Download or read book Belief in Psychology written by Jay L. Garfield and published by MIT Press (MA). This book was released on 1988 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Belief in Psychology tackles the knotty problem of how to treat the propositional attitudes states such as beliefs, desires, hopes and fears within cognitive science. Jay Garfield asserts that the propositional attitudes can and must play useful theoretical roles in the science of the mind and stresses the importance of their social context in this sophisticated and original argument. Garfield proposes his own alternative to the apparent dilemma of either scrapping the propositional attitudes or of making room for them within a dimly foreseen, futuristic cognitive science. He provides a characterization of the nature of propositional attitudes conceived as psychological states, and of their role in cognitive science. They must, he argues, be understood as relations between their bearers and their environments, including, in the case of persons, their social and linguistic environments. Understanding them in this way is consonant with current practice in empirical cognitive science and provides a philosophically useful analysis of mental representation. Along the way, Garfield discusses the relationship between the enterprise of science and our commonsense conception of ourselves and the world, and the ways in which this relation constrains our understanding of the propositional attitudes, and illuminates a realistic interpretation of a psychology of representational states and processes. Belief in Psychology is the only book that adopts such a view, and it is unique in providing a sustained critique of eliminativism, instrumentalism, and computational individualism - the main competing proposals within philosophy of cognitive science for eliminating or reconciling propositional attitudes. Jay Garfield is Associate Professor of Philosophy in the School of Communications and Cognitive Science at Hampshire College and a co-director of the University of Massachusetts Cognitive Science Institute. He is a co-author of Cognitive Science: An Introductionand editor of Modularity in Knowledge Representation and Natural Language Understanding, both Bradford books. A Bradford Book.
Download or read book Belief written by James E. Alcock and published by Prometheus Books. This book was released on 2018 with total page 640 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An expert on the psychology of belief examines how our thoughts and feelings, actions and reactions, respond not to the world as it actually is but to the world as we believeit to be. This book explores the psychology of belief - how beliefs are formed, how they are influenced both by internal factors, such as perception, memory, reason, emotion, and prior beliefs, as well as external factors, such as experience, identification with a group, social pressure, and manipulation. It also reveals how vulnerable beliefs are to error, and how they can be held with great confidence even when factually false. The author, a social psychologist who specializes in the psychology of belief, elucidates how the brain and nervous system function to create the perceptions, memories, and emotions that shape belief. He explains how and why distorted perceptions, false memories, and inappropriate emotional reactions that sometimes lead us to embrace false beliefs are natural products of mental functioning. He also shows why it is so difficult to change our beliefs when they collide with contradictions. Covering a wide range -- from self-perception and the perceived validity of everyday experience to paranormal, religious, and even fatal beliefs--the book demonstrates how crucial beliefs are to molding our experience and why they have such a powerful hold on our behavior.
Download or read book The Psychology of Belief written by Nancy S. Kim and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022-11-17 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why do we believe in the views of a political party or leader? How can we better understand vaccine hesitancy or denial of climate change science? What drives extremist or conspiracist beliefs? This vital and timely new text provides a compelling survey of the science behind how people form beliefs and evaluate those of others, and why it is that beliefs are often so resistant to change in the face of conflicting evidence. Bringing together theories and empirical evidence from cognitive, developmental, and social psychology, Nancy S. Kim presents an engaging overview of the field and its implications for a wide range of beliefs – from moral, political, religious, and superstitious beliefs to beliefs about ourselves and our own potential. The intriguing studies discussed demonstrate how many psychological factors contribute to belief, including memory, reasoning, judgment, emotion, personality, social cognition, and cognitive development. With thoughtful questions and a range of cross-cultural case studies, this is an ideal overview for students of psychology and all readers interested in the psychology of belief.
Download or read book The Psychology of Religious Behaviour Belief and Experience written by Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-03-18 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Because society is increasingly secular, it may seem irrelevant to consider the psychology of religion. But the diversity of our multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society in fact makes religion more important to the social sciences than it has ever been before. What are the social consequences of religion? Every day the news is full of events that can be blamed on religion perpetrated by a range of groups from whole societies to individuals. Beit-Hallami and Argyle are renowned for their clear, analytical approach to topics and this new, state-of-the-art study of psychology and religion is no exception. It will be welcomed as an update to their previous work in the area by social psychologists, sociologists and theologians worldwide.
Download or read book Finding Purpose in a Godless World written by Ralph Lewis, MD and published by Prometheus Books. This book was released on 2018-07-17 with total page 446 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A psychiatrist presents a compelling argument for how human purpose and caring emerged in a spontaneous and unguided universe. Can there be purpose without God? This book is about how human purpose and caring, like consciousness and absolutely everything else in existence, could plausibly have emerged and evolved unguided, bottom-up, in a spontaneous universe. A random world--which according to all the scientific evidence and despite our intuitions is the actual world we live in--is too often misconstrued as nihilistic, demotivating, or devoid of morality and meaning. Drawing on years of wide-ranging, intensive clinical experience as a psychiatrist, and his own family experience with cancer, Dr. Lewis helps readers understand how people cope with random adversity without relying on supernatural belief. In fact, as he explains, although coming to terms with randomness is often frightening, it can be liberating and empowering too. Written for those who desire a scientifically sound yet humanistic view of the world, Lewis's book examines science's inroads into the big questions that occupy religion and philosophy. He shows how our sense of purpose and meaning is entangled with mistaken intuitions that events in our lives happen for some intended cosmic reason and that the universe itself has inherent purpose. Dispelling this illusion, and integrating the findings of numerous scientific fields, he shows how not only the universe, life, and consciousness but also purpose, morality, and meaning could, in fact, have emerged and evolved spontaneously and unguided. There is persuasive evidence that these qualities evolved naturally and without mystery, biologically and culturally, in humans as conscious, goal-directed social animals. While acknowledging the social and psychological value of progressive forms of religion, the author respectfully critiques even the most sophisticated theistic arguments for a purposeful universe. Instead, he offers an evidence-based, realistic yet optimistic and empathetic perspective. This book will help people to see the scientific worldview of an unguided, spontaneous universe as awe-inspiring and foundational to building a more compassionate society.
Download or read book Inventing God written by Jon Mills and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-07-22 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this controversial book, philosopher and psychoanalyst Jon Mills argues that God does not exist; and more provocatively, that God cannot exist as anything but an idea. Put concisely, God is a psychological creation signifying ultimate ideality. Mills argues that the idea or conception of God is the manifestation of humanity’s denial and response to natural deprivation; a self-relation to an internalized idealized object, the idealization of imagined value. After demonstrating the lack of any empirical evidence and the logical impossibility of God, Mills explains the psychological motivations underlying humanity’s need to invent a supreme being. In a highly nuanced analysis of unconscious processes informing the psychology of belief and institutionalized social ideology, he concludes that belief in God is the failure to accept our impending death and mourn natural absence for the delusion of divine presence. As an alternative to theistic faith, he offers a secular spirituality that emphasizes the quality of lived experience, the primacy of feeling and value inquiry, ethical self-consciousness, aesthetic and ecological sensibility, and authentic relationality toward self, other, and world as the pursuit of a beautiful soul in search of the numinous. Inventing God will be of interest to academics, scholars, lay audiences and students of religious studies, the humanities, philosophy, and psychoanalysis, among other disciplines. It will also appeal to psychotherapists, psychoanalysts and mental health professionals focusing on the integration of humanities and psychoanalysis.
Download or read book The Psychology of Paranormal Belief written by Harvey J. Irwin and published by Univ of Hertfordshire Press. This book was released on 2009-09 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With a thorough and systematic review of investigations into the bases of belief in paranormal phenomena, this discussion explores the four main theoretical approaches relating to the nature of such beliefs. Objective and well-researched, this account addresses different points of view on the topic--while some commentators depict paranormal believers as foolish, others propose that paranormal beliefs must be understood as necessities that serve certain psychodynamic needs. The foundations and shortcomings of each approach are also documented, and a new comprehensive theory attempts to explain the development of scientifically unsubstantiated beliefs.
Download or read book Belief Systems and the Perception of Reality written by Bastiaan T. Rutjens and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book focuses on the social psychology of belief systems and how they influence perceptions of reality. The expert editors and contributors examine how beliefs lead to conflict and disagreements over values, and how those values are enacted.
Download or read book A Crisis of Beliefs written by Nicola Gennaioli and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-10 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "How investor expectations move markets and the economy. The collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 caught markets and regulators by surprise. Although the government rushed to rescue other financial institutions from a similar fate after Lehman, it could not prevent the deepest recession in postwar history. A Crisis of Beliefs makes us rethink the financial crisis and the nature of economic risk. In this authoritative and comprehensive book, two of today's most insightful economists reveal how our beliefs shape financial markets, lead to expansions of credit and leverage, and expose the economy to major risks. Nicola Gennaioli and Andrei Shleifer carefully walk readers through the unraveling of Lehman Brothers and the ensuing meltdown of the US financial system, and then present new evidence to illustrate the destabilizing role played by the beliefs of home buyers, investors, and regulators. Using the latest research in psychology and behavioral economics, they present a new theory of belief formation that explains why the financial crisis came as such a shock to so many people--and how financial and economic instability persist. A must-read for anyone seeking insights into financial markets, A Crisis of Beliefs shows how even the smartest market participants and regulators did not fully appreciate the extent of economic risk, and offers a new framework for understanding today's unpredictable financial waters."--
Download or read book Resistance to Belief Change written by Joseph R. Lao and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-09-30 with total page 467 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the human proclivity to resist changing our beliefs. Drawing on psychological, neurological, and philosophical research, and integrating topics as wide ranging as emotion, cognition, social (and physical) context, and learning theory, Lao and Young explore why this resistance to change impedes our learning and progression. They also suggest that failure to adapt our beliefs to available and informed evidence can incur costs that may be seen in personal growth, politics, science, law, medicine, education, and business. Resistance to Belief Change explores the various manifestations of resistance, including overt, discursive, and especially inertial forms of resistance. As well as the influential factors that can impact upon them, the book also examines how the self-directed learner, as well as teachers, may structure the learning experience to overcome resistance and facilitate progressive and adaptive learning. Lao and Young find that the impediments to learning and resistance to change are far more prevalent and costly than previously suggested in research, and so this book will be of interest to a range of people in cognitive development, social psychology, and clinical and educational psychology.
Download or read book The Energy of Belief written by Sheila S. Bender and published by Elite Books. This book was released on 2007-11-15 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sise and Bender lay out a series of simple exercises that allow people in distress to quickly feel major physical and psychological shifts by holding their bodies in certain ways while taking deep breaths. Their book is packed with real-life case histories of clients who were not helped by the forms of therapy, but for whom the authors' technique, energy-TAB, produced miraculous results.
Download or read book Brain Belief written by John J. McGraw and published by AEGIS PRESS. This book was released on 2004 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From its beginnings in prehistoric religion to its central importance in Western faith traditions, the soul has been a constant source of fascination and speculation. Brain & Belief seeks to understand mankind's obsession with life, death, and the afterlife. Exploring the latest insights from neuroscience, psychopharmacology, and existential psychology, McGraw exhaustively researches the various takes on the human soul and considers the meaning of the soul in a postmodern world. The ambitious scope of the book is balanced by a deeply personal voice whose sympathy for both science and religion is resonant.
Download or read book The Neural Basis of Human Belief Systems written by Frank Krueger and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2012-08-21 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is the everyday understanding of belief susceptible to scientific investigation? Belief is one of the most commonly used, yet unexplained terms in neuroscience. Beliefs can be seen as forms of mental representations and one of the building blocks of our conscious thoughts. This book provides an interdisciplinary overview of what we currently know about the neural basis of human belief systems, and how different belief systems are implemented in the human brain. The chapters in this volume explain how the neural correlates of beliefs mediate a range of explicit and implicit behaviours ranging from moral decision making, to the practice of religion. Drawing inferences from philosophy, psychology, psychiatry, religion, and cognitive neuroscience, the book has important implications for understanding how different belief systems are implemented in the human brain, and outlines the directions which research on the cognitive neuroscience of beliefs should take in the future. The Neural Basis of Human Belief Systems will be of great interest to researchers in the fields of psychology, philosophy, psychiatry, and cognitive neuroscience.
Download or read book Psychology Through the Eyes of Faith written by David G. Myers, PhD and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2013-06-04 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Identifies the major ideas that college and university students will encounter in a basic psychology course and explores connections with Christian belief.
Download or read book The Psychology of Belief written by James Lindsay and published by . This book was released on 1910 with total page 126 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Power of Belief written by Peter W. Halligan and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2006 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examining the influence and power of beliefs in medicine, this text looks at key theories in the context of aetiology, treatment and recovery, for both the clinician and the patient.
Download or read book Memory Brain and Belief written by Daniel L. Schacter and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text will be stimulating to scholars in several academic fields. It ranges from cognitive, neurological and pathological perspectives on memory and belief, to memory and belief in autobiographical narratives.
