William James

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Understanding an individual’s behavior is a complicated task, which requires a learning experience. Human behavior is unpredictable and complex and trying to understand it requires a high degree of accuracy. Different people have varying characteristic behaviors and psychologists have come up with different theories to explain why people behave in certain ways. Even when the psychologists put more effort in explaining these theories, people are still not enlightened on their behaviors. Williams James was a very excellent psychologist whose work has influenced many people in their daily lives. According to James (1950), Williams James was guided by four aspects (social self, spiritual self, pure ego and material self aspects). Moreover, Williams work was influenced by the former psychologist Hegel who assisted him in understanding human conditions. On the other hand, Williams’s theories influenced many people in their work a good example being Freud’s theories. The discussion below analyzes the four aspects of Williams James’s theories, how Hegel influenced him in his writing and his contribution in developing Freud’s work.

The four aspects of William James’s theories from his original writings

William James theories are supported by four theoretical aspects. These are: social self, spiritual self, pure ego and material self aspects.

Social self aspect

Social self aspect is concerned with the social relations whereby William identified more than one social identity among individuals. According to William James a man possesses as many social selves as those seen by individuals who know him, and also have his image in their mind. This does not mean that people always change their behavior in order to conform to the images seen by others. The self-monitoring theory argues that people always have differences in the way they carry themselves in the presence of others in the society. Low self-monitors have less concern about what others think about their behavior in regard to the social settings. Moreover, there are very stubborn in their actions that are very diverse in the society. These people’s behaviors are influenced by their internal factors rather than external factors. The other group consists of the higher self monitors who change their behaviors in order to suit a given situation. These people have more social selves, and are capable of presenting themselves depending on the type of social relations they are in.

In his theories, James was very much interested in the social phenomena and the mental states of individuals including those associated with normal consciousness. He approached the subject matter of psychology with much caution in order to understand people’s social behaviors and how they relate to their daily activities. In his theories of emotion and emotional expression, William makes use of social aspects in classifying individuals according to the level of emotions they have. In this theory, William urges that the human emotions controls the body activities and determines the social aspect of an individual right from the young age. Emotions is a sense created in an individual’s mind that results from neural impulses struck that create a change of body feeling. From this aspect, bodily changes occur immediately since they are affected by the nervous system. However, recent research indicates that human emotions take long to react because of the level of socialization seen within human beings (James, 1950).

Spiritual self aspect

Most people actions are controlled by their spiritual believe depending on their denominations. Spiritual self aspect assisted William a lot in developing several psychological theories. In absence of spiritual aspect, William would have found it difficult relation some of his theories to the real world. Spiritual aspect assists people in developing self esteem and improves their relationship with other in a society. William knew the importance of philosophy of religion and linked all his theories to the claims he made regarding religion. People who are spiritually rich should be on the one teaching about religion and not religious institutions since they are social scholars. On the other hand, people’s spiritual norms account a lot in their behaviors regardless of their status in the society as seen from the pragmatic theory of truth (Groothuis, 2012).

James made use of spiritual aspects in his theory by defining the meaning of truth. People have opposing religious views, and the only way to get rid of such claims is through working with their adherents. James believed that something is true if at all it its effects and works are good. This guided him through writing various philosophical theories including the pragmatic theory of truth. On the other hand, spiritual aspects found in these theories explain why someone has to decide the validity of an idea before using it. A person should know what is good and the effect it is capable of causing after implementing given task. This calls for spiritual aspects in determining the right and wrong. For ideas to work William ensured that all his theories make true predictions because he ensured that all aspects have been looked at. In addition, the theories are designed in a way that people with different spiritual aspects gets to understand them and relate them to their social and religious activities (James, 1956).

Pure ego aspect

James began his career as a physiologist that made him develop a lot of thoughts regarding individual personhood according to the theory of knowledge and morality. Even if understanding somebody’s pure ego is a hard task, James relates his theories to the personhood and asserts why people behave in certain different ways. Understanding people’s mind and determining what makes an individual assisted a lot in developing some of his theories. Pure ego aspect plays a significant role in Williams James’ theories, because through this some characteristics of human beings are well analyzed and explained. The aspect of pure ego assisted James in analyzing the process of development since when an individual is young until when someone matures up. He claims that pure ego enables people to have principles that govern them in all, their activities regardless of their social or spiritual status. On the other hand, the principle of consciousness assists in developing the pure ego found in an individual and through this, William managed to determine human the source of certain human behaviors and their remedies.

On the other hand, pure ego aspect enabled James research on individual temperament levels that depend on the social background. Understanding these theories puts a reader in a position to apply their principles to the daily happenings regardless of what perspective an individual holds (James, 1950)

Material self aspect

The material self aspect also played a great role in developing various psychological theories founded by William James. Material self composes of; our bodies, attires, close family members and our homes. People are most affected by material self aspect because they always face it on daily basis and cannot leave without it. Through this, William came to a realization that understanding people’s immediate environment would assist a lot in analyzing their psychological behaviors. Moreover, people tend to be very much attached to their investments making it possible to apply the aspects of William’s theories in their daily programs. Material self enables people relate well with one another and build a good interpersonal relationship in their societies.

William combined the aspect of social self with material self since most people who possess a lot of wealth in a society should have good relationships with others. The aspect of material self enabled William to develop some of his theories in a perfect manner and assisted many readers both socially, spiritually, and improving their egos. Following this aspect, William was in a position to come up with different classifications of people and gave requirements for each classification. According to Skinner (1974), material determine people behavior especially when one comes from a certain class of individuals because they face themselves as either fortunate or unfortunate in a society. Through this, William became much involved in determining what experiences develop into an individual’s memory that determines his characters and behaviors towards other people.

The concept of human development condition influenced Williams James’ writings and theories as explained below

William James work was influenced by various theories that were discovered in the past and assisted him in developing his own theories. People have difficulties in distinguishing between good and evil since the judgment depends on the individual’s perception on the action. The person’s ego determines their actions, which are affected by the environment, the childhood life, and the individual thinking capacity. One of the most important works that influenced William in his pragmatic theory was written by Hegel’s concept of the human condition. The following writer enabled William to follow the issue of originality and influenced him positively. Moreover, he developed a sense of recognition whereby he stressed on the need for socializing with people in order to understand their behaviors. William’s theory on pragmatic was meant to enable people get a sense of appeal with some life objectives. Hegel used his knowledge to understand various human conditions that make people behave in certain ways. Through his objectives, Hegel came up with a theory that mediated the material culture of people in a society. Pragmatic theory oversees universals as coming from interactions between people who lack objective sin life. In addition, Hegel used a process oriented approach in developing his theories on human conditions and this was also used by William in many of his theories (Blunden, 2007).

Hegel and William shared several characteristics that made William follow most of his writings in making developing his arguments. First, the two were very odd and had intellectual trends when it came to analyzing human cognition in determining the truth. They had to struggle and gain a sense of feeling and thought before putting something into writing. Hegel claimed that recognizing a certain personal trait requires operational ideologies and affirming an individual in their social stations. Through this, the writer clarified that recognition comes with rational and justification of an individual’s behavior. Following this, William came to the realization that a person requires recognition in a community according to the ethics and norms governing the community. His ideas of recognition are very essential in self realization, which is in reference to Hegel’s first ideas (Honneth, 2007). On the other hand, the two had a characteristic of embracing the need for popular academic phrases in order to attract their readers. William delivered his argument in a very neat manner and explained his points very clearly. In determining the meaning of self and self-formation, the writer ensured that he had full research and findings on the causes of certain conditions affecting humans whether related to the aspects of social, spiritual, material or pure ego.

Hegel pressed on the need for telling the truth about human behavior, and this made his work to have many readers. In the past writings, three different forms of recognition were discovered according to Hegel’s perspective. In accordance to Williams, he referred to Hegel’s readings before coming up with these differences. Secondly, William could not claim to come across more differences therefore opposing Hegel’s findings since Hegel was a past scolar and had more experience in human psychology. Hegel brought the subject of individual into two distinct categories that assisted in generalizing his claims on human conditions. Hegel believed recognition of human behavior is determined by the spiritual aspect. As discussed in part one, William used spiritual self as one of the aspects in developing his theories. This is a clear indication that Hegel made a lot of contribution in Williams’ work. Moreover, Hegel stressed on the need of coming into clear understanding with one another before making a general remark about any personal condition. This factor carried a lot of weight in Williams’ work since he had to establish the meaning of a certain pragmatic event before making a general comment on an observation made (Williams, 1977).

From the work of Hegel, Williams James learned a lot on the writing field and this contributed a lot to his beautiful work that is read by many people worldwide. In addition, the way in which the work is presented shows the effort of the first writer who influenced him. In general, human behavior takes many forms and depending on the peoples’ culture, some behaviors might be acceptable in one society but opposite in the other. The problem of misunderstanding creates many issues in the current society where every individual strives to win others even if it means taking their life in order to gain something. Understanding our behavior is very important since is the only way that people can live in peace and minimize the cases of crime, which occur almost daily.

The theory that followed William James that was influenced by his work

William James work as a philosopher influenced a lot of people who later made use of his approach in developing their theories. Freud’s work of philosophy was very much influenced by Williams James. Freud carried out his research as a university student with the help of William as his mentor and later came up with many psychological theories. Freud says that the lectures delivered by Williams assisted him a lot in developing his education theories. In this education theory, Freud made many assumptions regarding human mind and the decisions that come from various reactions of human behavior. Following Williams footsteps, Freud developed a step by step approach in developing his theories using the aspects of life like those followed by Williams. Moreover, he carried out a research on child growth from the time of conception to adulthood and came into a conclusion of a person’s egoism is developed and its relationship with social, spiritual, and material aspects (Perry, 1948).

Moreover, Freud focused a lot on people’s culture as a base for all his arguments. This was borrowed from Williams’ work on researching people’s social norms and believes before describing a certain behavioral trait in a theory. The two people share many things in common and this made Freud follow Williams’ works in developing his theories. Firstly, both had a lot of interest in psychology. Freud came to love the subject after attending various lectures conducted by Williams in their college. This made him develop a positive aspect over the subject. Secondly, in his theories of personal development Freud made use of egoism as a major contributing factor in human development. Although his argument is quite complex compared to that of William Freud borrowed a lot of resources from William. In addition, he went ahead to describe the three stages of human development, id, ego, and superego), whereas William only stressed on pure ego. Freud was very smart in determining the key drivers to human development using the four aspects of William’s theory development. The most common aspects utilized are those of spiritual and social.

Most psychologists have different views on personality development and the topic is very interesting to readers. Different people have different personalities that make them unique in one way or another. Like William, Freud carried a step by step approach in developing his theoretical work until he came up with the theory. According to William, human beings have different levels of thinking that help determine their IQ. This assisted Freud very much in his theory since most of his work was based on what William had discovered (James, 1950). Moreover, Freud never hesitated to manage people at all levels and determine what each age group requires, their characteristics, and their thinking capacity. Following Williams approach, Freud could not resist discovering different characteristics demonstrated by individuals at different levels of life. William discovered that for a physiologist to prosper in his research, concentration and interest in all activities performed is very crucial. This assisted Freud in analyzing personal development using the three stages and the theory is discovered by people all round the globe.

Freud theory was based at understanding human consciousness that guides an individual behavior. In doing so Freud came up with a model to explain his approach towards developing the theory. Through this, Freud was following his teacher William who also used models in developing his theories. Moreover, Freud interacted with different people and philosophers in order to get into the root of the matter. This made him develop a self standing theory that gained good reputation among readers and psychologists. Freud’s work agreed with William’s work in many ways since both wanted to determine human characteristics and link them with certain behaviors demonstrated by people. Were it not for Williams, Freud would have problem determining the different aspects that govern the human behavior as shown in Williams’ theories.

On the other hand, in analyzing the underlying issues governing an individual’s life Freud theorized that each and every action perfumed by an individual is centered to life plans. In his theory too, Freud described human behavior to originate during childhood touching on Williams’ aspect on pure ego. In order for an individual to develop into a whole being several processes must take place that involve integration of the conscious with unconscious. Through this Freud was in a position to determine the main driving factors to human development and utilize them in his researches. The two also viewed the aspect of religion in a similar way since they it played a great role in developing and interpreting their theories. According to William, one must have an understanding of religion in order to analyze people’s behavior from various denominations (White, 2003).

References

Blunden, A. (2007). The Subject Matter of Hegel’s Logic. Retrieved from:

http://home.mira.net/~andy/works/ subject-logic.htm

Groothuis, D. (2012). Some Problems with Pragmatism. Retrieved from:

http://www.bethinking.org/spirituality/advanced/some-problems-with-pragmatism.htmHonneth, A. (1996). The Struggle for Recognition. The Moral Grammar of Social Conflicts, The

MIT Press.

James, W. (1956). The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy. New York:

Dover Publications, Inc.

James, W. (1950). The Principles of Psychology (Authorized ed.). New York: Dove

Publications. p. 321

Perry, R. (1948). The Thought and Character of William James. Briefer Version. Cambridge,

MA: Harvard University Press.Skinner, B. F. (1974). About Behaviorism. New York: Knopf.

White, W. A. (20030. “The Theories of Freud, Jung and Adler: III. The Adlerian Concept of the

Neuroses”. The journal of Abnormal Psychology, 12(3), pp. 168-173.

Williams, R., R. (1997). Hegel’s Ethics of Recognition. California: University of California

Press.