The earlier course format, updated through April 2001, based on Anderson's book "Reality Isn't What It Used To Be" is still accessible. Go there now.
NOTE: This page is the second half of the whole, original (stages2.htm) page, which now has been split into two parts.
Tradition-directed characters followed community traditions and norms. Persons felt that they knew what was true, what was right and who they were. This type of character predominated in preindustrial times, in what some identify as premodern societies.
Inner-directed characters had internalized the values and a set of personal goals. Use the word "personal" reflects the idea that individualism had started to come on the scene. To a large part, this occurred after the Protestant reformation, when persons were taught to be responsible actors and managers of their own lives. The social setting usually had more freedom and had a more open status system ( upward mobility). This period was the start of the modern age wherein the scientific method of research and explanation began to foster innovation.. Inner-directed persons could navigate through a world that began to have more than one dominant view of Reality. In the Western world, inner directed persons became more prevalent than tradition directed persons.
Other-directed characters were those who did not learn to organize their view of the world or Reality on their own and copied the guidelines for responding from other persons. Those who copied the styles of tradition oriented persons fell into that group. Those who were inner directed to some degree, but could not handle the increasing variety of traditions and the impact of commercialism followed others who they took, in part, as role models.
Consumerism was becoming more wide spread in the Western world and people were subject to commercial advertising and fads and to different Realities. Lacking a strong inner-direction, they took their cues from others and tried to blend in with those at higher status levels. Anderson says, in his book "The Future of The Self" that they went "with the flow". According to Anderson, an important difference between inner- and other-directed individuals was that the former got their direction from their parents or others who were role models, whereas the latter got approval and direction from contemporaries, often those they read about in the newspapers and did not know face-to-face. This often ".. meant revising everything from clothing styles to political opinions in response to their peers". In premodern and modern times, there were small numbers of persons who kept up with the Jonses, but to do so meant that they needed resources and thus, were mainly in the upper class.
Children as they progress through the stages of development learn traditional norms of expected behavior from their family setting, if their upbringing is consistent, caring and supportive. Then as they begin to seek autonomy and relate to peers in what is now becoming an ever earlier onset of adolescence, they replace the influence from their parents with that of role models, peers, from their neighborhood and from the media. The internalized values and personality styles from their parents and peers guide them as they become independent individuals.
In adolescence, some learn how to analyze consequences of intended actions and how to take the perspective of others and third parties. Subsequently, a few go on to learn enough abour groups and organizations so that they become able to take the perspectives of those groups and organizations with which they come in contact.
I believe that a certain amount of successful inner-direction is needed before they can navigate through the multitude of groups and organizations in society. Most other-directed have some blend of tradition-direction and inner-direction within them, but it is small and unless they have a sufficient amount and have learned how to take the perspective of others, groups and organizations and to project consequences of their intended actions, to provide self assurance, they will seldon act with inner-direction. I believe that many other-directed persons are not independent thinkers, thus they have low tolerance for ambiguity, anxiety and diversity that come with our postmodern world.
Anderson wrote, on pp34-35: In the modern era, "..the general message tended to be the same: Get your act together, be consistent, integrated, authentic, whole". .."Many psychologists now claim that the way to health and happiness in today's decentralized, pluralistic world is to be decentralized and pluralistic".
A Danish writer, Kvale, is quoted in Anderson's book: "The very concept of a unitary discipline (of psychology) is at odds with postmodern thought". Anderson writes that there is no central doctrine or leader in postmodern psychology. "Identity is a social product and ... people in different kinds of societies have quite different kinds of identity-forming experiences". "..most of us live in postmodern societies in which it is difficult..to create and maintain a single, stable, personal identity". (p. 35)
On page 40, Anderson summarizes Ken Gergen's new evaluation of other-directed persons and finds that they are not as anxious as Reisman indicated. "He cited research that directly contradicts Reisman's and showed other-directed people to be more psychologically healthy in several respects.."
Anderson, (p. 47) summarizes a discussion between Ken Gergen and Brewster Smith on the downers of, and the optimistic notes on postmodrnism.
The book "Habits of the Heart - Individualism and Commitment in American Life" provides a good summary of the effects of cultural change and an increasing individualism on our society. The expression, "Habits of the Heart" comes from Tocqueville, and is a "mix of traits essential to our national character, sometimes called mores". The fundamental question the authors posed was "how to preserve and create a morally coherent life". The authors explore "those cultural traditions and practices that, without destroying individuality, serve to limit and restrain the destructive side of individualism and provide alternative models for how Americans might live".(page vii)
On page 292, Bellah et al, say: "Many of those with whom we talked were locked into a split between a public world of competitive striving and a private world (that is) supposed to provide the meaning and love that make competitive striving bearable. Some, however, were engaged in an effort to overcome this split, to make our public and private worlds mutually coherent...".
On page 291 they say: .."...the therapeutically inclined seek enduring attachments and a community within which those attachments can be nurtured."
On page 292, they say: "All of these people are drawing on our republican and biblical traditions, trying to make what have become second languages into our first language again. We have spoken of "reappropriating tradition' --that is, finding sustenance in tradition and applying it actively and creatively to our present realities." On page 282, they say: "...we have never been and still are not, a collection of private individuals who, except for a conscious contract to create a minimal government, have nothing in common.......because of traditions that are centuries, if not millennia old. It is these traditions that help us to know that it does make a difference who we are and how we treat one another."
On page 283, they say: "We need to learn again from the cultural riches of the human species and to reappropriate and revitalize those riches so that they can speak to our condition today". It seems that a balanced coherence includes first, traditions about what to do and not do, traditions about how to do what we ought to do, and what is important for the community. The rules give us a road map on how to get our life in order. A balanced coherence, secondly, blends the individual and her/his needs and concerns with a caring relationship with the Spirit. This guides us to find meaning and love in our community and salvation from bondage ( political and economic and preoccupation with self) and exile (estranged from that to which we belong).
Robert Putnam, in his year 2000 publication, "Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community" provides interesting information about the impacts of television upon the decline in time spent reading newspapers and in participating in groups and communities. Participating in group activities fosters in-depth and trust-building relationships centered around commited involvement in activities such as Boy Scouts, League of Women Voters, choral groups, and bowling teams. Such relationships provide a foundation for discussion about local issues and national issues and help build what Habermas calls "communicative" competence and rationality that is so essential for building consensus in a true democracy. It is one of the best protections against the virulent bribery by special interests that we see in legislative bodies today. A reader that summarizes Habermas' writings in a critical and useful manner is one by White and is listed in the Bibliography.
Bellah, et al, in "Habits of the Heart", on pages 134 & 153, discuss the importance of being part of a supportive community in the age of individualism. Peck, in "The Different Drum" devotes the first half of his book on describing authentic communities, how they differ from most communities that are pseudo-communities, the genesis of authentic communities, their dynamics and their maintenance.
In authentic communities, when one member is in trouble and needs help, the community will help and join together to do so. One example of such a community is a new residential subdivision. Since there is much to finish in the new house and yard, new residents often borrow each other's tools and yard equipment during the first year or two. They help each other with advice on caring for home and yard, share opinions on where to shop, etc.. Such sharing builds relationships wherein each neighbor accepts the other for what they are and many of the differences between them do not interrupt the sharing relationships. However there is probably some limit to how large such a supportive community can be. New residential communities might function with as many as 100 households for up to two years.
As the housing ages and many of the houses are no longer lived in by the original owner, the strength of community will weaken. If some emergency arises, such as an undesirable neighbor moves in, ie. a tavern or a household that raises too many dogs in its rear yard, the community might unite again to protect their property values and quality of life.
I believe that the great increase in women who work outside the home, especially mothers of preschool and school-age children, has left most women with much less time to partake of group activities, mutual assistance and sharing. This weakens the strength of communities.
There are two other considerations that weaken communities. One is a change in the primary basis for community. The kinds of groups to which one gave a fairly high commitment some decades ago were primarily family and neighborhood. Nowadays for many, they tend to be first and foremost; career or professional areas of specialization. Commitments to one's family and neighborhood, are now secondary for a significant number of families, especially during the empty nest phase of a household.
The second consideration is that many people are now tied to common interest communities, such as a church congregation, a hobby group, the high school parents group, professional organization, etc.. The ubiquitous private automobile enables many of us to liberate our communities from the need of propinquity. Thus neighboring has declined.
A new book that has much information and data about the loss of community is one by Robert D. Putnam entitled "Bowling Alone : The Collapse and Revival of American Community", Simon & Schuster, June 2000.
From a slightly different point of view and community scale, our world today includes people who live in communities with strong tribal loyalties. They may live in a tightly supportive ethnic enclave in a large city or in a rural area. Or, they may be a nationalistic population many of whom hate a neighboring ethnic group. The Old Testament of our Bible tells several stories of groups that were involved in inter-tribal warfare. Some Gaia groups imply that patriarchial societies arose 5-6,000 years ago at the time of Cities and Bronze, Gold and Silver resources became important. That is when warfare and violence got its start. Is this borne out by historiography? Is tribalistic loyalties in part the result of cultural limitations on the scope of complexity that a peoples and their rulers can handle or process withour undue stress?
The continuance of conflicts between Serbs and Kosovars, Protestants and Catholics in N. Ireland, Anglos and French speaking peoples in Quebec, and many more in Africa, Indonesia and the Near East attest to the tribal focus of many communities today. This raises a question on how, in a time of increasing diversity and economic competition, we can transcend tribal commitments. The US foreign policy in the late 1990's was wrestling with issues; pitting tribal loyalties and hatreds against efforts to expand World Trade, World Peace, and Human Rights on a World Scale.
In contrast, some cosmopolitan urban areas in strong democracies have interesting varieties of residents with differing constructions of reality all living together and interacting peacefully with each other.
Commitment, in the tribal society, is primarily to the family clan or ethnic group first, and then to the larger society. In the cosmopolitan urban areas, commitment, in many cases, includes common interest as a focus and in addition, there is a commitment to the metropolitan area as a whole.
There needs to be a shift from the narrow and focused tribal types of commitment to types that include tolerance of a variety of worldviews. In many cases the competing groups have a common set of so called Christian values, upon which a constructive and peaceable diversity could be built.
A recent paper in the American Journal of Sociology, by Robert Antonio, and listed in the Bibliography of this website, discusses postmodernism and reactionary tribalism from a different more theoretical perspective than the foregoing.
Peter Berger, in his book, "The Sacred Canopy" discusses how institutional religion played an important role in controlling the prevalent constructions of reality in the pre-enlightenment era (over 400 years ago). During the Renaissance, the resurrection of Greek logic, dualism and reasoning helped the new scientists and technologists liberate themselves from control of the church. Dr. de Bono calls his approach the start of a "New Renaissance" that will help liberate us from the limitations of Greek dualism, logic and reasoning.
A number of authors have written about the increasingly pluralistic composition of society. Within neighborhoods, political parties, school boards and congregations there are people that construct different realities (have different worldviews). We also find such different groups within university psychology and philosophy departments. This increasing pluralism is, in part, the result of an increasingly complex way of life in our modern and postmodern eras.
In the Enlightenment era, a return to the thinking of early Greek culture, and the use of reason and logic spurred a developing faith in science. This new faith helped liberate some people from the bonds of their own traditional culture and constraints of religious beliefs about the natural world.
The concept of "The Social Construction of Reality" is described in an easy-to-read book, published in 1990 by Walter Truett Anderson. It is entitled "Reality Isn't What It Used To Be". The ideas: Social Construction of Reality and the trend from modern to postmodern thinking are discussed in a number of other books, several of which are listed in the Bibliography at the end of this paper. There is much contention about the impacts of this trend among university faculty and I believe that Anderson covers some of the key ones.
I recommend the books listed in the Bibliography by: Anderson, Berger, Cox, Gergen, Dickens and Fontana, Raschke, Spretnak and Thiele. I found particular chapters in each of the foregoing books to be quite helpful. Some are more academic than the others. I suggest that if the idea of a postmodern age is new to the reader, start with Anderson, Raschke, Spretnak, and/or Thiele.
On page x, in the Preface of Gergen's book, "Realities and Relationships" he writes:"Constructionism replaces the individual with the relationship as the locus of knowledge".
On page 262 he wrote that the traditional view is "that meaning originates within the individual mind.." "removing the individual as the starting pointopens a range of possibilities". "The potential for meaning is realized through supplementary action". On page 264, Gergen wrote that a lone utterance begins to acquire meaning when an other person or group of others coordinate themselves to the utterance. The supplement may be in the form of someone saying "Yes, I agree with that."
Gergen gives examples to illustrate the importance of relationship. My examples below, pertain to larger groups of listeners. In a theatre, the audience response to a speaker or actor helps one to interpret meaning. Black Americans, in their culture, have a tradition of responding to a speaker with comments of agreement, that I believe, helps the others in attendence to find meaning. In the medium of television, dubbed in responses of the audience affect the viewers in their homes, as do crowd responses at political party events. Another concept that Gergen does not use here, but I believe is helpful is "legitimate". Meaning is often made more credible or legitimated by the favorable responses of others to a comment. In the case of political speakers, a favorable response by listeners of one party might delegitimate the comment, in the view of listeners from an opposing political camp.
On page 265 Gergen wrote: "For many semioticians, the fundamental unit of meaning is contained in the relationship between signifier and signified; it is not located within either unit individually but within the linkage between the tw."..."It is only by virtue of supplementary signifiers that signified actions gain their capacity to mean, and it is only within the relationship of action-and-supplement that meaning is to be located at all". "Supplements act to both creats and constrain meaning."
In the area of religion, aspects of an increasing exposure to the use of reason and logic and an advancing science and technology soon began to pervade our language and tended to weaken the justification for some of the biblical metaphors and myths. Mechanistic concepts and paradigms (models of reality) infiltrated our language. In some cases, leaders updated selected cultural and religious traditions. This tended to make values and moral standards relative to their reasoned bases. The increasing diversity of approaches to justifying political and religious stories and symbols tends to increase the need for mutual appreciation and tolerance. (See the top of page 153-4 in Fowler's "Faithful Change").
Critical thinking became more widely spread and socio-political ideologies moved toward democratic forms of organization. The USA prospered with two main political parties and polarization by demagogues in the USA was short lived. In Europe, fascism, socialism and communism could not compete with our form of corporate capitalism in a democratic polity. There is more factionalism in Europe, and as a result, there are many small political parties.
One of the responses to too many realities that is part of the postmodern era is deconstruction, wherein academics use a new critical technique to attack accepted writing about psychology, law and the like. Anderson, in his book "Reality Isn't What It Used To Be" (page 90) describes deconstruction as "..an assault upon "logocentrism" - the idea that there is anything beyond the human symbolic system (such as the Constitution) that a written work can refer to so it can be an authentic statement (communication) from one person to another about something." Parenthetical expressions were added by Notess. Anderson continues to provide a good discussion about how deconstruction has affected the field of law and the Harvard Law School.
James Fowler, in "Faithful Change", sees Americans splitting into two new perspectives, orthodox and progressive, as we enter a crisis of reorganizing the bases of our political and religious faiths. (See his chart on page 171). He sees the postmodern era as bringing about a synthesis of the orthodox and progressive. I believe that this trend has implications for the fundamentalist response to uncertainty which I mentioned in an earlier section on HOW SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS RESPOND TO CHANGE" and is repeated, in bold type, below.
The assurance and peace-of-mind that comes with fundamentalist responses to uncertainty attracts many. They seem to cluster in the political and religious arenas to help each other maintain faith in, what they believe is a more consistent and coherent worldview. Many of them isolate themselves from, or are isolated by their leaders from, any evidence that might weaken this faith. Will the fundamentalist cycle decline as our mass media and other institutions help the general public better, and with more integrity, to relate to aspects of the postmodern era: ethnic, racial and economic diversity, complexity and political responses thereto?
In contrast to emphasizing a mixture of mechanistic worldviews, empiricism, and logical reasoning in the modern era; the postmodern era seems to place, in addition, a growing emphasis on achieving balance and coherence between the many differing worldviews and theories of the soft sciences (eg. psychology, economics, and sociology) on the one hand and those of the hard sciences (eg, physics and biology) on the other hand.
We are becoming aware that the modern faith in science did not cover the domain of human affairs; the soft sciences. Studies from Plato, to St. Augustine to de Bono with sensing, perception and creativity are responses to the failure of human thought to help us make progress in the areas of human affairs, progress that keeps up with the pace of progress in science and technology, in a shrinking ever more complex world. There are other responses and they all contribute to the changes evident in the postmodern era. Some of the negative responses are listed first, below.
In the USA of late, we are experiencing much more complexity. Control over many of the constructed realities is being transferred from government and industrialists to those in charge of communication and information. This leads to increased lobbying and the bribery that is associated with lobbying. It also leads, increasingly, to control of the media by a few large corporations.
The world now is overcrowded and the middle classes are shrinking, relative to the upper class and the lower classes, as world-wide corporations increasingly control access to natural resources, production, marketing and communication. The computer and technology have decimated many of the jobs that were stepping stones into the middle class. There are now people in all parts of our planet who can communicate with e-mail and television. They are increasingly victimized by the increasing emphasis on consumerism as a basis for visible signs of social status. The increasing individualism in a globalizing scene makes conspicuous consumption more important as a signifier of class and status.
These trends have raised aspirations among the lowest economic classes and in areas where tribal societies persist, conflicts occur as each tribal group seeks advantage over its neighbors, in the race to compete and to catch up.
Recent technological innovations in television and computers have so speeded up changes in information transmittal and propagation of new realities that uncertainty has increased to dangerous levels. The global range of high speed flows of information has far exceeded the ability of economic and political institutions to respond and carry out their responsibilities.
The result is that migrations of populations from third world to industrialized world societies have increased, tribal and global scale traditions and values have come into conflict. These trends are the essense of postmodernism and as a result, the expressive arts of drama, painting, sculpture and music have experienced a significant nihilistic trend.
A recent example of how postmodernism affects third-world societies is Chechnya. It appears that the influence of new communication technologies in a changing world has raised aspirations and leads some persons to direct their quests for influence and power into activities that are illegal and/or are not well regulated by an antiquated legal system. For an interesting description of what is happening there see: Chechnya
There are postmodern responses that contribute theoretical developments and provide hope of applying new paradigms to strengthen communities and overcome the limitations of empirical sciences when applied to the human and social affairs. One such response is work by one of the best known present- day thinkers in the area of applied philosophy and social theory, Jurgen Habermas. In "The Theory of Communicative Acts" he wrote about two types of rationality. The first, a purposive rationality governs our interactions with the physical and natural world. This rationality was the main approach used in the modern era wherein empirical science was thought to be the best approach to understanding, although little progress was made by its application in the areas of the human and social affairs. See also the Habermas reader edited by White
Habermas described a communicative rationality, based on discussion about needs and possibilities of persons and groups with differing views of reality. These discussions enabled those having different worldviews to learn about each other's positions and to work toward achieving the consensus that is so important for maintaining commitment to vital and authentic communities.
He has clarified differences between the terms interpretation and hermeneutics that are most useful in research and paradigm development in the behavioral and social sciences.
One reviewer wrote: "Building on his 1981 volume, "Theory of Communicative Action", Habermas contributes to recent debates on the rule of law and the possibilities of democracy in postindustrial societies, proposing a new paradigm of law". One of the new concepts he described is "deliberative politics." His writing leads to the idea that democratic societies today are more than the voting of citizens and elected legislators that leads to majority rule in pluralistic societies. The new democratic process should become more "a social process in which people meet, discuss, modify and, ultimately, agree on how they will respond to issues.
To see more information on social constructions of reality, click on: Impacts of Changing Constructions of Reality Upon Western Societies in the Modern Era.
I believe that two recent trends will have a significant impact on the direction that the postmodern era will take. The first trend is inherent in Habermas' discussion of stages of moral development. He indicates that Kohlberg's stages of moral development are possibly useful to provide a common universal aspect for morality, independent of apparent differences among different cultures or subcultures. (See Habermas' book Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action, page 116 on).
The second trend is the globalization of communication coupled with an increase in freedom to listen to global radio, television and/or the world-wide web. This will expand the levels of experience and thus involvement to higher levels of perspective-taking for larger proportions of the population.
Being sensitive to other perspectives and appreciating them is a key part of the approach to knowing in our pluralist society today. Yet George Herbert Mead described the importance of taking the role of the other, inferring intentions, significant others, and generalized others more than half a century earlier.
The postmodern tries to move away from worldviews that are derived or justified by grand stories or metanarratives and accepts the fact that local stories and other perspectives enable us to respond more flexibly in our diverse and complex society. (See the definition of metanarrative in the Glossary, (gloss.htm).
Fowler in "Weaving the New Creation", page 113, writes: "Gradually, [as the child progresses through the stages of development] across the stages, that taking of the perspectives of others widens to the point where persons best described by the Universalizing stage have completed that process of decentering from self".
A glance at the subsequent list of seven levels of perspective-taking shows how successively higher levels of perspective-taking are the key to understanding the value priorities of those at the higher stages of moral and faith development; leaders such as Ghandi, Martin Luther King and Mandela.
The two trends mentioned above lead one to important questions that are implied, though in different terms, on page 25 of White's book on Habermas (see the Bibliography). The questions are:
1. When considering levels of perspective-taking listed below, how does the "individual" in her contextual situation or environment relate to "another person" from a very different context and environment (political, social and/or economic)?
2. Does a person need some limits and bounds to the community to which s/he is committed?
3. Considering the stress produced when persons get involved beyond the bounds of their communities, how much time and information is needed to be involved with even one global concern? and
4. The context of relationships in which a person is situated affects how s/he responds in negotiative processes. See Kramer and Messick. How does one's level of perspective-taking affect the negotiative process?
Keep these questions in mind as you read through the list of seven levels of perspective-taking (p-t) that follow.
1. a perspective of one's self as a unique individual who can react to events in his or her surroundings to satisfy personal needs such as hunger and building a trustworthy relationship with his or her caring other, (mother and the like).
2. a perspective that imagines the perspective that another person, with whom one has a relationship, might have. Thus the self can influence the other person for three purposes:
a. one's own gain,
b. the other's gain, and
c. the strengthening of a trustworthy relationship between I and other.
3. a third perspective which is that of a third person who is watching the interaction of two other persons. An example is two sibllings imagining how their mom might view their interaction. They might stop a quarrel between themselves to please their mother.
4. a fourth perspective is that of the family which includes siblings, mom and dad. An example would be action that serves to maintain the good image of the family within the community or neighborhood. Day Care centers are representative of new institutions developing around the need to serve a specific family concern.
5. a fifth level of perspective taking wherein the working of the community as a whole is of concern. For example, what can I do to help the image of my high school or church. I might help keep a good community team spirit and not bully the other community's ball team. I might help keep the grounds clean and attractive, and so on.
6. a sixth level is that which shows concern for the well being of the nation or state and their institutions. An example is a person who joins a voter registration effort and votes in all elections.
7. a seventh level is that of concern for our planet. Environmentalists often show this concern. The number of international organizations is increasing rapidly in this era of globalism. Institutions are becoming reified as experience shows what works and what doesn't work at this level of concern.
The discussion about stages of psychosocial and moral development, in an earlier section, indicates the ages at which a maturing child might advance from one level to the next higher one. However, when one passes the age of about 15 years, the level of perspective-taking can vary among levels three or higher, depending upon the situation. In times of a world war, one many might give highest priority to levels 4, 5, or 6. For example, if ones neighborhood received extensive bomb damage, level 5 might get top priority. Otherwise level 6 might get top priority, unless an only son is the sole means of support for his family on the farm; in which case, as in World War II, the son would get a deferrment from the draft.
In the foregoing, it is important to realize that some adults are primarily devoted to their spouse at level two or to their family, and they have little experience or concern focused at higher levels.
An example of how persons relate to organizations and take the perspective of an organization follows. In the past when I worked in local governments, I occasionally encountered citizens who thought that when they spoke to any city employee, be it a secretary in the personnel department, a clerk in the property-records section, or draftsman in the planning department, their complaint or message would reach "the organization" of City Gov't. They seemed to act as though they were speaking to "the organization". They anthropomorphized the organization into the person to whom they were speaking and some would vent their rage at that person.
Many of these citizens seemed to be unaware of how to find the staff person that was cognizant of the subject area wherein their concern should be relevant. From the perspective of levels of perspective-taking, (p-t), I believe that such citizens had great difficulty in taking the perspective on level 5 or higher. I must admit that many times the city staff member lacked the information and/or experience to guide the person to the correct employee who could respond to the problem.
A concern that arises when considering the higher levels of p-t, is how competition among industries and businesses leads them to market products that are not essential and waste natural resources in order to gain a short-term advantage over competitors. I see this in the past decade where marketing fad items to young teens has become the new area of exploiting markets. It seems that entrepreneurs forget that these markets are comprised of persons whose overall life styles can be led astray from worthy activity and expenditures. Further discussion of this important topic is beyond the scope of this course.Is it possible to make a check list of traits and experiences that can be balanced into an harmonious mix for successful progression to higher levels of perspective-taking?
The check list of Search Institute's 40 Assets for Youth, includes support and nurturing assets and character traits that can be developed in youth as they progress through the stages of psycho-social develpment. These 40 assets provide a way of estimating the effectiveness of developmental forces in the home, school and community and internalization of assets by youth in a community. For more information see the Search Institute website.
Generally, among youth who possess 30 or more of the 40 assets, only a few percent of them get into trouble with the police, in school or in the community. On the other hand, half of the youths who possess 10 or fewer assets get into trouble.
What is needed to produce a mature self-directing, compassionate, moral, perspective-taker? Most young persons do not have time to gather and/or partake in all the experiences needed to learn how to take the perspectives of others at all levels. Young persons need guidance to use their time constructively. One must pick and choose wisely, yet not be too selfish with commitments.
After reading parts of "Moral Consciousness and Communicative Discourse" and much more in Steve White's book on Habermas, the following ideas emerged.
White on page 181 writes that a discoursive democracy needs a kind of autonomy wherein a person does not have his self concept threatened while engaged in discourse. Thus, if a group is involved in discourse and all are committed to one level of p-t, they can argue about how each individuals value priorities might differ. Upon learning about each others differences, they might progress toward consensus without violating the autonomy of those involved.
However, when the group includes individuals committed at different levels of p-t, perhaps like Arabs and Israels or urban Kosovars versus rural Serbs, hatred, deceit (perhaps like Gergen uses that concept), and the use of force detract from the underlying need to not violate each other's autonomy.
A good example of this problem is what happened to those college buddies that included Croats, Serbs and Kosovars who had achieved higher levels of p-t. The hatred and fears rooted in the subcultures affected OTHERS who were not in college and in many cases functioned and were committed at lower levels of p-t. These others violated the loyalties and commitments of the circle of college buddies, or similarly, the many circles of shopkeepers and professionals. This violation is based on hatred and fears to the extent that they force those college buddies, shopkeepers, etc. to change their self concept to one who must change commitments to the lower level or be viewed as a traitor.
Kenneth Gergen, in his final chapter "Deceit: From Conscience to Community" in his book "Realities and Responsibilities", led me to the following question.
Is an example of problems caused among persons who are functioning at different levels of p-t, the possibility that President Clinton rationalized that he had to use "deceit" about his relationship with Monica because he knew the single-issue Republicans in Congress were out to destroy his power, influence and popularity any way they could? They violated his autonomy or the autonomy of his SELF. That happens too often in politics tied to elections, graft and so on.
Would it be easier to get people to higher levels of perspective-taking if we had several political parties which require compromise and consensus-building in the legislature? Does the Electoral College help or hinder development of p-t?
"MORE FOOD FOR THOUGHT ON PERSPECTIVE TAKING" is continued on another page.
I am working on another paper that is based on the perspective presented herein. It focuses on alternative Images of God, Relationships to God, and Spirituality, and how the blending of the two perspectives (psychology and theology) help explain some of the trends found in religious congregations today.
That paper is not part of the this course, but it can be viewed at SOME NOTES ON PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS FAITH IN A CHANGING WORLD
In an age (that of 1960 - the present [2001]) where children increasingly grow up neglected by their two job household that used to be called family. Commercialized consumerism further confuses the development of authentic selves in authentic communities, the latter as described by Scott Peck in "The Different Drum".
There is an important need for our youth to be captured by stories that are useful for building a life with integrity. There is a need to be exposed to diverse contexts so that they can be more tolerant of the similar struggles that other youth are facing.
Today's youth are searching and confused like a soccer player who finds herself involved in a lacrosse game. There are too many different contexts. How does one extract the essential parts of the another's life story; of the other's life context?
Schools can help by focusing more on diverse contexts, so that youth will learn how to abstract the essense from diverse contexts. Churches can also help by focusing more on present-day and recent-past stories that youth can relate to. To continue to focus on premodern stories in the bible is not as helpful as would be stories with the same message more relevant to modern and postmodern worldviews. God is not dead, she can still inspire writers to do as well as the scribes and monks did 2,000 years ago.
We need literature that helps one relate to premodern, modern and postmodern characters. Walter Truett Anderson, in "The Future Of The Self" uses Reisman's 50-year old classic "The Lonely Crowd" to describe categories that might help youth navigate among different tradition directed, inner directed and other directed social aspects of characters. These three types are what sociologists call "ideal types". In the real world, most persons are not just one of the three. They are mixes of all three depending on how they perceive the social context of their immediate situation. We need a few more more clearly defined ideal types and mixes of types to help provide to dramatic stories that help them appreciate the variety of responses.
Once we have a variety of well written stories and a framework for selecting which stories are most helpful to guide particular youth, then the schools could teach how to abstract the esswense from stories and youth could search for role models and contexts that are best suited to their aspirations.
Experiences gained in the areas of pop-psychology and sociology have enabled increasing proportions of young adults to relate in new ways to the wide variety of responses to the uncertainties that persons have developed, consciously and unconsciously. Some are engaged in spiritual quests for meaning and a coherent identity and worldview, in our fast changing world. The impacts of these quests will slowly change major institutions, such as the polity, the economy, the family, education and religion, to be more aware of, responsive to and relevant to their needs, sensitivities, and receptivities.
Peck's experience with authentic communities, how they develop and are maintained, is a big step forward in helping educational and other institutions to adapt to the large plurality of responses to complexity, change, and uncertainty. New approaches to creative thinking and cognitive research from Habermas, de Bono, Brian Fay, Sharon Shavitt and others, and those of Peck on building community can help us overcome the divisive effects of single-issue politics and help us avoid the problems of relativism, which can weaken moral values in a society.
Educational institutions are gaining familiarity with stages of psychosocial, moral, and faith development and we can expect, in the coming decades, more adults to reach and apply the higher stages of development to more areas of their lives. This trend will be closely tied to the growing globalization of concerns and norms.
New applications of philosophical thought by Habermas and others opens the door to fruitful experimentation with new ways to get democracy to work. We are becoming increasingly aware of the limitations that empirical science has in helping us to increase our knowledge of human and social affairs. Thoughtful responses to postmodernism provide us with new approaches to building consensus.
The Boomer quest for a spiritual relationship sends many of those searchers to explore New Age and Asian paths to mystical experiences. A recent book on this topic, by Caplan, describing how many such searchers, metaphorically, try to climb the mountain (of a transformative ecstatic experience), but get lost in the foothills clarifies the importance of adequate exposure and involvement in traditions and preparations that help one to have transformative mystical experiences. The modern rational mind searches for clarifying verbal descriptions and places much faith in logical and reasonable stories and guides to enlightenment through mystical experiences. Yet logic and concepts are often imprisoned in metaphors, ideas and forms of thought, some of which have become old and out of date.
History shows, and Armstrong mentions at several places in her book, that at times when the people of a society are confused and become distrustful of authorities, governmental and religious, they seek more mystical and creative paths to relating to God or the ineffable. I believe that we are approaching such a stage in the postmodern era. Caplan's book gives some guidelines that give hope that the Boomer search will progress and religious institutions and government will respond. Click here to see some notes on Mariana Caplan's (June 1999) book on mysticism.
A related idea comes from a new field of study and research that some call neuro-theology. Newsweek magazine for 1-29-01 0n page 59 had an article with some interesting leads. The brain seems to have an area wherein spiritual experiences and transcendent experiences move the person to a state of consciousness wherein she/he is liberated from the many thoughts that tie one to daily concerns of living in an organized world of expectations, concerns, and the like.By relating these ideas and others in the article to creating paradigm shifts, one might comprehend the creative process.
In sum, the response to uncertainty depends upon where the person places her/his trust. Is it in an old ideological tradition, such as the Constitution, a religion, a political ideology, a neighborhood citizen action group, a teenage peer group, etc.? Who is the ideologue, leader, transcendent or anthropomorphic image of the group? What kinds of sanctions are imposed to keep members loyal? How does the leader get authority and legitimacy? What kinds of peer pressures and consumer-oriented pressures are associated with the life-style?
Answers to the foregoing questions depend on the level of perspective-taking associated with the person (group member) and the leader and/or organization or religion. If the person has gotten wide experience at various levels of p-t through deep and committed relationships with the group members and the organization, then the person is likely to function at a higher level of p-t and be able to work more effectively toward compromise, reducing polarization, etc..
To overcome our present degree of polarization, all major institutions, family, education, religion, government/political, etc. must guide and train persons to function at higher levels of p-t.
Gergen in "The Saturated Self", in chapters 8 and 9 provides assessments of the future. Cox, in his last chapter, entitled, A New Reformation, stated that he believes the postmodern world will require a new theology. He believes that liberation theology points toward that direction and that "base communities are here to stay. They are the germ cells of the next era of our culture".
The following focuses mainly on the positive possibilities which might be viewed as goals.
New approaches to thinking will enhance creativity and improve the processes of perception for increasing number of individuals and organizations. This will help democracies improve their governing processes and is likely to occur initially at the local and state levels and then filter up to national and world levels of governance.
Education will benefit early on. The fields of advertising and commerce will have an opportunity and some increasing amount of pressure to abide by higher ethical and moral standards than they do now. Communities at all levels will become stronger and more authentic as knowledge of cognitive and perceptive processes improves. Such improvement will start at scattered local levels initially, but should spread with help of the ubiquitous internet.
Recent experience research with negotiatiation of differences in our increasingly multicultural and postmodern world can help decrease the impractical results from conflict and polarization in legislatures at all levels of government. Lewicki, Shavitt, and Kramer in their books on negotiating and persuasion provide ways to replace competitive lose-lose decisionmaking with collaborative resolution of conflicts. (See the Bibliography.) "Negotiation as a Social Process" by Kramer & Messick is one place to start.
The general public will take on a larger responsibility of monitoring the internet and helping to separate the wheat from the chaff. Perceptual processes and constructions of reality will become less susceptible to being manipulated by selfish and power-seeking interests. Justice systems at all levels will change to become more fair, efficient and humane.
Educational, political and religious institutions will become less polarized and more effective as progressive movements adapt to the new ways of thinking. As knowledge about stages of faith development spreads toward the general public and becomes more widespread, motivations to function at higher stages of development will become more widespread. We will gain experience about how to open the minds of people who have built defensive walls around their thinking processes. Such walls are often built to protect oneself from expanding complexity and diversity on the one hand and from saturated selves and excessive constructions of reality on the other hand. Our language will be reformed to be more effective as a tool for creativity and thinking.
The expanding capabilities of the internet will help speed up the process of change at all levels from the personal to the institutional and national levels.
At the same time as the foregoing possibilities will materialize, self-oriented individuals and organizations will exploit the new knowledge about perception, thinking and communication to their own advantage. Thus, progressive democratic and open forms of democracy will have to spread to the global scale to monitor, counter and regulate such possibilities. New discourses will emerge to improve the effectiveness of communicative actions
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