|
"What men
want is not knowledge, but certainty."
Bertrand Russel
"Common
sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."
Albert
Einstein
"No
facts are to me sacred; none are profane; I simply experiment, an
endless seeker, with no past at my back." Ralph
Waldo Emmerson
Mapping Reality the final Steps.
When each human being
becomes about 16 or 18 years old his or her Personal Map of Reality, as
explained
previously, becomes fully functional. That is to say it becomes fully
integrated,
it becomes for the most part internally consistent and its ability to
predict the external world fully operational. It becomes an instrument
which predicts copiously and accurately all manner of things in the
world.
Neuroscience
has discovered
that during the period of the teens a curious activity starts to occur
in the brain. Where as previously neurons have been developing
connecting pathways throughout the brain there is instead a dying off
of these connections. There is a pruning back of what is not being used
on a massive scale. That which is not being used is not useful and is
often unconnected to our personal map of reality. Thus this pruning is
also part of the process of making our brains map of reality
increasingly more internally consistent.
The building of this map of
reality is largely advanced by one of the two kinds of the need to
know; what Popper
calls the need for discoverable structural invariants or regularities
of the environment. Clearly this need is no longer needed nor is it
useful when the structure of our personal map of reality is completed.
In fact this need should be weakening all the time our personal map of
reality is building and should ideally completely disappear when the
building of the structure is completed. Further this need to know
should be gradually replaced by a different need to know (the need to
know for the pleasure of knowing) which should grow stronger as the
need for
regularities in the universe fades.
The dangerous transition point.
Unfortunately
this fading of the need for regularities does not always happen nor
does learning for pleasure always succeed it, as
various things can go wrong in our lives to prevent it. Not
only do many people stop delving
deeply into academic subjects, but the amount of general informational
reading, drops alarmingly as people become adults. Humans
do not need to stop learning, they are not biologically impelled to
stop learning, they just do. This retreat from of learning can come at
a time when the highly complex emotional challenges and experiences of
sexuality, romance, closer and more intimate peer relationships, status
and dominance are taking their toll on our lives.
These
new emotional experiences can enable further expansion of the self, the
internal map of reality and the continuing desire to learn, or they can
result in a contraction of the person's map of reality and a reversion
in their mental
development. Greenspan and Shanker in their book
"The First Idea" say:
"They
may try to return to a an earlier, narrower sense of self. In other
words, as the complexity of new challenges and experiences expands an
individual may lose the ability to use gray-area, multiple-cause
thinking or an internal standard."
Greenspan
and Shanker seem to imply here that the complexity and amount of the
adult challenges are too much for some people who are overwhelmed by
them. Greenspan and Shanker are right to warn us of the danger of this
transition point where people may forge ahead mentally or regress into
rigid thinking patterns that ignore the full complexities of life.
However, these new challenges and experiences are easily dealt with by
some people who go on to thrive as adults. Such people continue to
learn,
their maps
of reality continue to grow and their self or sense of identity does
not feel threatened. Greenspan and Shanker imply that some may abandon
academic pursuits in order to deal with the new emotional challenges of
adulthood or ignore the new challenges and continue in academic inquiry:
"No
matter how good cognitive skills are (such as mathematical reasoning),
a person's world can be narrowed by naive or rigid thinking that ignores
the full complexities of life."
This
is true of course and we sometimes under pressure favor one kind of
learning over another but any kind restructuring that regects any kind
of learning unfortunately affects all kinds of learning. Rigidity in
thinking is not helpful to any learning, while flexibility in thinking
is very conducive to any type of learning.
This
regression to earlier rigid thinking practices can have lasting damaging
results where our minds may get stuck, frozen in
an adolescent form, for all our
lives.
Why do some people continue learning
while others stop?
Some
people's personal map of reality
closes off and becomes inflexible, dogmatic, with permanent structures.
This inflexibility is characterized by a regression to black and white
thinking instead of gray area thinking and where multiple possibility
thinking is replaced by certainty. This inflexibility also is normally
accompanied by a loss of personal standardization where exceptions and
anomalies are ignored to protect the integrity and consistency of the
person's map of reality.
Some of the blame for all
this lies with the parents, some with the schools,
and some with social norms in our
societies. It must
clearly be lain at the door of the emotions fear, arrogance and
boredom. Firstly, people
stop learning when they leave school because
the very process of schooling has removed the joy of learning even as
it was providing the necessary information and a lot that was not
necessary. Secondly, people stop learning when the believe erroneously
they
that they already know it all. Finally, people stop learning when they
become afraid that learning further will disrupt their their maps of
reality and cause their identity to be threatened.
Loss of interest in learning.
People
stop learning when they leave school, for the most part, because
the process of schooling removes the pleasure of learning. Elsewhere in
this site we have shown a great deal of evidence for the loss of the
pleasure that comes from learning while at school. This being the case
not a lot will
be presented here. It is almost self evident that while infants revel
in the experience of learning, many adults have this euphoria
gradually replaced over time by a kind of general boredom when learning
or trying to learn. This is not true of all adults obviously, but it is
of a
large majority.
Fear
of learning.
If
the world we live in seems to be chaotic and difficult to predict this
need for regularities can remain strong and the need to speculate about
and question everything can remain weak. As teens pass into adulthood
their lives become more complex and difficult they are forced to take
responsibility for themselves.
All
those years of struggle toward some kind of certainty can lead us to
to fear uncertainty. If failure and criticism cannot be adequately dealt
with, if we fail and cannot rise again, or we cannot learn
from criticism, then it is inevitable we will fear uncertainty.
Another way to look at this
is to consider the possibility that we may have built a very
flawed map of reality. If our map of reality is flawed badly, reality
will appear to us chaotic and unpredictable, even though it is
not. A partially flawed map of
reality is where the person has not developed confidence in his/her
ability to provide for his/her deficiency needs at all those levels of
Maslow's hierarchy.
This
also promotes a continuation of the need for regularities and a
corresponding lack in the need to question all theories and
ideas.
Unfortunately, the more
things seem uncertain the more many people tend to cling to what
they know.
Instead of adjusting their maps of reality to accommodate the
falsification
of what they 'know', they tend to use their intellect to
rationalize,
avoid change and support that which is flawed, their personal dogma.
Arrogance
the belief that they
already know it all.
There
is a kind of propaganda pervasive in schools and society that the
knowledge being imparted to children is of the kind of universal
invariants and as such should not be questioned. This certainty
tends to lead to a kind of over confidence
that seems to develop in a large section of our culture. The
child has struggled for about 16 years to make sense of the world.
He/she has been told over and over that the knowledge being handed to
her/him in school is perfect as it were the word of god. The
way subjects are taught in schools it's as if everything
was all true and set in stone forever.
As
the child becomes an adult the child feels filled with the knowledge of
the gods as if he/she has all the answers. This arrogance can but lead
to overconfidence and dogmatic, inflexible thinking. This
overconfidence is a
kind of belief in the infallibility of their maps of reality. This
occurs when the structure is finally completed and is clearly
discernible in teenagers of this age group. It takes the form of a kind
of arrogance, a sort of taking for granted that they know it all. It is
perhaps almost natural they should feel this way. They have had heaped
on them all the supposed essential knowledge in the world as if it were
the word
of God. Why should they not then, feel like gods with all the answers.
  
This overconfidence brings
certainty and with it great confidence in one's ability to predict and
make things happen in the world. People of this sort, who have, what
can only be, unrealistic expectations of their own personal map of
reality, end up for most part as the plodders in the world. They
probably
work nine to five, they do not like their work and yet they make little
effort to change their lot in life. Their initial confidence and
ability to make effective changes in the world runs into a brick wall
that stems from their inability to make further modifications in their
map of reality and their increasingly restrictive learning curve.
  
Bertrand Russel
made the following statement:
"The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the
intelligent are full of doubt." Except it is likely that
intelligent people are often closed minded and cocksure also. Indeed
many of the world's most intelligent people tend to use that
intelligence to support positions that they arrived at by very
unintelligent means. Russel has confused intelligence with those who
continue to grow and change, the true seekers of knowledge.
"It's
better to know some of the questions than all of the answers."
James Thurber
"We are the
prisoners of ideas."
Ralph
Waldo Emmerson
People
who's maps of reality are frozen in this way
are for the most part not contributors to the world and what
contribution they do make is often
not for the world's ultimate benefit. They are not what we would call
bad or broken people, psychologists would not classify them as being
mentally ill yet they will never become what Maslow calls
self-actualized. What they have lost is their ability to continue to
greatly change and further modify their own personal map of reality.
When this happens the map of reality tends to become what we describe
as rigid and inflexible. In such people new knowledge that does not fit
in with their maps is ignored or discarded. Not only that, but the
actual desire for new knowledge diminishes.
Identity.
The
desire to remain fixed and unchanging is not just a matter of arrogance
and fear, but also one of expectations. As our map of reality becomes
fully functioning we can come to believe that our identity our
personality is finished. Those around us also expect us to remain
fairly consistent in our desires and actions from then on. We start to
expect ourselves to act and react to things in a consistent way. "The
way that I would act or react". People start to say, "I've got to be
me." "I've got to do things the way I do them, not as somebody else
would." Other people start saying things like, "That is very unlike
you." when there is any variation in our actions from what they think
is usual. They try to set the 'us' they know in concrete, unchanging
and immutable.
In his book "Reinventing
Yourself" Steve Chandler has this to say:
"The habit of
avoiding embarrassment - and the accompanying chronic worry about other
people's judgments - usually begins in junior high school and then
never leaves. That's when the neural pathways are dug, and later
deepened, which means that most people form their permanent identities
in junior high school.
But have we done this
intentionally? Of course not! Who would knowingly choose a life
designed by a teenager? But that's exactly what we've done. We've tried
to live lives designed by teenagers! No wonder they are nightmares!"
Betrayal by the institutions of
learning and society's current socialization plan.
Just when the
student has developed a mental structure that seems make
the world predictable, when he/she no longer has to fear uncertainty,
when he/she feels fully formed, teachers at college ask him/her once
again to
question what he/she knows. The arrogance of some will not let them
continue this questioning. They may be afraid to question because they
fear chaos. Or they may be afraid to question because they fear they
will lose themselves. Worse of course is that the very desire to know
itself has withered.
Disillusionment.
The
youth of the world has been told up to this
point that
the knowledge they have been given was true and now they are told that
maybe it is not true. Some can cope with this disillusionment and some
cannot.
The importance of Doubt.
When
our map of reality is
structurally complete what is needed, paradoxically, is that
we become able to feel sufficiently secure to return to a state of
doubt and uncertainty. It turns out that doubt allows flexible thinking
while certainty brings the rigidity of dogmatic thinking. If we are
to escape from the imprisonment of prejudices derived from common
sense, from the habitual beliefs of our age or our nation, and from the
convictions which have grown up in our minds without our co-operation
or consent, we must become brave enough to be open to doubt. We must
not take refuge in the safe world of certainty where common objects
rouse no questions and all unfamiliar possibilities are contemptuously
rejected, the world of dogma.
  
Nothing can be known for
sure, knowledge is fluid, ever changing and there are many
perspectives for it, any one of which may be correct or incorrect. If
we
are to approach closer and closer to universal truth, as Popper
suggests,
we must become open to being wrong on all levels. Wrong as in open to
criticism, wrong as in able to cope with failure, wrong as in able and
unafraid to modify our personal map of reality and wrong as in being
able to and unafraid to restructure our personal map of reality. However,
perhaps
we can help youth, as they approach adulthood, to deal with this
betrayal and
perhaps we can find ways to prevent it happening to youth completely.
Help in maintaining
Doubt.
One thing we can do ensure
that we are able
to return to a state of doubt, even if we have come to this
overconfidence of certainty, is completely demolish this certainty. Not
only is the way things are taught
instrumental in promoting doubt or certainty but certain subjects
however they are
taught may be useful in promoting doubt. Psychology with its many
different competing ideas cannot help but promote some doubt. The study
of semantics, especially general semantics, can be useful in making us
question even our most basic ideas. Perhaps the most useful single
subject to make us think and question all we believe is philosophy. No
other subject questions so many things from the most basic to the most
obscure.
Bertrand Russel
in his "Essays" has this to says:
- "The value of philosophy is, in fact, to be
sought largely in its very uncertainty. The man who has no tincture of
philosophy goes through life imprisoned in the prejudices derived from
common sense, from the habitual beliefs of his age or his nation, and
from the convictions which have grown up in his mind without the
co-operation or consent of his deliberate reason. To such a man the
world tends to become definite finite, obvious; common objects rouse no
questions and unfamiliar possibilities are contemptuously rejected. As
soon as we begin to philosophize, on the contrary, we find, as we saw
in our opening chapters, that even the most everyday things lead to
problems to which only very incomplete answers can be given. Philosophy
though unable to to tell us with certainty the true answer to the
doubts it raises, is able to suggest many possibilities which enlarge
our thoughts and free them from the tyranny of custom. Thus while
diminishing our feelings of certainty as to what things are, it greatly
increases our knowledge as to what they may be; it removes the somewhat
arrogant dogmatism of those who who have never traveled into the region
of liberating doubt, and it keeps alive our sense of wonder by showing
familiar things in an unfamiliar aspect."
Now I can not be sure, that
the learning of philosophy can have all the truly wonderful effects,
that Bertrand Russel attributes to it above. However, I cannot help but
think, that even if there is the slightest chance, that some of it may
be true, it would be worthwhile making an effort to see, that
philosophy is taught to all 15 and 16 year olds. The last two or three
years of high school could easily be used to expose the youth of the
world to this subject. By doing this we may be able to undo much of the
effect of this overconfidence, promoted by schools and other social institutions, that builds up in our youth. In this
way we may be able to catch those who would never go to collage or be
exposed to doubt provoking subjects and insulate them from becoming overconfident.
The
joy of uncertainty.
Uncertainty
gives us joy through the process of learning. Uncertainty means the joy
of knowing that all knowledge can be improved or replaced and that we
can improve or replace it. When we are certain there is no need to
learn. The uncertainty in specific knowledge means that knowledge is
not perfect
and can be improved. Unless we believe this of all knowledge we are
left floundering like a fish out of water stubbornly clinging
dogmatically to our supposed perfect knowledge. The pleasure
of learning lies not in knowing, rather it is like the pride a
master craftsman takes in making each thing he makes a little better
than he was able to make it before. The pleasure lies not in knowing
what is true, but rather the in the feeling that you are gradually
approaching
closer and closer to an unknowable truth.
 The seven stages of
adulthood.
IN their book
"The First Idea" Greenspan and Shanker
provide us with seven stages of life for adults, the
first of which
has been dealt with above. They are as follows: "An
expanding sense of self." "Reflecting on a personal future."
"Stabilizing a separate sense of self." "Intimacy and commitment."
"Creating a family." "The larger world." "The wisdom of the ages." Each
of these stages presents an opportunity to move forward and become more
adult with a more inclusive self and more reflective thinking, but at
the same time each is also a turning point where with the
wrong environmental triggers can promote regression into inflexible,
rigid, even dogmatic forms of thinking that suffocate learning,
identity and emotional growth.
The
expansion/contraction of the self.
This, as shown above, is a major crisis in
learning
where we can be tempted to regress into the rigid thinking that
impairs our ability to learn and curtails the
expansion of the self.
  
Investment in a personal
future.
Although
adolescents and children are vaguely aware that they will have a personal
future they are not really invested in that future. Indeed before
children become adults they have little ability to take their long term
future into account and are generally disinterested in that future.
Adolescent interest in their own future tends to be very immediate.
However, as we are drawn into adulthood by leaving home, going to
college, getting a job etc., this all changes. We are forced by the
intense emotional scope of these new challenges to begin to take
serious account
of our personal future. We are in situations where if we make the wrong
choice it will have serious repercussions for our future selves. This
process will not go well if we have taken the wrong turn and our self
is contracting and our thinking rigid. What happens then is such
people drift aimlessly through life, and see no future for
themselves. If the process goes well, this investment allows the mind
to move from multiple
causes and standards to true probabilistic thinking. Greenspan and
Shanker explain and indicate another turning point in development as
follows:
"Without
such an investment probabilistic thinking may not fully develop. Too much
anxiety about the future will discourage reflection and restrict
cognitive and emotional development. The need to invest emotionally in
the future to develop probabilistic thinking in full is another
illustration of how emotional and cognitive development work together."
Greenspan
and Shanker then explain how this investing and probabilistic thinking
impacts our lives:
"Investing
in future-oriented probabilistic thinking is not only needed for
mathematical and scientific reasoning, it also enables an appreciation
of social patterns. One can look at the implication of social,
political, economic and cultural patterns for the future in
relationship to the past present and future. This not only helps one
plan but also leads to a more sophisticated and intelligent analysis of
history culture and society."
The establishment of a self separate from ones childhood
family.
In
order for the cycle of life to begin again in early adulthood the child
has to separate him/herself from his/her caregivers. This requires
stabilizing the sense of self which allows the formation of an independent
whole functioning unit that can decide and act without reference to
caregivers. This does not mean that parental values are discarded but
rather that values are internalized as Greenspan and Shanker explain: "...being able to carry the
warmth, security and guidance of those relationships inside oneself."
This is assisted by the previous development of standards that
are unique to their self and not just a passive acceptance of
one's caregiver's values. Greenspan and Shanker explain what they mean
by standards:
"The
standards of one's caregivers, however, are not simply their
values and
judgments, but, through their good offices, the history of their
culture as well as one's own - that is, one's heritage."
 
Geenspan and Shanker explain
how this separation impacts our lives:
"Young
adults can now often make judgments that 'thoughtfully' incorporate and
accept or reject the standards of their caregivers. ...There is
therefore, greater independence from daily reliance on one's nuclear
family, greater investment in the future - mobilized in the prior stage
- and greater ability to carry one's past inside oneself as
part
of a growing sense of self and internal standard. This stage ushers in
the beginning of a long process that involves reflective thinking and
that can use the past, present, and future in a relatively more
independent manner."
While not all adults manage to
achieve this,
to function well in adult life with their own nuclear families, adults
need
this separated
maturity. Otherwise they will look to caregivers to make decisions for
them till those caregivers die and then they will be lost. Of course
looking to their parents for decisions sets a terrible example for
their own children.
Intimacy and commitment.
At this stage new levels of
empathy are formed as new
tolerance, acceptance and respect for differences in others is
enabled. This combined with investment in ones personal future makes
stable long term commitments possible. Geenspan and Shanker explain:
"The
ability for intimacy and commitment now builds on all the earlier stages
of emotional development. It includes taking the initial steps involved
in life's major decisions. It calls on all the prior stages as well as
new depth to reflect upon relationships, passionate emotions, and
educational and career choices. This challenge can deepen and further
stabilize an expanding sense of self and broaden one's thinking (for
example, with new levels of empathy). For example, the challenge of
loving another person over a long period of time involves engaging in a
relationship with deepening intimacy and growing respect for unique
differences. This is not an easy feat, and it can lead to a narrowing
of emotional investments, rigidity, and fragmentation or new levels of
reflectiveness."
 
Geenspan and Shanker explain
how this intimacy and commitment and reflectiveness impacts our lives:
"Reflective
thinking achieves a yet higher level as a new set of time and space
dimensions are incorporated into our educational, career, and personal
relationships. For example, involvement with a potential mate and having
a family of one's own inspires a shift from relative states of
emotional immediacy to increasingly longer-term commitments.
Decision-making involves greater lengths of time and more stable
long-term commitments to different types of interpersonal space (work
and school commitments,setting up homes as opposed to living in
dormitories or apartments). With this new level of reflection we may
also begin seeing longer term political and religious values
consolidate, although these will often form and consolidate for some
time."
  
Creating a family.
The
cycle of life begins again with marriage and the birth of children. The
adult separates him/herself from one family so they can create a family
of their own. There are two possible regression points involved with
this stage as Greenspan
and Shanker explain:
"..the
ability to to reflect broadly and wisely is challenged by the experience
of raising children, without losing closeness with one's spouse or
partner, An even harder challenge, however, is empathizing with ones
children without over identifying or withdrawing. At each stage of the
child's development there is an opportunity for caregivers to
over identify, pull away, or empathize with a balance of caring,
understanding and guidance"
  
A person's needs and desires
(especially
unresolved ones) can be projected onto our children with sometimes
disastrous consequences. While each stage in our children's lives is an
opportunity to rework issues in our own lives we must take care not to
become stage mothers and fathers or helicopter parents who are
desperately driven to fully
control almost every moment in our children's lives. Greenspan and
Shanker continue:
"Meeting
this challenge can significantly expand, deepen, and ripen one's
reflective skills and sense of self. At each stage in the child's life
it enables one to rework issues in one's own development, as well as
construct new empathetic capacities at a level of intimacy and depth,
perhaps not attained in any other relationship. On the other hand, it
can make a person pull back, wall off parts of the self, and become
fragmented. As with all new demands and challenges, there is the risk
that thinking will become concrete, narrow or rigid when challenges are
too great." [or if challenges are badly prepared for.]
Being a parent is
a delicate balancing act where parents have to hold their children's
hands to help them move forward but somehow know when to let go and
allow the child to move forward by his/herself. It is helping by
demonstrating what is needed but not being upset when the child uses
this to move in a new direction. Only in this way can the child build
autonomy to make his/her own way though life. When this is done well
the
parent can gain even further empathy as he/she becomes able to put
his/herself in the child's shoes. This allows further expansion of the
self to incorporate one's children into one's self concept. From there
the self can expand further to include one's spouse and other family
members. This in turn is helpful in other's point of views in general
gradually making clearer the points of views of other ideologys and
cultures. Greenspan and Shanker explain it as follows:
"An
adult with all the early stages in place can now develop a new level of
consciousness and reflective thinking because of the growing ability to
view events and feeling from another individual's perspective, even when
the feelings are intimate intense and highly personal. In other words
the empathy learned through taking care of children opens up new
dimensions of feelings that were not possible at earlier stages of
empathy. As this ability develops develops, one is able to generalize
it and look at and empathize with the goals , needs, and perspectives of
other communities and cultures while maintaining a strong sense of one's
own cultural heritage, social values and commitments"
Identification
with humanity as a whole.
This
stage occurs usually in middle age. During this stage people can find
they are increasingly feeling greater concern about others and what
happens to them. This occurs as a continuing growth of empathy
leads to the continuing expansion of the self, all of which represent
the ideal response to the challenges of mid life.
Unfortunately as
Greenspan and Shanker explain the middle years have their own dangers
for regression.
"...preoccupation
with one's changing physical status, or a narrowing of interests and
perspectives, accompanied by fear, anxiety, and depression,
can lead
to limited thinking. The decline of physical abilities, including
memory and the ability to sequence actions and information, and fear of
terminal illness can either overwhelm or lead to further growth."
  
Greenspan
and Shanker see this as a pattern in the way people
deal with life. Some people, when overwhelmed in this way, find
this pattern becoming frozen and they are said to be becoming set in
their ways. Those who have a better response to these new challenges
can achieve an understanding of their role in life. Some people can use
their
accumulated knowledge and
perspective to make a midlife course correction, to become more
flexible and growth oriented.
Set
in their ways. When a regression occurs at
this stage it can result in an inflexibility
often expressed in intolerance for the ideas of others, especially the
ideas of the young. Such people are said to have become set in their
ways. For
some people this pattern can become set like concrete. As with all
these turning points the freezing of the pattern can result in
backsliding into inflexible forms of thinking.
Self-realization.
Some people are able
to expand the pattern to include new ways of dealing with life's
challenges. Greenspan
and Shanker explain:
"During this stage one
is propelled into having to think about the next steps in work and
family life. Unrealistic or wishful expectations and earlier fantasies
about attainments are tempered with an appreciation of accumulated
reality based experience and wisdom. One's perspective of time is also
changing. ...The future is no longer infinite. Relative to one's own
life, time appears to pass more quickly."
"As
part of this stage, individuals frequently (either at a conscious or
intuitive level) have a sense of where they are in life's journey,
including their goals. Implicit in this appraisal is a sense
of one's
own patterns in relationships to others such as family and career. Most
individuals operate within identifiable patterns related to their own
prior experiences."
The continuing acceptance of
differences in people is ideally further expanded as our
ability to empathize
with other people and put ourselves in their shoes continues to be
extended. Perhaps for most it is extended to the people of our own
culture and social groups. Eventually, however, in many
humans this is further extended to all humans and often to non human
animals as
well. This can also manifest as the inclusion of others within our
sense of self. This inclusive superself is typical of people Maslow
called self-actualized and those people Maslow identified as
self-actualized were in fact middle aged. Greenspan and Shanker
describe this a little more conservatively as follows:
"In
addition, one's allegiance often extends more and more into the world
community and global concerns. When emotional investment moves beyond
family, local community, or even nation, both the sense of self and
consciousness further expand. Most important, however, this stage
creates an ability to appreciate a new social reality, the global or
world group."
Mid life course correction. Greenspan and Shanker
explain:
"...in
midlife because the future is now finite rather than infinite (in a
relative sense), can lead to a reappraisal and a decision to find an
adaptive pathway outside one's "pattern". Interestingly, this type of
adaptive solution often involves a reappraisal of one's goals as well,
since the original goals, like the pattern associated with them, may
have been partially colored and limited by a variety of previous
experiences, including conflicts, and childlike
solutions to family dramas."
"The
reflective skills involved in such a reappraisal - that is, the ability
to understand one's own patterns and make a "midcourse" adjustment - is
an important component of an adaptive resolution of this particular
stage."
The
wisdom of old age.
As
one approaches the end of life many of the physical processes of life
begin to break down. This may be partly our own fault because as we get
older we tend to use our bodies and minds less. If there is a law of
biology it is that "what you don't use you lose". If we continue
to to exercise, if we continue to involve our minds in learning new
things and skills, if we continue to socialize and interact
with
other people, then it may well be, that this deterioration does not
happen. At the very least it may happen much less. Even at this last
stage, there is still a possibility of closing off the self and regression
into rigid thinking. Geenspan
and Shanker explain:
Geenspan and Shanker explain
how the finality of old age can further widen reflective thought and
how this can impact our lives:
"If
memory loss and sequencing problems are not severe, the aging process
opens up new vistas. Life is much more finite. Goals have been either
met or not met Grand children or great grandchildren may be a part of
one's life or on the horizon. A spouse or partner may be an
even
deeper ally in life's travels. One may be able to comprehend the cycle
of life in a richer, fuller manner.
The
aging process and changes in one's own body become dominant, the
appreciation and acceptance of the life cycle is juxtaposed with with
the possibility of depression and and withdrawal. New almost impossible
to anticipate feelings and experiences are generated. Time, space,
person and self have new dimensions and meanings. In other words, aging
can bring not just new insight but what some have called wisdom, an
entirely new level of reflective awareness of one's self and the world."
This is a time of true life
perspective where a person is able
to see and appreciate their life as a whole. It is a time when the part
one has played in in the tapestry of life can be recognized and found
to be satisfying. This is where wisdom can develop free from the
self-centered and practical worries of earlier stages.
  
 The role of
parents
and society in preventing this regression.
Parents,
society, and the
institutions of society
have a distinct and similar role to play in the prevention of declining
interest in learning and the same actions can act as a kind of shoring
up of personal cognitive strength that will prevent cognitive
regression. Indeed these roles and the actions that flow from them will
have a preventive effect on all the side tracking features of the adult
stages of development. Thus what caregivers in particular do in
facilitating the children's development will ensure continued healthy
development in the child's adult life. The role of caregivers is to be
a good caregiver and
all that entails for the continuing development of their child's
potential.
There
are many things caregivers can do to keep their child's mind open,
their desire to learn
continuing, and their map of reality from closing off as if it was
complete. These things are equally effective in encouraging investment
in one's personal future, eventual separation from those caregivers,
subsuming one's family as part of one's self, furtherer subsuming
humanity as part of one's self, and finally to achieve a satisfied
perspective on how one has lived one's life.
Much of this comes from the
work of Carol Dweck and her work
on self theories and mindsets. In terms of a personal map of reality a
fixed mindset corresponds fairly well to a map of reality that has
become closed
off as if it has finished growing. Alternatively a growth
mindset, as the name
suggests, is about a map of reality that is continuing to change and
grow.
Praise orientation.
The most important way parents and society can try to ensure that
a personal map of
reality continues to grow is through the kind of praise the offer children.
Fixed mindset praise.
Praise of the sort that
informs children that they are
handsome, kind, clever, intelligent etc. tends to focus children's
minds on 'what their abilities are, fixing their view of their
abilities then and forever as unchangingly frozen into whatever that
judgment was. This pounds into the child's head that abilities and
intelligence are fixed. This in turn provides a standard to live up to
which
needs to be demonstrated often and well. This produces people who are
overly protective of these abilities and concerned about how others
perceive them.
On
the one hand they are afraid to loose abilities afraid to take risks
and fail because that would diminish them in the eyes of others. While
on the other hand they may feel themselves so superior that they need
not
generate much effort in doing anything. Indeed for them to show much
effort would indicate that they had less ability and were not so
superior. One can see at a glance that both these paths lead to very
little desire to learn and so exacerbate the tendency to stop leaning
once the map of reality is fully functioning.
Growth mindset praise.
If
parents and the institutions of society are willing to praise children a little differently they will
be able to focus the children's minds on how things change and in
particular on how they are able to change for the better. If instead of
praising what children are, we can praise how they have improved or how
much effort they have made or how well they have persisted. Thus
parents and society can provide
children with a mindset that encourages continuous expansion of talents
toward their ultimate potential. Parents who say things like, "Wow you
have really put a lot of effort into that" or "Your so much better than
you were just a few day ago." are giving their children an edge and the
desire to keep learning. This will enable them to change continuously
and easily and thus continue to learn and build new skills. This
produces people who are willing to take risks and who are unafraid of
failure. Such people are also unafraid of loosing any status conferred
by their abilities and realize that only effort will keep them
improving.
One can see at a glance that such people must
develop a thirst for learning that would be vital in overcoming the
tendency to stop learning once the map of reality is fully functioning.
Other praise.
Praise of the
child's work will not affect either mindset, but it has been shown to
increase children's intrinsic motivation to do, to learn and to expand
their map of reality. Praising the work provides children with
information about what others like and what is held by peers and
significant others to be worthy of praise. Saying things like, "That's
beautiful." or "That's great work." or "That was a terrific game." are
good ways to activate children who will remain interested in learning.
In giving such praise one must be sure to it is your true opinion
otherwise the the effect on children may be very counter productive.
All this is useful in keeping children active and interested and
ultimately able to retard the tendency to slow down learning as the
map of reality is becoming fully functioning.
Unconditional care.
Another
avenue to help keep a personal map of reality growing is by refraining
from being conditional with children. Whether it is food, warmth,
security, a sense of belonging, love or esteem, if it is conditional,
it creates a dependence that never ends, a dependence that seals off
one's ability to grow and expand ones' map of reality. It creates in
the minds of children a desire to continually measure themselves
against others, and in doing so weakens the real desire to expand their
real knowledge. Learning becomes all about what can be obtained from
others. It becomes a showing off of grades, of gaining certificates and
degrees, rather than expanding skills, competence and understanding.
Children who receive unconditional regard from their parents concerning
what they do well at, are normally able to rise to challenges, that
those who wish to perform well for others, are incapable of. They can
do this because they have less fear of failure and difficulty. They are
more confident that they can improve through the application of effort
and persistence. It is immaterial to them what others think so long as
they can gage incremental improvement in their own
work. Those who have received unconditional care
develop a desire for learning that helps maintain
continual growth toward our potential and a healthy personal map of
reality.
Human
development, personal maps of reality, and life long learning.
Clearly if Greenspan and Shanker are correct life
is meant to be one where human development continues till we die. Life is meant to one where
learning does not stop but rather deepens as we approach the end of our
lives.
|
