Gregg Henriques, Ph'D'

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Behavioral
From Racing Horses to Seeing the Elephant
Humanistic
Psychodynamic
Cognitive
Behavioral

• Gregg Henriques, Ph.D.
• James Madison University

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Unified Approaches are Increasing in Numbers

• Seymour Epstein
• Integration of the Cognitive and the
  Psychodynamic Unconscious
• Erica Moses David Barlow
• A New Unified Treatment Approach for Emotional
  Disorders Based on Emotion Science
• Dan McAdamsA New Big Five
• Jeffery Magnavitas Unified Psychotherapy
• Jack Mayers General Systems approach to
  Personality
• Sternbergs Unified Psychology

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What Is the Tree of Knowledge System?
The Tree of Knowledge (ToK) System is a new
approach to the theoretical unification of
psychology in particular and the sciences more
generally. The outline of the ToK System was
published in Review of General Psychology in
2003, and in that article, the metatheoretical
lens provided by the system was used to unite
Skinner and Freud. The focus was on these two
luminaries because when one simultaneously
considers their influence and the divergence of
their theoretical positions, it is readily
arguable that they represent the two most
difficult positions to integrate.
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The Justification for the Need for More
Integrated Scientific Knowledge Is Offered by
Oliver Reiser in 1958
In this time of divisive tendencies within and
between the nations, races, religions, sciences
and humanities, synthesis must become the great
magnet which orients us allYet scientists have
not done what is possible toward integrating
bodies of knowledge created by science into a
unified interpretation of man, his place in
nature, and his potentialities for creating the
good society. Instead, they are entombing us in
dark and meaningless catacombs of learning.
(Reiser, 1958, p. 2-3).
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Gallup Poll on Question of Creation for American
Public
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Building the ToK System
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Humans split off from their nearest relatives 5
MYA, evolving into a whole different dimension of
complexity
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Science emerges several hundred years ago, and
functions to map the evolution of complexity
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The Following Diagram From Reisers 1958 Book
Shows Striking Similarities and Important
Differences
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The ToK System Gives Rise to a Four Dimensional
World View
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Four Fundamental Levels of Complexity
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Four Fundamental Classes of Science
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Four Fundamental Classes of Objects
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The Structure of the ToK Suggests the Existence
of Four Fundamental Theories Two of Which Are
Missing
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The Current State of the Field
Psychology is currently a poorly organized set of
ideas that exists between Skinner and Freud on
the one hand and Biology and Sociology on the
other.
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Three Other Ideas That Complete the ToK System

• Behavioral Investment Theory
• The Influence Matrix
• The Justification Hypothesis

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Behavioral Investment Theory
The first theory that is missing is called

• A Theory of the Evolution of Mind

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What is Behavioral Investment Theory?
BIT is the idea that the nervous system is a
computational control system that computes the
expenditure of behavioral energy on an investment
value system built via evolution and learning.
It unifies Skinners radical behaviorism with
cognitive neuroscience and places it on a solid
evolutionary foundation
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BIT Organizes the Aspects of Psychological
Science Most Associated With the Natural
Sciences.
However, BIT does not provide a full account of
human behavior
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Peggy La Cerra Offered an Identical Model in 2003
Evolutionary processes have crafted intelligence
systems that are fundamentally designed to
acquire, manage, and direct energetic resources
toward the maintenance of life processes and the
attainment of life-stage specific
goals. Scientific psychology is on the cusp of
a seismic shift into this energy framework, and
in the foreseeable future, the social sciences
will be rectified with the physical laws of
energy. It is only a matter of time before
student of human nature consensually agree that
the first law of psychology is the second law of
thermodynamics.
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The Two Broad Bio-Behavioral Systems
Behavioral Activation System
Behavioral Inhibition

• Orients toward approach goals
• Expend energy to acquire resource
• Focus on benefit side of behavioral equation
• Left Prefrontal
• Extraversion
• Positive affect

• Orients toward avoidance goals
• Conserve acquired resource
• Focus on cost/loss/threat
• Right Prefrontal
• Neuroticism
• Negative affect

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A Useful Heuristic that Emerges Out of BIT

• P - M E
• P perception of where you currently are in
  relation to achieving some need/goal
• M motivation/memory, an internal representation
  of some goal structure based on genetics and
  prior learning
• E emotion, which stems from the discrepancy
  between where one is and where one desires to be
  in relation to a particular need/goal.

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The Influence Matrix
Applying the Principles of BIT and the P M E
equation to social behavior gives rise to the

• An Integrated Model of
• Social Motivation and Affect

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The first basic assumption of the IM is that
social influence is a resource all humans are
motivated to acquire.
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The Second Assumption
The second basic assumption is that there are
three conceptually distinct dimensions underlying
social influence. Specifically, they are 1)
power (competitive influence) 2) love
(cooperative influence) and 3) freedom (freedom
from influence).
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The Third Assumption
The third assumption of the IM is that a persons
emotions provide feedback to them as they either
succeed or fail in relationship to achieving the
goals.
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The Fourth Assumption
The three dimensions of power, love and freedom
are dynamically interrelated in that changes in
one dimension lead to changes in another.
Consider the old political adage, It is better
to be feared than loved.
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The Fifth Assumption

• The reasons we give for our behavior are guided
  in part by the underlying motivational tendencies
  toward maximizing social influence.
• Indeed, the connection between human reasoning,
  language and social motivation is more clearly
  specified in the final piece of the puzzlethe
  Justification Hypothesis

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The Justification Hypothesis

• A New Theory of Human Self-Consciousness and the
  Evolution of Culture

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The Justification Hypothesis Is the
Mind-to-culture Joint Point
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What Is the Justification Hypothesis?

• The JH is the notion that humans have an
  elaborate self-awareness system because the
  evolution of language created the problem of
  justification. In brief, humans became the only
  animal that had to explain why it did what it
  did.

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The Three Claims That Organize the JH

• Freuds fundamental observation was that the
  human consciousness system functions as a
  justification filter for behavioral investments.
• This justification filter evolved because
  language creates the problem of justification.
• The Justification Hypothesis provides the
  psychological foundation for a unified theory of
  culture and links the individual level of
  analysis (human psychology) with the social level
  (macro social sciences) using the same language
  of justification systems.

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Justification Systems

• Justifications are the reasons we use to validate
  our actions. (For example, a parent might justify
  why she sets the rules by saying It is my
  house, I pay the bills, I tell you what to donot
  the reverse.)
• Each individual has their own worldview, their
  own system of justification.
• Differences in justification systems become
  apparent in times of conflict.
• Large scale justification systems organize society

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Together, Behavioral Investment Theory and the
Justification Hypothesis Suggest a Two Domain
Model of the Human Mind (a point made by many
theorists)
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Justifying Mind
Filtering
Experiencing Mind
OVERT BEHAVIOR
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The Justification Hypothesis SuggestsTwo Domains
of Justification

• Explaining ourselves to ourselves
• Within the context of self-awareness (private)
• The Freudian Filter
• Explaining ourselves to others
• Within the social context (public)
• The Rogerian Filter

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Large Scale Justification Systems
Private Self
Private Self
Public Self
Public Self
Exper Self
Exper Self
Overt Behavioral Investments
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In Sum

• We must do a better job organizing our field
• The Four Major Pieces of The ToK SystemThe
  Diagram, Behavioral Investment Theory, The
  Influence Matrix, and the Justification
  Hypothesis offer a new metatheoretical
  perspective on the field which can help us move
  more from racing horse to

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Seeing the Elephant!