Portfolio 2, Writing Assignment 2
“The Best Dang Five-Paragraph Essay Ever”
Shawn T. Smith’s “The User’s Guide to the Human Mind” shows the way the brain reacts and the reason it reacts to certain events, tendencies, and otherwise work against us in functional pursuits. It helps us to understand why we develop anxiety and depression. He suggests us struggling against unhappy anxious thoughts and make friends with our minds. Smith states “your mind is not supposed to make you happy it’s supposed to help you survive.” The brain has bad habits one is avoiding new experiences two is our brain looks for problems that don’t exist. Smith states that the mind is built in such a way that most of its functions and drives lie outside our control.
“The User’s Guide to the Human Mind is a road map to the puzzling inner workings of the human mind, replete with exercises for overriding the mind’s natural impulses toward worry, self-criticism, and fear, and helpful tips for acting in the service of your values and emotional well-being—even when your mind has other plans.”
I think there were parts of it where he makes the same point too much. The information is really good though. I find it really interesting to find out all this information about the brain and the way it works. The information is presented in a really good format that’s easy to read. I think that it helps a lot that he uses headings. It is really interesting to see the way our brain works based on our experiences and ways to try and fix the issue or make it better. I find it really interesting that he puts things in different perspective as in our own shoes. For instance when Smith states “It can’t be normal for my mind to think this much.”
The text is easy to read and easy t...
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...y bury us in history when we want to focus on the future; they bombard us with distraction when we try to concentrate.” He starts to tell us that we often try to fight the mind by arguing against our thoughts and feelings, or by finding ways to avoid. You don’t want to get caught in and ongoing battle against your own mind. Sometime you will win the battle and sometimes you will lose putting yourself in that position that you didn’t want to be in.
Works Cited
• http://www.amazon.com/The-Users-Guide-Human-Mind-ebook/dp/B005ZE5AVA
• http://rosepetals1984.wordpress.com/2011/12/20/review-the-users-guide-to-the-human-mind-why-our-brains-make-us-unhappy-anxious-and-neurotic-and-what-we-can-do-about-it/
• http://www.psychologytoday.com/experts/shawn-t-smith-psyd
• Shawn T. Smith, P. (2011). The User's Guide to the Human Mind. Oakland CA: New Harbinger Publications, Inc.
Gross, R., 2013. The Science of Mind And Behaviour. 6 ed. London: Hodder Education .
Passer, M., Smith, R., Holt, N., Bremner, A., Sutherland, E., & Vliek, M. (2009). Psychology; Science of Mind and Behaviour. (European Edition). New York.
You’ve heard the old saying that knowledge is power. But knowledge of psychology is the purest form of that power. No matter what you’re doing or how well you’re doing it, you can benefit from a deeper understanding of how the mind interprets its world using only the clues that somehow find a way into your brain through the holes in your skull. (Adams 116)
Human beings have established an information base that has become the fulcrum of their thought process and have in turn impaired the independence of their brains and their ability to exercise autonomy. Less has been done to develop an understanding of how the brain works in terms of structuring the thought process, an aspect that prevents any efforts to adjust the general human view of the world around them and their cognitive process. Like robots, cultural norms have programmed human beings in a way that they can only respond to information from their environments in a certain manner and can only produce certain actions in response to the various stimuli from their environment, which are deemed culturally acceptable (Plattner, Meinel, & Leifer, 2016). Stanovich is keen to identify two types of brains within the human system, the primitive brain and the autonomous brain (Stanovich, 2004). Individuals tend to hide the primitive brain in favor of the autonomous brain, which is fast in making sense of the various stimuli form the environment. The primitive brain tries to question and discover the thinking process itself and how the brain works towards certain thoughts. By allowing for the dominance of conscious brain, humans have developed biasness in their
Gall, S. B., Beins, B., & Feldman, A. (2001). The gale encyclopedia of psychology. (2nd ed., pp. 271-273). Detroit, MI: Gale Group.
Gross, R (2010). Psychology: The science of mind and behaviour. 6th ed. London: Hodder Education. p188.
Toates, F. (2010) ‘Brains, bodies, behaviour and minds’ in SDK228 The science of the mind: investigating mental health, Book 1, Core concepts in mental health, Milton Keynes, The Open University, pp. 29-90.
Liken the human mind to a freshly turned field in early summer; a blank canvas with the potential to nurture a blossoming life. However, anyone who’s ever laid eyes on a newly plowed field has likely seen ruts carved into sections of aerated earth. Just like any plot of soil, stress and strain can riddle a human mind with divots and craters, all of which must refill before a mind can continue to grow.
R. J. & Ben-Zeev, T. (2001) Complex Cognition: The psychology of human thought. New York: Oxford.
"But history, real solemn history, I cannot be interested in... I read it a little as a duty, but it tells me nothing that does not either vex or weary me. The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars or pestilences, in every page; the men so good-for-nothing, and hardly any women at all -- it is very tiresome."
Searle, John. (1980) 'Minds, Brains and Programs'. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 3 (3) , pp 417-457
[Searle, 1980] Searle, J. R. (1980). Minds, brains, and programs. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 3:417–
Gazzaniga, M. S., Ivry, R. B., & Mangun, G. R. (2002). Cognitive neuroscience: The biology of the mind. (2nd ed.). New York & London: W.W. Norton & Company.
Robinson-Riegler, G., and Robinson-Riegler, B. (2008). Cognitive psychology: Applying the science of the mind.ton, MA: Allyn and Bacon
In fact, we are mind-building every hour of our lives, either consciously or unconsciously. The majority of people are doing the work unconsciously, but those who have seen a little below the surface of things have taken the matter in hand and have become conscious creators of their own mentality. They are no longer subject to the suggestions and influences of others but have become masters of themselves (Atkinson).