scholarly journals The intertwined cultural evolution of ascetic spiritualities and puritanical religions as technologies of self-discipline

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Léo Fitouchi ◽  
Jean-Baptiste André ◽  
Nicolas Baumard
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Delay Of Gratification ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Complex Societies ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Psychological Theories ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Cultural Affinity

Why do, across ascetic spiritual traditions (e.g. Ancient Greek spiritualities, Stoicism, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism, Confucianism), a moralizing side restricting bodily pleasures, and a joyful side celebrating self-control derived well-being develop in concert? Why are these two intertwined cultural traits a recent development in human history, characteristic of economically developed, socially complex societies of the "Axial" transition? Here, we suggest that the cultural affinity between the puritanical and eudaemonic components of "Axial" spiritualities makes sense when one construes them as culturally evolved technologies of self-discipline. By this, we mean a package of psychological theories and techniques that people designed, tweaked and selectively retained because they appeared to them as effective in facilitating the delay of gratification. This increasingly exhibited goal – delaying gratification – had two core facets: facilitating inter-individual cooperation one side, which is a long-term strategy, and favoring individual well-being on the long-run, which required resisting the temptations of immediate pleasures. This dual demand (moral and eudaemonic) for self-control drove the joint cultural evolution of ascetic religions and spiritualities endowed, with various dosages, with both a puritanical, moralizing tenor (controlling sinful desires for selfish, instant gratification) and a joyful, eudaemonic facet (favoring ‘mastery’, spiritual pleasures over short-sighted, quickly evaporating ones). Also, this allows to answer the question of their cultural emergence, as the very propensity to favor long-term goals over immediate gratification varies with people’s material security, which is known to have dramatically increased in the societies where these spiritualities emerged.

scholarly journals The intertwined cultural evolution of ascetic spiritualities and puritanical religions as technologies of self-discipline

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Léo Fitouchi ◽  
Jean-Baptiste André ◽  
Nicolas Baumard
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Delay Of Gratification ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Complex Societies ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Psychological Theories ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Cultural Affinity

Why do, across ascetic spiritual traditions (e.g. Ancient Greek spiritualities, Stoicism, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism, Confucianism), a moralizing side restricting bodily pleasures, and a joyful side celebrating self-control derived well-being develop in concert? Why are these two intertwined cultural traits a recent development in human history, characteristic of economically developed, socially complex societies of the "Axial" transition? Here, we suggest that the cultural affinity between the puritanical and eudaemonic components of "Axial" spiritualities makes sense when one construes them as culturally evolved technologies of self-discipline. By this, we mean a package of psychological theories and techniques that people designed, tweaked and selectively retained because they appeared to them as effective in facilitating the delay of gratification. This increasingly exhibited goal – delaying gratification – had two core facets: facilitating inter-individual cooperation one side, which is a long-term strategy, and favoring individual well-being on the long-run, which required resisting the temptations of immediate pleasures. This dual demand (moral and eudaemonic) for self-control drove the joint cultural evolution of ascetic religions and spiritualities endowed, with various dosages, with both a puritanical, moralizing tenor (controlling sinful desires for selfish, instant gratification) and a joyful, eudaemonic facet (favoring ‘mastery’, spiritual pleasures over short-sighted, quickly evaporating ones). Also, this allows to answer the question of their cultural emergence, as the very propensity to favor long-term goals over immediate gratification varies with people’s material security, which is known to have dramatically increased in the societies where these spiritualities emerged.

From Help Giving to Helping Relations

2018 ◽  
pp. 464-488
Author(s):  
Arie Nadler
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Psychological Needs ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Significant Relationships ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Help Giving ◽  
Social Psychological Research ◽  
Practical Implications

This chapter reviews social psychological research on help giving and helping relations from the 1950s until today. The first section considers the conditions under which people are likely to help others, personality dispositions that characterize helpful individuals, and motivational and attributional antecedents of helpfulness. The second section looks at long-term consequences of help and examines help in the context of enduring and emotionally significant relationships. Research has shown that in the long run help can increase psychological and physical well-being for helpers but discourage self-reliance for recipients. The third section analyzes helping from intra- and intergroup perspectives, considering how its provision can contribute to helpers’ reputations within a group or promote the positive social identity of in-groups relative to out-groups. Help is thus conceptualized as a negotiation between the fundamental psychological needs for belongingness and independence. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The Real Effects of Military Spending on Security

2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 377-393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lloyd J. Dumas
Keyword(s):  
Military Spending ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Military Force ◽  
Physical Security ◽  
Dead Weight ◽  
Economic Relationships ◽  
Real Effects ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Short Run

AbstractThe indirect effects of military spending on security are stronger and more important than its direct effects, and its long run impact more telling than its short run impact. In the short run, military spending can be a source of both physical security and economic stimulus. In the long run, it can be counterproductive in terms of physical security and will be a dead weight on the economy. How a society’s productive resources are deployed, as between military spending and more economically productive activities, sets it on a long-term course with powerful implications for the ability of its economy to do what it is supposed to do – provide for the material well-being of the population as a whole. The mechanism by which the extensive and extended diversion of productive economic resources to economically unproductive military spending drags an economy down is analyzed. Furthermore, it is possible to use properly structured international and domestic economic relationships in place of threats or use of military force to increase national and international security, while at the same time enhancing, rather than degrading, economic wellbeing. Three principles for structuring such a “peacekeeping economy” are set forth.

scholarly journals Satu Kajian Tentang Kawalan Diri, Gangguan Belajar-Masa Lapang dan Kesejahteraan Pelajar

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (3-2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nur Asiah Abd Ghani ◽  
Zakiah Mohamad Ashari
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Leisure Time ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Self Control ◽  
School Students ◽  
Online Databases ◽  
Term Change ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Control Study

Learning is a natural ability that every individual has. Ormrod, Anderman and Anderman (2017) explained that learning is a long-term change in mental representation and association from experience. For students, either school students or university students, they do not necessarily spend all their time to study. Students should be able to arrange their study time and leisure time well. This will allow them to learn more effectively. Interference between study and leisure is associated with motivation conflict in which individuals want to do something but at the same time, they need to do something else (Riediger & Freund, 2008), Thus, this analysis is conducted to identify the relationship between self-control, study-leisure interference and student well-being. Previous studies were obtained through online databases such as ScienceDirect, Springer Link and EBSCOHost. The finding shows that there is a correlation between self-control, study-leisure interference with the well-being of students. This is common issue among university students in Malaysia because most students are having difficult to manage their time properly. This will lead students to have workload and tend to putting off their tasks until the last minute.

scholarly journals SIX YEARS (1999-2015) OF ESCALATING HOUSE PRICE: CAN FDI BE BLAMED?

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ema Izati Zull ◽  
Tajul Ariffin Masron
Keyword(s):  
House Price ◽  
Well Being ◽  
High Price ◽  
Fdi Inflows ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Long Term Impact ◽  
Liberalization Policy ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Positive Effect

In Malaysia, house price has increased drastically. Problem arises in areas that received relatively lower number of FDI. The house price in these areas accelerated at growth which are somewhat equivalent to areas which benefit from FDI spillover. As the relationship between FDI and locals’ well-being is becoming crucial due to the escalating high price, this paper intends to examine the long-term impact of FDI on house price in Malaysia. Our long-run estimation results showed that FDI inflows have affected house price in Malaysia negatively between the period of 1999 and 2015. The effect however reversed when liberalization policy is included. With the presence of liberalization policy, FDI inflows have actually caused house price in KL and Penang (highly dynamic states) to increase in the long-run. The positive effect of FDI inflows on house price are also found in relatively slow-progressive states like Pahang and Kedah confirming the nationwide effect of liberalization policy regardless of economy level of a state. Other than FDI inflows, this study also examined house supply, gross domestic per capita and interest rate as independent variables.

Self-Control

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Duckworth ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Relationships ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Financial Security ◽  
Junk Food ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Good For ◽  
Professional Achievement

Why does self-control matter? Sometimes, what makes you happy right now isn't good for you in the long run. For instance, junk food tastes great but isn't healthy. Self-control powerfully predicts academic and professional achievement, physical and emotional well-being, positive social relationships, and financial security.

Helping behaviors can negatively impact long-term well-being

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-123
Author(s):  
Clarence W. Von Bergen ◽  
Martin S. Bressler ◽  
Tim Boatmun
Keyword(s):  
Social Issues ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Positive Behaviors ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Self Sufficiency ◽  
Pain And Suffering

Purpose Recently, organizational scholars and social scientists began emphasizing the importance of compassion and altruism and called for increased demonstrations of assistance, giving, empathy and other prosocial conduct toward those in need. Generally, we assume that help is beneficial to those who receive it, and current research on these positive behaviors primarily focuses on the advantages to those who provide it. Despite recent calls for increased levels of aiding the needy and underprivileged, helping may have downsides and adaptive costs to those who receive support that are frequently overlooked. The purpose of the study is to bring to light the potential harm in helping those who lack commitment to improvement, having “skin in the game”. Design/methodology/approach In addition to a literature review, the authors present a model to explain how support in response to human pain and suffering can sometimes result in negative effects on aid recipients. The model specifies two mechanisms, including participation of affected beneficiaries of assistance in the actual aid process and duration of help as factors that may expose vulnerable populations to more risk. Findings The literature strongly suggests that in some instances, helping can be detrimental, to the point where helping can even result in dependency. The authors do not suggest casting a blind eye to those in need, but rather to provide assistance that leads to self-sufficiency. Research limitations/implications Additional research – especially over the long-term – can provide researchers with more detailed results of this approach. Practical implications The findings of this paper can serve as a model approach to provide help that does not create dependency. Social implications Using this approach could provide the ideal method to address long-term social issues that would break the cycle of dependency. Originality/value The authors believe that this approach to helping based upon the two-stage model could become the primary effective method for providing assistance to those in need without creating dependency in the long run.

scholarly journals Motivationally Significant Self-control: Enhanced Action Withholding Involves the Right Inferior Frontal Junction

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. O'Connor ◽  
Daniel J. Upton ◽  
Jennifer Moore ◽  
Robert Hester
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Neutral Condition ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Behavioral Performance ◽  
Precentral Gyrus ◽  
Monetary Rewards ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Inferior Frontal Junction

In everyday life, people use self-control to withhold actions. This ability is particularly important when the consequences of action withholding have an impact on the individual's well-being. Despite its importance, it is unclear as to how the neural nodes implicated in action withholding contribute to this real-world type of self-control. By modifying an action withholding paradigm, the go/no-go task, we examined how the brain exerts self-control during a scenario in which the implications of withholding an action are meaningful and motivationally significant. A successfully withheld response contributed to long-term monetary rewards, whereas failure to withhold a response incurred an immediate monetary punishment. Compared with neutral action withholding, participants significantly improved their performance when these contingencies were applied. Crucially, although the right IFG and pre-SMA were found to promote overall action withholding, the enhancement in behavioral performance relative to a neutral condition was only reflected by a physiological change in a region encompassing the right inferior frontal junction and precentral gyrus. We speculate that the ability to flexibly modulate attention to goal-relevant stimuli is crucial to enhanced, motivationally driven action withholding and that this ability is subserved by the right inferior frontal junction. These findings suggest that control-modulating factors, rather than action withholding processes per se, can be critical to improving motivationally significant action withholding outcomes.

scholarly journals Moral disciplining: the cognitive and evolutionary foundations of puritanical morality

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Léo Fitouchi ◽  
Jean-Baptiste André ◽  
Nicolas Baumard
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Free Riding ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Moral Intuitions ◽  
Moral Virtues ◽  
Cultural Variations

Why do many human societies condemn apparently harmless and pleasurable behaviors, such as lust, gluttony, drinking, drugs, gambling, or even music and dance? Why do they erect temperance, hedonic restraint, sobriety, decency and piety as cardinal moral virtues? While existing accounts consider this puritanical morality as an exception to the cooperative function of moral intuitions, we propose that it stems, like other moral concerns, from moral intuitions targeting cooperative challenges. Specifically, we argue that it emerges in response to a key feature of cooperation, namely that the latter is (ultimately) a long-term strategy, requiring (proximately) the self-control of appetites for immediate gratification. Puritanical moralizations condemn and praise behaviors which, although not intrinsically cooperative or uncooperative, are perceived as affecting people’s propensity to cooperate, by modifying their ability to resist short-term impulses conflicting with cooperative motivations. Drinking, drugs, unruly feasts, dances, and immodest clothing are condemned as stimulating people’s short-term impulses, thus facilitating uncooperative behaviors (e.g. adultery, violence, economic free-riding). Immoderate indulgence in harmless bodily pleasures (e.g. lust, masturbation, gluttony) is perceived as addictively reinforcing short-term impulses, thus making harder the self-control of future temptations to cheat. Moralizations of ascetic temperance, daily self-discipline, and pious ritual observance are perceived as nurturing the self-restraint consubstantial to a cooperative character, able to resist selfish temptations when the latter arise. We review psychological, historical, and ethnographic evidence supporting this account, and discuss its implications regarding the cross-cultural variations and cultural evolution of puritanical norms.

An Escape from the Malthus Rectangle? Poverty, and Conversion Efficiency (Distinguishedl Lecture)

1994 ◽  
Vol 33 (4I) ◽  
pp. 433-461
Author(s):  
Michael Lipton
Keyword(s):  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Real Income ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Short Run ◽  
Marginal Returns ◽  
Central Claim

Malthus (1798, 1803, 1824) wrote during the world's first period of sustained and widespread growth in real income per person: the "Northern" agro-industrial revolution of 1740-1970. When he wrote, it was widely believed that not only growth, but also poverty reduction, depended substantially on what he called "schemes of improvement". Malthus's central claim is that these could not reduce poverty in the long run, unless fertility declined. This, he believed, was because any short-run success of "schemes of improvement" in reducing poverty would increase the rate of population growth among the poor. This would raise the supply of labour and the demand for food. Owing to diminishing marginal returns to extra hectares-plus-persons as new, inferior land was brought into cultivation, "the proportion between the price of labour and the price of provisions" would then fall, thus returning the poor to poverty. Unless fertility fell, the long-term well-being of the poor could not improve much. Being largely dependent on the real wage, it was boxed in by the Malthus rectangle (Figure 1) of population, labour supply, land, and food, and the interactions among them.

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