Category: Psychology

Less choice is better for us

This story has been picked up all over the place. Barry Schwartz’s arguments about how too much choice makes us unhappy are just general enough that they can be applied to every area of our lives. I’m always sceptical about such general arguments, especially when they tend to lump everyone into two groups: the ‘satisficer’ and the ‘maximiser’. Perhaps that’s just the media spin though, I haven’t read his book.

Here are a couple of the stories:

Suppress it and you’ll dream about it…

The usual criticism of Freud’s work is that many of his theories are largely unverifiable. Certainly no evidence has been found for two of his most well-known ideas – the Oedipus and Electra complexes. But in psychology it’s not wise to take sides too quickly. Here is a report of the first study to confirm Freud’s theory of dreams:

Read all about it! Psychologist BF Skinner kept daughter in box like rat!

Some part of us as human beings is deeply opposed to experimentation on ourselves. Even if it is only a psychology experiment that doesn’t (normally) involve direct physical or mental pain. Unfortunately some of the greatest experiments in psychology involved duping the participants to get data on a particular hypothesis. No one likes to be duped, which may explain how occasionally we like to typecast psychologists as crazies. It’s a way of getting our own back at a perceived injustice. And sometimes psychologists themselves are the worst offenders:

“A new book has rekindled old rumours that renowned psychologist BF Skinner used his baby daughter in his experiments. Stop this rubbish about me and my dad, says Deborah Skinner Buzan”

I’ve been reading The Blank Slate by Steven Pinker. It restates the case for the strength of the genetic component of our personalities. Rightly or wrongly, reading Pinker’s impassioned prose has made me even more nervous about my own free will. As if to put a few more nails into the coffin, neuroscientists also claim to be able to see the brain making our decisions about three-quarters of a second before we are aware of doing so ourselves.

So perhaps it is time to break out of ingrained patterns by following the advice of the protagonist of The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart. In the book he decides to make the major decisions of his life by simply rolling a dice. A Guardian article explains how Cockcroft [Rhinehart’s real name] was first inspired to write the book:

“At the time, Cockcroft was studying and teaching psychology, and one summer he was leading a seminar on freedom – Nietzsche and Sartre – and he asked his class at one point whether perhaps the ultimate freedom was not to ‘get away from habit and causality and make all your decisions by casting dice’. His students were either so appalled or so intrigued by the idea that Cockcroft knew immediately that this was something worth writing about.”

Come on, why not? Let’s mix it up, it’ll be fun.

Vilayanur Ramachandran is Director of the Centre for Brain and Cognition and Professor with the Psychology Department and the Neurosciences Program at the University of California. Last year he gave the BBC’s Reith lectures on neuroscience in which he gave a flavour of his research and wide-ranging interests.

The lectures start with examples of neurological anomalies – phantom limbs, synesthesia and pain asymbolia – investigating what these tell us about the workings of the brain. Later in the series Ramachandran moves on to Art and Philosophy, working up from the coal-face of neuroscience to those questions with which we have had little scientific purchase in the past.

This man knows how to lecture. Just listening to the recordings is an electrifying experience, it must have been fabulous to be there. So do yourself a favour no matter what your level of knowledge in this area and have a listen. The complete series is available on the BBC website.