Self-awareness and human agency provide the basis for personal responsibility. One of the first areas in which children are held accountable for their conduct is potty training. Although most present day psychologists do not find the topic as sexy as Freud did, most would agree that this is a notable responsibility we place on children. There is every reason to believe that this significant initiation into human society should be lovingly handled.

When children reach the play years, also called the preschool years, more is expected of them personally and socially. Although their play is indeed their work (as Piaget said, it promotes development in all areas), parents do begin to encourage such responsibilities as picking up one’s toys, playing fair and cooperatively, and feeding oneself.  Although children generally need encouragement in these areas, by now potty training is usually completed, and most parents expect their year two and three-year old children to be responsible for themselves. In this and other areas we begin to hear preschoolers proclaim, “I did it,” or in completing tasks that warrant special pride, “I did it all by myself!”

During the play years children in North America and elsewhere are also encouraged in areas of learning that will prepare them for school. Once they begin the school years, children are confronted with increasingly higher levels of academic and social responsibility. At home chores and other responsibilities increase as well, although parents vary enormously in just how much responsibility they require of their children.

By adolescence, that peculiar period of transition between childhood and adulthood, the issue of responsibility takes on special significance. The responsibilities that go along with sexual maturity are well known. Handing responsibility over to teens regarding the range of high risk behaviors that can tempt them is scary for parents. Teens are often baffled by hearing, on the one hand, that it is time for them to be more responsible and mature, yet, on the other hand, being told what they can and cannot do. Parents, in turn, are often frustrated by teenagers’ desire “to have their cake and eat it too.” That is, they want to be independent but they also want parental support, financial and otherwise, for pursuing that independence.

It is in early adulthood (ages 20-40), however, that people are faced with the task of true independence and the attendant responsibilities. Often the taste of independence becomes less appealing as young people begin to take on the responsibilities of preparing themselves for a career and the possibility of marriage and familyhood. By middle adulthood (ages 40-65) the expectation is that people will have reached a plateau in their careers and stability in their family lives. Because this is the stable generation we are struck by mid-life crises (which have much to do with responsibility for self and others). Mid life is also called the “sandwich generation” because mid lifers are often pressed between the needs of young adult children and aging parents. Responsibility demands are at their highest. For better or for worse, most of the people that hold leadership positions in the larger society are within this age group.

Late adulthood (age 65 on) brings its own set of responsibilities, even as career and other such responsibilities decrease with retirement. With grandchildren, child rearing becomes decidedly less of a responsibility, and sometimes less responsible, as grandparents spoil their grandchildren and then send them home. On the other hand, there is the responsibility for aging gracefully—perhaps even sage-ing, as some have termed it. Finding integrity, or wholeness, as Erik Erikson put it, becomes the primary challenge of the last season in the life cycle.

Human development, and shifts in responsibility, continues until the very end of life. Numerous issues of family responsibility arise as other family members age to the point of frailty. Who is to take responsibility for caring for the frail elderly? How is one to balance elder care with competing responsibilities? What is the responsibility of the larger society and specific institutions? How might personal and institutional responsibilities conflict in the area of elder care, and elsewhere? Who will make end of life decisions? Living wills, durable power of attorney, euthanasia, and assisted suicide are all matters in which responsibility is a central issue.

As for the General Psychology course, which includes a section on Human Development, there is also no shortage of opportunities to discuss responsibility. Consider, for example, the area of psychology called Health Psychology, which is focused on the relationship between behavior and health. Here students learn about the extent to which today’s fatal diseases, including heart disease, AIDS, and cancer are related to lifestyle. To live a healthy lifestyle is all but synonymous with living a responsible lifestyle.

Another topic in General Psychology in which the issue of responsibility is prominent is Abnormal Psychology. One way of characterizing mental disorders is that they deprive people of personal agency, making the responsibility of caring for the severely disturbed a major cause for concern. The distinction between mental disorder and insanity is also of special interest. Insanity is a legal term that is to be applied when a person is judged (in a court of law) not to be responsible for a violation of the law. Thus, a person can be judged to be legally sane, and held accountable for harming another person, even when the perpetrator has been diagnosed as having a mental disorder. Such is commonly the case with antisocial personalities, like Ted Bundy and Kenneth Bianchi. On the other hand, a person with no history of mental disorder may be judged to be legally insane if some event (e.g., an accidentally ingested substance) renders the person incapable of self-control and responsible decision making.

A final area of general psychology in which the issues of agency and personal responsibility are especially noteworthy is Social Psychology. Research in this field is known for uncovering the power of social influence and revealing that human behavior is often not as self-directed as many like to believe. The famous Milgram experiments on obedience, studies of conformity, and the Zimbardo prison experiment all challenge the cherished Western belief in individuality and self-direction. In Zimbardo’s prison experiment, thirty years ago, psychologically healthy Stanford students were transformed into brutal, sadistic guards and dejected, defeated prisoners after but a few days of playing these roles. The parallels between this experiment and what took place recently in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq did not go unnoticed by careful observers.

According to social psychologists, we all make what is called “the fundamental attribution error.” We tend to overestimate the importance of personal factors in judging how people will behave and underestimate the power of situational influences. Even psychiatrists who were asked before the Milgram study was conducted to estimate what percentage of people will deliver the maximum amount of electrical shock said that less than 1% would—only the sadists. Milgram found, to the surprise of many, that 66% of normal everyday people went all the way in delivering the maximum amount of electrical shock (while in the underappreciated role of teachers trying to facilitate another subject’s learning—another subject who was not truly being shocked).

Other studies have looked at diffusion of responsibility, including how people are not as likely to help others who are in need when there is a large group of other people present. Also anonymity—subjects in a Milgram type experiment, who were allowed to wear hoods, were much more willing to harm others than those whose identity was known. It should be mentioned, however, that even small changes in situations can result in dramatic shifts toward people taking impressive levels of responsibility for helping others. As long as people have the capacity for agency and personal responsibility we can hope for and even promote circumstances that bring out their best. Research shows that when people are asked in advance to keep an eye on someone else’s belongings, for example, they will consistently challenge another person’s attempt to steal the watched over items. These findings contrast sharply with the level of apathy people exhibit towards the same attempted theft if not asked to help out. The point is simply that we cannot appeal to or depend on personal factors alone (i.e., virtue) in encouraging the best in others, or in ourselves.

I usually ask my students to reflect upon what these studies in social psychology suggest about the general theories they have studied in the course: Freud’s view that human beings are ruled by aggressive and sexual impulses from the unconscious; the behaviorist view that behavior is shaped entirely by people’s environments; the humanistic view that people are basically good and have free will and choice; the cognitive view that we are best understood in terms of how we think and process information; the biological view that human behavior is rooted in neurological and other biological processes; and the sociocultural view that behavior must be understood in its cultural context. Students generally see the relevance and necessity of each of these approaches in capturing the complexity of human behavior. With a bit of assistance they also appreciate that the different perspectives have much to do with different takes on who or what is responsible for our behavior.

I now turn to my Special Topics courses, in which the issue of responsibility is especially intriguing, at least from the teacher’s perspective. The first course is Introduction to Marriage and Family therapy. The field of family therapy emerged in the 1950s as a reaction against the idea of individual pathology. Innovative and free thinking representatives from the fields of psychiatry, social work, psychology, anthropology and communications came together around the idea that problems in relationships are at the heart of human dysfunction and pathology, rather than intra-psychic events or other personal factors. When the founders of family therapy began seeing mentally disturbed patients with their families, an interesting relationship between family communication problems and patient symptoms was revealed. This discovery resulted in a shift to systems thinking. Drawing upon the recent work on both cybernetic and natural systems models the pioneers of family therapy began to conceptualize and treat patients’ symptoms as resulting from patterns of interaction in the family system. In the classical case of a child who misbehaves at school, family therapists are less inclined to look into the child’s psyche, than into family relationships. Interesting things sometimes emerge, like parents who only agree with each other, and work together, when their child’s obstreperous conduct gets him into trouble.

Family therapists became especially enamored by the idea of circular causality as an alternative explanation to linear, or simple cause-effect, explanations. In the classic example of linear causality, a wife complains about her husband’s drinking, and insists that this is the reason she nags him. He, on the other hand, claims that he drinks because of her nagging. From the perspective of circular causality, the couple’s behavior is likely to be reciprocally related, with his drinking influencing her to nag and her nagging influencing him to drink. The implications for personal responsibility are rather obvious. Each would be encouraged to go beyond blaming the other, in order to appreciate the role of his or her own behavior in their troubled relationship.

The issue of personal responsibility took center stage about fifteen years into family therapy’s history, with the emergence of the feminist critique. Systems theory and the concept of circular causality came under attack by Rachel Hare-Mustin, and others, for overlooking the imbalance of power often found in relationships. A power imbalance (physical, financial, etc.) frequently haracterizes male-female relationships in families, as well as parent-child relationships. When people do not have equal power there is not the type of reciprocity described by circular causality and systems theory. This observation becomes especially relevant to understanding domestic violence, in the form of wife battering and child abuse. Feminist informed family therapists insist that there is no reciprocity, nor equal responsibility, in such relationships. One’s degree of responsibility is to be reckoned according to one’s response-ability, or ability to respond.

The feminist critique not only brought more awareness of the role of power in family dynamics, it also encouraged more awareness of the broader social context in both family relations and individual functioning. As one author put it, wife battering and other forms of male abuse against women can only thrive in a society that endorses male dominance and patriarchy. Intervention at the family systems level was no longer seen as sufficient for solving problems that have larger societal origins. Change is also needed in the range of social institutions, including the various media, which promote the “toxic cultural narratives” of male superiority and the objectification of women’s bodies.

Finally, I make passing mention of my Psychology of Religion class, where issues of responsibility abound. It is a class that focuses on the human side of the God-person equation. How people relate to and are affected by religion is of more concern than systematic study of the content of religious teachings (Drs. Olsen, Cooper and others take care of that). Students discover in this class that everything they have learned about human psychology is relevant to understanding the religious pursuit, including personal responsibility. One might ask, first of all, how is personal responsibility, as a concept and as an everyday practical demand, affected by belief in a higher form of agency? I have often said that I know of no religion in which God does all the work, or in which the devil can be blamed for all of our blunders. Yet our history of hiding behind religion to promote our virtuousness, and blaming religion, to detract from our collective vices, is legendary, if not notorious. There is no escape, however much grace and genuine inspiration is ours to celebrate, from taking responsibility for understanding ourselves and managing our lives. The value of studying psychology derives from the fact that we can only know what lies beyond ourselves through ourselves as the medium for knowing. Everything, from our common sensory systems and perceptual mechanisms to our unique personalities, provide both barriers and conduits to what lies beyond us.

Let me end, however, not on a soap box, but back at the podium. What, we should ask, does the research in this field show about the relationship between religiosity and personal or social responsibility? The benefits of religious belief and practice have been fairly well documented in the area of personal health (a recent issue of The American Psychologist was devoted to the topic). Researchers are now concerned about identifying exactly what aspects of belief and practice account for lower rates of heart disease and the like. It is also well known that people who practice their religious faith are less likely to use illicit drugs or to engage in sexually promiscuous behavior (though some of my students wisely question these self-report studies).

In the case of prosocial behavior the jury is still out. None of the studies to date show religious persons to be any more likely to play the Good Samaritan than non religious persons (which does not contradict the Biblical account). Generally speaking, the extant research supports the idea that being religious is less important in promotingprosocial behavior than the manner inwhich people are religious. People who are intrinsically (internally) motivated, for example, in their religious pursuits show less racial prejudice than those who are extrinsically (externally) motivated. On some measures of prosocial behavior, hit and miss church goers fare less well than either faithful attendees or non-believers. Some patterns appear to emerge. Nonetheless, there is much research yet to be done in this re-emerging subfield of psychology, including a pressing need to go beyond the Judeo-Christian context. I share these observations to facilitate thought and discussion, not to—heaven forbid—draw final conclusions.

Hidden Stories of Panama

by Judy Haisten, Communications

Mention the name Panama to most world traveler’s and the Panama Canal is what usually comes to mind. Why not? Built in the days of Teddy Roosevelt, the Panama Canal still holds the record as one of the prevailing engineering feats of all time. The engineering technology developed and tested in building this modern day wonder of the world still impacts us today. For instance, the exact ratio for making cement was defined by those building the locks. Before this time, cement making was a relatively new and unstudied area of construction. The locks are over a thousand feet long and were constructed in the United States before they were transported in sections to the tropical worksite where they were pieced together. Much of the construction and engineering technology taken for granted today was discovered and refined with the building of the Panama Canal.

But the country of Panama is much more than the host of the Canal connecting two great oceans; it is a country rich in history, culture, and natural beauty. Some of the world’s greatest dramas that were played out in the jungles and beaches of this tropical paradise rival any other event recorded in history. Yet, like the thick jungle brush that covers most of Panama, many of the stories are hidden …

Pirates! Images of glittering gold, splattering rum, and swashbuckling Johnny Depp come to mind (at least in this author’s mind). Sir Francis Drake and Sir Henry Morgan were only two of the notorious pirates that pillaged the Spaniards and the people of Panama. In 1699 Lionel Wafer, an English surgeon turned pirate, published an account of his experiences in the book New Voyages and Description of the Isthmus of Panama. This important reference provides detailed descriptions of the natural history and people of these times.

The pirates’ interest in this territory is understandable. After the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire, vast quantities of gold were transported to Spain passing through Panama. The Spaniards would unload the ships from South America in Old Panama (the Spanish city founded in 1519), pack the gold and silver on mules for the overland trail across the Isthmus and reload ships on the Atlantic side to continue on to Spain. More gold passed through this country than in anywhere else in the world. For some 200 years Panama was the most important trading center for Spain as well as other countries. Two forts were built on the Atlantic side to protect trade from the constant threat of pirates. The ruins of Ft. San Lorenzo and Portobelo are reminders of the magnificent military architecture of the 17 th and 18 th century. To this day, gold seekers still comb the old overland trail (Camino de Las Cruces) looking for hidden gold.

The history of Panama does not really begin with Christopher Columbus who discovered the isthmus on his fourth trip to the Americas any more than the history of New England begins with the Mayflower and Plymouth Rock. Archeologists have uncovered a civilization in Panama dating back 11,000 years. These scientists have learned a lot about the various native tribes of the prehistoric societies. Some of these Indian groups were fishermen, some farmers, some nomads. Some were even headhunters! Research has shown that large hierarchical social systems were formed that had sophisticated economic networks. Descendent families of these tribes still live in the jungles today, and my tour guide/driver/father was able to procure a canoe and crew to take us upriver for a little National Geographic experience.

The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute is the largest research facility in Panama. Scientists from all over the world participate in the various programs, fellowships, activities provided there. The Institute is well developed and has labs in many parts of the country. Besides archaeology, scientist are studying topics like environmental issues, forest ecology, biodiversity, tropical rain forest, molecular evolution, paleoecology, plant physiology, tropical marine ecology, and tropical diseases. The vast research carried on there is not to be undermined. I interviewed two scientists; one (from Canada) who was studying the Harpy Eagle, and the other, (from Germany) who was studying the Cutter Ant. Both of these scientists talked about the remarkable sense of camaraderie and collaboration they found in fellow researchers from all over the world housed at the Institute. To learn more about the work, click on to www.stri.org , where various programs are explained.

Florida State also has a branch campus in Balboa, Panama. These classes are taught in English, and students live very close to the campus. American students can study a variety of majors in an international setting. While FSU has been there a long time, other American universities are setting up branch campuses there as well.

My co-travelers and I explored all parts of Panama, and I learned so much of what this paradise has to offer. Visitors can experience Panama City, a cosmopolitan city offering all the comforts and luxuries found in other modern cities (unfortunately, this budget did not afford that kind of trip), or visitors may choose to experience the extreme and stay in a Bohio type hotel complete with bare floors, grass roofs, and Geckos (ours happened to be accessible by boat only).

Except for the one night that we stayed on this tiny island occupied by the Cuna Indians, for the most part we were quite comfortable at the modern Comfort Inn situated on the banks of Panama Canal and on the former US military base of Amador.

While there, we were also able to learn about how the country was faring since the American Canal Zone and all military bases have left. In some ways, Panama is doing quite well, and in others, the American presence is acutely missed. One of the unexpected consequences is the increased drug traffic from South America to the United States. When the American military was a viable force there, the DEA curtailed much of the drug trade. Without that principal stopping point, drug cartels are able to move much more illegal substances in our country. Another weakness is the caring for the Tropical Rain Forest that the United States had vigilantly maintained. Yet Panama is running the canal with great efficiency and has even won several maritime awards. This country is working on the other concerns. Panama, both the country and the people, welcome American citizens both as tourists and residents, and we were treated with much respect and courtesy.

I am truly grateful to the Communications Division for their support with funding from the CFCC Foundation Attie Brannon Endowed Chair in Communications and the Teaching/Learning Institute for professional development funds allowing me to research this country from which I plan to develop several power point presentations thus enlivening my Spanish classes.

In February, I will be presenting one of the slide presentations on Panama and answer such burning questions of why I was bartending in a Panamanian Dive, and what I was really thinking that night I stayed on that tiny island.

 

( The following is an “inside” view of Judy’s trip, taken from an e-mail message sent from Panama to Diann Stowers and Sandy Pell )

 

Attie G. Branan Award

Trip to Panama City

 

Hi Sandy and Diann:

I did not plan very well. I decided to cut costs. I changed hotels

Bathroom to new hotel

Took a part time job

Just kidding. Actually, I am working very hard.

Luego,

Judy

 

Kaipoe Summer Retreat by Scott Olsen, Humanities Held September 7-13 in Little Elephant and Devon, UK, this extremely intense short-course in hands-on compass & straightedge drawings (of root 2, root 3, and golden mean rhombs), 3-dimensional (stick & glue) polyhedron constructions, and a large-scale (10 feet in diameter) group-project construction of a Rhombic Dodecahedron out of bamboo poles, was carefully related to an understanding of Plato’s cosmological writings and recognition of the role of aesthetics in nature, science and the arts. Dr. Keith Critchlow, professor emeritus of the Prince of Wales Institute (and leading student and protégé of the brilliant polymath and renaissance man, Buckminster Fuller), beautifully connected the mathematical constructions and Platonic teachings with the art, architecture and music of the Florentine renaissance, as well as nature’s plant phyllotaxis (i.e., leaf arrangement), and the symphonic and harmonious arrangements of the sizes and orbits of the planets of our solar system. I had hoped for a more exhaustive attempt to relate these principles to the nature and construction of the stone circles of Stonehenge and Averbury, and archaeoastronomical centers like Machu Picchu. But unfortunately, the limited length of the conference only allowed for an overview of the latter. Nevertheless, there were two quite unexpected benefits from this year’s course: Brian Goodwin, one of the world’s leading structural evolutionary theorists and author of How the Leopard Changed Its Spots (as well as Director of Graduate Studies at Schumacher College) was present during the Conference. It allowed me to enter into a significant dialogue with him (that shall continue in the future years) over the application of the principles studied during the retreat to the structure of the animal, plant and mineral worlds. I was able to arrange for the construction of a polychord for the demonstration of the harmonies of the mathematical musical intervals. When completed, this should assist me greatly by providing the means to give in-class demonstrations of Pythagorean and Platonic harmonic principles. All in all, I was absolutely stunned by the wealth of practical information I received and will be able to share with my students. Also, I returned with a numbered and signed copy (only 50 were published) of Dr. Keith Critchlow’s portfolio of research material for this Kairos Summer Retreat, titled Three ‘Sacred’ Rhombs, which will be placed in the Scott Brown Wisdom Traditions Collection in our CFCC Learning Resources Center. A sincere thank you to those of you at CFCC who have seen fit to support me in this and other wisdom tradition information gathering endeavors. I cannot tell you how much benefit it brings to our students and college community. Annual Convention of The Association of Black Psychologists by Irvin Brown, Humanities On August 11-15, I attended the 36th annual convention of the Association of Black Psychologists (ABPsi). The theme of this year’s convention, held in Washington DC, was “Meeting The Challenge of Today and Tomorrow” (with a focus on tapping human, educational, and political resources). In his presidential address, Dr. Willie Williams outlined the ways in which the organization has grown stronger in recent years, and called for promoting the visibility of ABPsi accomplishments. These accomplishments include ABPsi’s role in the increase of African-American PhD’s in psychology from 80 to 3,000 since the organization’s inception. ABPsi’s work on AIDS awareness was also highlighted. The workshops and lectures that I attended were excellent. They included a session on the Human Genome project at Howard University; a very lively workshop on sexual abuse; and a workshop on trauma in general. The knowledge I gained is directly relevant to all of my psychology courses. I was also impressed by the student presence. The only disappointment, if I can call it that, was that the conference was so engaging that I had little time to enjoy the city as much as I would liked to have done.