Hi Mike,

Yes, sorry, I was just making some loose associations and didn’t quite come
off clearly. I will disclaim my forthcoming statement by stating that this
is based off my own experiences and perceptions, not any sort of objective
analysis.

It seems to me that many people, especially young people, turn to studying
the field of psychology to obtain answers to the essential questions of
life like how to live a good life, how to eliminate suffering, how to be
happy. The sort of grounding questions that drive us all. I think that
psychology hopes to answer these questions, but fails to do so in a manner
that is clear and communicable. I do not think that most people study
physics, biology, chemistry, mathematics etc. to answer these questions.
Most people don’t need much of an understanding of those fields to navigate
life. Logic falls in a weird place here, because I think philosophy
attempts to answer these questions, but not logic directly. The overlap of
what psychology as a field seems to seek to answer: “how to live a good
life” with what it actually says: “administering X gets result Y in ZZ% of
cases in this population, roughly” muddles our clear conceptual
understanding. Fields such as chemistry (or physics, etc.) do not face this
issue, because chemistry isn’t concerned with how to live a good life.

I think that Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life gives a good,
easy-to-understand set of tenants to guide one’s life, but much of the work
of the field fails to do so.

For example, one friend of mine who is interested in psychology (though
expresses his interests highly different than most psychologists do), asked
me for book recommendations that could give him practical tools to apply to
his life to make his life better. He did clarify: other than 12 Rules for
Life. He had borrowed my copy of Jung’s “Modern Man in Search of a Soul”
and found it helpful, but too theoretical to serve much practical purpose.
I failed to give him a decent response, because I really didn’t know how to
respond. I asked him to clarify what he wanted help with, and he mentioned
communication, so I turned him to Carl Roger’s work. This seemed to me like
poor response to his actual concern. This interaction left me questioning:
what are the clear tools for sense making that are likely contained within
the collective knowledge of the field that we fail to pass along to people?
We can administer “evidence-based therapies”, or work deeply with clients
to understand and systematically problem-solve lives, but why can’t we just
provide practical tools for sense making and guides for decision making? Is
this not a goal of the field, or is it my own goal? I do think that this is
a concern that I hope to address, but I’ve found little answers outside of
Peterson’s work. I think it is a question that many people have, especially
young people such as myself. And I think many turn to psychology, because
of its necessary entanglement with individual’s lives, for these answers
and find them nowhere.

Hopefully that’s clarifying!

Cole

On Tue, Jul 21, 2020 at 9:16 PM Michael Mascolo <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> Cole:
>
> I don’t understand what you mean by the following:
>
> However, in thinking about physics and logic, many can hold an extremely
> lackluster of view of these topics and get on with their life unphased.
> Some would seek to use these fields as tools for self-understanding, but
> not in the same way that many turn to psychology. How do we address those
> who want the basics tenants of psychology to use as a guiding light to
> navigate life? The answer, I think, is unclear.
>
>
> Can you clarify?
>
> M
>
> *Michael F. Mascolo, Ph.D.*
> Academic Director, Compass Program
> Professor, Department of Psychology
> Merrimack College, North Andover, MA 01845
> 978.837.3503 (office)
> 978.979.8745 (cell)
>
> Political Conversations Study: *www.CreatingCommonGround.org
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.creatingcommonground.org_&d=DwMFaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=79wJiaT4bXDRfV1EMVsmPkxbv8uPhV6n0qUYKP-GBJo&s=IykyJmfWvX70DKP1zsIp_sn2ayf5_8fV2KGUQaWLhss&e=>*
> Blog: Values Matter
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.psychologytoday.com_us_blog_values-2Dmatter&d=DwMFaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=79wJiaT4bXDRfV1EMVsmPkxbv8uPhV6n0qUYKP-GBJo&s=jgEqr8OsSnqrHrW_okPCT78KRmK8gEIleZsKyl7c_L8&e=>
> Journal: Pedagogy and the Human Sciences
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__scholarworks.merrimack.edu_phs_&d=DwMFaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=79wJiaT4bXDRfV1EMVsmPkxbv8uPhV6n0qUYKP-GBJo&s=03qA4UGuNCJ1gVXfpNQWt6zza0bxAtJNEsvMnecClrE&e=>
> Coaching and Author Website: www.michaelmascolo.com
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.michaelmascolo.com_&d=DwMFaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=79wJiaT4bXDRfV1EMVsmPkxbv8uPhV6n0qUYKP-GBJo&s=ByysOy_ARIEotDYgs0i5qoJj8U9ZgP2z9_gLD-pVZss&e=>
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> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__merrimack.academia.edu_MichaelMascolo&d=DwMFaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=79wJiaT4bXDRfV1EMVsmPkxbv8uPhV6n0qUYKP-GBJo&s=Z99Akuc9jj3D7MmOsBsxQmQzmbAzSXv7_SAoAsjKXYM&e=>
>
> "*Things move, persons act.*" -- Kenneth Burke
> "*If it's not worth doing, it's not worth doing well*." -- Donald Hebb
>
> On Jul 21, 2020, at 9:07 PM, Cole Butler <[log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>>
> wrote:
>
> However, in thinking about physics and logic, many can hold an extremely
> lackluster of view of these topics and get on with their life unphased.
> Some would seek to use these fields as tools for self-understanding, but
> not in the same way that many turn to psychology. How do we address those
> who want the basics tenants of psychology to use as a guiding light to
> navigate life? The answer, I think, is unclear.
>
>
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-- 
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Research Coordinator
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