Human Instincts, Everyday Life, and the Brain: a paradigm for understanding behavior - Volume Five

VOLUME FIVE Volume Five deals with establishing consistency with one’s models. Establishing consistency is the process by which people act. People act by changing reality – their environment, other people, and themselves – to be consistent with their personal models. When people encounter inconsistency between reality and their personal models, they experience tension. People act in order to remove this tension. They act by changing reality to be consistent with their personal models. Thus they change their environment, other people, and themselves to correspond to their models. Establishing consistency is also the process by which people select, reject, and switch models. People select models which are consistent with their other models. They reject models which are inconsistent with their other models. People switch models by adopting those models that are more consistent with their other models, and by dropping those that are less consistent. Consistency and inconsistency are enormously important to humans. People work very hard to establish consistency in everything they do, and when they encounter inconsistency they try to get rid of it. People seek consistency between their models and their world. Models enable people to structure their reality, act, and satisfy their feelings. People are very sensitive to inconsistency with their models. Whenever people encounter inconsistency with their models, they feel tension, or bothered. Because they feel bothered, they seek to establish consistency with their models so they will no longer feel bothered. As a consequence they constantly apply pressure on the world, other people, and themselves to conform to their models. Even though people frequently change their personal models, they believe the personal models they presently hold are best for the world around them, for other people, and for themselves. Establishing consistency carries certain advantages. It is the mechanism that enables people to a) act in a purposive (non-random) way, b) achieve goals, and c) obtain resources. It is the mechanism by which people select, reject, and switch models. In addition, establishing consistency simplifies the individual’s world, remakes the world in the individual’s image, provides the brain with less work to do, permits greater communication between people, and facilitates cooperation between individuals. Establishing consistency enables people to operate more effectively and efficiently, satisfy their feelings with greater ease, and obtain more resources. People feel bothered immediately upon encountering phenomena which are inconsistent with their models. This is advantageous, because the sooner people establish consistency, the sooner they can satisfy their feelings, and the sooner they can obtain and conserve resources. At the same time the need for consistency is perhaps the major source of conflict between people. Individuals have numerous personal models which differ from the personal models of others. People are bothered when they see others use models which they would not use in the same situation. People respond by trying to get others to change their models to coincide with their own. However, others seldom want to change the models that they think they have good reasons for, that they are comfortable using (familiar with), and that they employ as part of routines. Conflict occurs when people pressure others to change their models and when people resist pressure from others to change their own models. Volume Five contains 244 photographs and a list of the implications of this research. Hardcover: 913 pages. ISBN: 978-0-9684020-4-7. Distributed by The Book Emporium, 169 Queen Street, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island C1A 4B4, Canada. e-mail: bookspei@gmail.com

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