Six Part Series : Healthy Change

                                                            Prologue to Six Part Series

A six part series which can be categorized as combining research, speculation, and brief social commentary will soon be published in The Hygiology Post. The series does assist in understanding and predicting current health related events as evidenced by what is published in the mainstream United States (US) media and other media and information outlets worldwide.

Twenty five years have passed since the author wrote an assigned paper in a graduate level psychology class titled “Holland’s Theory: Strengthening It.” Scientifically (e.g., specific content in the dissertation of the author, “The Relationship Between The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory,” completed in 1992 and specific content in The 16PF Fifth Edition Administrator’s Manual published in 1994) and experientially, year after year, the paper does appear to have been supported. Since 1986 recurrent themes have been identified as causes for significant problems (e.g., recent economic recession) in the mainstream US media and other media and information outlets throughout the world. The identified causal themes in such media and information outlets appear to have supported the paper. The copyrighted paper has also appeared to have accurately predicted that over time a decrease of certain behaviors and changes that would transpire as also evidenced by these same information sources. The reader is left to decide if time has helped empirically support the paper. It underscores that certain traits and behaviors can be identified, categorized, and predicted as serving as a catalyst for healthy change over time. It can help in identifying the need for certain and specific extant behaviors to be changed/attenuated. And, “Holland’s Theory: Strengthening It” does indicate that over time, people, both individually and collectively, will behave in a healthier manner.

Information filters (e.g., see Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of The Mass Media by Edward S. Hermann and Noam Chomski [1988] ) have apparently been prominent and widespread within and among many types of organizations worldwide in recent history. For example, if a person were to question the accuracy, truthfulness, or offend certain sources of information such as a government official or a corporation then that person may be denied access to the source.

The Milgram (1974) experiments have shown that people will obey a person in a position of authority even to the extent of doing what they apparently thought was harming someone who was not a threat to them in any way. Milgram explained the results by pointing out that the subject became an agent for and thus relegated all responsibility to the experimenter. Binding forces which stem from experiences in family, school, and work that have reinforced obedience keep the person subservient to the person in the position of authority in the experiment.

The author has concluded that potentially for much of the US public their formal educational experience may be less of a creative learning experience and more of an exercise of obedience and conformity. Memorization and attention to rote prescriptive detail has been emphasized over observation, hypothesis testing, induction, deduction, and other such aspects of the scientific method. If you accept or partially accept any of the aforementioned tentative conclusions as being accurate, you may agree that the conclusion(s) may at least partially explain or at least be consistent with why many people, inclusive of those in the mainstream US media, have had problems understanding and critiquing information presented to them well. An example is the reported false premise acceptance and moreover then proceeding to act on the false premise as being the cause of the most recent Iraq war. A second example (of problems understanding and critiquing information presented well) is that lobbyists have been able to have had so much ongoing operational power in the US.

The Hygiology Post welcomes feedback from readers on all six parts of the series (individually and/or as a total package) upon completion of the series as to whether the articles help fulfill its vision and mission.

Louis DeCola, Jr.                                    © 2011 The Hygiology Post