Irrational Thoughts: The Fallacy Of Shoulds Category

In this essay, I will demonstrate that social factors such as media propaganda and conformity, as well as personal factors which include schemas and aggression management, are the main forces that had driven me into being irrational while I was filling out the survey.

As I mentioned before, irrationality is reoccurring throughout the novel. Ethan is perhaps the most irrational character. Initially, he imprisons himself in a marriage and ruins any chance of a future for a quick irrational decision to marry Zeena (for fear of being alone one winter). He is manipulated by Zeena and tossed around like a chew toy. Frome’s inability to act is another example of his irrationality. He continually lies to Zeena (like the Andrew Hale incident) for a fast solution to an ongoing dilemma. Rather than confessing his love for Mattie and telling Zeena that they should no longer be together, he complicates the situation and chooses to live in a box where the only thing that matter’s to him is Mattie.

After reading chapter five I noticed cognitive dissonance throughout a large portion of the book. Cognitive dissonance was described in class as being a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors. A good example of this was found on page 182 where the author writes about how we all tell our self that African Americans “deserve” all of this even though we know, but do not want to acknowledge that white Americans are less likely to be convicted of the same crime done by blacks. Cognitive dissonance applies here because we know that this mass incarceration is not fair or morally right to do, however, our behavior does not try to stop it from happening. Instead of doing what our beliefs say is right we try to convince ourselves that it is the African Americans fault that they are

Two examples of irrational beliefs that Bryce holds would be that he doesn’t feel much of anything and that he can’t do anything about his wife and children leaving and being behind on the mortgage. These irrational beliefs, or fallacies, hinder our ability to manage and express emotions effectively (Wood, 2010). Which is causing Bryce not too be able to express his emotions in the proper manner.

Chicago has always been known as a city full of crime and hate and more recently it has gotten even worse. In 2016, Chicago had 762 homicides this is more than what New York and Los Angles have combined, mind you two of the largest cities in the nation have had less homicides in their cities than Chicago has had. Chicago not only had 762 homicides, but also had 1,100 more shootings than they had previously in 2015. In comparison New York, which is the largest city in the nation, had only 334 homicides in 2016 and Los angles following behind with only 294.With all the homicides and shootings it has made the issue of gun violence a huge topic when pertaining to this city. In only the past year, police have retrieved 8,300 illegal guns. Another topic that has been brought into societies eyes is with the severe increase of violence is the areas where gangs are most typically active, these areas being areas with low-income families and predominantly black areas.

When we enter colleges or universities, we notice the clean-up of words, ideas and subject matters that might cause discomfort or give an offence. For instance, colleges and universities are avoiding these due to how it may cause students to feel uncomfortable and offended by a word or phrases. However, there is a therapy that can help us treat this to avoid discomfort and also stop colleges from taking away the freedom of speech. Considering this matter, Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt argue in their essay “The Coddling of the American Mind,” in how to fix these situations that colleges and universities have. Both authors explain what colleges and universities should do to promote cognitive behavioral therapy while reducing emotional reasoning. This will benefit any college and university yet, there will be some disadvantages and obstacles to try to implement cognitive behavioral therapy.

Samantha Schultz Gerald B Gaudet Weber’s work represented in pop culture The world is at peace and under the control of a united government. Mankind has learned how to become god, and his new motto is “Community, Identity, Stability.” Brave New World is the world of perfection or as some would call it Utopia.

The aim of this essay is to explore the Clinical reasoning thinking frame as described by Neistadt (1996). Clinical reasoning is a set of skill performed by occupational therapists which are central to practice and involved throughout the Occupational therapy process (Neistadt, 1996, AOTA, 2008). This will be done in relation to our case study of which the protagonist is Hugh, a 70 year old widower and retired baker, who was managing well an episode of depression but has recently been found apathetic, unwashed and in soiled clothes by the public mental health nurse, and referred to see an occupational therapist.

In the podcast titled Cognitive Dissonance (2011), Dr. Carol Tavris, the author of Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts, discusses the relationship between psychology and neuroscience, in addition to discussing cognitive dissonance. As Dr. Tavris explains, cognitive dissonance theory is the mental discomfort we feel whenever two ideas are conflicted with one another, causing discomfort that we attempt to reduce cognitively (Campbell & Tavris, 2011). Moreover, dissonance can increase dependent upon, how important the decision is, how strongly the dissonant thoughts conflict, and our ability to rationalize and justify the conflict (Cognitive dissonance, 2016). As a future psychologist,

An article written by Barbara Enhrenreich – “The Power of Negative Thinking” was published in New York Times in September 2008, a hard time otherwise known economic collapse of the World. Enhrenreich writes that greed and speculation are the two phenomenon responsible for the crisis. Enhrenreich defines positive thinking at a time as a “delusional optimism”, effect of which was over exaggerated and overvalued, “Positive thinking is endemic to academic culture – from weight loss programs to cancer support groups – and in the last two decades it has put down deep roots in the corporate world as well.” (Enhrenreich 270) Most importantly, Enhrenreich claims that Americans were not “deluded optimists” in the past. Visualizing success in her opinion became the guiding tool of a time. As summarized by Peter Theil in his book Zero to One, Americans were in a state of definite optimism up to 1980. Later, it has turned into indefinite optimism where

Leon Festinger shared his brilliance with the world when he, opposing all previous psychological behaviorist work, created the Cognitive Dissonance Theory. In his own words, he quickly sums up this quite complex theory: "If you change a person’s behavior, his thoughts and feelings will change to minimize the dissonance" (Groenveld, 1999, p.1). In order to decode this dense statement, we must first be aware that Festinger held to be true that humans have a deep abiding need in their psyche to be consistent in our attitudes and behaviors; we want to feel in agreement and unified in thought and action. Inner harmony sounds good to everyone, and so it was Festinger’s view that when we feel a disharmony, or

Although it is difficult to find it written down anywhere, there is prevailing belief that

Similar to a broken record, cynical thoughts kept relentlessly playing in my mind ever since a young “larva” in a hostile environment. Subconsciously, I have always viewed myself inferior in terms of everything, this has then progressed into full blown social anxiety. I had the phobia that everyone was judging me and this philosophy has translated and adapted into my personal actions. In fact, in my 8th grade yearbook I was voted most quiet/timid! Upon the entrance of high school, I was committed in eradicating this hindrance, once and for all. Also,

What is the motivated reasoning mistake? Why is it a mistake? The motivated reasoning mistake is caused by people judging evidence unequally based on their own feelings on a subject. People will pick out evidence that supports a conclusion they favor, and they will criticize evidence that could disprove that conclusion. This reasoning isn’t based in a critical analysis of information, but rather an outside motivation for an outcome they desire to be true. This form of reasoning is incorrect because information isn’t dependent on someone’s belief about it. Facts shouldn’t be ignored because they don’t confirm a claim, all evidence should be considered equally.

In human lives, individuals keep on experiencing about themselves and the world, in which they are living, which create personal theories about the person itself and social environment. It is that source of the knowledge for a person, which serves as an individual’s cognitive filter and influence different aspects of individual’s thought. Such theories represent cognitive schemata which are mostly not based on real life experiences. More often they reflect positively biased descriptions of the world or the self and are therefore often called positive illusions (Taylor & Brown, 1988) or positive cognitive biases (Cummins & Nistico, 2002). Most commonly described positive illusions include, positive view of self, illusion of control, and unrealistic optimism.