Group items tagged

Friedrich Nietzsche scornfully described human understanding as nothing more than a web of expedient metaphors, stitched together from our shallow impressions of the world. In their ignorance, he charged, people mistake these familiar metaphors, deadened from overuse, for truths. "We believe that we know something about the things themselves when we speak of trees, colors, snow, and flowers,” he wrote, "and yet we possess nothing but metaphors for things--metaphors which correspond in no way to the original entities.”

people asked to recall a time when they were ostracized gave lower estimates of room temperature than those who recalled a social inclusion experience.

subjects who took the questionnaire on the heavier clipboards tended to ascribe more metaphorical weight to the questions they were asked

we actually unconsciously look upward when we think about power

subjects, after handling sandpaper-covered puzzle pieces, were less likely to describe a social situation as having gone smoothly

people who were told to move marbles from a lower tray up to a higher one while recounting a story told happier stories than people moving them down

subjects who recalled an unethical act acted less guilty after washing their hands.

something as simple as sitting on a hard chair makes people think of a task as harder

how they maintained their physical health. Naturally they responded with things like: "Go exercise". In other words they focused on means rather than ends, the actual process.

low-construal thinking condition (thinking about means rather than ends

Those participants who had been encouraged to think in high-level, abstract terms demonstrated greater self-control in enduring the discomfort of the handgrip in order to receive more accurate personality profiles.

Participants tended to put answer such as: "To do well in school." This got them thinking about ends rather than means - the ultimate purpose of physical health.

Global processing. This means trying to focus on the wood rather than the trees: seeing the big picture and our specific actions as just one part of a major plan or purpose. For example, someone trying to eat healthily should focus on the ultimate goal and how each individual decision about what to eat contributes (or detracts) from that goal.

Abstract reasoning. This means trying to avoid considering the specific details of the situation at hand in favour of thinking about how actions fit into an overall framework

Someone trying to add more self-control to their exercise regime might try to think less about the details of the exercise, and instead focus on an abstract vision of the ideal physical self, or how exercise provides a time to re-connect mind and body.

Categorising tasks or project stages conceptually may help an individual or group maintain their focus and achieve greater self-discipline.

avoid thinking locally and specifically and practice thinking globally, objectively and abstractly, and increased self-control should follow.