Suggestions for Freshman Seminar

Richard_Marken2 · October 21, 2006, 5:16pm

[From Rick Marken (2006.10.21.1015)]

I will be teaching a one unit Freshman seminar on PCT for Winter Quarter (starting in January) ay UCLA as part of the Fiat Lux ("Let there be light") series. I proposed the course (which I call "The Psychology of Personal Control") and it was "enthusiastically" accepted by the committee that does the evaluations (probably because they pay virtually nothing for it; all it costs them is a room;-) . The seminars are one hour a week and they are given on a pass/no pass basis. They are open to Freshmen first and anyone else if there is room (they are limited to 20).

I was thinking of using B:CP as the text but I think that may be too tough for Freshmen. Another possibility is to create a "reader" (this will be done for my by Ucla publishing) which will be a collection of papers and chapters that are relevant to the topics in the class. I might do both.

I'd appreciate suggestions on how to do this class: topics to cover, readings to include in the reader, whether to use a text or not and, if so, what the text should be, etc. The following is a the description that got the course accepted and will appear in the course catalog.

Psych 19: The Psychology of Personal Control

Our human propensity to control world around us has produced our greatest human achievements (such as Beethoven's 9th) and our worst human failures (such as oppression and war). Examination of human controlling from point of view of theory of human behavior called control theory. Why personal control is essential for our psychological wellbeing and why it can also create problems that can actually lead to loss of control. Presentation of new approach to studying behavior (test for controlled variable) and to answering familiar questions about behavior, such as what is effect of divorce on children or how can I reduce level of stress I feel. Consideration of how scientific understanding of personal control might help us find ways to improve human condition for ourselves as well as for society as a whole.

I want the course to be reasonably rigorous but also fun for the students.

Thanks for your help.

Best

Rick

···

---
Richard S. Marken Consulting
marken@mindreadings.com
Home 310 474-0313
Cell 310 729-1400

B_Thalhammer · October 21, 2006, 11:12pm

Rick,

Sounds to me like your main book is MSOB rather than B:CP. Perhaps the author
can grant you the opportunity to make some xeroxes of key passages from B:CP? (I
have heard he is a cool guy.) Maybe that arrangement would create more interest
than putting them in with both feet.

My two bits.

--Bry

Quoting Rick Marken <marken@MINDREADINGS.COM>:

···

[From Rick Marken (2006.10.21.1015)]

I will be teaching a one unit Freshman seminar on PCT for Winter
Quarter (starting in January) ay UCLA as part of the Fiat Lux ("Let
there be light") series. I proposed the course (which I call "The
Psychology of Personal Control") and it was "enthusiastically" accepted
by the committee that does the evaluations (probably because they pay
virtually nothing for it; all it costs them is a room;-) . The seminars
are one hour a week and they are given on a pass/no pass basis. They
are open to Freshmen first and anyone else if there is room (they are
limited to 20).

I was thinking of using B:CP as the text but I think that may be too
tough for Freshmen. Another possibility is to create a "reader" (this
will be done for my by Ucla publishing) which will be a collection of
papers and chapters that are relevant to the topics in the class. I
might do both.

I'd appreciate suggestions on how to do this class: topics to cover,
readings to include in the reader, whether to use a text or not and, if
so, what the text should be, etc. The following is a the description
that got the course accepted and will appear in the course catalog.

> Psych 19: The Psychology of Personal Control
>
> Our human propensity to control world around us has produced our
> greatest human achievements (such as Beethoven's 9th) and our worst
> human failures (such as oppression and war). Examination of human
> controlling from point of view of theory of human behavior called
> control theory. Why personal control is essential for our
> psychological wellbeing and why it can also create problems that can
> actually lead to loss of control. Presentation of new approach to
> studying behavior (test for controlled variable) and to answering
> familiar questions about behavior, such as what is effect of divorce
> on children or how can I reduce level of stress I feel. Consideration
> of how scientific understanding of personal control might help us find
> ways to improve human condition for ourselves as well as for society
> as a whole.

I want the course to be reasonably rigorous but also fun for the
students.

Thanks for your help.

Best

Rick
---
Richard S. Marken Consulting
marken@mindreadings.com
Home 310 474-0313
Cell 310 729-1400

Richard_Marken2 · October 22, 2006, 5:16pm

[From Rick Marken (2006.10.22.1020)]

Hi Bryan

Yes, of course. I'll use MSOB as the text. I'll also but together a little reader to supplement it.

Best

Rick

Rick,

Sounds to me like your main book is MSOB rather than B:CP. Perhaps the author
can grant you the opportunity to make some xeroxes of key passages from B:CP? (I
have heard he is a cool guy.) Maybe that arrangement would create more interest
than putting them in with both feet.

My two bits.

--Bry

Quoting Rick Marken <marken@MINDREADINGS.COM>:

[From Rick Marken (2006.10.21.1015)]

I will be teaching a one unit Freshman seminar on PCT for Winter
Quarter (starting in January) ay UCLA as part of the Fiat Lux ("Let
there be light") series. I proposed the course (which I call "The
Psychology of Personal Control") and it was "enthusiastically" accepted
by the committee that does the evaluations (probably because they pay
virtually nothing for it; all it costs them is a room;-) . The seminars
are one hour a week and they are given on a pass/no pass basis. They
are open to Freshmen first and anyone else if there is room (they are
limited to 20).

I was thinking of using B:CP as the text but I think that may be too
tough for Freshmen. Another possibility is to create a "reader" (this
will be done for my by Ucla publishing) which will be a collection of
papers and chapters that are relevant to the topics in the class. I
might do both.

I'd appreciate suggestions on how to do this class: topics to cover,
readings to include in the reader, whether to use a text or not and, if
so, what the text should be, etc. The following is a the description
that got the course accepted and will appear in the course catalog.

Psych 19: The Psychology of Personal Control

Our human propensity to control world around us has produced our
greatest human achievements (such as Beethoven's 9th) and our worst
human failures (such as oppression and war). Examination of human
controlling from point of view of theory of human behavior called
control theory. Why personal control is essential for our
psychological wellbeing and why it can also create problems that can
actually lead to loss of control. Presentation of new approach to
studying behavior (test for controlled variable) and to answering
familiar questions about behavior, such as what is effect of divorce
on children or how can I reduce level of stress I feel. Consideration
of how scientific understanding of personal control might help us find
ways to improve human condition for ourselves as well as for society
as a whole.

I want the course to be reasonably rigorous but also fun for the
students.

Thanks for your help.

Best

Rick
---
Richard S. Marken Consulting
marken@mindreadings.com
Home 310 474-0313
Cell 310 729-1400

Richard S. Marken Consulting
marken@mindreadings.com
Home 310 474-0313
Cell 310 729-1400

Bj_rn_Simonsen · October 23, 2006, 10:09am

[From Bjorn Simonsen (2006.10.22,12:10)]

From Rick Marken (2006.10.21.1015)

Rick, you may read this through or skip it. I think it
is wonderful to know that in January 2007 twenty Freshmen come back week after
week to hear you explaining why people behave as they do. You are seeding a
mustard seed, Rick.

I see you will refer to MSOB and that is
understandable. I appreciate Bill’s definitions and stories there.

Particular when I read the book I mark that there is a
World out there, a world that can affect the behavior of people (d). And I mark
that people are able to tell stories, theories and more because they have
experiences ( r ). In this World out there people behave because they now and
then are conscious upon and wish to relive their experiences (actions and
feedback).

This is all what there is. There is nothing more.
These concepts describe our lives and happiness.

I think the Freshmen should be explained that you are
going to describe what people need to know to live and to experience happiness
the way William T Powers explains why people behave as they do in the “reality”
that Karl R. Popper describes in “The Self and its Brain”. And you should tell
the Freshmen to be silent in one minute and appreciate that they are the only
20 people in California who experience this happening in January 2007.

I’d appreciate suggestions on how to do this
class: topics to cover, ….

The following is a the description that got the
course accepted and

will appear in the course catalog.

I see that you know what to do to Fiat Lux. I know I am too frank, but if I put myself in
your place I would have thought in this way;

Psych 19: The Psychology of Personal Control

Our human propensity to control world around us
has produced our

greatest human achievements (such as Beethoven’s
9th) and our worst

human failures (such as oppression and war).

Why not start the first hour with
Beethoven’s 9^th (10 – 15 seconds) and ask them what music is. Show them
the notes on a paper and ask them if that is music. Ask them if the paper on
which Beethoven wrote his 9^th symphony is music. Show them the
Beethoven’s 9^th CD and ask
if that is the music. Play Beethoven’s 9^th (10 – 15 seconds) again and ask if the vibration in the air that
reach the students ears is music (d).

Tell the students that the paper
with notes on, the CD and the vibrations were Disturbances perceived through
eyes and ears. They represented physical objects.

Music is not a physical product.

Music is a product of human mind.
Music is a Brain state. Music is a state inside a part of us ( r). If we will
express Beethoven’s 9^th we play it or we sing it. When we play it or
sing it we exercise actions. The actions are product of our mind. The actions
and the consequences of our actions can be perceived.

Tell the Freshmen that all of them
sitting there remember stories, myths, pieces of music, mathematical theorems,
scientific theories. If anybody wishes to express some of these products of his
mind, other people may perceive their actions.

Some people perceived the detonation
of a nuclear bomb developed and constructed according to a scientific theory.

You are in this way visiting Carl
Popper’s definition of Reality.

The student learn that there is a
World 1 (out there), they know that objects, substances and fields in World 1
can affect the behavior of other objects out there. They also know that the
human Brain may remember a story or a theory.
This is the World 2. The World 2 is states of the human brain. When we
express something in World 2 for ourselves, we remember our Experiences. We are
able to develop our World 2 when we imagine something.

And the students learn that the
World 3 is products of the human mind, products of World 2.

Examination of human

controlling from point of view of theory of human
behavior called

control theory. Why personal control is essential
for our

psychological well-being and why it can also
create problems that can

actually lead to loss of
control.

Ask the Freshmen why they sit there
and listen to your lecture. Ask them why they chose this certain lecture. Ask
them why one of them behaved different from another sitting there. Explain that
there are many different “references” among the Freshmen. Explain that there
has been many different disturbances influencing the different Freshmen and
that the Freshmen have acted in different ways before they sit there in front
of you.

Tell them that you are going to tell
hem a story that may change some of them. It depends what references they have
at the top levels if they will implement your story in daily life.

Of course the implementation of your
story will create problems that can lead to loss of control. Ask them how.

I think Tim Carey presents an
exemplary problem (conflict) in his
“The Methods of Levels” chapter one. He has also a DVD expressing a conflict,
but the DVD doesn’t function very well on my PC. I think the story in chapter
one may be retold. It is a simple conflict and we can imagine the effect of
conflicts.

Presentation of new approach to

studying behavior (test for controlled variable)
and to answering

familiar questions about behavior, such as what
is effect of divorce

on children or how can I reduce
level of stress I feel.

You can test what people control
better than me and I am sure you will present a nice story. Which story are you
going to present?

When you answer familiar questions
about behavior you have your chance to tell them that people do not control
their behavior. You get a new chance to tell the Freshmen that we are able to
test what perceptions people control when they behave.

Why not enter into an agreement with
a Freshman to leave the theatre for five minutes at a certain moment of time
and return after five minutes. When she is out you can ask the students why she
left. And you will get a lot of proposals to references ( r).

I think you should spend a whole
hour on emotions and weight that people are stressed because of three things. They
have a goal. They have an inner state that they can feel. And they are blocked
in executing their goal. I would also ask the Freshmen which three tings happen
when we fall in love. I would have spent many minutes explaining why people
behave so different, funny and unexpected the first hours (days) they fall in
love. It is a nice example to end your lecture with r, d, actions, feedback,
conflicts and emotions.

I think you can do it better and I
wish you Luck.

bjorn

···

Tracy_Harms1 · October 23, 2006, 6:58pm

[from Tracy Harms (2006.10.23,12:00)]

Bjorn Simonsen (2006.10.22,12:10) wrote:

...
Why not start the first hour with Beethoven's 9th
(10 ï¿½ 15 seconds) and ask them what music is. Show
them the notes on a paper and ask them if that
is music. Ask them if the paper on which Beethoven
wrote his 9th symphony is music. Show them the
Beethoven's 9th CD and ask if that is the music.
Play Beethoven's 9th (10 ï¿½ 15 seconds) again and
ask if the vibration in the air that reach the
students ears is music (d).

Tell the students that the paper with notes on,
the CD and the vibrations were Disturbances
perceived through eyes and ears. They represented
physical objects.

It does not seem right to call these disturbances.
Even if we only see a piece of paper (for example) by
way of disturbances the paper itself is not a set of
disturbances; it's paper. (Moreover, PCT does not
imply that all perception occurs by way of
disturbances, though it does imply that disturbances
are of special importance.)

Music is not a physical product. Music is a product
of human mind. Music is a Brain state. Music is a
state inside a part of us ( r). If we will express
Beethoven's 9th we play it or we sing it. When we
play it or sing it we exercise actions. The actions
are product of our mind. The actions and the
consequences of our actions can be perceived.

...

You are in this way visiting Carl Popperï¿½s

definition

of Reality. The student learn that there is a World

1

(out there), they know that objects, substances and
fields in World 1 can affect the behavior of other
objects out there. They also know that the human

Brain

may remember a story or a theory. This is the World

2.

The World 2 is states of the human brain. When we
express something in World 2 for ourselves, we

remember

our Experiences. We are able to develop our World 2
when we imagine something. And the students learn

that

the World 3 is products of the human mind, products

of

World 2.

This schema should not be called a definition. Also,
World 2 is not quite states of brains, human or
otherwise. It is, instead, the world of subjective
experience. While we are in agreement that subjective
experience depends upon living brains and the states
that occur therein, it would not be accurate to
conflate brain states with what Popper called world
two. Bill Powers is quite inclined to assert an
equivalence between subjective experience and brain
state, but he seems well aware that PCT does not
contain such a theory within it. For an examination
of the differences between these two things, I highly
recommend _Critique of Impure Reason: An Essay on
Neurons, Somatic Markers, and Consciousness_ by Peter
Munz (1999, ISBN:0275963845)

As for whether music should be considered one thing or
another, my guess is that it is best to use the word
ambivilously. As a world three object, a symphony is
not the paper it is written on, nor the vibrations
that occur in its performance, nor the listening
experience. Should we include this philosophical
distinction in a freshman-level course on perception?
Perhaps not. I don't see it as crucial to the
problems at hand.

Tracy Harms

···

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Richard_Marken2 · October 23, 2006, 11:10pm

[From Rick Marken (2006.10.23.1610)]

Thanks for the suggestions, Bjorn.

Best

Rick

[From Bjorn Simonsen (2006.10.22,12:10)]

from Rick Marken (2006.10.21.1015)

Rick, you may read this through or skip it. I think it is wonderful to know that in January 2007 twenty Freshmen come back week after week to hear you explaining why people behave as they do. You are seeding a mustard seed, Rick.

I see you will refer to MSOB and that is understandable. I appreciate Bills definitions and stories there.

Particular when I read the book I mark that there is a World out there, a world that can affect the behavior of people (d). And I mark that people are able to tell stories, theories and more because they have experiences ( r ). In this World out there people behave because they now and then are conscious upon and wish to relive their experiences (actions and feedback).

This is all what there is. There is nothing more. These concepts describe our lives and happiness.

I think the Freshmen should be explained that you are going to describe what people need to know to live and to experience happiness the way William T Powers explains why people behave as they do in the reality that Karl R. Popper describes in The Self and its Brain. And you should tell the Freshmen to be silent in one minute and appreciate that they are the only 20 people in California who experience this happening in January 2007.

I'd appreciate suggestions on how to do this class: topics to cover, .

The following is a the description that got the course accepted and
will appear in the course catalog.

I see that you know what to do to Fiat Lux. I know I am too frank, but if I put myself in your place I would have thought in this way;

Psych 19: The Psychology of Personal Control

Our human propensity to control world around us has produced our

greatest human achievements (such as Beethoven's 9th) and our worst
human failures (such as oppression and war).

Why not start the first hour with Beethoven's 9th (10 15 seconds) and ask them what music is. Show them the notes on a paper and ask them if that is music. Ask them if the paper on which Beethoven wrote his 9th symphony is music. Show them the Beethoven's 9th CD and ask if that is the music. Play Beethoven's 9th (10 15 seconds) again and ask if the vibration in the air that reach the students ears is music (d).

Tell the students that the paper with notes on, the CD and the vibrations were Disturbances perceived through eyes and ears. They represented physical objects.

Music is not a physical product.

Music is a product of human mind. Music is a Brain state. Music is a state inside a part of us ( r). If we will express Beethoven's 9th we play it or we sing it. When we play it or sing it we exercise actions. The actions are product of our mind. The actions and the consequences of our actions can be perceived.

Tell the Freshmen that all of them sitting there remember stories, myths, pieces of music, mathematical theorems, scientific theories. If anybody wishes to express some of these products of his mind, other people may perceive their actions.

Some people perceived the detonation of a nuclear bomb developed and constructed according to a scientific theory.

You are in this way visiting Carl Poppers definition of Reality.

The student learn that there is a World 1 (out there), they know that objects, substances and fields in World 1 can affect the behavior of other objects out there. They also know that the human Brain may remember a story or a theory. This is the World 2. The World 2 is states of the human brain. When we express something in World 2 for ourselves, we remember our Experiences. We are able to develop our World 2 when we imagine something.

And the students learn that the World 3 is products of the human mind, products of World 2.

Examination of human

controlling from point of view of theory of human behavior called

control theory. Why personal control is essential for our

psychological well-being and why it can also create problems that can

actually lead to loss of control.

Ask the Freshmen why they sit there and listen to your lecture. Ask them why they chose this certain lecture. Ask them why one of them behaved different from another sitting there. Explain that there are many different references among the Freshmen. Explain that there has been many different disturbances influencing the different Freshmen and that the Freshmen have acted in different ways before they sit there in front of you.

Tell them that you are going to tell hem a story that may change some of them. It depends what references they have at the top levels if they will implement your story in daily life.

Of course the implementation of your story will create problems that can lead to loss of control. Ask them how.

I think Tim Carey presents an exemplary problem (conflict) in his The Methods of Levels chapter one. He has also a DVD expressing a conflict, but the DVD doesnt function very well on my PC. I think the story in chapter one may be retold. It is a simple conflict and we can imagine the effect of conflicts.

Presentation of new approach to

studying behavior (test for controlled variable) and to answering

familiar questions about behavior, such as what is effect of divorce

on children or how can I reduce level of stress I feel.

You can test what people control better than me and I am sure you will present a nice story. Which story are you going to present?

When you answer familiar questions about behavior you have your chance to tell them that people do not control their behavior. You get a new chance to tell the Freshmen that we are able to test what perceptions people control when they behave.

Why not enter into an agreement with a Freshman to leave the theatre for five minutes at a certain moment of time and return after five minutes. When she is out you can ask the students why she left. And you will get a lot of proposals to references ( r).

I think you should spend a whole hour on emotions and weight that people are stressed because of three things. They have a goal. They have an inner state that they can feel. And they are blocked in executing their goal. I would also ask the Freshmen which three tings happen when we fall in love. I would have spent many minutes explaining why people behave so different, funny and unexpected the first hours (days) they fall in love. It is a nice example to end your lecture with r, d, actions, feedback, conflicts and emotions.

I think you can do it better and I wish you Luck.

bjorn

Richard S. Marken Consulting
marken@mindreadings.com
Home 310 474-0313
Cell 310 729-1400

Bill_Powers1 · October 24, 2006, 2:08pm

[From Bill Powers (2006.10.24.0735 MDT)]

Tracy Harms (2006.10.23,12:00) --

It does not seem right to call these disturbances.
Even if we only see a piece of paper (for example) by
way of disturbances the paper itself is not a set of
disturbances; it's paper.

Saying it "does not seem right" is not much of an explanation. Rather than just taking a position and defending it, I suggest that you now think up 5 examples in which a piece of paper disturbs a controlled perception. I'll give you a start: you are looking for your glasses, but someone put the newspaper down on top of them. That leaves four more -- please include at least one in which the fact that what you're seeing is a piece of paper disturbs a variable you're controlling for.

I remind you that in PCT a disturbance is simply one or more variables outside the feedback loop of a control system that can alter the state of a controlled perception independently of the action of the control system. Nothing is implied about the direction or size of the effect of the disturbing variable (other than that the effect be detectable by the controller).

For example, if you're trying to push your stalled car out of the traffic, and I come along and, without being asked, help you push, my pushing force is disturbing at least one of your controlled variables.

While we are in agreement that subjective
experience depends upon living brains and the states
that occur therein, it would not be accurate to
conflate brain states with what Popper called world
two. Bill Powers is quite inclined to assert an
equivalence between subjective experience and brain
state, but he seems well aware that PCT does not
contain such a theory within it.

In PCT as I have proposed it, the theory is that the world of subjective experience consists of the set of all neural signals that are in awareness at the moment (see Glossary in B:CP). Awareness is what is not part of PCT, since I have proposed nothing about its nature. Perception, however, defined as the presence of one or more signals in afferent neural pathways, is definitely part of the theory. And the idea that perception occurs in the brain and is qualitatively different from its assumed referents is an essential part of PCT. Just look at the basic block diagram (which of course is another perception and therefore part of Popper's World 2.).

Also, if you look at that diagram, you will see that part of it (the feedback function, input quantity, and disturbance) are shown as being outside the control system and thus outside the nervous system. They therefore represent Popper's World 1. This shows us that Popper's World 1 is simply a subset of World 2, and exists only as imagined perceptions inside the brain.

...according to PCT, that is, which is a theory existing in World 2. So far, PCT seems to be in accord with both data and informal experience, which is to say that nothing we know formally or informally contradicts this picture. At least, nothing that I know of. If you know of something that rules out this picture, this would be a good time to mention it.

Best,

Bill P.

Bj_rn_Simonsen · October 24, 2006, 6:19pm

[From Bjorn Simonsen
(2006,10.24,20:30 EUST)]

from Tracy Harms (2006.10.23,12:00)

Nice to see you on net.

It does not seem right to call these disturbances.

Even if we only see a piece of paper (for example)
by

way of disturbances the paper itself is not a set
of

disturbances; it’s paper. (Moreover, PCT does not

imply that all perception occurs by way of

disturbances, though it does imply that
disturbances

are of special importance.)

I am not sure if I understand why you write what you
do above. I agree that PCT does not imply that all perceptions occur by way of
disturbances. PCT is a control theory and when we perceive without controlling,
I don’t think we shall use concepts from PCT.

One definition for control is “producing repeatable
consequences by variable actions” and very often we perceive variables from the
extern world, doing nothing.

When we perceive without controlling, neither I think
it is correct to call perceptions from the notes of Beethoven’s 9^th
Symphony printed on a paper for a disturbance (etc.)

But if we control for something I think everything
affecting our sensing cells are disturbance in PCT nomenclature. Maybe I am
wrong and you will correct me.

I tried to justice Karl Popper’s World 1, 2
and 3.

This schema should not be called a
definition. Also,

World 2 is not quite states of brains, human or

otherwise.
It is, instead, the world of subjective

experience.
While we are in agreement that subjective

experience depends upon living brains and the
states

that occur therein, it would not be accurate to

conflate brain states with what Popper called
world

two.

I really meant that different states
of human brains is the same as different subjective experiences. Maybe I am too
inexact.

Bill Powers is quite inclined to assert an

equivalence between subjective experience and
brain

state, but he seems well aware that PCT does not

contain such a theory within it.

OK, but isn’t it obvious reasons for
saying that the parts of the brain are in a certain state when a person wishes
to relieve an experience?

For an examination

of the differences between these two things, I
highly

recommend _Critique of Impure Reason: An Essay on

Neurons, Somatic Markers, and Consciousness_ by
Peter

Munz (1999, ISBN:0275963845).

Thank you. I have already reserved the book.

As for whether music should be considered one
thing or

another, my guess is that it is best to use the
word

ambivilously

I agree, also I wish to use words
ambitiously. I think I could be better.

“And the students learn that the World 3 is products of
the human mind, products of World 2.”

As a world three object, a symphony is

not the paper it is written on, nor the vibrations

that occur in its performance, nor the listening

experience.

Didn’t I say the same some inexact?

bjorn