Success Minded versus Self-Actualizers (Discuss Post to Theories of Personality).

The phenomenological perspective discusses a “real self” that is often neglected, but that must be accepted if we are to become self-actualized. What’s often hard for people to understand is that this real self is not the same as “success” as we usually understand it. So there is a tension between success and self-actualization. Imagine two people at work:  one success-motivated, and the other driven by self-actualization. How would they work differently?

The difference between success-motivated people and self-actualized people is the person(s) that they want to please. A success-motivated person tries to learn what other people think of a successful and then mimic the behavior of the person(s) that have attained the level of success that will please the greatest amount of people. For example, most of us in our society are taught that a college education will get you the good paying job, a better lifestyle, money that can permit you to do and buy more things than people without money. A college education leads to working with one’s brain at a comfortable desk rather than using your hands in some dismal warehouse or factory or fast food restaurant. Once most people graduate from college and find a job that sustains their lifestyle then they spend the rest of their life maintaining this lifestyle. This maintaining of lifestyle is maintaining the appearance of success that others find desirable or at least more desirable than what others may find comfortable at subsistence living. We are our drives and motives, if we can satisfy our drives and motives at the level we are functioning on then why bother finding other levels to function on.

The self-actualized person needs to function on a higher level than simply pleasing and maintaining the good relations of others. I believe the self-actualizing person who is “accurate in perceiving reality” perceives this reality will end someday and is aware of this fact more so than other people (Carver & Scheier, 2008, p. 335). The self-actualizing person is “concerned with eternal philosophical questions” and experiences “a sense of oneness with nature that transcends time and space” (Carver & Scheier, 2008, p. 335). A self-actualizing person has a “childlike and fresh creativity and inventiveness” while maintaining “an inner detachment from the culture in which they live” (Carver & Scheier, 2008, p. 335). A self-actualized person appears to be “strong, independent, and guided by their own inner visions that they sometimes appear temperamental and even ruthless” (Carver & Scheier, 2008, p. 335). A self-actualizing person is thus a person who is not trapped by the limitations of trying to please other people at their levels, is not satisfied with the entertainment that the media markets to us as our culture, and realizes that life is a limited period of time to learn, to explore, and to produce something out of it. That is why I think most self-actualizers tend towards being scholars and academics who hope to discover new knowledge like Einstein, or artists who try to give the world another way of perceiving and thinking about their world like Picasso.

The difference in how the two would work is that the unself-actualized person is content to go to work eight hours a day, forty hours a week, to go through the motions of a job to maintain a comfortable lifestyle. They play these social games with others to maintain a comfortable existence at home and at work, live life through video games, television, movies, Facebook, the bar scene, etc.

The self-actualized person is more interested in giving purpose to their limited time on this earth and probably is not focused on being great at a job, but continuing what allows the person to keep the job for the advantages it gives them. For instance, when one finishes their work they could then use their time to surreptitiously research their real interests, i.e. science, the arts, etc. The self-actualized person may even cause themselves problems by entertaining their interests rather than entertaining their bosses.

A Literary Analysis of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. (American Literature I).

Joseph Melanson

Professor McAllister

American Literature I

16 October 2011

A Literary Analysis of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense.

            Thomas Paine was one of our country’s greatest freedom fighters, using his command of the English language in his pamphlet Common Sense as a literary weapon in the goal of defeating Great Britain, and overthrowing her as America’s overseer. His aim was the use of language to pursue a country already embroiled in war, to come together in the cause to fight oppression. “Common Sense” played an important part in the American Revolution, in its use of rhetoric, to demonize Great Britain, and paint her as a brute, a monster, and a parasite among other things. Thomas Paine used this ability for rhetoric and language to create one of the one of the world’s most powerful and effective pieces of propaganda through the use of various themes.

           The use of the title “Common Sense” infers that his ideas are the result of logic and reason, coming from basic and universally known facts, known to the majority of sane, educated people. Paine introduces his argument by notifying the reader of his “simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense” (335). He appeals to the reader to put aside “prejudice and prepossession, and suffer his reason and his feelings to determine for themselves”, giving the reader the choice to listen to his argument at a time when the king of England only offered subjugation (Paine 335). It is by appealing to the intellect and reason of the common man that Paine asserts separation from Great Britain is common sense.

            Paine hopes to inform the reader of the current political state of affairs and the hopelessness with which politics would bring England and America to a peaceful resolution. Paine states that much has been written concerning “the struggle between England and America” and many people from all kinds of backgrounds have weighed in with their opinions. Resulting in no clear outcome, according to Paine the “period of debate is closed” (336). Paine goes on to state “by referring the matter from argument to arms, a new era for politics is struck – a new method of thinking has arisen” (336). England has made the choice to pursue bloodshed, he reminds the reader, by referring to the nineteenth of April (1775) the date that England troops tried to commandeer American ammunition stores. With this act England has decided loyalty will be determined by force, that friendship is only a thing for a king to accept or deny. This summation of the political state of affairs hopes to inform the reader the people of the day must decide for themselves whether to fight for freedom or let others decide their fates for them.

            Paine hopes to appeal the common man and decide what actions they should take for the sake of their progeny. “The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth”, says Paine (336). This same sun will shine on future generations and this generation will have to decide whether their children live in freedom or under the tyranny of England. “‘Tis not the concern of a day, a year, or an age; posterity are virtually involved in the contest, and will be more or less affected even to the end of time by the proceedings now” (Paine 336). He goes on to state that our heirs will benefit or suffer for our action or inaction, that posterity will read our about indecisions “in full grown characters” (Paine 336). Paine argues that the present state of the government is not reliable enough to “which we may bequeath to posterity” (339). The theme of posterity is used throughout Common Sense to make the reader aware of one’s heirs.

            Paine hopes to appeal to men’s sense of masculinity by persuading them that anything less than freedom from America results in their own emasculation. Responding to Prime Minister Henry Pelham words “they will last my time” in regards to measures he wanted to make concerning America, Paine remarks that such a short-sighted and selfish attitude that disregards its effects on future generations was “fatal and unmanly” (336). “The true character of a man”, Paine states, is found in those who can look beyond themselves to “generously enlarge his views beyond the present day” (335). “Men of passive tempers”, Paine says, are those that overlook the “offenses of Great Britain” and hold out hope for reconciliation (339). Paine hopes to persuade the reader that a man is one who makes decisions not only for himself, but for future generations, by choosing to fight for freedom from England. 

            Paine demonizes the king of England as a distant ruler selfishly unconcerned with the rights and property of Americans. He refers to the “many material injuries which these colonies sustain, and will always sustain” by being connected with Great Britain (336). Paine states that Britain only sees America as a “secondary object”, only considering how America can serve England’s “purposes” (342).  By Great Britain’s attacks upon the American colony, Paine argues that the king of England can never compensate them for “the expense of blood and treasure we have been already put to” (341). By using the terms “material”, “secondary objects”, and “treasure”, Paine hopes to give the reader the inclination to see the king of England as more concerned for property and resources that can be gained from America, rather than what the colonists could produce willingly for their shared and mutual exchange.

            Paine uses his rhetoric to portray the king of England as more of an animal than a man, a scavenger who exists only to prey on her colonies. “Even brutes do not devour their young, nor savages make war upon their families” as England had chosen to do in America (Paine 336). The king, Paine states, makes company with “parasites” who try to gain “an unfair bias on the credulous weakness of our minds” (337). America had first been settled by those who hope to escape from civil and religious persecution, England being one of those cruel “monsters” that had caused oppressed people to flee. Paine states that no one rules the colonies other than God, and not the “Royal Brute of Great Britain” (344). Thomas Paine, in Common Sense, reduces England to beast, something less than what a man should willing follow (337).

           Thomas Paine, in his pamphlet Common Sense, uses his great literary capacity to bring the American people against a common enemy, the tyranny of England, but most importantly against the tyranny of the royal kingdoms of Europe.  The use of various themes in Common Sense illustrates the dichotomy of the freedom and ideals of the New World, versus the oppression and tyranny of the Old World through the uses of literary technique. Thomas Paine, in Common Sense, made plain the reasons between the divide of the colonies and the mother country in associating England with the behavior of brutes, giving her the label of a monster, and objectifying the king of England as a parasite only concerned with feeding upon the resources that the colonies would bring him. Thomas Paine, in Common Sense, used this ability for rhetoric and language to create one of the one of the world’s most powerful and effective pieces of propaganda through the use of various literary themes.

Works Cited:

Paine, Thomas. “Common Sense”. The American Tradition in Literature. 12^th ed. Ed. George Perkins and Barbara Perkins. New York: McGraw Hill, 2009. 335-44. Print.

The Ego as Fundamental Component of Personality and Three Therapies to Modify it. (Theories of Personality)

Joseph Melanson

Prof. Cloninger

Theories of Personality

13 November 2011

The Ego as Fundamental Component of Personality and Three Therapies to Modify it.

            In a normal human life, a person is susceptible to various forces that one is not usually consciously aware of. These unconscious forces still nevertheless remain a constant influence upon us and a constant stimulus that results from the interplay between our environment and our continuous and evolving sense of self. In order to become a highly functional person in our society, a person must become aware of these unconscious influences that constantly surround oneself, acknowledge that the ego and its development is the most crucial aspect of our lives, and only by learning healthy methods of mitigating our motives and needs against the opportunities and limitations of our environments will we be able to attain the highest levels of success in our lives.

            Besides our conscious awareness of the world there are unconscious influences which play an integral role in how we function within our environment. According to Sigmund Freud, the unconscious mind is “a repository for urges, feelings, and ideas that are tied to anxiety, conflict, and pain” (Carver & Scheier, 2008, p. 162). Our waking consciousness can be seen as only a small component of the mind, while the greater majority of our individual mental world is comprised of an unconscious and unseen element which Freud states is responsible for the “core operations” of our personality (Carver & Scheier, 2008, p. 162). If this is true, then our conscious experience is only a small fragment of the greater functioning of our minds.

            According to Freud, our minds are comprised of three individual parts: the ego, the id, and the superego. The id “is all the inherited, instinctive, primitive aspects” of our personality that is largely unconscious, deriving from our biological states which constantly seek out satiation in our environments (Carver & Scheier, 2008, p. 163). Our superego is our value system that we inherent from our parents and our greater society as a whole (Carver & Scheier, 2008, p. 166). It is our ego that is always caught in the middle of the id and the superego, always trying to maintain a proper balance between “the desires of the id and the constraints of the external world” in the form of our own superego (Carver & Scheier, 2008, p. 165). This constant need to balance the unconscious yet ever present demands of the id and the superego can cause much stress if a person is unable to develop a healthy ego which is able to satisfy these demands.  

            Our unconscious mind is also comprised of instincts that drive us toward our survival as found in the life, or Eros instincts, and our death, or Thanatos instincts (Carver & Scheier, 2008, p. 170). Our life instincts comprise our drives toward “survival, reproduction, and pleasure”, while our death instincts exist as a unconscious drive toward a “return to nothingness” perhaps forming in the pursuit of self-destructive acts and risky behaviors (Carver & Scheier, 2008, p. 170). These life and death instincts play a largely unseen yet important influence on our lifestyles as well as the people that our egos are attracted to and reciprocated by.   

           As we go through life our ego must learn methods to balance our unconscious yet powerful drives and impulses against the need to satisfy the need to please our social environment. Not all of our unconscious yet ever present drives can be satiated all of the time which results in the need to either “displace” or “sublimate” our desires (Carver & Scheier, 2008, p. 172). Displacement is “a change in how energy is used or the object toward which it’s used”, or how we direct our feelings which may be uncomfortable for us to express in one instance with one person, is now channeled towards an another instance where it is comfortable for us to vent, or express these feelings (Carver & Scheier, 2008, p. 172). Sublimation on the other hand, is shifting the feelings which cause us discomfort away from “socially unacceptable” actions to those that are “acceptable or even praiseworthy” (Carver & Scheier, 2008, p. 172). Depending upon our individual personalities and how functional we tend to be in learning how to express ourselves, our behaviors can leads us toward actions of displacement or sublimation.

            Our ego and the understanding for the need for its healthy development is crucial if we are to be successful in our social interactions and attain the quality of life that we feel we deserve. Carver and Scheier (2008) state that our “ego identity is the consciously experienced sense of self. It derives from transactions with social reality. A person’s ego identity changes constantly in response to events in the social world” (p. 244). This ongoing and continuous sense of self in our ever changing environment necessitates that we become as educated as we can in the development of our egos.

            A person’s ego goes through several stages in a typical lifetime and it is critical to a healthy sense of self that we are able to evolve and adapt through theses stages. Erickson identifies eight different “psychosocial stages” of which each has its own crisis “that dominates each stage” (Carver & Scheier, 2008, p. 245). The first stage is of infancy, and its crisis is the sense of trust, or believing in a predicable world of relationships (Carver & Scheier, 2008, p. 245). The second stage is early childhood, and its crisis concerns “creating a sense of autonomy in actions versus shame and doubt” and “being able to act independently” (Carver & Scheier, 2008, p. 245). The third stage is of preschool and its crisis is a “desire to exert influence” and “power” in one’s environment (Carver & Scheier, 2008, p. 246). The fourth stage is called school age and its crisis is gaining “the sense that one can do things that are valued by others” (Carver & Scheier, 2008, p. 246). The fifth stage is called adolescence and its corresponding crisis is of developing a “consolidated identity” or a “direction in the sense of self” (Carver & Scheier, 2008, p. 248). The sixth stage is known as young adulthood and its crisis involves learning to develop intimate relations with others (Carver & Scheier, 2008, p. 248). The seventh stage is labeled adulthood and its crisis involves centers around “generativity” or creating something that outlives the person whether it is a child or a work of art (Carver & Scheier, 2008, p. 250). The eighth and final stage is called old age, and its crisis involves having a positive outlook on the sense of satisfaction one has attained while looking back on the accomplishments and failures one has made in their lifetime (Carver & Scheier, 2008, p. 251). It is only by successfully navigating each crisis at each stage that a person is able to move on to the next, and by the successful navigation of these stages that the ego develops to its highest potential. Recognizing that the ego is the most crucial aspect of our lives and that it’s development is an ongoing process, we then need to search out the methods to improve and attain our highest level of functioning.

            There are three different ways among many that one can improve one’s ego reality in one’s environment: classical conditioning, instrumental conditioning, and observational learning.

            Classical conditioning involves associating a response to an already existing association between a stimulus and the corresponding reflex, to the introduction of a new stimulus to activate this same reflex (Carver & Scheier, 2008, p. 266). The most famous example of this type of conditioning is seen in the experiments of Ivan Pavlov, who trained dogs to salivate to the sound of a bell. In a person’s lifetime there are various stimulations from our environments that cause conditioned reflexes within us that result in actions that may very well be unconscious. For example, we may learn to fear being in the dark if we are conditioned as children to believe in monsters that hide under beds and in closets. As we grow and learn that monsters do not exist but we may still keep our fear of the dark into adulthood. It is by examining our unconscious behaviors that we come to understand why our behavior continues as it does. Once we discover our negative behaviors are attached to conditioned stimulus, we can then use “counterconditioning” to assign “a new response that is incompatible” with our fear of the dark (Carver & Scheier, 2008, p. 506).

            Instrumental conditioning, or operant conditioning, is a process by which a pattern of behavior of a subject is continued if a positive outcome of the behavior results, while a negative outcome of the behavior is likely to result in its diminishment from the subject’s cycle of behavior (Carver & Scheier, 2008, p. 270). Unlike classical conditioning which only requires a reaction towards some stimuli, instrumental conditioning is dependent upon the active behavior of the individual (Carver & Scheier, 2008, p. 270). Instrumental conditioning is essentially reinforcing “desired behaviors and punishing undesired behaviors” or using a system of rewards or punishment to modify behavior (Myers, 2005, p. 509). The most common example of this therapy is when parents reward their children for good behavior and punish them for misbehavior. Although this form of therapy depends on outside reinforcement to shape one’s behavior, a person with enough determination and self-control can perhaps learn to observe their behaviors and determine for themselves their own rewards or punishment to the measure by which one hope to attain their desired potential.  

            Observational conditioning is a process by which a subject watches another subject perform a desired action, then the first subject learns to “acquire the ability to repeat” this desired behavior (Carver & Scheier, 2008, p. 301). This form of therapy allows a person to accrue “huge amounts of information quickly” by “paying attention to the model” and retain the desired observed behavior by “imaginal coding” or mental picturing, and “verbal coding” or mental description of the observed behavior (Carver & Scheier, 2008, p. 301). This form of therapy allows us to modify our behavior by finding those with the skills and knowledge that we desire, and then learn to copy what they do to attain this same desired levels of skill and knowledge. We become only as successful as the successful people we choose to emulate.

The lack of a formation of a healthy ego identity will likely result in a dysfunctional cycle that continues throughout our lifetimes unless we learn the structures of our ego and how to organize it within our relationships and in our greater social environment. Myers (2005) states individuals “finding their favorable self-esteem” or ego, “threatened, people often react by putting others down, sometimes with violence” which can manifest in either physical or verbal expression (p. 64). The ego of many people is a fragile and unshaped thing, reacting to random events that occur in the circumstances of our lives that come and go. Perhaps by studying the ego, and how it functions, one can learn to comfortably occupy the line between what is good for ourselves, and what is good for our environments.

 References

           

Carver, C. S. & Scheier, M.F. (2008). Perspectives on Personality, 6th ed.   Boston, MA:   Pearson

Myers, David G. (2005). Social Psychology, 8^th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Myers, David G. (2002). Exploring Psychology, 5^th ed. New York, NY: Worth       Publishers.

Comparison and Contrast of Gen. George S. Patton and Mohandas K. Gandhi. (Theories of Personality) 11/01/11

Joseph Melanson

Theories of Personality

Prof. Cloninger

16 October 2011

 Comparison and Contrast of Gen. George S. Patton and Mohandas K. Gandhi.

General George S. Patton and Mohandas K. Gandhi were important leaders in the twentieth century, playing crucial parts in their respective roles. Using the concepts found within Perspectives on Personality (2008) text one can examine both of these men’s personality traits, needs, and motives by the lives they led and the choices they made.

            Extraversion is the first trait that Carver and Scheier mention. This trait is sometimes “based in assertiveness, sometimes in spontaneity and energy” (Carver & Scheier, 2008, p. 51). Other times it is “based in dominance and confidence, sometimes in a tendency toward happiness. Extraversion is often thought of as implying a sense of sociability…” (Carver & Scheier, 2008, p. 51).

Extraversion, in the sense of dominance and confidence, applied to George S. Patton. He decided at a young age to become a “hero” and pursued entering the military as a means to achieving this goal. Patton was a “talented sportsman, finished fifth in the modern pentathlon in the 1912 Olympics. As well as being a great horseman and sailor, Patton also qualified as a pilot” (Spartacus, n.d.). 

Carver & Scheier (2008) state that “neuroticism, or emotional stability”, is regarded by most people as being; essentially the person’s subjective experience of anxiety and general distress (p. 54). “Gandhi was a shy and fearful child. Short and spindly, he shied away from athletics, and his lack of physical prowess was matched by his difficulties in school” (Sparknotes, n.d.). Gandhi’s experienced the anxiety and distress of his fellow Hindus in India and in South Africa due to the oppression of the British Empire. One account of the racism and oppression he suffered was in Africa when he was once physically thrown from a train by British officers despite being in possession of a first class ticket that he should by right have been allowed to use (Manas, n.d.). Despite the public role seemed to take in life, he tried to live as privately as possible, uncomfortable by “the religious adulation lavished upon him” (Sparknotes, n.d).

The third psychological trait that Carver and Scheier (2008) describe is agreeableness which is “is often characterized as being concerned with the maintaining of relationships” (p. 55). This trait can extend from “docile compliance, nurturance, emotional supportiveness”, to the opposite end of the spectrum of “an oppositional or antagonistic quality verging toward hostility”, preferring  “displays of power” (Carver and Scheier, 2008, p. 55).  Patton and Gandhi reflect opposite ends of this personality trait.

As a General in World War II, Patton made himself known for his “strict discipline, toughness, and self-sacrifice”, becoming known by his troops as “Old Blood and Guts” (Brittanica.com, n.d.). Even within the culture of the military General Patton may have taken his behavior too far. 

            “Psychoticism is a tendency toward certain kinds of problem behaviors, such as antisocial actions and alcohol and drug abuses” (Carver & Scheier, 2008, p. 67).  Despite facing the prospect of death on a daily basis, Patton insisted his men “shaved every day and wore a tie in battle” (Spartacus, n.d.). In a famous incident, Patton visited a field hospital and found an unwounded soldier suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. When the soldier told Patton that he “can’t take” fighting, Patton slapped the officer, lifted the man, and “pushed him out of the tent with a kick in the rear” (Spartacus, n.d.). In another similar incident Patton waved a gun in front of a soldiers face, and the two had to be separated by the soldier’s doctor. These incidents at the time were kept out of the media by higher authorities in the military in order to maintain Patton in his needed position as general in a desperate time in war.

            Gandhi, on the other end of the agreeableness spectrum, devoting his life to bringing both “oppressor and the oppressed alike” in order that they may “recognize their common bonding and humanity: as he recognized, freedom is only freedom when it is indivisible” (Manas, n.d.).

The fourth personality trait of conscientiousness, according to Carver & Scheier (2008), not only “reflects its qualities of planning persistence, and purposeful striving towards goals”, but also “relates to educational achievement, will to achieve, or simply will. Other suggested names include constraint and responsibility” (p. 55). “Patton decided during childhood that his goal in life was to become a hero” (generalpatton.com. n.d.). As a descendant of a family with a long military tradition, he graduated from West Point, avidly studying the methods of cavalry warfare of the civil war (generalpatton. com, n.d.). Gandhi pursued an agenda persistently in another direction, even to the point of becoming incarcerated, to become one of the most strident pursuers of peace that history has known in his philosophy of civil disobedience (Manas, n.d.).

            The fifth psychological trait is referred to as the intellect and contains the elements of “intelligence”, “culture”, yet could also be known as “openness to experience” (Carver & Scheier, 2008, p. 55). Both men were highly intelligent within their respective cultures.

Patton devoted himself to the art of warfare at an early age, accomplishing many goals in his life from placing fifth in the pentathlon in the 1908 Olympics, to becoming one of the highest American generals in World War II (generalpatton.com, n.d.). Gandhi, on the other hand, was high in intelligence as well, helping bring the end of oppression, and winning independence for India with the message of peace that he embodied throughout his life.

             “Motives are clusters of cognitions with affective overtones, organized around preferred experiences and goals. Motives appear in your thoughts and preoccupations. The thoughts pertain to goals that are either desired or undesired. Thus they are affectively toned. Motives eventually produce actions” (Carver & Scheier, 2008, p. 74). Gandhi raised in a strict Hindu family, was motivated by religious beliefs to act for the benefit of mankind everywhere, seeing British global oppression in his native India, as well as in South Africa where he was to live for more than twenty years (Manas, n.d.).

            “Some needs are based in our biological nature (needs for food, water, air, sex, and pain avoidance). Murray called these primary needs. Others, such as the need for power and the need for achievement, either derive from biological or are inherent in our psychological makeup. Murray called these secondary needs (Carver & Scheier, 2008, p. 73). Gandhi had no personal power other than as a symbol for freedom that he embodied to others, in fact he even renounced many of his biological needs like food and sex due to his strict adherence to the Hindu faith (Manas. n.d.). Patton would have had to renounce the comforts of life as well, to become a general in the army, and achieve what Carver & Scheier (2008) would call the need for power and prestige, “to feel strong compared to others” (80). Both men would have had to give up their primary needs to pursue the secondary needs of their particular psychologies. Patton strived for power, while Gandhi strived for the end of oppression by cultivating his “theory and practice of non-violent resistance” (Manas, n.d.).

General George S. Patton and Mohandas K. Gandhi played crucial and important roles in the twentieth century. Each man fought in their own way to fight oppression and tyranny through their own strict discipline and perseverance through difficult times. Both of these men were leaders of men, and inspirations to many more. Of these two men I would choose Mohandas K. Gandhi to study his personality in more depth, to learn more about his philosophy of peace and how he was able to embody it in his life. 

References

Anon. n.d. “George Patton : Biography.” Retrieved October 14, 2011 (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWpatton.htm).

Anon. n.d. “Manas: History and Politics, Mahatma Gandhi.” Retrieved October 14, 2011 (http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/Gandhi/gandhi.html).

 Anon. n.d. “SparkNotes: Mohandas Gandhi: Gandhi’s Youth.” Retrieved October 18, 2011 (http://www.sparknotes.com/biography/gandhi/section1.rhtml).

Carver, Charles S. & Scheier, Michael, F. (2008). Perspectives on Personality, 6th ed. Boston, MA: Pearson

George Smith Patton. (2011). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/446863/George-Smith-Patton

The Illustration of The Hero's Journey using "The Leadership Moment" by Michael Useem. (Stories and Creative Leadership) 10-12-11

Joseph,

In you’re third paper you point out parallels between the hero’s journey archetype from Vogler to two of the case studies (Blum and Kranz) in Useem.  You want to take the next step in analysis and move beyond pointing out the comparisons and focusing more on why the comparisons are important, especially in relation to stories and creative leadership.  And of all nine stories in the book, why Blum and Kranz for this assignment?  What do their particular stories teach us about stories and leadership that the other ones don’t or couldn’t in a certain kind of way.  From this paper, it seems like any of the stories would do, and that Blum and Kranz were sort of arbitrary picks.  Where you have two paragraphs of explanation for the connection between texts, you should develop that throughout your paper.  Explain at every opportunity what is important in the comparisons and contrasts you point out.

Finally don’t forget format and title!  If you’re following MLA, do so thoroughly.  As I’ve mentioned before, the Purdue OWL is one of the best online resources in this regard, for in text, after text, and how it appears on the page: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/

Following format demonstrates authorial credibility (i.e., why your reader should listen to you).

Feel free to email with questions or concerns.

Grade: C+ (78/100)

Best,

Allison

In Useem’s book, “The Leadership Moment: Nine True Stories of Triumph and Disaster and Their Lessons for Us All”, he presents us with nine accounts of men and women meeting and overcoming the challenges that they faced in their positions of leadership. In “The Writer’s Journey”, by Christopher Volger, we are given the twelve stages of what is known as the Hero’s Journey, or the story that relates the protagonist’s path toward some desired goal, and the various roles, or archetypes, of other characters who either serve to assist or hinder the hero as he travels along his journey toward the completion of some desired end. We can use the Hero’s Journey, and its twelve stages and its descriptions of the archetypes to better understand the leaders presented in “The Leadership Moment” by Michael Useem. 

The Hero’s Journey as outlined in Christopher Volger’s book, “The Writer’s Journey”, is comprised of twelve stages, the order of which is variable according to the author.

The first stage of the Hero’s Journey is known as the “Ordinary World” (Volger pg. 10), or the natural world that the hero is accustomed to. Arlene Blum was a woman in the 1970’s who strove to overcome the chauvinism found in the male dominated sport of mountain climbing. Eugene Kranz was a man who had been a flight director at NASA and had seen many successes in the American space program.

The “Call to Adventure” is where the hero “is presented with a problem, a challenge, or an adventure” (Volger, pg. 10). Here the hero has the “stakes of the game” established, or “makes clear the hero’s goal” (Volger, pg. 11). These goals usually comprise pursuing riches, fame, a lover, revenge, accomplish some goal, face challenges, alter one’s position in life, or a combination of some of these things. For Arlene Blum, the call to adventure had been of her own choosing and desire to be the first woman to lead an all woman team against the Himalayan mountain Annapurna. For Eugene Kranz, the call to adventure was the malfunction of the systems aboard Apollo 13 that could lead to the deaths of three astronauts.

The “Refusal of the Call” stage, also known as the “Reluctant Hero” (Volger pg. 11), shows the hero intimidated and overwhelmed and some outside force has to get the hero to commit to the journey. This stage is characterized by a “change of circumstances, a further offense against the natural order of things, or the encouragement of a mentor” to get the hero motivated to overcome their fear of pursuing their goal (Volger, pg. 11). Arlene Blum had arrived at the base of Annapurna with her team and saw before her the imposing height that she would have to climb. Whatever fears she had, she would have to put aside to satisfy the pact that she had made with herself to lead the first all woman party to ascend this Himalayan mountain, and prove to the world that it could be done. Unlike Arlene Blum, Eugene Kranz had no chance to refuse the call. Lives were on the line and he was in the position of leadership that had to ensure the astronauts of Apollo 13, and the American space program survived.

The fourth stage of the Hero’s Journey is known as the “Mentor”, or “Wise Old Man or Woman” stage (Volger, pg.12). This stage is where the hero is prepared for the journey by the mentor who offers “advice, guidance, or magical equipment” (Volger, pg. 12). Arlene Blum had been previously trained by her mentor in the previous climbs that she had made before Annapurna. Kranz, on the other hand, had “telephoned the home of Chris Kraft – the former flight director and his one time mentor, and now deputy director of the Manned Spacecraft Center” (Useem pg. 69). He would desperately need his mentor to face this problem that was found in the malfunctioning of the Apollo 13 spacecraft.

The fifth stage is known as “Crossing the First Threshold” (Volger pg. 12). In this stage the hero commits to the challenge of the journey and decides to move forward despite their fear. Arlene Blum once wrote, “The summit, floating more than four vertical miles above us in the clouds was so remote that our desire to remain there seemed arrogant” (Useem, pg. 99). Eugene Kranz had to put aside his fear in front of the other men, and put his knowledge and experience to the test. He had to manage the fear of others so that they could all come to a successful conclusion. “He knew what options were out, yet he also knew he must somehow engineer a safe return. He understood as well that his actions in the hours ahead might determine whether the U.S. space program experienced or avoided its biggest disaster” (Useem pg. 66).

The sixth stage is called “Tests, Allies, and Enemies” (Volger pg. 13). Having made the decision to take on the challenge of the Hero’s Journey, the hero now encounters his first tests, meets those who would be his allies, and who would be his enemies. In this stage the hero begins to learn the rules of this special, foreign world, and aspects or traits of the hero are revealed under the pressure of this new environment. Arlene Blum selected a team of accomplished women climbers for the climb of the Himalayan mountain Annapurna, as she had previously done for the successful all female team that had climbed Mt. McKinley. The enemies that she would face were the various problems of Annapurna itself in the form of cold, avalanches, and unseen dangers of the mountain. Eugene Kranz selected a team of educated and seasoned technicians and scientists who were familiar with the particular instruments and procedures of the space module. The enemies this team would face were the unique conditions of space upon the spacecraft, the wrong decisions that would probably kill the astronauts, and any unforeseen dangers that fate would hand them. 

 “Approach to the Inmost Cave” (Volger pg. 14) is the seventh stage of the Hero’s Journey. In this stage the hero comes to a place of danger where the object that will solve a problem is located. This is also the setting of the Second Threshold, where the enemy or threat is finally located. This is where Arlene Blum decided to persist after repeated avalanches made her and her team decide if it was worth it to go further. This is where Eugene Kranz and his team gave the astronauts the plan that they had decided upon after careful and meticulous consideration.

The eighth stage of the Hero’s Journey is known as the “Ordeal” (Volger pg. 15). This stage is where the hero confronts his greatest fear and faces the possibility of death, whether literal or symbolic. For Arlene Blum, her ordeal was to persist to the top of Annapurna despite the conditions of the mountain upon her and her team. In Eugene Kranz’s case, his ordeal was symbolic. If the astronauts of Apollo 13 could not be saved, Kranz would probably be removed from the space program and see it dismantled, while living with the deaths of the three astronauts for the rest of his life. His ordeal would not be over until the astronauts were safe and sound on Earth.

The ninth stage of the Hero’s Journey is known as the “Reward” or the “Seizing of the Sword” (Volger pg. 16). This is where the hero has survived death in the trial of the ordeal and has now earned the title of “hero”. For Arlene Blum, this stage was when she finally ascended the summit of Annapurna with her team. For Eugene Kranz, this moment happened when the Apollo 13 team had successfully navigated the spacecraft and was now heading in the direction of earth. The astronauts were no longer facing certain death but a renewed hope now that it seemed likely they would make it back to Earth.

The “Road Back” is the tenth stage of the Hero’s Journey (Volger pg. 17). Here the hero has to deal with the consequences of accomplishing his mission, of surviving the battle against his enemy. In this stage the hero must reconcile himself with the new order and changes he has brought about by his actions. In Arlene Blum’s case, this stage occurred after her successful climb of the mountain but her and her team still had to survive getting down the arduous descent of the mountain. In Eugene Kranz’s case, the astronauts of Apollo 13 still had yet to land safely upon the earth, to emerge from their spacecraft unharmed, despite their successful navigation of the craft back to the atmosphere of Earth, and escaping the possibility of what would be a certain death in space.

The eleventh stage of the Hero’s Journey is known as the “Resurrection” stage (Volger pg. 17). In this stage the hero must be purified of this new world in order to return to the old world of which he is familiar. In this stage the hero must face a second life or death moment where remnants of the enemy or a weakened enemy must be faced and defeated at last. In this stage, Arlene Blum would have to reemerge into her familiar world and prove to the chauvinist mountaineering culture, and to the world, that her and her team had accomplished what was previously thought impossible. In Eugene Kranz’s case, it was the resurrection of the astronauts upon the earth, and the knowledge that they were safe and alive with their families that would bring closure to this stage.

The twelfth and final stage of the Hero’s Journey is known as the “Return with the Elixir” (Volger pg. 18). In this stage the hero returns to his familiar world with the treasure or knowledge that he or she gained from surviving the stages in the journey. Arlene Blum had paved the way for other women to join the ranks of successful mountaineers, by disproving the chauvinism of the time, and setting another milestone for the sake of the women of the world. Eugene Kranz had desired to go to the moon when he was a child. He had never become an astronaut, but had led his team through a difficult and confusing ordeal to successfully save the lives of three astronauts, and possibly the United States space program as well, ensuring its survival and extending its possibilities well into the future.

These two case studies in Useem’s book relate lessons gained from their life experiences in the positions of leadership that they have attained, and what was often an arduous climb to get there. The stories that Useem relates show that most often the successful leader through a crisis is the leader who was most prepared beforehand, who organized his team for any future ordeal, and was able to make the informed and educated decisions that sometimes have to be made in seconds. To prepare ourselves for these inevitable tests and ordeals we must educate ourselves and surround ourselves with the best people that we can, whenever we can. Useem’s book provides us with a multitude of lessons learned from the struggles of others that we can incorporate into our own lives in not only the stories, but also in the multiple summarized lessons labeled “By Implication”.

These case studies embody the stages of the leaders own hero’s journey with various difficulties that each leader had at their own individual stages of the journey. The case studies in Useem’s book flesh out the stages of the Hero’s Journey, proving that we, like the featured leaders, all face theses stages in our own life, big and small, time and time again. We are either prepared for the stages of our own Hero’s Journey, or we wander in darkness for the rest of our lives. It is up to us to prepare ourselves for what may someday be our own call to adventure, or to ignore the call and succumb to whatever path we find ourselves on. Either way, life is a journey that we have to undertake. It is up to us to learn from the world, and become either its masters or its slaves.

             

Works Cited:

Useem, Michael. The Leadership Moment: Nine True Stories of Triumph and Disaster and Their Lessons for Us All. New York: Three Rivers, 1998. Print.

Vogler, Christopher. The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers. Studio City, CA: Michael Wiese Productions, 2007. Print.

Kate and Jeff go on Vacation (The Allied Electric Experiment) 10-09-11

 I came to work on Monday and waited an excruciating hour for her to come in and start her shift. I hid, pretending to work when my boss came into the basement, continuing my charade at being his friend, caring about his problems. He comes down to collect some things that I would have to deliver to the electricians. I pick up things; straighten others, moving to and fro as if it meant something. He goes back upstairs. I go back to playing this game, “Bejeweled” on my phone. You match up jewels in rows of three or more and when they come together they disappear, making way for more jewels to drop mysteriously from above. I was becoming the master of this game, I had earned the top five scores on my phone. I highly recommend it to anyone, especially to those with so much free time and so little supervision like me. It is highly addictive I must warn. Nevertheless I get bored with it and then head upstairs to see what’s going on.

            “Que pasa, Josef”

            “Hola”. I’ve been teaching myself Spanish for years, he knows a little bit from somewhere. I never found out where.

            I look up front and our wonderful secretary isn’t there. An appointment maybe?

            “Where’s Kate”, I ask.

            “Her and Jeff are on vacation this week”.

            “Together?” I am shocked. I knew Jeff liked her but I didn’t think she liked him that much, not as much as going on vacation together. That was something.

            He looks at me and smiles.

            Why would two people go on vacation at the same time if they were not going on vacation together? Two hot-blooded twenty somethings that just happened to spend all their free time together. Especially in the month of January. A cruise? Cruises were cheap in the winter time I heard.

            “Where’d they go?”

            “I’m not going to tell”

            I need this information for some reason. It will bother me if I don’t get it. He knows this but does he know that I know this? I will have to make a joke of the matter.

            “Is it warm where they went?”

            “Yes.”

            This makes me think it is either Florida or California that they went to. I try to think what goes on down south around this time of the year. Were the two of them sports fans? We just came back from the holidays a few weeks ago. I can’t think of anything, maybe I’ll go home and do some googling.

            “Is it on this side of the country?”

            “Yes.” He’s surprised I got so close so fast. I’ll unimpress him shortly, revealing

my dumb luck.

            “Florida is it?”

            “Yeah.” Now he thinks I know something. Here’s where it all ends. Here’s where the sharpness gets dull.  

            “Is it a business related thing?” A business related thing isn’t really a vacation at all. All it is is little rich boy taking the secretary somewhere that some vendor had probably paid for. One time my boss was gone for a few days. He went to the Turning Stone Casino with some employees of one of our vendors who paid for his trip. It was a presentation for the vendors to learn about the newest “green technology”. He stayed overnight in a hotel room, played golf, lived the good life. He regretted he hadn’t gotten a prostitute. That’s how the rich guys did it.

            “No.” I didn’t want to hear this word come out of his mouth but I had to keep playing so as to not display my true self. Keep playing the game.

            “Is it sports related?” I didn’t really get the impression they were strong sports fans. Strong enough to travel to Florida at least. Sometimes people just need an excuse to go somewhere, especially somewhere warm in January. Besides, I was mostly on the road making deliveries, these people were always together in the office. I didn’t really know them.

            “No, you’re getting colder.” He rubs my curiosity in my face.

            “They picked the right week to go. Did they know what the weather was going to be like this week?” I turn my interest into a joke. I knew I wasn’t going to get anywhere with him anyway. I’m bored. What does it matter? I’m already in a relationship, I’m practically married. I should hope this young girl gets taken off the market.

            “Go back to doing what you were doing in the basement and in a couple of minutes I’m going to send you out with some orders to take. Okay.” This twenty seven year old little punk tells me. I think he’s half a fag sometimes. Or he could be just a sensitive soul like myself, unafraid of his feminine side. I had no way to tell and it led to some strange communications sometimes, sometimes raising some questions about myself to others no doubt. I have given up on what other people think; but sometimes I know it’s important to maintain appearances, how important it is to clarify yourself when your opportunity came. You had to give people some stable thoughts to attach to your image every now and again. Steer them away from any impression that you were an unstable lunatic so they could relax and be comfortable around you. You build them a fantasy world and give them enough detail to make it seem real. You build them a bed and then tuck them in after you assure them the boogey man isn’t real. When you see they’re comfortable with you in the periphery of their little world, you can relax in the knowledge that your sham is good. Then you could go off the deep end again for a little bit for a little while.       

“You got it,” I mouth enthusiastically. This time when I went down there I actually did something. I was preoccupied and had to do something to crowd it out of my head. I threw myself into this cleaning project that I had been milking for weeks, just making a show of it. This time I could actually make sense of the mess I had made down here, of all the debris that had come back from a construction job we had just finished. The foremen at different jobs would order things, have them delivered, and then months later when the job was over would return what they didn’t use. It would just go back out the next time someone ordered it for another job. We put it in the basement and tried to arrange it into some thing orderly so that my boss would have a somewhat easy time of finding it and sending it out again before ordering more. For months I lounged among the debris, doing a token amount of work here and there to put on a show of organizing it. I threw myself into forming the parts into a whole, summoning an orderliness that came surprisingly easily when some concentration was directed at the task. I didn’t even hear him call me until he comes downstairs into my dungeon.

            “You ready?”

“To go to Florida? Hell Yeah!”

The Knowledge of Nature and Nurture (Theories of Personality) 10-07-11

 
It seems that a lot of our problems stem from gender differences and our lack of understanding that there are other personality types that are programmed to do what they are programmed by nature to do. We are born male or female, with a certain biological imprint that will affect the personality that we later take on. Some of us are drawn to participate in the world, while others are happier the further they retreat from it. We can learn to develop our biological traits in our personality to enjoy the life we can imagine, or we learn to internalize and repress what our nurturers cannot bear in our nature. In a family, some children would enjoy a different life over others due to what the parents believe are good or bad traits. Nature isn’t always understood by nurturers. I tend to think we learn to shape our temperaments to what allows us to remain comfortable with our parents. For some this is easier than for others. But our temperaments are inevitably shaped and influenced by the temperaments of our parents.

Males and females each have their own gender culture, from what our media idealizes to what we can realistically achieve. We find ourselves somewhere along this spectrum, as much as our environment can tolerate. We learn to master our gender culture while trying to learn enough of the gender culture of the other sex as much as it allows us to be successful with them. Each gender has a view of the other, men see women as sex objects, while women see men as success objects (Carver and Scheier, 2008, p. 116). Men seek certain characteristics, while women seek characteristics of their own choosing. Somehow, we as people are supposed to learn these things to be successful people in life, and in our relationships. For most, I think it’s a crap shoot that we succeed at all. Most people I think, only become successful by mastering our gender culture as much as it allows us to interact with the culture of the opposite gender.

The young male syndrome is an example of what I speak. Carver and Scheier (2008) state “Competition for mating opportunities leads to a lot of male posturing. It has also been blamed for many problem aspects of young men’s behavior” (p. 119). It appears that the age when boys come into their reproductive peak, the point at which they are most desperate to succeed with the opposite sex, is the point they become the most dangerous to themselves. Perhaps an understanding of the various gender cultures, and the knowledge of various personalities, would make the development of their own personality to find like personalities more important than being the loudest and boldest chimpanzee on the block. Both women and men can benefit from this knowledge, and the new culture that this new knowledge would create.

Our nature is a like a flower, while our parents are the nurturers. They are the shape, the depth, and length of the pot. The watering and fertilizing come from culture, our environment, the media, our education level, and our peers.

Works Cited:

 
Carver, C.S., &; Scheier. M (2008) Perspectives on Personality. 6th ed. Boston, MA: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.