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Chapter 1 - Experimental Existential Psychology
Exploring the Human Confrontation with Reality
18
Psychology
Undergraduate 4
03/08/2011

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Cards

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Existential Psychology

Definition
involves speculation about human confrontation with very abstract questions regarding nature of existence and meaning of life - ideas typically considered too abstruse and intractable to be addressed by scientific method
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"Cognitive Revolution"

Definition
explanation of human behavior through "human information processing system"
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Existentialism - William Barrett

Definition
"a philosophy that contains human situation in its totality to ask what the basic conditions of human existence are and how man can establish his own meaning out of these conditions"
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Existentialism - Otto Rank

Definition
first theorist to incorporate existential concepts into broad theoretical conception of human behavior with theorizing role of twin fears of life and death in development of self in child and ongoing influence of these two forces across lifespan
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Existentialism - Irvin Yalom

Definition
existential though as focused on human confrontation with fundamentals of existence and how we come to terms with basic concerns of life
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Four Basic Concerns of Life - Irvin Yalom

Definition
  • death
  • freedom
  • existential isolation
  • meaningless
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Basic Concern of Life - Death

Definition
conflict between the inevitability of death in animal and the instinct in that animal that desperately wants to live
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Basic Concern of Life - Freedom

Definition
conflict between desire for self-determination and sense of groundlessness and ambiguity that results when one realizes that much of what happens in one's life is really up to oneself and that there are no absolute rules to live by
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Basic Concern of Life - Existential Isolation

Definition
conflict arises because of the reality that no matter how close we become to one another, the fact remains that there is an unbridgeable gap in that we will never be able to experience life from any perspective but our own and that we enter existence alone and depart alone
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Basic Concern of Life - Meaningless

Definition
conflicts stemming from the three basic concerns that the only certainty is death, meaning and value are subjective and not absolute truths, we can never experience other's experiences and they can never experience ours, lead to the conflict of life being seen as meaningless
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 Other Existential Concerns

Definition
  • how we fit into physical universe
  • how we relate to nature
  • how we deal with physical nature of our own bodies - beauty, spirituality, and nostalgia
  • role of existential concerns in intrapersonal, interpersonal, and intergroup conflict

 

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Four Themes of Existential Psychology

Definition
  • existential realities
  • systems of meaning and value
  • human connection
  • freedom of the will
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Theme of Existential Psychology - Four Topics of Existential Realities

Definition
  • confrontation with death
  • confrontation with trauma
  • confrontation with body
  • confrontation with nature
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Theme of Existential Psychology - Three Topics on Meaning and Value

Definition
  • focus on human quest for meaning
  • focus on human identity
  • focus on human significance
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Theme of Existential Psychology - Seven Topics of Human Connection

Definition
  • interpersonal dimensions
  • attachment
  • social identity
  • shared subjective experience
  • ostracism
  • perspective taking
  • shame and guilt
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Theme of Existential Psychology - Four Topics of Freedom of the Will

Definition
  • possibility of human freedom
  • utilizing contributions from self-determination theory
  • automaticity research
  • German will psychology
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Construct Pervading All Existential Concerns

Definition
self-awareness
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Self-Awareness - Ernest Becker

Definition
self-awareness is the most important feature that distinguishes human beings from animals and it is this self-awareness that sets the stage for existential terror that lead to the development of culture and humankind as we know it today
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