Psychology: the struggle towards objectivity

Background

The field of psychology influences just about every element of our lives. Business, government and educational organisations rely on psychological studies to form their methods and approaches. Not only that, the media – be it broadcast journalism, informative articles or opinion pieces – greatly rely on the field for support and evidence. It is inherently the study of us; our mental processes and behaviours. As such, there is no overestimating the importance and potential of the field. When psychology is so heavily influential, then, it proves extremely worrying when we find out how it is conducted.

A recent article indicates that 83% of experimental psychology studies in the esteemed journal ‘Science’ are unreliable.  Not only that, 82% of studies in ‘Psychological Science’ were also found to be unreliable. While the article concluded that the data in these studies is not always purposefully manoeuvred, and the inaccuracy often merely poor practice and misinterpretation of statistics, these results present a worrying image of scientific practice within psychology, possibly extending to other fields of science. Psychology has historically received a poor reception; it has been criticised as a pseudo-science, and many of the methods of the field’s pioneers, such as the likes of Freud, have been completely discredited.

History

However, since the early 20th century, psychologists have struggled towards a more quantifiable, scientific method. Behaviourists such as John Watson and B.F. Skinner distinguished themselves from the previously popular psychoanalytical, introspective approach of Freud and Jung, believing that psychology should be empirical and scientific, and the only way to do so was by observing quantifiable behaviour. Seeing the limitations of behaviourism in narrowing the scope of focus, Noam Chomsky sparked the cognitive revolution with his criticism of B.F. Skinner’s work in 1959. Since then, cognitive psychology, the scientific study of mental processes, has dominated the field.

The Problem: How and Why

Why is it that we’re still seeing such a lack of reliability in psychology? Scott Lilienfeld, a psychology professor, says “virtually all psychological phenomena hinge on unknown contextual variables”. It goes without saying that we are all unique, hugely complex, and unpredictable. Combine that complexity with an ” abundance of positive results (due to) questionable practices, selective reporting, as well as data fabrication“, and it comes as no surprise that we see such a large majority (83%) of publications as inaccurate.  Authors will also often subconsciously select data that is in harmony with their theory, known as confirmation bias.

The main fault within psychology  is that it is conducted by humans. How very droll…maybe in a couple of hundred years, we’ll have sentient robots do our scientific research for us. The thing is, humans make mistakes and bend truths, especially those with ambiguous data at their hands, and pressure from those who provide the funding. No one wants to publish something inconclusive. As Nassim Taleb says, “The same past data can confirm a theory and its exact opposite! If you survive until tomorrow, it could mean that either a) you are more likely to be immortal or b) that you are closer to death“.

Implications and Solutions

We simply need a more rigorous publication process. Scientists hold such an important role in our society, and that importance should be respected in authoring potentially deceptive studies, and letting said studies make their way past the peer-reviewing process. Psychology is a very young science. If psychologists wish to gain the respect of the scientific community, as well as the public, standards need to raised. Combined with pioneering technologies posed by the cognitive and neurosciences such as brain imaging, psychology has the potential to make some truly ground-breaking discoveries and revelations.

Finally (wait, you read all of that?), what does this really mean for me and you? I’d use this article as an opportunity for a call to action. Scientists not only have the potential to be very wrong, they often are. Inform yourself with a wide range of sources and question information that is fed to you at face value. I’m not asking you to study scholarly articles on every opinion piece or news item, but remain sceptical. The truth is bent, brushed over or treated subjectively, and information can influence every element of our lives. Something that has such powerful potential should be treated accordingly.

Self-reflection and self-criticism – a fine line

That line is an invisible razor edge. There is an innate value in being able to examine our thought processes, beliefs and actions in a weird sort of detached ‘consciousness observing consciousness’ way (mindfulness, anyone?). We can reason against harmful and illogical thought patterns, and limit self-destructive behaviour. In fact, philosophy itself is based upon inquiry and examination.

However, we’ve all, I’m sure, experienced how easy it is to fall into self-criticism. We criticise ourselves for the actions we take or don’t, for what we lack – for our weaknesses. Why, then, do we spend such a huge chunk of our time in this self-critical state, rather than a productive, self-examining one?

Our self-perception is formed from an early age. Factors such as the amount and quality of maternal attention during childhood to negative/positive reinforcement from peers all determine how we perceive ourselves. Self-perception is complicated, and is formed over years, mainly in response to stimuli in one’s environment. We often end up treating ourselves as we’d imagine we deserve to be treated. It is no wonder, then, that self-criticism and condemnation are linked with anxiety, low self-esteem and depression.

The biggest enemies of willpower: temptation, self-criticism, and stress. (…) these three skills —self-awareness, self-care, and remembering what matter most— are the foundation for self-control. –The Willpower Instinct, Kelly McGonigal

Self-criticism is inherently an evolved survival tool. In an inhospitable environment, where survival itself meant success, criticising mistakes / missed opportunities (or whatever the negative element might be) ensured a higher chance of success and therefore procreation in the future. However, in an era where the survival ‘basics’ (shelter/food/air/water) are met for most of us in the Western world, these evolutionary traits are defunct. Sadly, however, our brains haven’t evolved as quickly as our societies and their respective technologies.

This is where we have to smarten up. If you find yourself having trouble with self-criticism, there are methods that you can use to deal with it. Ben Martin from PsychCentral has a good article on combating what he calls ‘negative self talk’. These steps, involving logic and reasoning against illogical thoughts and fears, can be found in a wide spectrum of practices, from mindfulness to cognitive behavioural therapy. They’re tried and tested, and simply need consistency in application to work.

Until you make the unconscious conscious,
it will direct your life and you will call it fate –Carl Jung

Self-reflection and examination, on the other hand, is both beautiful and useful. Urban Lifestyle Blog have a relevant article about self-reflection as part of a modern lifestyle. It’s a productive habit that allows you to process your thoughts, emotions and experiences, and potentially learn a lot from them. We spend so much time paying attention to external variables in our lives (careers, families, hobbies). If we spent a little of that time becoming more aware of the way we perceive ourselves and our thoughts, we’d be better off for it.

 

A Little Word on Idleness

The Summer has flown in, and whilst I’ve enjoyed warm, sleepy days doing, well, not very much at all, I’ve always felt a faintly nagging sense of guilt for being idle. These feelings can and have been thrown for periods, but it always resides there, behind everything. The fact that I haven’t updated this blog for nearly three weeks is one of these ‘nags’, sorting out study courses for next year and not taking more photographs are more. I think balance is important in everything; productivity and leisure not excluded. In this post, I’ll be exploring idleness, and the nature of this balance, as well as its direct connection with our well-being.

“Idle hands are the devil’s workshop” -Thessalonians 3:11

Admittedly, the title quote means something entirely different from my use of it. It has its routes in Scripture. While the Church is preoccupied with sin, and how idleness can, in fact, lead one there, I’m more focussed on the humanistic side of things; I do not believe that we hold accountability to anyone/anything but ourselves. Perhaps, metaphorically, this  devil is ‘unhappiness’. What a devil that is…yet we cannot truly escape it. Not entirely. Unhappiness is transient, like all things. But there are a few things that can extend its stay, and I suppose the main point this post makes is that idleness is one of them.

In a previous post, I talked about the importance of being ‘in flow’, of total immersion in the moment. Thoughts that might otherwise hijack our emotional state dissolve into the sidelines as our main focus becomes our world, and we essentially lose our sense of self, if for a brief moment. Idleness, then, is the antithesis to being ‘in flow’. Your thoughts become your world, and DO hijack your emotional state. We’ve all experienced this; running through the same negative thought patterns and imagining the worst case scenario, something psychologists call catastrophising.

So, do whatever puts you in an ‘in flow’ state. Writing? Running? Working on your car? Whatever it is, being ‘in flow’ is so important to our well-being, and being stuck in an idle rut reduces our opportunities to experience it. By the way, while getting off your ass and going outside is a surefire way to deal with idleness, I’m not necessarily saying that’s the only measure. We can easily work on productive pursuits and activities indoors, and many of us (especially fellow introverts!) prefer this. While socialising a few times a week is kinda necessary for your mental health, being alone is not the same issue as being idle.

I’ll save you all from too much of my pseudo-scientific evolutionary babble, and cut it short. We’re all programmed to progress. Too much time spent in idleness is missed opportunities and stagnation, and in a time when our periods of leisure has dramatically increased, and yet our mental health is significantly worsened, it only takes putting 2 and 2 together to see the harmful effects of idleness. Often we’ll feel stuck, without any motivation to be productive or engage with the world. This can also spiral to depressive periods, which are often entirely avoidable, issues that medication might simply complicate.

Discipline and routine – boring, repetitive and dull are words that might come to mind. These things have become extremely stigmatised in a world where we’re told to ‘follow our hearts and dreams’ and ‘do what you love’. I have a wake up call for you; you won’t get very much done at all if you solely rely on motivation and inspiration. Millions of people start diets and exercise regimes, and the majority ultimately fail. Why? Because they lose their very short-lived motivation, and overlooked the necessity of discipline which, unlike motivation, is entirely controllable. Forcing ourselves into action, day in, day out, is vital for any results or progression. Motivation, you often find, comes further down the line.

Turn whatever it is you strive to do more into an unconditional. Most of us get up for work, get dressed, and spend 8 hours wherever, even if we like it or despise it, simply because the repercussions are too high if we didn’t. If we’re forcing ourselves to do something we might hate, I’m sure you can force yourself to do something you love. Rely on that routine that, if broken, feelings of guilt will be inevitable. Try out Chains.cc, an app that counts how many days you stick to something (be it exercise, or something creative or productive). Trust me, the feelings of pride and accomplishment will be worth it.

Shedding Light on Enlightenment

Credits: http://postsfromthepath.com/posts/tag/6-steps-to-enlightenment

What it isn’t

Enlightenment; it’s a word that holds near-mythical connotations. It summons the image of beings that have transcended ignorance and suffering, having achieved a state of pure bliss and harmony. We imagine a moment of clear, brilliant clarity that changes everything about our lives and our perception of it. The very concept is so muddled by contradictory ideas coming from a range of sources that all we think we know is that it’s something special and obtainable, but only very special people who put in the utmost of effort to obtain it ever do.

You know what? We buy into it. Even if we didn’t even know the word ‘enlightenment’, we strive towards achieving some state of ultimate self, void of suffering and unhappiness. Hundreds of thousands of us – as the booming spiritual self-help industry can attest – buy into this idea of enlightenment. We spend a small fortune on books, videos, even courses and workshops, all promising information that will provide a unique perspective, change our perception and improve our lives in one way or another.

The truth is, we have Enlightenment wrong. As a concept, it has very ‘conveniently’ warped into something that fits our Western, postmodern values; it is something we lack that we must strive to obtain, and once we do, we’ll be happy (not just happy, blissful even!). It has become another carrot on a stick. The New Age movement holds, perhaps, some of the blame. Because it was not a unified movement, it drew upon such vast sources of information and practice, often entirely contradictory and, at times, of questionable nature.

Carnegie’s ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ was a huge proponent in self-help, and his solutionist style filtered down into the New Age movement with ease. It appealed to people who were vulnerable and lacked self-esteem, as well as an answer or a solution. Combine this with Eastern spiritual teachings and a bit of mystical quackery for good measure, and you have a dangerous (and very profitable) cocktail.

What is ‘it’, then?

The irony of it all is that while self-help is fixated with appeasing the emotional ego, Buddhism is entirely about being released from it. Adding layers to ourselves, to our egos – is comforting; it’s a convenient distraction that nearly all of us partake in our whole lives. We view enlightenment through the same distorted lens; it’s another conditional in our life – if we obtain ‘enlightenment’ we’ll suddenly become or feel A/B. Our search for what we think ‘enlightenment’ is becomes another distracting layer we add to our constructed sense of ‘self’, or who we think we are.

“1: The self, especially as contrasted with another self or the world” ‘Ego‘ Definition, Webster Dictionary

Enlightenment, according to Buddhism, is simply a state of nondual (not two, i.e. not separate) awareness marked by the absence of suffering brought about by desire. When you compare that to, for example, “repenting for man’s original sin”, it seems pretty damn mature and intelligent. Truly, we are all trying to ‘reduce’ our suffering, but usually through ill-informed, selfish means; usually avoidance, self-delusion and following one’s simplistic desires. Read Buddhism’s Eight-Fold Path in overcoming suffering. You may be surprised by how sane the advice is.

From the moment a child is born, its experience is defined by how its environment is different from itself. It gains awareness of itself as a ‘separate’ identity, developing a personality that is defined by its experiences. From a ‘local’, human perspective,  we are indeed separate entities. This perception of separation is a simple biological survival mechanism. Evolution wouldn’t have quite worked out if we humans believed, in the face of say another apex predator like a lion, that we were at one with it…things would certainly have played out differently! Thinking that a separation exists has been, and continues to be important for our animalistic survival.

However, if our very thoughts and therefore our sense of identity are simply products of advanced evolutionary neuro-activity, our perceived ‘separateness’ is entirely an electro-chemical illusion. When one strips away these layers of self, what is left? Buddhism calls it ‘consciousness‘, others call it energy. Eckhart Tolle, from the video above, calls it stillness. Defining it really isn’t all that important, however. To simply understand and embrace that everything is made from ‘it’, that all apparent separateness is an illusion, is at the heart of enlightenment.  These concepts are not all spiritual, either. Many quantum physicists are exploring non-dualism as a scientific concept. Consider Einstein’s point below:

“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” –Albert Einstein

The similarity between what Einstein is saying and what Buddha taught thousands of years ago is astounding. Oneness/nondualism are true, spiritual or scientific, it is no matter. So, what is the state of being enlightened? Personally, I don’t see enlightenment as an ultimate ‘goal’, more a realisation of truth. We can be ‘more’ or ‘less’ ignorant of this truth, but nothing else. We can practice meditation, mindfulness, and become more self-aware, compassionate for others and develop inner peace and tranquillity, or we can choose not to. Simply, take responsibility for your experience and your suffering, because you have the ability to deal with it if you so wish. The illusion of self and separation will always exist to some degree; that’s a simple fact of where we are in our evolutionary journey. It’s up to us how much we allow ourselves to invest in it.

With Sincerity,

Whitemowgli