Difference between revisions of "NOV 8"

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==21: NOV 8.==
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==19: NOV 8==
  
 
===Assigned===
 
===Assigned===
  
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:*Today's class has no reading assignment. We will be working with ideas and theories that help with PP1.
+
:*Hall C4, “Emotional Regulation: The Art of Coping” (17)
 +
:*Carstensen, “The Influence of a Sense of Time…” (3)
 +
:*Ardelt, “How Wise People Cope with Crises and Obstacles” (11)
  
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===Justice from an Evolutionary Ethics Standpoint===
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===Hall, Chapter 4, "Emotional Regulation"===
  
−
:*Old model: We need to pursue justice and fairness to overcome a "bad thing" about us. We are fallen, we are selfish.
+
:*Emotional regulation as a compensating strength of aging. Give basic argument for connecting emo reg to wisdom.
  
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:*New model: evolutionary ethics model:
+
:*Carstensen’s Stanford beeper study - longitudinal.   
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::*1. We need to pursue justice because some of the really good, useful, and even beautiful things about us as socially evolved creatures create injustices.   
 
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:::*"Actions from love can lead to an unjust world" (from last class). Partiality is one of those beautiful things.
 
  
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::*2. If morality is part of an evolved functional system for individual and collective “surviving and thriving” then we ought to assess the quality of the society that our values produce rather than only campaigning for the values themselves.  What does the just society look like?  Could a just society include a lot of suffering?  A lot of exclusion?  Maybe. Consider some examples. 
+
:*"Carstensen and her colleagues have proposed that successful emotional regulation is tightly connected to a persons sense of time—usually, but not always, time as it is reflected by one's age and stage of life. "According to our theory, this isn't a quality of aging per se, but of time horizons," she explained. "When your time perspective shortens, as it does when you come closer to the ends of things, you tend to focus on emotionally meaningful goals. " 63
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::*Our evolved (automatic) responses have a bias toward discounting the well-being of outgroups and strangers.  This leads to bigotry, groupishness, and racism.
 
  
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:*One could argue, then, that partiality is justified because it is part of our evolved social behaviors for benefiting from cooperation.  On the other hand, '''the moral limit of partiality''' might be found at the point that it promotes injustice. '''PP1 invites you to give an analysis of how we would know that we were at that point.'''
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:*SST: socioemotional selectivity theory (Cartensen's) “In shortening time span of later life, people focus on emotionally meaningful experience.  
  
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===Small Group Discussion: How Big is Your "Us"?===
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:*Can/How can the benefits of this view become available to the young?
  
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:*Imagine three futures for yourself.  In all of them, you grow up to have a successful career, a family with two kids, and a medium size extended family.  You are approaching retirement and your retirement and estate planning recalls a distant memory of an ethics class which talked about "justified partiality." You and your partner are wondering if you should leave all of your estate to your children or not.  Remember, you will have access to this money until you die, so you could cover end of life care for yourself and your partner.  Consider these three scenarios:
+
:*Emotional Resilience: Job's emotional resilience.  Is it patience or resilience?  What is the diff?  Note, Job does not suppress negative emotion, but bounces back to an equilibrium.  “Surely, vexation kills the fool.” (Today’s heuristic!)
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::*A. You and your partner retire with about 1 million dollars, a paid off house, and good health insurance.
 
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::*B. You have all of the conditions in A, but 2 million dollars in net worth.
 
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::*C. Same as B, but 8 million dollars.
 
  
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:*For all three scenarios, assume that all indications suggest continued growth of your assets.  You are also "aging well"!
+
:*problem in history of philosophy -- downplaying of emotion.  But then Hume, and James' "What is an Emotion?"
  
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:*[https://www.stlouisfed.org/publications/regional-economist/second-quarter-2019/wealth-retired-households Data on household net worth at retirement]
+
:*Gross: "reappraisal" and "reflection" as techniques of emotional regulation. vs. “rumination” 66.  Very important!  Note mechanism suggested for each.  (Note connection to therapeutic writing.  Possible topic for short research.)  Notice this way of thinking suggests that emotional regulation is trainable.  (Note Tim Wilson’s research in ''Redirect''.)
  
−
===Resources for Transition from "What are the limits of partiality?" to PP1: What Do We Owe Strangers?===
+
:*Cartensens' research in assisted living homes. “Have you seen what’s out there?…I don’t have ''time'' to talk to those people.”  counterintuitive answers. (67) "time horizon" theory.  Implications. 
  
−
:*Our small group exercise on '''estate planning''' helped us as the question of justified partiality from a "first person singular" perspective.  But it really only gave you a little information about your intuitions about impersonal prosociality, generous, and maybe dozen other little things about you.  But this could also inform an intuition about justice.
+
:*Carstensen on the paradigmatic tasks of the young: "knowledge trajectory" (70); "collectors" 71, in older age, a shift from knowledge related goals to emotion-related goals.  
  
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:*Now we consider the question from the "first person plural" perspective.  "What do we owe strangers?" "How big is our "us"? '''What does a just society look like?'''.  To take on this question, we need to round up some resources and take stock of some of the theories we have already been studying.
+
:*71: neuroscience on learning from loss; '''affect forecasting''' (accuracy in predicting how we will feel.  Could dampen negative emotion, right?  Examples?)  young as steep "discounters"; greater appetite for risk, less for ambiguity.  (Probably don’t want to change that, but it describes a problem also.)
  
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:*Theoretical and reflective resources for developing a position on the question, "What do we owe strangers?"
+
:*73: emotional resilience in Davidson's longitudinal neuroscience research: correlation of emotional regulation and brain pattern.  (Brains that regulate emotion look diff in real time.) Gabrielli studies on young amygdalas.  Gross on male/female emotional processing.
  
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:*1. '''Which "goods" does justice involve?'''
+
:*positive illusion (optimism bias) - note that negative visualization might facilitate it, as in the Irvine point about the two fathers.
  
−
:::*a. '''Promotion of basic subjective well-being''' -- Do we owe any strangers (perhaps those in our social contract) an obligation to promote their basic happiness?  I'll bring in some ideas from "happiness economics" here.  Happiness economists critique the use of GDP as a sole goal of public policy. They point to the limited ability of money (after a threshold amount) to improve subjective well-being (SWB). Some argue that the "just society" promotes human development and that there are basic goods that at least wealthy societies could provide that would raise SWB.  A typical list includes: '''child care, education, food security, employment security, health security, and security in meeting the challenges of aging and dying'''. 
+
:*"Grandparent hypothesis"
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:::*b. '''Economic justice''' -- Are there economic outcomes in a society or in the world that would be fundamentally unfair or unjust?  If inequality continued to increase even from normal market behaviors, would it ever be unjust? Should we think of Rawls' "veil of ignorance" on a global level?
 
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:::*c. '''Promotion of rights and anti-discrimination''' -- Typically, people who feel that "rights promotion" is an international
 
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:::*d. '''Promotion of values related to autonomy -- rights, self-determination, security'''
 
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:::*e. '''Aid and development''' -- Some argue that valuing human dignity obligates us to provide direct aid in some circumstances, such as disaster relief.  Others go further, and argue that we are obligated to help the "bottom billion" to develop productive economies. Are these just good things to do and not obligatory or are they collective obligations?
 
  
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:*2. '''Which obligations of justice extend to which strangers?'''  
+
:*'''Concluding Group Discussion''': Is emotional regulation something that a young person could use to mimic the emotional regulative experience of older people?  Is such a goal possible, desirable?
  
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::*Strangers in your own community, your nation, and the world -- With any of the "goods" mentioned above, you may decide that they extend to different types of strangers. For example, you may not believe obligations to promote happiness go beyond borders, but you might still believe that personal or collective beneficence (charity) is a good thing.  Or, you may address all of these groups with the same theory of obligation if you think obligations of justice apply to all strangers equally.  '''Notice that the more you are like Dillion (a strong utilitarian), the less you will distinguish among kinds of strangers.'''
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===Carstensen, "The Influence of a Sense of Time on Human Development"===
  
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:*3. '''What are the limits of justified personal partiality'''  -- For some of you, this earlier work may set a "baseline" for thinking about obligations to strangers.  Partiality is wrong if it promotes injustice and discrimination, but within limits it reflects a natural, evolved strategy for cooperation. Consider the positions we outlined during last class: '''Tribalism, Post-tribal Urbanism, Utilitarian Globalism, Extreme Altruism'''.  You may want to use versions of these in your position.
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:*Abstract: “The subjective sense of future time plays an essential role in human motivation. Gradually, time left becomes a better predictor than chronological age for a range of cognitive, emotional,and motivational variables. Socioemotional selectivity theory maintains that constraints on time horizons shift motivational priorities in such a way that the regulation of emotional states becomes more important than other types of goals. This motivational shift occurs with age but also appears in other contexts (for example, geographical relocations, illnesses, and war) that limit subjective future time.”
  
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:*4. '''Standard moral and political theoretical resources''':
+
:*The mechanism here 1913, col. 3: shortening time horizons affect goal selection, preferences, attention and memory.   
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::::*'''Rawls' Theory of Justice''' -- which addresses both rights and economic justice.
 
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::::*'''Duty to an ideal'''.  This could be a Kantian ideal of supporting reason and autonomy in others, or it could be a more traditional ideal about human dignity and the importance of supporting human life and what a decent life entails.  You may certainly draw on values from your faith commitments and life experience, but try to explicate them in ways that might be attractive to those who do not share your particular faith.
 
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::::*'''Virtue Ethics''' -- Promoting human virtues may require specific sorts of aid or support.
 
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::::*'''Utilitarianism''' -- The principle of utility has several theoretical virtues.  For meeting acute human needs, it gives us a way of prioritizing need and calculating benefits. Accepting the "equal happiness" principle allows you to compare goods globally (a latte vs. saving a life).  
 
−
::::*'''Libertarianism''' -- A good starting point if you feel very minimal "collective" obligations (such as through taxation).  For libertarianism, the primary duty is not to impede other's rights while pursuing their life plan, but also to voluntarily aide those whom they wish to help (remember, Liberatarians can be individually beneficent).  So, "live and let live," plus help those you like or feel deserving.
 
  
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:*5. '''Use your understanding of culturally evolved values''' -- We have been studying the origins and value of cooperation, as well as psychological adaptations of WEIRD culture, such as impersonal prosociality, impartiality in rules, and other traits that seem to orient our obligations away from kin and friends.  There is some evidence that these psychological adaptations facilitate markets and some forms of justice, such as those "impersonal" virtues mentioned above.  If you endorse these aspects of WEIRD culture (if you think humans "survive and thrive" better with these mental adaptations), you may draw on them in thinking about your obligations to strangers.  "Post-tribal Urbanism" is an example of this.  We have also studied two theories (Haidt and Hibbing) that help us think about standing challenges we face as a social species. You might argue that we have duties toward those in our community to help with the most basic challenges life poses for humans.   
+
:*Comparisons of younger people with short time horizons (due to untreatable illness, for example) show parallel to older people.  Likewise 1914, col 1, study showing manipulation of goal selection in older people who are told that they are going to live a lot longer.   
  
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:*6. '''Consult your moral matrix'''.  Work from your identity, especially as it is reflected in your "moral matrix." Write from your own moral matrix.
+
:*SST:  two categories shift:  motivation for knowledge acquisition and regulation of emotion.  Shift from horizon expanding goals (like job training) to emotionally meaningful goals. 
 +
 
 +
:*Advertisement study.  Amygdala study. NA/PA.
 +
 
 +
===Summing up Wisdom Paradigms===
 +
 
 +
:*Expert Knowledge system (Baltes Wisdom Paradigm) - explicit
 +
:*Time-horizon theory (Socio-emotive Selection Theory - SST) - Carstensen - implicit
 +
:*3D-WS (Ardelt's Cognitive-Reflective-Affective Theory of coping. - implicit
 +
 
 +
:*All three of these involve studying people rated as wise (often older), seeing what they do, and trying to abstract that as a general method or lesson.  I think it makes sense to say that when you do that you are making an implicit theory explicit.
 +
 
 +
===Ardelt, “How Wise People Cope with Crises and Obstacles” ===
 +
 
 +
:*'''Introduction'''
 +
::*Summarizing research field of 25 years, starting with Baltes.  Note developments in 90s. 
 +
::*interest in people who face "ultimate limit situations"
 +
::*8: Some new language in the Baltes model -- not only individual decision making :
 +
:::*Knowledge - application of tacit knowledge mediated by values
 +
:::*Transformation of experience
 +
:::*Dis-illusioning - seeing through illusions (not becoming disillusioned!) (self-deception avoidance)
 +
 
 +
::*Follow her gloss of 3D-WS Table 1. and p. 8 col 3
 +
 
 +
:*'''Study'''
 +
::*180 older adults from diverse situations in Florida
 +
::*Construction/admin of 3D-WS. Selection of 12 high and 12 low wisdom as rated by scale
 +
::*Respondents give interviews that are structured, recorded, coded by trained judges, some blind to study goals.
 +
::*Selected three high and three low cases for discussion
 +
 
 +
:*'''Results'''
 +
 
 +
::*Coping strategies of high wisdom respondents
 +
:::*Mental distancing
 +
:::*Active coping
 +
::::*Taking control of a situation
 +
:::*Application of life lessons
 +
::::*Learning from life experiences
 +
 
 +
::*Coping strategies of low wisdom respondents
 +
:::*Passive coping
 +
::::*Acceptance
 +
::::*Reliance on God
 +
:::*Avoidance of reflection
 +
 
 +
:*'''Small Group Discussion'''
 +
::*How attractive is Ardelt's 3D-WS model? Specifically, does it capture the cognitive, reflective, and affective dimensions of Wisdom?  Are these the right basic dimensions?  To what extent is it possible to model wisdom acquisition for all ages on the wisdom of older individuals rated high on wisdom?
 +
 
 +
===SCP: Short Critical Paper (1000-1500 words) ===
 +
 
 +
:*Topic: TBD

Latest revision as of 18:49, 8 November 2023

19: NOV 8

Assigned

  • Hall C4, “Emotional Regulation: The Art of Coping” (17)
  • Carstensen, “The Influence of a Sense of Time…” (3)
  • Ardelt, “How Wise People Cope with Crises and Obstacles” (11)

Hall, Chapter 4, "Emotional Regulation"

  • Emotional regulation as a compensating strength of aging. Give basic argument for connecting emo reg to wisdom.
  • Carstensen’s Stanford beeper study - longitudinal.
  • "Carstensen and her colleagues have proposed that successful emotional regulation is tightly connected to a persons sense of time—usually, but not always, time as it is reflected by one's age and stage of life. "According to our theory, this isn't a quality of aging per se, but of time horizons," she explained. "When your time perspective shortens, as it does when you come closer to the ends of things, you tend to focus on emotionally meaningful goals. " 63
  • SST: socioemotional selectivity theory (Cartensen's) “In shortening time span of later life, people focus on emotionally meaningful experience.
  • Can/How can the benefits of this view become available to the young?
  • Emotional Resilience: Job's emotional resilience. Is it patience or resilience? What is the diff? Note, Job does not suppress negative emotion, but bounces back to an equilibrium. “Surely, vexation kills the fool.” (Today’s heuristic!)
  • problem in history of philosophy -- downplaying of emotion. But then Hume, and James' "What is an Emotion?"
  • Gross: "reappraisal" and "reflection" as techniques of emotional regulation. vs. “rumination” 66. Very important! Note mechanism suggested for each. (Note connection to therapeutic writing. Possible topic for short research.) Notice this way of thinking suggests that emotional regulation is trainable. (Note Tim Wilson’s research in Redirect.)
  • Cartensens' research in assisted living homes. “Have you seen what’s out there?…I don’t have time to talk to those people.” counterintuitive answers. (67) "time horizon" theory. Implications.
  • Carstensen on the paradigmatic tasks of the young: "knowledge trajectory" (70); "collectors" 71, in older age, a shift from knowledge related goals to emotion-related goals.
  • 71: neuroscience on learning from loss; affect forecasting (accuracy in predicting how we will feel. Could dampen negative emotion, right? Examples?) young as steep "discounters"; greater appetite for risk, less for ambiguity. (Probably don’t want to change that, but it describes a problem also.)
  • 73: emotional resilience in Davidson's longitudinal neuroscience research: correlation of emotional regulation and brain pattern. (Brains that regulate emotion look diff in real time.) Gabrielli studies on young amygdalas. Gross on male/female emotional processing.
  • positive illusion (optimism bias) - note that negative visualization might facilitate it, as in the Irvine point about the two fathers.
  • "Grandparent hypothesis"
  • Concluding Group Discussion: Is emotional regulation something that a young person could use to mimic the emotional regulative experience of older people? Is such a goal possible, desirable?

Carstensen, "The Influence of a Sense of Time on Human Development"

  • Abstract: “The subjective sense of future time plays an essential role in human motivation. Gradually, time left becomes a better predictor than chronological age for a range of cognitive, emotional,and motivational variables. Socioemotional selectivity theory maintains that constraints on time horizons shift motivational priorities in such a way that the regulation of emotional states becomes more important than other types of goals. This motivational shift occurs with age but also appears in other contexts (for example, geographical relocations, illnesses, and war) that limit subjective future time.”
  • The mechanism here 1913, col. 3: shortening time horizons affect goal selection, preferences, attention and memory.
  • Comparisons of younger people with short time horizons (due to untreatable illness, for example) show parallel to older people. Likewise 1914, col 1, study showing manipulation of goal selection in older people who are told that they are going to live a lot longer.
  • SST: two categories shift: motivation for knowledge acquisition and regulation of emotion. Shift from horizon expanding goals (like job training) to emotionally meaningful goals.
  • Advertisement study. Amygdala study. NA/PA.

Summing up Wisdom Paradigms

  • Expert Knowledge system (Baltes Wisdom Paradigm) - explicit
  • Time-horizon theory (Socio-emotive Selection Theory - SST) - Carstensen - implicit
  • 3D-WS (Ardelt's Cognitive-Reflective-Affective Theory of coping. - implicit
  • All three of these involve studying people rated as wise (often older), seeing what they do, and trying to abstract that as a general method or lesson. I think it makes sense to say that when you do that you are making an implicit theory explicit.

Ardelt, “How Wise People Cope with Crises and Obstacles”

  • Introduction
  • Summarizing research field of 25 years, starting with Baltes. Note developments in 90s.
  • interest in people who face "ultimate limit situations"
  • 8: Some new language in the Baltes model -- not only individual decision making :
  • Knowledge - application of tacit knowledge mediated by values
  • Transformation of experience
  • Dis-illusioning - seeing through illusions (not becoming disillusioned!) (self-deception avoidance)
  • Follow her gloss of 3D-WS Table 1. and p. 8 col 3
  • Study
  • 180 older adults from diverse situations in Florida
  • Construction/admin of 3D-WS. Selection of 12 high and 12 low wisdom as rated by scale
  • Respondents give interviews that are structured, recorded, coded by trained judges, some blind to study goals.
  • Selected three high and three low cases for discussion
  • Results
  • Coping strategies of high wisdom respondents
  • Mental distancing
  • Active coping
  • Taking control of a situation
  • Application of life lessons
  • Learning from life experiences
  • Coping strategies of low wisdom respondents
  • Passive coping
  • Acceptance
  • Reliance on God
  • Avoidance of reflection
  • Small Group Discussion
  • How attractive is Ardelt's 3D-WS model? Specifically, does it capture the cognitive, reflective, and affective dimensions of Wisdom? Are these the right basic dimensions? To what extent is it possible to model wisdom acquisition for all ages on the wisdom of older individuals rated high on wisdom?

SCP: Short Critical Paper (1000-1500 words)

  • Topic: TBD
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