Tuesday, January 11, 2011

human beings

i am taking a social psychology class these next seven weeks, and in the first chapter of my book, these are some quotes that struck me...


"over the years, social psychologists have found that two of these motives are of primary importance: the need to feel good about ourselves and the need to be accurate. there are times when each of these motives pulls us in the same direction. often, though, these motives tug us in opposite directions - where to perceive the world accurately requires us to face up to the fact that we have behaved foolishly or immorally."

"human beings are motivated to maintain a positive picture of themselves, in part by justifying their past behavior, and that under certain specifiable conditions, this leads them to do things that at first glance might seem surprising or paradoxical."



at first glance, both quotes make sense to me. kind of one of those, "duh" makes sense. although the more i think about them, and re-read them, i think about how simple, but profound they are. i know in my life there is this thing inside of me that wants to feel good about myself, and also the need to be accurate. and sometimes i do things to fulfill those needs and my actions do not make any sense to someone else. i wonder though, what does Christ say about these? i know it's easy sometimes to throw out the God card and say what would Jesus do, but really, what would Jesus do? is the need to feel good about ourselves and be accurate a quality that God has put inside of us, or a need that we have let control us?

i am interested in social psychology, but honestly, thinking about all of this is quite new to me. social psychology is defined as "the scientific study of the way in which people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people." so when we think about the things that make us feel good, or ways that we can be accurate, what does that actually look like when viewing it by that definition? can it be a positive thing, or have we created something God did not intend? it makes me think back to the garden...

comments...?

4 comments:

  1. but didn't God create us to ultimately be good? if we are seeking what he has for us... we will be good by definition... because His ways are good. he has good things for us.

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  2. yeah, i agree melissa. His ways are good. makes me think about bearing good fruit. like how we can sense where we and others are by the fruit we are producing.

    so in that first quote i wrote where it talks about motives, if we have other motives than Christ, then we aren't seeking what he has for us, which will show by the fruit. and the question i am asking myself now, is if our motives are being accurate or having the need to feel good about ourselves, are those two motives that God has put in us, or are those motives that society has put in us? or does that even play a part?

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  3. Honoring God generally makes us feel good because it's doing what is right. Feeling good about ourselves, would you categorize that in loving yourself? We are to love our neighbors as ourselves and I have believed for years that if you don't know how to love and accept yourself, how can you love and accept others? If feeling good about yourself involves putting others down in order to lift yourself up, then the answer is no. If feeling good about yourself involves doing God's work, serving and loving others as He has called us to do, then I would say that feeling good about yourself is His idea.

    Love the learning:)

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  4. rochelle- i love what you wrote. this was part of my struggle, as far as loving ourselves through God's perspective, versus loving ourselves through the world's. as Christians we have convictions that those who don't know Christ yet won't have, and part of it is, for sure, loving your neighbor as yourself. i guess another struggle that i have, is that my textbook is not based on Christianity, which i'm sure most social psychology books aren't, but that is definitely challenging my thinking on just how accurate social psychology is, without including God. ultimately, if we are honoring God and doing what He asks us to do, we should find that we feel good about ourselves, and that we are accurate in the sense that God is in control and He knows best. will we mess up? absolutely. but when that happens, we dive into a different topic on grace and mercy. :)

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