Psych Autobiog

Analytical Autobiography
Part A


Jean Piaget’s process of cognitive learning can be identified in four stages which are as follows:
1. Sensorimotor Stage (Infancy)
2. Pre-Operational Stage (Toddler and Early Childhood)
3. Concrete Operational Stage (Elementary and Early Adolescence)
4. Formal Operational Stage (Adolescence and Adulthood)
I am (in theory) in the fourth stage (Formal Operational) in this stage I am expected to become progressively more capable of adult-style thinking. Which involves the use of logical procedures and their use in hypothetical thinking. That is using them in the abstract, rather than the concrete operations. It is in the formal operations stage that one is able to investigate a problem in a careful and efficient fashion. It doesn’t seem that the formal operations stage is something everyone actually gets to. Even those of us who do don’t operate in it at all times. Some cultures, it seems, don’t develop it or value it like ours does. Abstract reasoning is simply not universal.
In the past four to five years as I have matured from adolescence and into adulthood I have found my self thinking in a more mature way, such as what bills I have to pay, household items that are needed, taking responsibility for more household jobs and so on. I am truthfully not sure if I do use hypothetical thinking as I never actually give my thoughts a lot of time to sit and fester I’m a do first think later kind of person but most of the time when later comes around I forget that I was meant to think. I do believe however that when I do sit and think things out I do examine the problem in a careful and well-organized manner.
Piaget’s process can then be further identified into four mental operations these are:
1. Schemas – A schema describes both the mental and physical actions
involved in understanding and knowing. Schemas are categories of knowledge that help us to interpret and understand the world.
An example of a schema in my life is my Christianity it is through this belief that I view the world. It is the way I get the knowledge to differentiate between right and wrong, good and bad.

2. Assimilation – This is the process of taking in new information into our
previously existing schemas. The process is somewhat subjective, because we tend to modify experience or information somewhat to fit in with our pre-existing beliefs.
An example of assimilation in my life is bible study, with bible study we sit an read a verse which we then discus and quite often a lot of what the others say makes a lot of sense but as I already have so knowledge on the subject I find myself merging the two ideas together.



3. Accommodation –This involves altering existing schemas, or ideas,
as a result of new information or new experiences. New schemas may also be developed during this process.
An example of accommodation in my life is as follows I was raised a Catholic but was never very devoted in my faith so when I became a ‘born again’ Christian I was able to use this existing knowledge (schema) and altering it into what was taught through this new way of looking at the faith.

4. Equilibration –While progressing through the stages of cognitive
development, it is important to maintain a balance between applying previous knowledge (assimilation) and changing behaviour to account for new knowledge (accommodation). Equilibration helps explain how someone can move from one stage of thought into the next.
An example of equilibration in my life through this course I had some knowledge on most of the subjects (eg: Interpersonal Communication) which I could assimilate, yet with others (eg: Phycology) I had no idea what so ever and needed to accommodate them.

I do not entirely agree with Piaget’s stages as he has them written I know for myself that I swing between them at different times. I leave you with an old saying which really sums this up for me “nothing is set in stone.”


Analytical Autobiography
Part B


Carl Jung worked alongside Sigmund Freud developing theories on the relationship between the conscious and unconscious aspects of the mind. However unlike Freud (who gave a psychosexual explanation as the primary motivation of us all) Jung believed the primary motivating force to be of a spiritual origin. Jung went on to say that a lack of spirituality might lead to various forms of mental illness; during his time at Burghölzli where he witnessed some of the most insightful cases (for example internal schism) Jung further determined that mental illness of this form could be so vast that it could start to function as a sub-personality. Thus the confliction of impulses between these complexes (whether repressed or not) created turmoil in the psyche, which expressed its self in forms of anxiety, frustration or contradiction in thought or behaviour.
Due to its complexity and innate spirituality, Jung’s theories have only received a narrow degree approval within mainstream psychology, most often described to be incapable of being applied to everyday life. Ironically, it was a conversation between Carl Jung and a chronic alcoholic (known only as “Roland H”) that led to Bill W founding Alcoholics Anonymous (and other twelve step programs are also based on this conversation). Jung’s advice was as follows “I can only recommend that you place yourself in the religious atmosphere of your own choice, that you recognize your own hopelessness, and that you cast yourself upon whatever God you think there is. The lightning of the transforming experience may then strike you." This advice worked where no psychological, religious, or medical therapy had formerly been successful not only on Roland H but on countless men and women over the years who have gone through this or similar programs and it is worth noting that Twelve Step programs have brought innumerable people to a spiritual way of life.
At fifteen years old I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder (otherwise known as manic depressive psychosis) it was only discovered that something was amiss when one of my teachers read my (personal) journal in which I expressed feelings of being lost and alone. I also had mentioned thoughts of suicide, which I later attempted three times (after being placed on anti-depressant medication). It was only upon learning (through a local Christian Youth Group) about God and Jesus and how this God loved me, even though at the time I could not even love myself, that I started to improve. Now days (at almost twenty three) I am very rarely affected by this disorder and when I feel myself starting to get depressed I turn to God. My faith gives me a sense of acceptance and purpose, which in turn gives me the strength to get through any bad days.
Jung did not see the purpose of life to be a victory of light over dark. Rather he saw it as one of wholeness of all the elements of one’s self, moving in a complicated dance, in and out of equilibrium, in a never-ending, unfolding artistic, performance of development. According to Viktor Von Weizsaecker, "C. G. Jung was the first to understand that psychoanalysis belonged in the sphere of religion." Jung was not a Christian nor was he of any other faith though he dabbled in various forms of spirituality. He believed all religions to be mythologies; that is he thought of them to be not real in essence but as having a true effect on the human psyche. He thought of religion as a useful tool to find one’s self but as little else.Although I resect Jung’s work on Psychoanalytical Psychology in the realm of spirituality I must say that I believe Christianity to be absolute truth and not mythology; that is I believe it to be real in essence as well as having a truly effective result on ‘healing’ the human psyche. However I do whole-heartedly agree with him that religion can be a wonderfully effective tool to finding one’s true self. I am positive that I would not be the person I am today (I may not have even survived) with out my belief that the Lord Jesus died to save my sins, that he did this for love of me, so many hundreds of years before my birth. But though this is absolute truth to me it may be different for many other in this worlds. So in conclusion I leave you with a quote from Carl Jung “the shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases.”