Understanding environmental and internal forces affecting psychological self-control

Life of Psychology

Understanding and tolerance of the behavior of other people

As a psychologist, I always do not do what I would like to do. My intended thoughts and behavior are blocked by the behavior of other people. I believe that my behaviors and thoughts are a result of various forces such as pushing and pulling me in different directions. However, I rarely apply the concept of reinforcement and I decry the idea of enhancing my will power. I often point out that much self-help advice is unquestionably correct and very simple. Other people have forced me to stop procrastinating as I can now plan for my time and be successful when dealing with patients (Bugelski, 2009). However, this advice has been useless since I have failed to follow it. The willpower of other people has hindered me from making such a change. I know that if I identify the forces hindering my good intentions, I would understand and tolerate the behavior of other people. This will enable me to do what I want to do. This is referred to as a cognitive approach to self-control, which fosters tolerance.

In my experience, a strong environmental force blocked my intended behavior, which overpowered my will. These forces included constant temptations, an urge to do something, an angry reaction from someone and cultural diversity. When these forces overwhelmed my best intentions, I thought I was lazy and selfish. It is obvious that today's world present so many strong forces. We all enjoy and want things like social needs, genetic drives, hormonal satisfaction, and physical and compelling emotions. However, these forces have frequently crushed on my self-control and this has not been good (Rathus & Rathus, 2010).

This notion of forces is obvious. However, it is an extremely challenging process to evaluate other people's behavior. My thought processes are always weak, usually giving a false hope, and sometimes overestimated. Instead of thoughts, I have to use my brain and my knowledge of self-help to devise ways of containing the behaviors of other people. Besides the behavior of other people in the outside world, other forces are generated by my own self-evaluations. For instance, during a conversation, I see myself panicking in the thinking process; "I will look like a jerk." Such feelings and thoughts about me are strong forces that regularly block me from doing what I would like to do. Through self-appraisal and dialogue, I can acquire control over these forces (Hayes, 2010).

Q2. Forces acting to limit or prevent my freedom of choice

As vital as the instrumental freedom of choice could be, various forces hinder psychologists from exercising this valued right. Almost all psychologists including philosophers like Plato have placed a premium on the freedom of choice. When I have no choice, my life as a psychologist becomes unbearable. Although there are no doubts, limits to the freedom of choice tend to burden my determination: it is obvious that I find myself paralyzed.

Various forces hinder my freedom of choice. The first is the possibility of regret: when I make decisions that yield imperfect results, I might regret having settled on the decisions. This convinces me that an alternative would have yielded better results (Rathus & Rathus, 2010). This induces second thoughts in my mind for exploring better alternatives. Self blame: when I devote a great deal of energy and time to make a decision and then due to a set of missed opportunities, high expectations and regrets, end up being disappointed with the results (Rathus, 2009). Relating to the small choices, it is straightforward and natural to blame the entire world for the disappointment. On the contrary, I cannot blame the entire world with many options at hand. I have to blame myself. With more options, self-blame is highly expected. In fact, self-blame is common because great choices increase the possibility of getting disappointing results.

Q4. Developing and expressing intelligent skepticism

I always acknowledge that there are levels of justice among morally or ethically wrong acts. Some are extreme than others. For instance, the media has shown many cases of criminal acts. I tend to agree that shoplifting is a minor crime than armed robbery, in turn; armed robbery is a minor crime than murder. I would develop a list of crimes in order their level of seriousness. As a skeptic, I would possibly agree that a few paranormal beliefs are dangerous than other (Rathus & Rathus, 2010). Focusing on some paranormal beliefs is expected to lead to suffering and disaster for innocent people. On the other hand, holding others is highly expected to undermine the general comprehension of logical methods and science of reasoning. This difference is vital as it gives me the ground for the ethics of skepticism.

Then, the ground for the ethics of skepticism follows from a simple question. What paranormal beliefs warrant investigation? I am aware that most of us in the Western world subscribe to paranormal beliefs. It is obvious that the most skeptical attention must be directed at those paranormal claims that are viewed as the most dangerous (Rathus, 2009). This draws the most impact by safeguarding the rational basis and relieving the suffering of modern science. My ethical approach is set under the investigation process and ignores this critical ethical question.

Judging report in the mass media, two beliefs are most risky and cause a lot of suffering. One is the belief in modern alternative medicine that argues to be a viable substitute for mainstream treatment. I often hear of children whose parents have declined to mainstream medicine and opt for alternative cures, which have shown to be ineffective. I am always horrified of children dying of malnutrition and cancer because their parents did not differentiate poorly evidenced from well-evidenced claims about health (Rathus & Rathus, 2010).

Another field where paranormal beliefs have caused immense suffering is in the field of psychic counseling. As studies have singled out, persons visiting a psychic are expected to be vulnerable and troubled. Most psychic practitioners tend to be ethical and passionate. Contrary, it disconcerts me to learn that when three U.S. psychics were presented with a distressed and vulnerable woman, all of them proposed highly costly psychic remedies. They did not recommend medical or counseling help but started pushing for their highly priced measures (Cooper & Hogg, 2007). The two areas have shown how unwarranted beliefs cause a strong skeptical intervention and a great deal of human suffering. Probably, it would be beneficial to investigate the claims and publicize the results.

Q5. Summary

Before taking the psychology class, I did not know that the term learning is used to refer to changes in behavior resulting from experience. My actions have been influenced by the humane nature of this industry while previously the environment influenced me. This is also true for my warranted actions. Therefore, I can learn bad habits and unlearn them too. Similarly, becoming a better and skillful practitioner thoughtful of others involves new thinking, new thoughts, and new motivation (Rathus, 2009). This psychology as I come to understand is more about how I get to be the way I am and how I learn to be myself. In the end, I have learned how to become what I would like to be.

I have always desired to understand myself by comprehending the cause of my behavior and those of other people. As a wise observer, I have developed various explanations for behavior which are not common knowledge and not obvious. However, I have learned to make this uncommon knowledge common (Hayes, 2010). For instance, I have avoided shyness by avoiding social distress. Certainly, the payoffs for my behavior have subtly changed over the years. My behaviors have suddenly changed as I realized there was an alternative to react to other people. Maybe the variables generating my behavior like anxiety could make me overreact or become compulsive. Gaining knowledge about these sorts of facts has helped me gain self-control.