Devi, et. al.
I dashed off a quick comment during the wee hours, last night.
I want to add a bit of elaboration.
I objected to your having moved to the assumption that I took preparation for
effort to be "unpleasant."
I have tried, in order to draw out a constructivist position to it outer
limits, to be sure that I held to the position that even the inputs from the body
changes from preparation for effort must be construed.
Preparation for effort (which, I am willing to conclude occurs through our
having acquired a genetically ordered set of structures) accompanies those
situations in which humans do not have a readily available set of constructions.
This process is present as soon as those structures are developed -- about the
fifth month in utero.
We develop constructions about the inputs associated with preparation for
effort. In utero, nonintegratable stimuli are quite limited, and those that do
occur are quite transitory -- a loud noise, a burst of light coming through the
abdomen walls when mom gets set to take a shower in a brightly lighted bathroom,
changes in body chemistry that affects particular sensory endings, etc.
Thus, right off, a time variable becomes associated with preparation for
effort.
The time variable becomes very important. Every effort to set a construction
involves a setting of a time clock that sets an expectation of when the
anticipatory construction will become effective -- anticipatory constructions are
just that, they are anticipatory. They "predict" the future. The flow of inputs
is constantly checked against the anticipatory construction. (I credit Carver and
Scheier with playing out this point on time -- in an article which I cite in a
recent book review which appears in a recent number of JCP.)
We also learn that we should avoid, as much as possible, those situations in
which the time variable can't be set. We learn that we need to get on with life,
and that we can't spend forever attempting to come up with a suitable anticipatory
construction for a particular stimulus input....
We also learn that we can regulate the time variable.
My quick response last evening indicated that social construction processes
have shaped a set of constructions about preparation for effort, and those
constructions have become a part of the armament of psychological change
agents...... i. e., preparation for effort and its concommitant sensory inputs
must be eliminated as soon as possible, otherwise something worse than death is
imminent!!! Preparation for effort is construed as anxiety, and no one should be
exposed to "anxiety!!!!"
As a result of applying such social constructions, parents, teachers, etc.,
confuse the elimination of preparation for effort with resolving the discrepancy
between inputs and the constructions which a person has available to process the
inputs. And, in such child rearing environments, some persons set time parameters
that mitigate against working through a process of developing useful
constructions. For some persons, "problems" must be solved immediately!!! Many
persons do not learn that they can regulate their preparation for effort, and that
such regulation "pays off" in terms of developing a construct system which allows
integration of all kinds of inputs. (There are many other constructions which one
can use to regulate preparation for effort.) In an ambience which demands an
"anxiety" free existence, a teacher that asks the student to work through a
complex, encompassing construction which we lable "the standard deviation," must
be some kind of monster who wants his charges to go through unreasonable
anxiety!!!! And so forth....
In attempting to apply this set of ideas to an explanation of the
attractiveness of "body contact" (which gets around to sexual activity) I do need
to go beyond the proposition that body contact becomes a "cover stimulation" which
removes the person from the stimulation that has set off the preparatation for
effort.
Other constructions, such as one's self constructions about power and control,
become associated with assuring the availability of sexual contact.
And, you see, I cannot object to some kind of associationism - though I would
not use a Pavlovian model. I would try to develop notions of associationism that
involve the hierarchical arrangements of constructs -- two-poled judgment scales.
I need a theory that allows for fantasy and metaphor. I find ideas which suggest a
stimulus response bonding to be relatively useless inexplaining fantasy and
metaphor -- but, that is another whole story...
Can we set the time parameter at infinity as we expose ourselves to the
preparation for effort that is necessary to work out all these constructions....
allowing ourselves the opportunity to break for lunch, etc.???
Jim Mancuso
--
James C. Mancuso Dept. of Psychology
15 Oakwood Place University at Albany
Delmar, NY 12054 1400 Washington Ave.
Tel: (518)439-4416 Albany, NY 12222
Mailto:mancusoj@capital.net
http://www.crisny.org/not-for-profit/soi
A website dedicated to information on Italian-
American history and heritage.
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Devi, et. al.
I dashed off a quick comment during the wee hours,
last night.
I want to add a bit of elaboration.
I objected to your having moved to the assumption
that I took preparation for effort to be "unpleasant."
I have tried, in order to draw out a constructivist
position to it outer limits, to be sure that I held to the position that
even the inputs from the body changes from preparation for effort must
be construed.
Preparation for effort (which, I am willing to conclude
occurs through our having acquired a genetically ordered set of structures)
accompanies those situations in which humans do not have a readily available
set of constructions. This process is present as soon as those structures
are developed -- about the fifth month in utero.
We develop constructions about the inputs associated
with preparation for effort. In utero, nonintegratable stimuli are quite
limited, and those that do occur are quite transitory -- a loud noise,
a burst of light coming through the abdomen walls when mom gets set to
take a shower in a brightly lighted bathroom, changes in body chemistry
that affects particular sensory endings, etc.
Thus, right off, a time variable becomes associated
with preparation for effort.
The time variable becomes very important. Every
effort to set a construction involves a setting of a time clock that sets
an expectation of when the anticipatory construction will become effective
-- anticipatory constructions are just that, they are anticipatory.
They "predict" the future. The flow of inputs is constantly checked
against the anticipatory construction. (I credit Carver and Scheier
with playing out this point on time -- in an article which I cite in a
recent book review which appears in a recent number of JCP.)
We also learn that we should avoid, as much as possible,
those situations in which the time variable can't be set. We learn
that we need to get on with life, and that we can't spend forever attempting
to come up with a suitable anticipatory construction for a particular stimulus
input....
We also learn that we can regulate the time variable.
My quick response last evening indicated that social
construction processes have shaped a set of constructions about preparation
for effort, and those constructions have become a part of the armament
of psychological change agents...... i. e., preparation for effort and
its concommitant sensory inputs must be eliminated as soon as possible,
otherwise something worse than death is imminent!!! Preparation for
effort is construed as anxiety, and no one should be exposed to
"anxiety!!!!"
As a result of applying such social constructions,
parents, teachers, etc., confuse the elimination of preparation for effort
with resolving the discrepancy between inputs and the constructions which
a person has available to process the inputs. And, in such child rearing
environments, some persons set time parameters that mitigate against working
through a process of developing useful constructions. For some persons,
"problems" must be solved immediately!!! Many persons
do not learn that they can regulate their preparation for effort, and that
such regulation "pays off" in terms of developing a construct system which
allows integration of all kinds of inputs. (There are many other constructions
which one can use to regulate preparation for effort.) In an ambience which
demands an "anxiety" free existence, a teacher that asks the student to
work through a complex, encompassing construction which we lable "the standard
deviation," must be some kind of monster who wants his charges to go through
unreasonable anxiety!!!! And so forth....
In attempting to apply this set of ideas to an explanation
of the attractiveness of "body contact" (which gets around to sexual activity)
I do need to go beyond the proposition that body contact becomes a "cover
stimulation" which removes the person from the stimulation that has set
off the preparatation for effort.
Other constructions, such as one's self constructions
about power and control, become associated with assuring the availability
of sexual contact.
And, you see, I cannot object to some kind of associationism
- though I would not use a Pavlovian model. I would try to develop
notions of associationism that involve the hierarchical arrangements of
constructs -- two-poled judgment scales. I need a theory that allows
for fantasy and metaphor. I find ideas which suggest a stimulus response
bonding to be relatively useless inexplaining fantasy and metaphor -- but,
that is another whole story...
Can we set the time parameter at infinity as
we expose ourselves to the preparation for effort that is necessary to
work out all these constructions.... allowing ourselves the opportunity
to break for lunch, etc.???
Jim Mancuso
--
James C. Mancuso Dept. of
Psychology
15 Oakwood Place University
at Albany
Delmar, NY 12054 1400 Washington
Ave.
Tel: (518)439-4416 Albany, NY 12222
Mailto:mancusoj@capital.net
http://www.crisny.org/not-for-profit/soi
A website dedicated to information on Italian-
American history and heritage.
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