Re: The Psychological Viewpoint Questionnaire, William R. Miller
Behavioral – 12
Humanistic – 11
Psychoanalytic – 11
At first blush, I recoiled at the fact Behavioral was dominant. I find Skinner to be kind of creepy, so I have rationalized that Social Psychologist Zimbardo (though I am well aware some find Zimbardo kind of creepy) has enough Behavioral aspects, and that has kind of soothed that anxiety!
In ethics, we might say that I lack ‘parsimony’. My rationalizations and perspectives don’t follow a particularly consistent and ‘simple’ perspective. For this evaluation, items 18 and 20 are particularly revelatory:
18. Little or none of what people do is the result of free will. Behavior is controlled by lawful principles, and free choice is an illusion.
20. A person is free to be what he or she wants to be.
On their face, these would likely have opposite ‘answers’. If you agree with one, you are more likely to disagree with the other. If this was being scored by either a human or even an algorithm, this pair would likely be checked for ‘internal consistency’. I agreed with both of these though.
The subtle differences between these two was enough for me to, at least reflexively, agree with item 20 despite the fact I don’t believe in ‘free will’. I think ‘want’ is enough of a waffle word which allows me of convincing myself I can agree with both of the items.
But! Back to the overall results. I think it is fair to say that I both accept and reject these approaches equally. I think human ‘mind’ complexity may very well not be comprehensible by humans, and I think there is a certain kind of arrogance which I associate with the idea that humans are so awesome they can understand everything – even themselves.
I think lots of approaches (perspectives) can provide value, but I am skeptical any one approach (or even a ‘set’) can provide definitive understanding (and importantly, for me, ‘solutions’).
… kenny