“Although feelings are the one output of the adaptive
unconscious that is likely to reach consciousness, sometimes even feelings are
unconscious. And other contents of the adaptive unconscious, such as
personality traits and goals, are likely to remain beneath the surface,
unavailable to conscious scrutiny (the beam of the flashlight).”
The quoted passage is from Timothy Wilson’s book, Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the adaptive unconscious. The author views the adaptive unconscious as a
“necessary and extensive part of a highly efficient mind”. Its functions
include “warning people of danger, setting goals, and initiating action in a
sophisticated and efficient manner”.
The context of the quote is a discussion of introspection as
a means by which people can “try to decipher their feelings, motives, traits,
or values, not to mention what they want for dinner”. The “beam of the
flashlight” refers to a metaphor in which the mind is thought of as a cave,
with consciousness constituting those objects that are not currently in the
beam of the flashlight. The quote seems to imply that our values and
preferences are not necessarily easily accessible by just focussing our
awareness inwards.
Tim Wilson argues that because people “cannot directly
observe their nonconscious dispositions, they must try to infer them
indirectly, by, for example, being good observers of their own behaviour”. He suggests
that when we discover important truths about ourselves through introspection we
do so by constructing stories about our lives, much as a biographer would. Trying
to access unconscious goals and motives results in “a constructive process whereby the conscious self infers the
nature of these states”.
I felt somewhat bemused when reading that - presumably because
of my training as an economist. The idea of being able to discern our values
and preferences from our behaviour seems to have more in common with the
neoclassical economists’ notion of ‘revealed preference’ than with the view of
many psychologists (and behavioural economists) that people are prone to make
irrational choices because of cognitive biases that reflect non-conscious
influences.
Of course, Tim Wilson does not suggest that the adaptive
unconscious always makes the right choices for us. He notes that it is
important to distinguish between “informed and uniformed gut feelings” by
gathering as much information as possible to allow your “adaptive unconscious
to make a stable, informed evaluation rather than an ill-informed one”. His main point seems to be that in order to
make good decisions, e.g. in choosing a spouse or buying a home, you need to avoid
over-analysis by the conscious mind.
Does it make sense to try to try to infer your values from
your past behaviour? If the aim of the exercise is self-improvement that
approach might appear to be futile. If you see need for improvement in your
behaviour, it isn’t immediately obvious how the values that can be inferred
from your past behaviour could provide helpful guidance.
So, how can people bring their values to awareness in order
to engage in self-improvement exercises? Tim Wilson has some suggestions, but
before considering them it might be useful to consider approaches adopted by
some psychologists engaged in therapy and personal training.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) places a heavy
emphasis on living according to values, so the approach adopted by ACT
therapists might be of particular interest. One approach used in ACT is the life compass, which ask people questions
to elicit values in various domains of their lives – relationships, health,
work, leisure etc. People are asked what is important or meaningful to them,
what sorts of strengths or qualities they want to develop and what they want to
stand for. That approach obviously works if you can find what you value by just
shining the flashlight into your cave. But to do that you must have a fair
amount of self-knowledge already, and you would probably have constructed a
story about where your values have come from.
ACT offers a range of techniques to elicit values if they
don’t readily come to consciousness. One technique noted by Russ Harris in ACT Made Simple is to imagine what you
would love to hear people say about you, and what you stand for, in short
speeches at your 80th birthday party. (Dr Harris presumably doesn’t
have many readers who are over 80.) In The Reality Slap, he suggests that it
is also possible to elicit values by remembering a “sweet spot”, a memory that
encapsulates some of life’s sweetness for you. After appreciating that memory,
he asks people to notice the personal qualities they were exhibiting and what
this reveals about the personal qualities they would like to embody.
The Authentic Happiness web site (stemming from Martin
Seligman’s book of that name) has, among other things, an extensive
questionnaire that enables people to discover their ‘signature strengths’.
People taking the questionnaire are asked to what extent 240 statements
describe themselves. The statements seem to be largely about dispositions
rather than past behaviours, so seem to assume prior knowledge of dispositions.
The Enneagram Institute offers people an opportunity to
discover more about their personality type through a questionnaire (the RHETI)
which asks participants to choose between 144 paired statements relating to
their past behaviour. One of the potential benefits of this approach is that it
seems to offer a way for people to identify values that can guide them toward
attainment of higher levels of personal development, without having to attempt
to make fundamental personality changes. For example, a person who has a persistent
desire for self-control could see himself, or herself, as having many of the
characteristics of a Reformer, and
thereby see potential for growth by becoming more reasonable, and progressively
acquiring greater wisdom. Some more examples might help to make the point: a
person who seeks to avoid conflict through accommodation might have many
characteristics of the Peacemaker,
and see potential for growth by acknowledging her or his peacefulness and
seeking to become indomitable; a person who is highly defensive much of the
time might have many characteristics of a Loyalist,
and see potential for growth by becoming more trusting, cooperative,
reliable and courageous; and a person who is restless and constantly seeking
stimulation might have many of the characteristics of an Enthusiast, and see potential for growth by becoming more productive
and more grateful. Similar personal growth paths exist for the five other
personality types.
A couple of the approaches described above bring values into
conscious awareness through an explicit consideration of past behaviour. The
sweet spot approach builds on selection of a particular memory, whereas the
RHETI may help people to identify their potential by providing them with a
systematic way to understand their past behaviour and personality. Unfortunately,
although the RHETI is being widely used in personal training exercises, its
predictions do not yet appear to have been subjected to a great deal of
rigorous scientific testing.
One approach that Tim Wilson advocates is Pennebaker’s exercise which involves
writing about the deepest thoughts and feelings associated with an important
emotional issue. Although writing about emotional experiences is distressing in
the short run, it apparently has positive long-run effects. The exercise seems
to help people make sense of a negative event by constructing a meaningful
narrative that explains it. A possible downside of this approach is that some
people may dwell on negative life experiences by constantly revising their
narratives. I expect that some people might also have a tendency to fuse with
stories that make their lives miserable.
Tim Wilson acknowledges that some narratives are better than
others. He writes:
"As with any biography, there are multiple ways of
telling the story. A good biography, though, has to account for the facts of
the person’s life and capture his or her inner goals and traits. The better a
story does at accounting for the “data” of the person’s adaptive unconscious,
the better off the person is. By recognizing their nonconscious goals, people
are in a better position to act in ways to fulfill them, or to try to change
them."
How can we change our non-conscious states in order to match
our more positive self-stories? Tim Wilson suggests we follow Aristotle’s
advice to acquire virtues by first putting them into action. We can change our
feelings and traits by changing our behaviour. In order to “change some aspect
of our adaptive unconscious, a good place to start is deliberately to begin
acting like the person we want to be”.
