1. copyright edyoung, PhD, LPC 1 Phase II. Journalizing and the Think-aloud Method: Envisioning The Envisioning Process: The Schemata And Schemes Of Envisioning –Schemata Of Environmental Conditions Perspectives and Orientation to Time –Levels of Perspective Taking –Development of Levels of Perspectives The Hue of Envisioning Is Shaped by Life Experiences Learning to Step Out of Immediacy Switching From Disorienting Envisioning to Centering Restriction and Projection of Perspective Taking Detecting Unrealistic Envisioning Processes, Self Estimation, and World View Revising Your World View and Envisioning Process Understanding and Altering the Way You Approach Your Future

2. copyright edyoung, PhD, LPC 2 The Envisioning Process The Envisioning Process: The next major arena for retroflexive consideration is your future. The future is a memory! The future is constructed out of experiences from the past. Experiences are collected and sorted into patterns and categories. Some of these patterns and categories are hedonically, aesthetically, emotionally, or intellectually more pleasant and become preferences. We want to make preferred experiences happen again. As we develop a concept of the future, we learn to project into the future, to anticipate, plan, and navigate through new experiences until we do make it happen again. As we develop expertise in making things happen, we engage in increasingly more elaborate envisioning. The content and nature of the envisioning process is unique to each individual. The Schemata And Schemes Of Envisioning: the stuff of the future is our collection of past experiences into patterns and categories, some of which are Schemata, or knowledge about the world, and some are patterns of behavior, or schemes. Each person has experienced a unique, small, slice of the world and their future is confined to what was in that small slice. It is as though we have blinders on that keep us from seeing the full range of possibilities in the world. Sometimes what we envision is long on Schemata and short on Schemes and we call these unrealistic and fantasies because we do not have or have not planned for the necessary Schemes to make it happen. Sometimes the reverse is true and we call this impulsivity. In your journalizing, try to determine the exact nature of combination of factors in your envisioning, for example, whether you blindly muddle along or develop elaborate pies in the sky.

3. copyright edyoung, PhD, LPC 3 Schemata Of Environmental Conditions: with respect to Schemata, some people are astute when it comes to knowing what is going on around them and how the world behaves. They are sensitive to and realistic about their environmental conditions and know when, where, and how things are going to happen. They gauge, gear, and pace just right. They make things happen and steer clear of trouble for themselves. Others are oblivious to all this and are routinely buffeted about and can not understand why. In your journalizing, try to assess yourself on this astuteness dimension and then ask your self why your are that way and whether you want to remain as you are. Envisioning and Schemata of the Environment

4. copyright edyoung, PhD, LPC 4 Perspectives and Orientation to Time Perspectives: Some people project far into the future and some look to the next day. Some are oriented to their own schedules but do not take into consideration the relevant schedules of the world or the others with whom their schedules are intertwined. Some begin to envision a future only to wind up reminiscing about the past. Having realistically grounded time perspectives is necessary for coordination and timing and timing is absolutely essential for achieving goals. The Basis for Constructing Our View of the Future: The problem with future time perspectives is that they are based on one’s past. If we think of life as like one great scientific experiment and each person one member of a huge sample, we can turn this idea around and say that, for most people, their one life is representative of the whole of the human race. They generalize from their experience and say that life is like that for everyone everywhere. They are a sample of one. This is not a good basis for constructing an image of the future. A broad, representative sample is the only way to get a realistic picture of the probable future conditions. Maturity involves a move from a sample of one to a representative sample.

5. copyright edyoung, PhD, LPC 5 LEVELS OF PERSPECTIVE TAKING Are you overly focused on one or a few perspectives and neglect other perspectives? World, nation, culture, neighborhood, family Immediately present environment External sensing Inner fee lings and body se nsations Self awareness, thoughts, attitudes, values, intentions The nature of one’s self, patterns of feeling and behaving, relationships, self concept and identity, goals, problems PAST FUTURE

6. copyright edyoung, PhD, LPC 6 Development of Levels of Perspectives Development Of Levels Of Perspective Taking: return and look at slide 5 on Level Perspectives again. In the reflexive technique, we were looking at what levels you tended to focus on to the exclusion of the others. Now we shall examine what you see when you focus on a level and how you came to see it that way. When a person is a child, their awareness is limited to what they can see, touch, hear, etc. Negative sensations produce negative postures toward the object producing pain or discomfort while positive experiences produce positive postures. Such early experiences can set a pattern in motion. The Self and Its Image of the World: Later the child learns more about the people and things in its external environment and is taught about feelings, knowledge, intentions-the inner world. Since these surrounding objects and circumstances are all the child knows, this becomes the child’s image of the world and its self and becomes the basis for its postures toward the world and its self. Expanding Vision Deepening Understanding of Self: Still later in development, the child-adolescent learns about the world beyond its home, learns about the past and increasingly larger segments of its world. It also learns deeper, more abstract aspects of its self. The Long Shadow of the Past: As these inner and outer worlds expand, prior experience casts its hue over all of that expanse. Fate rolls its dice. The arbitrariness of history, which puts each person in their unique home and culture, determines how you will see each level of perspective.

7. copyright edyoung, PhD, LPC 7 The Hue of Envisioning Is Shaped by Life Experiences Envisioning Shaped by Trauma Vs Advantage: People who have experienced a trauma will see a future clouded by the high probability of a reoccurrence of a similar trauma. People who have been severely criticized, judged, punished, abused, treated unfairly or with prejudice, experienced failure or loss frequently, will project a high probability of continuance or recurrence of the same in the future. People who have been coddled, rescued, pampered, indulged, experience unusual good fortune, and the like will project a high probability of continuance or recurrence of that in the future. Projection Influences Current Feelings: What you project into the future affects you today, affects how you feel, how you plan and prepare and work, affects what you avoid. In sum, how you view the future shapes your personality, your development, and your competence so profoundly that you are molded specifically to meet and therefore to bring into being the exact kind of future you envision, even if environmental conditions are just barely accommodating. Traumas are improbable. When we objectively view patterns in history, independent of particular persons, and examine the histories of a variety of types of people, we find that traumas, and all of the other special conditions we project into the future, are highly unlikely to recur. People who anticipate trauma are the only ones with this selective probability. This is like a self fulfilling prophecy. Understanding Your Envisioning Process: Therefore, it is important to try to get a grasp of how you relate to time and time perspectives. See if there might be problems with your time perspectives that could be preventing you from achieving your goals and, if so, ask yourself how and why you got this way and what you want to do about it.

8. copyright edyoung, PhD, LPC 8 Looking up from a deeper perspective Learning to Step Out of the Immediate Intimidating Situation and Taking Broader and Deeper Perspective. World, nation, culture, neighborhood, family Immediately present environment External sensing Inner fee lings and body se nsations Self awareness, thoughts, attitudes, values, intentions The nature of one’s self, patterns of feeling and behaving, relationships, self concept and identity, goals, problems PAST FUTURE The nature of one’s self, patterns of feeling and behaving, relationships, self concept and identity, goals, problems World, nation, culture, neighborhood, family Expanding your perspective to get a better grasp of the immediate situation. Looking down from a broader perspective Immediate situation and circumstance Lost in the Stepping out.

9. copyright edyoung, PhD, LPC 9 When Envisioning Turns Into Terror, Overwhelming Excitement, or Impelling Desire, Switch to Centering. Caught up in the moment and dizzy with overwhelming, whirling ideas of either terror, impelling desire, excitement, grandiosity, or other highly intense, uncontrollable, disorienting thoughts. 1. Switching to focusing on the visible, physical Immediate situation 2. Then focusing on calming feelings and settling thoughts down onto simple, immediate, practical concerns and regaining a sense of centering and balance.

10. copyright edyoung, PhD, LPC 10 Restriction and Projection of Perspectives Myopic Perspectives and Ego Centric Self Explanations: When you are dealing with immediate situations and feelings, you are not thinking about temporal patterns or the causal influences of larger contexts on your immediate reactions. Therefore, you tend to see your reactions as logical and not arbitrary. Ironically, people do learn to attribute causation to local contexts such as family, peers, possessions, etc. When they do, they can conveniently shift the locus of what is controlling their behavior to factors in the local context and use this as a rationalization when under attack. Projection Onto Uncertain, Hazy Remote Time and Distant Contexts: This trend gets extended as one learns about concepts such as government, social organizations, society, other ethnic groups, etc. These larger contexts are not immediately experienced and are like the future which is unknown. Such vague, global concepts are like a Rorschach test into which one can project the residue of their history, their unresolved conflicts, and repressed or suppressed emotions and needs. The government, e.g., becomes one’s protector and benefactor or one’s persecutor and enemy without needing to have any concrete validation for these opinions. However, one can learn strategies to rationalize, manipulate, exploit, or avoid that make use of these projections of benevolence or malevolence. Eventually these strategies become fixed and exert a continuous, powerful influence on behavior, moods, stress levels, and especially envisioning processes..

11. copyright edyoung, PhD, LPC 11 Types of Deflections Away From Realistic and Productive Envisioning Types of unrealistic envisioning processes: – Rumination: What do we ruminate about? Things we feel we are going to be criticized for. – Wish: What do we wish for? We wish for things we feel we want but feel we can not get and feel we cannot achieve. – Daydream: What do we daydream about? We daydream about things we feel are impossible but will make us feel comfortable or titillated and will take us away from our boring and dissatisfying current situation. – Fantasize: What do we fantasize about? We fantasize about things for which we have unfulfilled needs and desires. Sources of unrealistic envisioning processes: – Low self esteem or low estimation of abilities. Overly high self esteem and high estimation of abilities is usually based on low self esteem and low self estimation. – Sense of lack of necessary and appropriate resources. Feeling like an under class or feeling deprived. An inappropriately high estimation of resources is usually based on a denial of lack of resources. – A feeling that one lacks social and emotional support. When one has a feeling that they will be judged, criticized, rejected, or ostracized for failure, they may simply withdraw, or manufacture imaginary support but find a way to be disqualified in order to save face. Unrealistic envisioning processes can mask deep seated anxieties about one’s future and current challenges.

12. copyright edyoung, PhD, LPC 12 Reflexive Journalizing: Detecting Unrealistic Envisioning Processes, Self Estimation, and World View Writing out what you suspect may be your typical envisioning processes and assumptions behind them. Estimation of Abilities: The Best! The Worst! Estimation of Resources: The Most! The Least! Estimation of Supporters: Everyone is backing me! No one is backing me! The Future Ruminations, Wishes, Daydreams, and Fantasies My envisioning processes and underlying assumptions.

13. copyright edyoung, PhD, LPC 13 Reflexive Journalizing and Revising Your World View and Envisioning Process Imagining Possibilities and Altering One’s World Vision: It is important, therefore, to reflect back upon and characterize one’s early influences with respect to perspectives and contrast your own tendency with that of a wide range of types of people. Seeing other possibilities helps one to see the arbitrariness of the mold you were accidentally cast into by fate. –From imagining the envisioning styles of different types of people, one can imagine what living might be like if one were able to focus differently on different levels of perspectives and to integrate knowledge from different levels of perspectives. In other words, you have a chance to redefine by broadening and deepening your world view and your self. Redefining your world view will go a long way toward helping you to break out of the constraints of your past and open up to a new, healthier, happier way of being in that world. –In addition to expanding and integrating levels of perspectives, one can imagine looking at the future from the point of view of different types of moods. Moods cause you to color your vision of the future. The way you color your future will determine your adventuring behavior. –Finally, mood and levels of perspectives will affect how you go about trying to determine factual patterns from the past and scientifically and realistically projecting what the future will be like, regardless of mood. –Integrating and mood of realism with a method of careful study of available information about possible futures increases your possibility of success. Mood and technique can be disconnected. Imagining yourself bringing the two into line with one another may mean giving up a comfortable though ineffective approach to the future.

14. copyright edyoung, PhD, LPC 14 Understanding and Altering the Way You Approach Your Future Return Clarity and realism of vision of future conditions based on research and scientific projections. Rosy Personality coloring one’s view of the future. Propitious The person is optimistic about the prospects for success of their ambitions. Bleak The person is pessimistic about the prospects for success of their ambitions. Realistic The person bases their estimation about the prospects for success of their ambitions on careful, scientific study. The person feels they are going to be taken care of in the future by some type of beneficent force. Dangerous The person sees the future as full of danger and potential disaster, as against him.