How an emerging scientific theory can shape counseling approaches and interventions “If a butterfly flaps it’s wings in Brazil, will it cause a hurricane in Texas?” This question, posed by earlier proponents of “chaos theory,” illustrates how sensitive initial conditions may emerge into something larger and unpredictable. Earlier chaos theorists began in the unrelated fields of […]
Ideas about creating artificial intelligence (AI) came into prominence not long after creating the first computers in the 1950s and 1960s. Back then, when scientists and other philosophical futurists discussed AI, many of their ideas seemed whimsical and fantastical, hardly the stuff of reality. But since then, the digital boom has been underway for decades, and […]
‘Tolerance of Ambiguity’ and ‘Locus of Control’ as Predictors of Political Orientation: What’s Lacking in the Conversation about the 2016 Election Often, when engaging in political discourse, people tend to discuss the “content” of an issue; in other words, they get into the nitty gritty of what an issue “is about.” They may also discuss […]
Exploring Personality Types For more than 2000 years, philosophers and psychologists have been interested in individual personalities, how they form, and what makes one person different from another. The first attempt to categorize personality types came from the Greeks, which organized four personality types: • Choleric • Phlegmatic • Sanguine • Melancholic As time passed, […]
Biological determinists argue that what you are born with is what you get. Sure, genetics don’t determine everything about your nature, but there is basically no escaping the traits that your parents passed down to you, or so the biological determinist would say. This type of thinking has had various names throughout the years—“essentialism,” “determinism,” to […]
Following the Leader: What Would Psychology Say about the Primary Presidential Elections? Since mid-summer, Americans have been treated with a seemingly endless onslaught of political mudslinging among the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates. But with the general election more than a year away, and the campaign season in its early stages, there is definitely more […]
We are constantly making decisions, thousands per day by some counts. These decisions can be as small as deciding what kind of clothes to wear to work to deciding whether or not you should get married. And although no one can tell you what to decide, there are ways to instruct you on how to decide. In the past […]
My father is an alcoholic. Although I could acknowledge this now, it was something my sister and I were not allowed to discuss it when we were kids. Because I had an alcoholic parent, the odds that I, too, would become an alcoholic would be much higher than the average person. I’ve spend most of […]
Superman. Batman. Spider-man. Iron Man. The Hulk. Captain America. You know the names. But what you may now know is that in comics and on the big screen superheroes possess a complex psychology. Having undergone a constant evolution since their inception, superheroes have grown up beyond the campy, “Whack!” “Bam!” “Boom!” days of the 1960’s […]
Do you believe you can become better than you are? If so, then you may want to want to pick up a copy of the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche. More than any other philosopher, Nietzsche stands apart because of his uncommon ideas and his usual style. Although he lived and wrote in the 19th century, his […]