Mental health, wellbeing and eudaimonia are concepts that are very important to the quality of our lives. These ideas are something important for us to understand and have control over for us to live a good life. Living a meaningful and good life is important for it is how we spend our time that matters. We can understand the quality of someone’s life by assessing and evaluating them based on aspects of these ideas.
Part 1: Categorization
The mind uses categories as a means to structure groupings or classifications of objects, things and events that are out in the world and external to the mind. A concept is an internal mental representation of a category or ideas that we use to help with our memory and thinking by giving our thoughts structure. Categories are things or occurrences out in the world, whereas concepts are the organization of the external world and abstract ideas within our mind. (Minda 2021, p. 72-73)
The world is self-categorizing as Plato stated when we define things we are cutting nature at its joints,
“dividing things again by classes, where the natural joints are.” (Minda 2021, 74; Plato 265e)
When we are categorizing and conceptualizing, we are in effect creating labels and an internal mapping of the way the external world or our ideas already are. The difference would be we are systematizing linguistically or organizing thoughts based on some standard or criteria.
The classical view of how category/concept membership are defined is based on necessary and sufficient conditions. The problem with this view is that many instances of an object would not strictly fit the conditions, like the drawing of a square not exactly having straight lines or 90 degree angles yet most people would include the figure into the category of square. (Minda 2021, p. 79)
The probabilistic theory is based on a graded membership to a category or concept on features of similarity or shared features on how well the specific example fits. A typical example is easily recognized as a member due to having shared features and is closer to the center of the category. An atypical example is an outlier of membership that people would not easily identify as being a member. (Minda 2021, p.84)
The probabilistic theory has two primary views. The prototype theory determines membership by an abstract representation of central tendency, which can be an average of existing members, frequently occurring members, or an ideal. The classification of membership is determined by comparing the instance to the prototype based on similarity. (Minda 2021, p.84) The exemplar theory determines membership via representation of stored memories that are called exemplars. The exemplar theory uses similarity from memory traces to determine membership and not comparison to an abstract ideal, as seen in the prototype theory. (Minda 2021, p. 87-88)
Diagram Explanation:
The diagram shows the factors that compose the state of one’s mental health. Mental health is a process or state that one can observe in themselves or others as an external category. It is not a single instance like an object but all of the factors in the basic category together. These properties are evaluated using the criteria of dysfunction, distress, deviance and dangerousness. (Nolen-Hoeksema 2020, p. 6) Each of the basic categories can be divided into subcategories. Here, we explore the emotion of anger and determine what constitutes a member of the category using the probabilistic theory.
The utility of this diagram and way of conceptualizing mental health is to break down each observable instance of a factor that contributes to the process of being mentally healthy or the current state of one’s mental health. It is important to learn and understand how to categorize different kinds of phenomena so that one is able to develop self-awareness or communicate to another through observing the behaviour in them, to increase wellbeing.
Learning how to determine if something belongs to a category is important so that we can understand the basic elements that compose the process or state of mental health. Each instance of a subcategory will be something along the spectrum of mental health and illness. It is up to us in helping ourselves or another to determine an evaluation of that instance within the overall context of the person’s wellbeing.
As defined above, there are two fundamental approaches to the probabilistic theory of membership to a category: the prototype theory and exemplar theory. The prototype for anger is depicted by the image of the person enraged and yelling. In the prototype section of the diagram, there are three examples. Two are situations where a person is yelling at another and included in the category of anger because they match the prototype based on the similar feature of yelling aggressively at another. The outlier on the right hand side is an example of anger but misclassified because it does not fit the prototype. People do not always have to yell at others when they are angry, in some situations a person can become silent and not display an overt outburst.
The exemplar theory is shown at the bottom right of the diagram with four examples: two are memory traces that the person uses to classify a new situation and one is an outlier. The memory traces are past situations that share common features, parents fighting as the child observes, and a new situation where a teacher yells at a student. The new situation is added to the category of anger because of its similar features to the memory trace. The outlier was the principal observing the teacher yelling at the student and not yelling back but taking the teacher aside and talking to them calmly. In this circumstance, the outlier does not share the similar features as the memory trace and is not added to the anger category. The principal was angry with the teacher but did not express the anger in a recognizable way when compared to the memory trace similar features.
All potential instances of external anger can be examples of anger. For the example to fall within the prototype or exemplar theory, it depends on how the example is being used for classification within the general category. If the example is being used to compare to some ideal standard, it is within the prototype theory. If the example is a memory trace that the person is amalgamating to fit a new situation into the category by comparison based on similar features, it would be part of the exemplar theory. Outliers are instances of anger that are not easily ascribed to membership like the situation where someone does not explicitly express their anger so others can easily observe it.
Part II: Problem Solving
A) Select Problem
The problem is the goal of how to maintain and establish a durable state of mental health. Many people in the world suffer from mental illness as Thomas Szasz would identify it as a ‘problem of living.’ For mental illness to be a problem that one can solve, we will limit the factors relevant to the solution to those we can have awareness of or gain some response-type control over.
For most, the initial or present state would be that of suffering like depression and the problem of how to resolve their state of suffering is Ill Defined, meaning that from the subjective perspective of the person who is suffering, the goal is imprecise, many solution paths may or may not get to the goal and it can be difficult to evaluation the success of the goal. (Boudreau, 2006 p.7) We will see here a means to break down this challenging task algorithmically, so that any person suffering can increase the quality of their lives.
B) Problem Solving Steps
Problem Solving Stages: here are the steps to solving the problem.
1. Preparation/ Identification: aspects of the problem are understood.
Initial State: suffering, depression
Barrier/ Obstacle: Lack of awareness and skill of how to make oneself happy or mentally healthy and a rigid mental set of the nature of mental health and what contributes to wellbeing or perceived control
Givens: Five Factors one can be aware of an exercise some control over.
Solution Paths: In each factor, one can become aware of it and change one’s way of being and monitor general wellbeing and reduction in suffering
Goal State: well being, meaning in life and absence of suffering (Boudreau 2023, Slide 6)
2. Generation/ Production: Each one of the five factors can be a solution path depending on the observable circumstances of the individual. From a first-person, phenomenological perspective, we can become aware of which factors are affecting us and exercise some control over them until we notice an increase in our wellbeing.
3. Evaluation: Relevance and falsification are essential in determining which solution path based on the five factors will be the best approach. We may need to test our different responses and actions based on each category of factors until we empirically notice a difference in our wellbeing. As we grow and live our lives, different factors will affect our wellbeing and an ongoing skill at controlling each of them will be necessary to account for changes in our life, environment and experience.
4. Incubation: Once we have attempted a solution path, we will have to stop working on the problem to see if there were any changes in our wellbeing.
5. Insight: Once we have attempted different solution paths relevant to the issues we are having in our experience, we will learn how modifying and adapting our awareness and response to each of the relevant factors will over time create a stable state of wellbeing and mental health.
C) Reasoning: Hypothetical-Deductive Approach
The general solution to the problem of suffering or mental illness is a hypothetical-deductive approach where we observe our current state of suffering and the five factors that contribute to it. We then develop a theory, ‘If I modify this factor, it will have an affect on my mental health,’ then test the theory by falsification through modifying the factor and observing the effect on our wellbeing. This can be represented by the argument form of
Modus Tollens:
If A then B If I modify this factor, it will increase my mental health.
Not B It did not increase my mental health
Therefore Not A. Therefore, I will not modify this factor.
Conditional reasoning, Modus Ponens, counteracting a rigid mental set:
If A then B If I change factors that are in my control, I will be mentally healthy
A I am changing factors in my control
Therefore, B Therefore, I will be mentally healthy
The solution is having a sense of control over one’s mental health by learning to modify the factors that contribute to it. See diagram below:
Part III: Decision Making
A) Situation
A younger, female who is a visible minority gets into a conflict with her boss at work. She makes several assumptions that are not valid as an explanation for why the boss got upset with her. What does the person do about the workplace conflict?
B) Assumptions
A preconceived concept is a conceptual perspective that is created without a valid foundation of sound evidence, a lack of evidence, incomplete or irrelevant information. (Boudreau 2023 M3A S12) In this case the preconceived concepts are racism, sexism and ageism.
Explanation for Assumptions:
1) Racial Bias: In the past the employee has suffered racism and her availability heuristic is activated when interpreting the situation.
2) Gender Prejudice: The employee has heard about men getting upset in the workplace towards women and her representative heuristic is activated because she is in a similar situation.
3) Age Discrimination: The employee has just graduated from school and feels uncomfortable that she is the youngest person at the workplace, leading her to think her age is the reason why her employer got upset with her.
C) Consequence of Assumptions
1) If the employee assumes the employer is racist, they can engage in a self-fulfilling prophecy by acting negatively around the employer even though the employer is not racist.
Consequence: The negative attitude towards the employer leads to the employee being dismissed because it creates an unhealthy psychological environment for everyone.
2) Either my boss is sexist or he wants to use me for sex. He isn’t using me for sex, therefore he is sexist towards women.
Consequence: This is a false dichotomy where both assumptions are false and leads to an incorrect perception that is not based in fact. Not all men who get upset are using women for sex or are sexist towards women.
3) If the employee assumes that the employer discriminates against them because of their age, they can engage in a self-fulfilling prophecy by demonstrating a negative attitude that is irrelevant to the real issue of their performance.
Consequence: The employee assumes it is their age that is why they were not treated well instead of asking why the employer got upset and lost feedback to improve their performance.
Diagram:
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