Education is a science, and it is a knowledge that each of us has to face. As parents, we have to face the education of our children. As children, we have to face our own education. How to manage our children well while letting them How about raising your own awareness of education? How to educate children with strong self-esteem? Regarding these, let’s listen to the human insights and humanistic cultivation of American educational philosopher William James today.
William James's contribution to educational psychology -
Almost all teachers' manuals today will repeat the motto of William James (1842-1910): "The most profound thing about human nature is The principle is to hope that others will appreciate you." The conclusion then derived is: the so-called appreciation is to fully affirm the students and continuously cultivate the students' self-esteem and self-confidence through psychological suggestions, so that they have the confidence to make progress and the motivation to keep making progress.
As for the relationship between psychology and education, James actually opposed the direct application of psychological principles to school teaching during his lifetime. In his book "Psychology for Teachers" published in 1899, James made it clear: Psychology is science and teaching is art; no matter how omnipotent science is, science itself cannot directly create works of art. However, this does not prevent many of his theories from becoming the core of modern educational psychology. After all, the concept of "self-esteem" he proposed is too attractive for inspiration.
For the "dignity" that originated from ancient Greece and the Renaissance, which is crucial but erratic in human hearts for concern and thinking about ultimate existence, James used a pragmatic approach to redefine it as simple and straightforward. Bai's "self-esteem". In his book "Principles of Psychology" published in 1890, he proposed that self-esteem consists of self-emotions, which are directed toward oneself and are an overall feeling that is independent of the situation, such as "On the whole I feel that I like myself ” or “I feel like I hate myself in general.” This definition implies that self-esteem has stable characteristics across time and situations, and foreshadows the important concept of "trait self-esteem" in future experimental psychology. But this definition is far less widely known than James's other definition of "self-esteem." The latter definition obviously contradicts the first, but it is widely popular because it is so straightforward that it is almost homely.
American educational philosopher William James
This definition even provides the possibility of quantifying self-esteem: “Self-esteem is determined by the ratio between the realization of potential and the perceived potential; our Ambition is the denominator and success is the numerator, so self-esteem = success/ambition." He said: "Because people do not scrutinize every action they take in daily life, but they care about their abilities in important areas. According to this formula, a person who thinks he is capable or actually successful in an area he values ??is a person with high self-esteem. Conversely, a person who thinks he is lacking ability or has failed in an area he values ??is a person with low self-esteem. ”
It is precisely because self-esteem depends on success that this kind of self-esteem is conditional self-esteem. James also proposed a hypothesis that was later named the "James-Lange Theory": "One mental state is not directly caused by another mental state. The physical expression must be placed first in the middle. A more reasonable statement should be , we feel sad because we cry, angry because we fight back, and scared because we tremble." This suggests that people can control their physiological responses to stimuli and can control associative emotions to the same extent: Just as you can control your anger by counting from 1 to 10, or whistle to stay optimistic and courageous, you can also gain confidence and self-esteem through physical actions. Combining James' self-esteem formula and the "physical reaction precedes psychological" hypothesis, it can be naturally deduced that "giving up ambition" and "working hard to achieve goals" are equivalent to a certain extent. There is no failure without effort, there is no shame without failure, and our self-esteem depends entirely on what we ourselves want to be or do. James also pointed out: For areas in which they lack ability, people with high self-esteem will devalue the importance of this area, while people with low self-esteem seem to lack the "talent" to implement such derogation.
According to James's definition, self-esteem is a trait that is difficult to change; from the perspective of the source of self-emotion, self-esteem is a state that changes with the situation. These two contradictory definitions laid the groundwork for future self-esteem researchers' debate over "trait self-esteem" and "state self-esteem."
The problem of the definition of self-esteem -
The ostrich solution to self-esteem frustration derived from James Lange theory is easily reminiscent of certain Eastern philosophies. As one of the first standard textbooks when modern psychology entered China in the early 20th century, this "oriental affinity" in James's work added another layer of confusion when the concept of "self-esteem" was introduced to China. Etymologically speaking, "esteem" comes from the Latin "aestimare", which means to estimate, evaluate, determine the price or value of an object or thing, and later gradually evolved in English into a positive evaluation of things, objects and individuals. Therefore, when James proposed "self-emotion", he actually meant "positive self-evaluation or positive self-emotion".
In most English dictionaries, "self-esteem" includes self-love, pride, self-esteem, self-respect, etc. Most Chinese scholars translate “self-esteem” as “self-esteem.”
"Modern Chinese Dictionary" defines "self-esteem" as "respecting oneself, not bowing to others, and not allowing others to discriminate or humiliate." It can be seen that in Chinese, self-esteem is mainly used to describe a defense method or defense mechanism. High self-esteem means that someone will not be able to tolerate any words and deeds that may humiliate him, which will inevitably hurt his self-esteem; low self-esteem means that someone does not care about other people's humiliating words and deeds, or is indifferent to external evaluations.
In comparison, Chinese self-esteem attaches more importance to external evaluation, while Western self-esteem attaches more importance to inner experience. In a large sense, what Chinese people call "high self-esteem" in daily life is exactly a manifestation of low self-esteem in a Western context, and what Chinese people call low self-esteem may also be a manifestation of high self-esteem in the West. Unlike China, which simply bases personal self-esteem on the intensity of one's response to external stimuli, Western self-esteem, which originated from the humanistic definition of "dignity" in ancient Greece, contains richer and more intrinsic content. High self-esteem originally meant someone's respect for oneself. Have good evaluation and positive self-emotional experience. This state will not be easily affected by external things. (We Chinese parents should pay special attention to this when educating their children)
This chaotic situation may have been something James did not expect during his lifetime. James avoided creating a system throughout his life, did not form any school, and rarely trained graduate students, so he had no followers. However, a large part of his ideas have become elements of modern mainstream psychology, and he also has a certain seat in the field of philosophy. The German philosophical psychologist Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920), who was at the same time as James but even more famous, was a representative figure of structural psychology and advocated that psychology should use the method of experimental introspection to analyze the content of consciousness. The influence on psychology even surpassed that of James, but James' psychology overall surpassed Wundt's system with its realism and pragmatism.
Evaluation of modern psychologists -
As the American psychologist Hilgard said: "Among psychologists, James is an outstanding psychoanalyst. As a result, he encouraged a well-armed, enthusiastic psychology."
Canadian psychologist Fan Chel commented in the book "Pioneers of Psychology": "James will. James transformed psychology from an esoteric and abstract science into a discipline that spoke directly to personal interests and concerns. James gave psychology a character that made it a subject accessible to everyone. '."
Allport, a representative of modern humanistic psychology in the United States, once summarized James' habits: "In the book "Principles of Psychology" alone, we can find extremely obvious and useful information. On Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, he points to behaviorism and positivism; on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, for example, he is both a positivist and a phenomenalist. , he seems to be more talented, at this time, he will write about streams of consciousness, types of religious experience and the moral name of war."
In "Principles of Psychology", it is obscured by the simple formula of self-esteem. is an intricate analysis of the relative relationships between the material self, the social self, and the spiritual self. James was the first scholar to propose dividing the self into the subject self and the object self. Multiple selves may be harmonious or in conflict. In fact, this is a more accurate formula for self-esteem, but this statement is obviously not as widely welcomed by the public as a simple psychological analysis.
Pragmatism is truth -
"Principles of Psychology" is not only a basic summary of the research results of experimental psychology at that time, but also a concentrated expression of James's pragmatic psychological thoughts. In 1892, James rewrote "Principles of Psychology" into "A Compendium of Psychology", which became the standard textbook in American universities at that time. After the publication of Principles of Psychology, James claimed to have said all he knew about psychology and returned to the philosophy he had been passionate about in his youth.
In 1907, "Pragmatism" was published, which was later called "a book that determines the principles of action for Americans and is the semi-official philosophy of the United States." James proposed in the book: There is no absolute truth in the world. Truth is determined by actual effectiveness, and truth often changes with the changing environment of the times. What is suitable for the environment of the times and effective is the truth. James’s pragmatism had a major impact on the future development of applied psychology. For those who “originally did not want to engage in psychological research,” he ridiculed psychology less than two years after the publication of “Principles of Psychology” and said, “It is not a science; it is just a science.” For James, who is a "hope", this is something he would not have expected.
James' students recalled: James was short, thin, and quite aristocratic; he was friendly, humble and polite, and his teaching style Lively and humorous. These descriptions make it difficult to believe that this is a person who has just experienced severe depression for four years. The American historian Bazin once put forward this hypothesis about James's depression when he was young: “It is entirely reasonable to suppose that this was caused by intolerable pressure to rebel against a father who had never been violent to him but only loved him. "When James was 17 years old, he proposed to become a painter, but his father disagreed in any case because he wanted his children to become scientists or philosophers. At James's insistence, his father reluctantly agreed that he would study with a painter. painting.
Half a year later, James suddenly left the studio and entered Harvard to study science. The reason was that his father suddenly and inexplicably fainted while James was studying painting. After that, he warned the family that he would die soon. James gave up his artistic dream, but the complex of art lingered around James throughout his life in the form of his potential self.
According to the self-esteem formula set by James, a person's lack of ability in an area he considers unimportant will not cause low self-esteem, and being outstanding in this area will not cause high self-esteem. James left an extremely concise and attractive self-esteem formula for future generations, but few people thought of using this formula to measure the creator's own mentality. James's extreme enthusiasm for spiritualism and "soul" phenomena in his later years also hinted at : James' true evaluation of his own dignity has long been far away from this practical world, and has entered a spiritual and ultra-high psychological realm.