Behavior and Psychological Man: Essays in Motivation and Learning

I thought I needed to cultivate my understanding of classical behavioral psychology, so I picked up this book. I admire the wisdom the contents written in this book, but classical behavioral psychology relies too much on the assumption that brain functions of human beings are equal to those of other animals, especially rats…

Where were and are my passions?

I just came up with the idea where my passion were in the past and are now. Maybe the following chart represents my academic interests.

Age	Passions (Interests)
7-11	Entomology, Paleontology (I bought all books about the fields in a near bookstore, saving my monthly small allowance)
12-13	Brain Science (not phenomenological mind but physical brain)
14-18	N/A I can’t remember…
19-23	Business Strategy, Accounting, Economics
24-25	Integral Theory, Psychology, Organizational Behavior
25~	Integral Theory, Developmental Psychology, Consciousness Studies, Cognitive Psychology, Humanistic Psychology, Behavioral Psychology, Neuropsychology, Neurophilosophy, Pedagogy, Transpersonal Psychology, Psychoanalysis, Psychosynthesis, Linguistics, Hermeneutics, Anthropology, System Theory,…the list goes on.

 At first glance, my current interests seem chaotic…but they are a part of our reality or the universe.  In that sense, my interests don’t reside in one academic area any more but I may be interested in this reality itself.

Simulations Make You Suffer: From Buddha's Brain

This chapter (Simulations Make You Suffer) was really insightful for me. That is because I’m likely to simulate my future too much (This is my most distinctive characteristic from childhood. In terms of the Enneagram, this is one of type seven’s characteristics.) So much so, I can’t sometimes feel happy in the present moment. Of course, I don’t want to choose the extreme idea to stop simulations completely, but I need to recognize the author’s beautiful words: “it’s only in the present moment that we find real happiness, love, or wisdom” (Hanson, 2009, p. 44).

Reference:

Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom

Change and Equilibrium in Our Brain and Mind

When I read the chapter “The Challenges of Maintaining an Equilibrium” in Buddha’s Brain, I came up with one thing about an interesting characteristic of human mind and brain. I think that human beings are very mysterious and enigmatic creatures. Because we have inconsistent tendencies to maintain equilibrium and to change. Regarding our mind, we sometimes have desire to change in our mind. However, in such a situation, we often suffer from a psychological resistance to avoid change. In addition, in terms of neuroscience, our brain changes continuously, which is to say, the cells in our brain always continues the process of creation and annihilation. Thus, our brain goes on with changing and trying to keep balance. In a certain sense, we, human beings may be always caught in a dilemma between change and equipoise mentally and physically.

Reference: 

Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom

A Brain-Based Approach to Coaching: Neuroscience and Coaching

I read an interesting article “A Brain-Based Approach to Coaching” which introduces a unique coaching method based on neuroscience. To tell you the truth, I really expect the neurophilosophy class to give me a hint or a fresh idea which makes my coaching more effective and more functional. In that sense, this article provided me with unique perspectives about coaching. Basically, why do we need coaching? I came up with this fundamental question in my mind though I work as a coach now. As for this question, the author explains the need of coaching in the following way. For us, “change” is much harder than we think, and not only we but also our brains need coaches. This is a unique answer. 

In my view, each of us has inherent immune system to change. So, it is strenuous for us to change something which we want to alter. The author remarks that “change requires more than just scant thought; it requires ongoing attention and a significant effort of the will.” This statement implies an important thing. We need continuing awareness and conscious training in order to change something in us. However, we tend not be able to do that by ourselves. That is because our will power is not so strong as we think, and we have immune systems to change. In that sense, we need others’ help to change; that is coaching. Coaches encourage clients’ constant awareness and support their endeavor to change.

Brain-Based Therapy with Adults: Evidence-Based Treatment for Everyday Practice

Arden and Linford (2009) insist: “The more often the neural network organizes an event such as a memory, the more likely it is that this event will occur again, and when it does reoccur, it will take less energy to make it happen” (p. 22). In retrospect, I understand this sentence from my past (or current) experiences. When I learn something new, in the beginning, the learning process is tough and rugged. That is because my new neural network is not built firmly, but it is a frail and weak network. 

Thus, I need to spend (sometimes enormous) time and effort to establish a new neural network. In that sense, the authors’ point is true for me. Also, once a new neural network is created in my brain, the learning content requires little effort for me. In other words, I become able to do the same thing without spending my energy a lot.

Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life, What is Qualia?

In the book of “Mind wide open,” the author, Johnson (2004) refers to “qualia.” I’ve heard of this word before again and again, but I’ve never taken a real understanding of the meaning. It is my understanding that qualia are our subjective feelings, in other words, our sense of feelings themselves. For instance, when we smell good, electronic signals corresponding to the stimulus are produced in our brain. However, these electronic signals are not qualia. Qualia are our pleasant feelings themselves in this case. 

Regarding qualia, I came up with the following questions: Where do our qualia arise from? Where do our qualia exist? In my view, our qualia show up from our consciousness and also reside in our consciousness. However, I still don’t know the process of production. What creates our qualia? How do our qualia come from our consciousness? By the way, what creates our consciousness? The list of my philosophical questions goes on.