X-Message-Number: 11044 From: "Scott Badger" <> Subject: Self-Efficacy Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1999 00:13:17 -0600 To George: Thanks for trying to clarify your position. I think that you're correct when you say that language is a difficult medium for these ideas. I continue to respectfully disagree with what I believe is the primary gist of your arguments, but I will attempt to elaborate on the reasons why through a personal e-mail rather than prolong the identity debate on Cryonet. To Everyone Else: I will say that I came away from my doctoral studies endorsing the notion that one of the healthiest psychological attributes to nurture in one's self and in others is "self-efficacy" (as conceptualized by Albert Bandura). Those with a strong sense of self-efficacy tend to be resilient (adaptive) when faced with personal challenges, and Natural Selection tends to reward the adaptive. Low self-confidence invites normal fears to develop into a host of pathological anxieties. Low self-confidence also opens the doors to feelings of helplessness and hopelessness so typical of depressive disorders. I admire cryonicists precisely because they have taken the construct of self-efficacy to the next level. They take action rather than submit to the fears provoked by death. They refuse to be helpless, and most of all, they refuse to give up hope. When I first encountered the Humanist movement, I was attracted to their tenets, but when people of faith asked, "But how can you have any hope in your life? How can you find any true meaning?" . . . the Humanists basically replied, "We find meaning in the lives we experience and the people we share those lives with." which is a pretty good answer but I didn't really find it to be very consoling. Life still appeared to be a relatively brief and hopeless journey. There are so many more people I want to meet, so many more subjects I want to study, so many places I want to see. All this information and I only get a few lousy decades? C'mon . . . I could spend dozens of lifetimes and not get my fill! Sometimes I wonder if one of the reasons people don't sign up in greater numbers is because they don't have a real lust for life. In fact, I wonder if there is a positive correlation between longevity and the amount of value we tend to place on life. For example, would people be less likely to take signifcant chances with their lives (e.g. riding in a car, skydiving, etc.) if they had already lived for hundreds of years and had hundreds/thousands more to possibly lose? Would our grief be greater for someone who died at the age of 1000 vs. someone who died at 75? I guess we'll find out. I just want to add that I'm grateful to cryonicists for offering a profoundly hopeful and meaningful message to us all. Best wishes to all for the new year, Scott Badger Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=11044