College
Psyc CLP 1006
Hialeah Campus
Room 1217
M/W 4:00-5:30 PM
Oct. 1- Dec. 19 (2007)
305-279-0758 (Home)
or
305-338-1615 (Cell)
Hours 3:00 to 4:00 PM
On M/W
Email is Your Friend!
tstarkey@mdc.edu
gaelic2@bellsouth.net
This course will be email
intensive. Please check
your email at least once a
day. Important stuff will
put on our website, and
you are responsible for
downloading it.
And PLEASE read your
syllabus at least once!
Organization of Course Material and
Examinations
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The course material will be presented in lecture and PowerPoint slide format. Due
to time constraints, there may be some worthwhile information not discussed in
class, but for which you will still be responsible on exams. So be sure to read the
textbook as well as study the PowerPoint slides.
You would be wise to first study the PowerPoint slides in preparing for exams, and
then to read over the assigned material. Other important information and notices will
also be emailed to you during the course, so be sure to check your email daily.
Exam questions will mainly come from the PowerPoint slides, and will be about
70% T/F or multiple guess and 30% “short answer questions” (aka SAQs; questions
that require about a paragraph to answer). The SAQs will be given to you the week
before the exam to prepare for. Some questions (maybe 15%) will come from the
material in the textbook that was assigned, but which we didn’t have time to cover.
So be sure to read the assigned textbook chapters as well as study the
PowerPoints & the material discussed in class.
Papers are expected to be turned in on time, and points will be taken off for
lateness. Don’t try to get away with just “cut-and-paste” papers ~ they stand out
like a sore thumb! Write them yourselves. Papers that are questionable will elicit
more in-depth scrutiny from the Professor.
Any questions thus far?
Term Paper Length
Chapter 1.
Recognize That Reality Is All In Your Head
This chapter deals with
 Concept of Frames
 Objectivism vs.
Constructivism
 Paradigm Shifts
 Global Perspective
 Reframing
 Positive Psychology Tenets
Recognize That reality Is In Your Head
What do you think you just read? How come you screwed
up such a simple phrase? Come on, admit it… you read
what you thought was there, not what was there!
Sensation and Perception
Sensation involves the physical process of receiving stimuli
which connect with our sensory organs and receptors, and
then converting that into the electrochemical impulses or
signals within our nervous system ~ which are then relayed
to the appropriate area of the brain for processing.
Perception occurs when our brain interprets these signals
and ascribes meaning to them. Perception is how the brain
decides what to make of the constant, almost overwhelming
variety of sensory information that pours into it constantly…
even while we’re asleep.
Sensation & Perception
The Concept of Frames
• A frame (or paradigm) is your ready-made (learned) view of
any events or situations in your life. Paradigms are greatly
influenced by your pre-conceived notions, beliefs, and learned
expectations.
• We all develop “frames of reference” (aka paradigms) to
enable us to organize and understand our world, our
perceptions, and our experiences.
• Frames are generally helpful in living in the real world, since
they’re a short-cut for deep thinking and consideration of all
variables etc.
• Frames can be disastrous when “reality” itself has changed and
we haven’t noticed it yet (e.g. Ice Age). If we make decisions
on the basis of frames that no longer correspond to reality, our
very survival can be threatened.
• What “realities” do you feel are changing today that might
require a shift in our paradigms for survival?
An Unrealistic Frame about Food and
Nutrition
Objectivism Vs. Constructivism
• Models of “reality” ~ objectivism and constructivism ~ each is based on a
different paradigm of reality
• Objectivism holds that there is a separate reality independent of the observer
who’s doing the observing. For example, your Jaguar out in the parking lot is
still going to be bright red whether you’re looking at it or not.
• Constructivism holds that there is no separate reality apart from the observer.
Your red Jaguar is not only no longer red when you’re not looking at it, but it
doesn’t even continue to exist. Before you decided this is pure lunacy, let’s
think a little about this frame (paradigm). Much research, from behavioral
science to theoretical physics, has suggested that “observing” changes in some
significant way that which is “observed”. A tomato is not really red, you know.
And what about the unreliability of “eye witnesses”?
• Isaac Newton would be an objectivist; Albert Einstein would be a
constructivist. Why?
• Einstein’s general theory of relativity (time and space exist only in relation to
each other and are relative to closeness to the speed of light)
• If you traveled for what you consider a year at close to the speed of light, when
you returned many more years would have passed for your friends. Your body
would be 1 year older, but most of your friends would be dead.
Reality?… who needs it?
Paradigm Shifts & The History of Science
• Some theorists believe that all major scientific discoveries are
preceded by a paradigm shift (a monumental change in theory or
knowledge that forces change in a scientific discipline)
• Almost every significant breakthrough in science is preceded by
a break with tradition (e.g. the old or previous paradigm)
• Throughout history, scientific breakthroughs have been ridiculed
at the time and the scientists who made them have been
persecuted and sometimes even threatened with execution (e.g.
being burned at the stake during the Inquisition)
• For example, after 1500 years of geocentric paradigm, a scientist
named Copernicus (early 1500s) dared to say that the earth
revolved around the sun (heliocentric paradigm). This was
considered heresy and Copernicus was threatened with death
unless he recanted (which he did) because it contradicted the
Bible’s teaching that the earth is the center of the universe.
• It wasn’t until the mid 1600s when Galileo made the same
claims that the universe was heliocentric that this paradigm was
accepted. As you can imagine, Galileo was denounced an
imprisoned as a dangerous heretic by the then present-day
religious and secular rulers.
• An example of a gradual paradigm shift has taken place in the
field of psychology. Freud’s original theories about human
personality in the early 1900s have been largely supplanted or
augmented by newer learning models which have gradually had
to incorporate the newer findings of neuroscience and
behavioral genetics. Today we are still very much in a process
of discovery about why we do what we do, and the final
answers aren’t even in sight.
• What do you think about “why we do what we do”? How much
“free will” or “choice” do we really have? Which behaviors are
largely or totally determined by genes, prenatal biological
events, and early (traumatic?) learning?
Free Will Throughout History
Paradigm Shifts In Everyday Life
• You might be wondering why, when science is finding so many
better ways of doing things, we don’t just go ahead and do
them. Old paradigms die hard… they (we) resist changing the
way we see things… we tend to prefer the older, more
comfortable ways of looking at our world. We prefer to focus on
the picture “within the frame” and not the frame itself. There is
always an “old guard” that will fight against change and if
necessary persecute the agents of change in order to hold on to
the familiar (or to the personal advantages they derive from the
existing frame).
• Selective perception is often used by the “old guard” to justify
their beliefs. It refers to the human tendency to perceive only
what we want and expect to perceive.
• Can you give some current examples of “selective perception”?
Selective Perception
Tenets of Positive Psychology
End of Chapter 1
(for Microsoft users only)