From Freud to Brazelton: 100 Years of Child & Parenting Development Theories by Dr. Marty Rossmann 1 ©Learning ZoneExpress Child Development Through The Ages ©Learning ZoneExpress 6th - 15th Centuries Medieval Period 2 Child Development Through The Ages ©Learning ZoneExpress 16th Century Reformation Period 3 Child Development Through The Ages 17th Century Age of Enlightenment John Locke believed in tabula rasa ©Learning ZoneExpress Children develop in response to nurturing. Forerunner of behaviorism 18th Century Age of Reason Jean-Jacques Rousseau – 4 children were noble savages, born with an innate sense of morality; the timing of growth should not be interfered with. Rousseau used the idea of stages of development. Forerunner of maturationist beliefs Child Development Through The Ages 19th Century Industrial Revolution ©Learning ZoneExpress 5 Charles Darwin – theories of natural selection and survival of the fittest Darwin made parallels between human prenatal growth and other animals. 20th Century Theories about children's development expanded around the world. Childhood was seen as worthy of special attention. Laws were passed to protect children, Child Development Definition: – Periods of development: – – ©Learning ZoneExpress – – – 6 Change in the child that occurs over time. Changes follow an orderly pattern that moves toward greater complexity and enhances survival. Prenatal period: from conception to birth Infancy and toddlerhood: birth to 2 years Early childhood: 2-6 years old Middle childhood: 6-12 years old Adolescence: 12-19 years old Domains of Development Development is described in three domains, but growth in one domain influences the other domains. Physical Domain: – Cognitive Domain: ©Learning ZoneExpress – thought processes and intellectual abilities including attention, memory, problem solving, imagination, creativity, academic and everyday knowledge, metacognition, and language. Social/Emotional Domain: – 7 body size, body proportions, appearance, brain development, motor development, perception capacities, physical health. self-knowledge (self-esteem, metacognition, sexual identity, ethnic identity), moral reasoning, understanding and expression of emotions, self-regulation, temperament, understanding others, interpersonal skills, and friendships. Theories What is a theory? – What do theories accomplish? – ©Learning ZoneExpress – 8 Orderly set of ideas which describe, explain, and predict behavior. To give meaning to what we observe. As a basis for action -- finding ways to improve the lives and education of children. Why Study Child & Parenting Development Theories? ©Learning ZoneExpress 1. Helps you understand yourself better 2. It helps understanding of future generations 3. Learn skills and techniques for interaction with children 4. Allows a measure of normal behavior 5. Grants a greater appreciation of development throughout life. Sigmund Freud • Erik Erikson • Maria Montessori Jean Piaget • Urie Bronfenbrenner • Lev Semenovich Vygotsky Abraham Maslow • Arnold Gesell • John Bowlby • Rudolph Dreikurs Lawrence Kohlberg • B.F. Skinner • Benjamin Spock Diana Baumrind • T. Berry Brazelton • Howard Gardner 9 Why Study the Selected Theories? ©Learning ZoneExpress 10 The selected theories: – Have been popular and influential. – Represent different approaches to parent-child interaction. – Offer help in the “real world” of daily child-rearing. – Make good common sense. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) Psychoanalytic Theory The unconscious is the source of motivations. ©Learning ZoneExpress 11 Individuals go through stages in childhood and adolescence that shape their adult personality. Behavior is influenced by the unconscious mind. Early experiences affect development in later life. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) Psychoanalytic Theory ©Learning ZoneExpress The unconscious is the source of motivations. 12 Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) Psychoanalytic Theory The unconscious is the source of motivations. The personality development of a child is complex. Psychic Life Functions: – ID - present at birth; directs need gratification; ©Learning ZoneExpress pleasure seeking; and pain avoidance. 13 – EGO - Responsible for contact with day to day reality; – SUPEREGO - Internal interpretation of the rules and predicts probable outcomes of behavior choices. values of the environment. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) Psychoanalytic Theory ©Learning ZoneExpress The unconscious is the source of motivations. 14 Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) Psychoanalytic Theory The unconscious is the source of motivations. Defense Mechanisms: – Repression - pushing depressing matters out of consciousness. – Sublimation - substituting acceptable ways of expressing feelings. – Regression - returning to an earlier way of adjusting to problems. – Compensation - substituting success in one area for failure in ©Learning ZoneExpress another. 15 – Rationalization - giving a socially accepted reason for a behavior – Escape - leaving a distressing situation, either physically or that was not socially acceptable. psychologically. Erik Erikson (1902-1994) Psychosocial Theory There are stages of psychological development. ©Learning ZoneExpress 16 Focus is on: – Developing a healthy personality. – Humans develop throughout their life span in eight stages. – Individuals need to develop identity at each stage. – Culture is a part of a person’s socialization. – If an individual does not achieve a stage, the consequences may be alterable later in life. Erik Erikson (1902-1994) Psychosocial Theory There are stages of psychological development. Psychosocial Stages: – Trust vs. Mistrust (0-12 to 18 mos.) – Autonomy vs. Doubt (18 mos. to 3 years) ©Learning ZoneExpress 17 – Infant forms a loving, trusting relationship with parent or is frustrated and lacks self-confidence. Child needs to develop self-control with firm, gradual and kindly support of parents so the child does not lose selfesteem. Initiative vs. Guilt (4-6 years) Child gains skill in language and exploring and needs guidance from parents to proceed in life in a selfconfident, guilt-free way. Erik Erikson (1902-1994) Psychosocial Theory There are stages of psychological development. Psychosocial Stages: – Industry vs. Inferiority (7-12+ years) – Identity vs. Role Confusion (12-18 years) ©Learning ZoneExpress 18 Child pursues and completes activities that produce something and gain recognition from parents, teachers and friends. Failure makes the child feel inadequate and inferior. The sense of “who I am” and what part I play in society (occupation, politics, sex roles, religion, etc.) is determined. Parents have new expectations for the adolescent. Those who don’t develop effective steps toward a tangible future may be insecure, confused and lack self-esteem. (There are more stages for adults, not shown here.) Erik Erikson (1902-1994) Psychosocial Theory ©Learning ZoneExpress There are stages of psychological development. 19 Maria Montessori (1870-1952) Parents as Preschool Educators Parents guide their children’s development. ©Learning ZoneExpress 20 Each child has an innate unique talent. Children should be guided with love and affection to expected behavior. Children should use hands-on activities to learn how to care for themselves and a home. Parents should be aware that learning takes place in a sequence. Parents should not be too quick to criticize or correct. Parents should encourage their child to do as much as possible on their own. Arnold Gesell (1880-1961) Developmental Maturational Theory Heredity plays a role in children’s development. ©Learning ZoneExpress 21 Children develop in an orderly sequence set by heredity. No developmental event will take place until the child is ready for it to happen. Maturity traits are identified in steps in areas such as: – – – – Motor activity, personal function Emotional expression, fears Sexuality Social relations and playtime Dr. Arnold Gesell Jean Piaget (1896-1980) Cognitive Development Theory Understanding & supporting a child’s learning. Two processes are essential for development: – Assimilation ©Learning ZoneExpress – 22 Learning to understand events or objects, based on existing structure. Accommodation Expanding understanding, based on new information. Jean Piaget (1896-1980) Cognitive Development Theory Understanding & supporting a child’s learning. Sensorimotor (Birth – 2 years) – – – – – ©Learning ZoneExpress 23 Learning about world through 5 senses (see, feel, hear, smell & taste). Learning to control and manipulate muscles (small & large motor skills). Learning about self (egocentric). Learning from trial and error (12-18 months). Thinking about how to do something without actually doing it. Preoperational (2-7 years) – – – – Learning by using language and mental images. Learning to internalize thought process. Continuing to be egocentric. Learning by watching and performing. Jean Piaget (1896-1980) Cognitive Development Theory Understanding & supporting a child’s learning. ©Learning ZoneExpress 24 Concrete Operational (6 or 7-12 years) – Learning to understand someone else’s point of view. – Learning to resolve problems with logic. – Learning conservation (amounts of liquid remain the same, even if the shape changes). Formal Operations (13 years – adult) – Thinking logically, abstractly, and hypothetically. – Testing theories by hypotheses. – Understanding right vs. wrong. – Glimpse of complexity of knowledge in teens leads some to believe they understand nothing and others to believe they are on the verge of understanding everything. Lev Semenovich Vygotsky (1896-1934) Socio-Cultural Theory Culture & experiences play a role in a child’s learning. Patterns and ways of learning are outcomes of the practices experienced by the child in the culture where the child grew up. Five Step Process: – – ©Learning ZoneExpress – 25 – – Step 1 - Adult provides tools, modeling, guidance, interaction and encouragement. Step 2 - Child performs task under adult guidance and adult asks appropriate questions and expands on the child’s responses. Step 3 - Adult helps child develop tasks into smaller segments and assesses child’s understanding. Step 4 - Adult provides the “scaffolding” (support) necessary in a learning situation. Step 5 - Adult guides child into new situations by having child transfer familiar knowledge to the unfamiliar. ©Learning ZoneExpress Socio-Cultural Theory 26 Urie Bronfenbrenner (1917- ) Human Ecology Theory Influences on parents and child are complex. ©Learning ZoneExpress 27 Interactions with others and environments influence parent-child relations. To understand a child, one must understand not only their relationships with their parents and siblings, but also the complex network of interrelated behavior patterns and roles among all family members that comprise the system. Urie Bronfenbrenner (1917- ) Human Ecology Theory Influences on parents and child are complex. ©Learning ZoneExpress 29 Interactions among parts of the system impact parent-child relationships: – Child’s self esteem. – Relationships between parent(s) and child. – Relationships between parents. – Relationships among all family members. – Informal supports (such as neighbors). – Institutional relationships (such as faith community). – Socio-economic, culture and political influences. – Natural environments (such as air and water quality). 30 ©Learning ZoneExpress Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) Human Needs Theory Human needs influence each person’s development. ©Learning ZoneExpress 31 Influence of a hierarchy of human needs on personality. Lower need must be filled before upper-level needs receive attention. Child’s genetic potential will not flourish unless they are nurtured by adults as the child grows. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Need to maximize one’s potential. Need for self-respect and self-esteem and for the esteem of others. Need for community, family, friends, lover, affection & intimacy. Need for security, stability, freedom from fear, structure & order. Need for shelter, food, clothes, air, sleep, and activity. John Bowlby (1907-1990) Attachment Theory Bonding is an essential part of a child’s development. Attachment describes the strong feeling that binds children emotionally to their parents. Parent’s ability to adjust and accommodate to their child’s behavior style is the key determinant of a child’s attachment to a parent. – ©Learning ZoneExpress – 33 – If a parent is warm and responsive then a child will be securely attached (cry when parent leaves, greets parent happily upon their return). If a parent is not sensitive or responsive then the child will be anxious avoidant (rarely frets when parent leaves and avoids the parent when they return). If a parent is inconsistent, sometimes responsive, sometimes not, then the child will be anxious resistant (frets before parent leaves, seeks contact when parent returns, but also resists contact by pushing away). Rudolph Dreikurs (1897-1972) Children of Challenge Principles to guide a parent raising a child. Children are motivated by a desire to belong. Children are expert observers, but make mistakes in interpreting what they observe. Children exhibit goal-seeking behaviors. Selected principles: ©Learning ZoneExpress – 34 – – Understand the child’s goals — usually the goal will be for attention, power, revenge or to appear to be inadequate. Encourage the child. Avoid punishment and rewards. Rudolph Dreikurs (1897-1972) Children of Challenge Principles to guide a parent raising a child. – – – – – – ©Learning ZoneExpress – 35 – – – – Use natural and logical consequences. Be firm without dominating. Respect the child. Maintain routines. Sidestep power struggles. Refrain from over-protection. Follow through — be consistent. Listen. Have fun together. Talk WITH your child, not TO them. Establish a family council. Lawrence Kohlberg ( 1927-1987) Moral Development Theory Identifies steps toward character development. Children are moral philosophers. Children experience a series of predictable stages in their moral reasoning. Levels of Moral Development: ©Learning ZoneExpress – 36 Level 1 – Preconventional (4-10 years) Decisions are based on consequences. Stage 1 - Children respond to threat of punishment. Stage 2 - Children learn that correct action brings reward. Lawrence Kohlberg ( 1927-1987) Moral Development Theory Identifies steps toward character development. – Level 2 – Conventional (10 years and older) Decisions are based on social rules and expectations. ©Learning ZoneExpress – 37 Stage 3 - Children are concerned about other’s opinions and that “good” behavior pleases others. Stage 4 - Law and order are important. Level 3 – Postconventional (some adolescents and adults) Decisions are based on personal ethics of what is morally right. Stage 5 - Moral decisions are made through understanding that society’s rules are for everyone and were made by consensus. Stage 6 - Universal principles determine right from wrong. John Watson Behaviorism Theory ©Learning ZoneExpress 38 Early 20th century, "Father of American Behaviorist theory.” Based his work on Pavlov's experiments on the digestive system of dogs. Researched classical conditioning Children are passive beings who can be molded by controlling the stimulus-response associations. B.F.Skinner (1904-1990) Operant Conditioning Theory Role parents play in shaping child’s behavior. ©Learning ZoneExpress 39 Emphasizes the role of the parent in reinforcing (rewarding) the child’s behaviors. Consequences of a behavior lead to changes in its frequency. Behavior patterns will change if the child is rewarded, ignored or punished. B.F.Skinner (1904-1990) Operant Conditioning Theory Role parents play in shaping child’s behavior. Conditioning functions: – – Consequences include: ©Learning ZoneExpress – 40 Shaping behavior - reinforcing a behavior “close” to the desired behavior. Chaining behavior - linking together a series of small steps toward the desired behavior. – – Positive reinforcement - something that causes an act to increase in the future, i.e. a child smiles and gets a hug. Negative reinforcement - child causes unpleasantness to cease, i.e. parents “lecture” stops when child cleans room. Punishment - unpleasant act by parent discourages behavior in the future, i.e. T.V. privileges taken away. Benjamin Spock (1903-1998) Baby and Child Care Encourages parents to trust themselves and enjoy their baby. Parents should: – – – ©Learning ZoneExpress – 41 – – – Understand there are great differences between individual children — and that some children are more difficult than others. Understand that parents have needs that should be met. Understand that it’s hard work to be a parent. Love and respect their children. Feed babies when they’re hungry. Let their tired babies cry, after checking to make sure they aren’t hungry, cold or need a diaper changed. Understand there is a need to be flexible. Diana Baumrind (1926- ) Parenting Styles Theory The way parents set limits and love their children. Permissive: – – – Authoritarian: ©Learning ZoneExpress – 42 Parent accepts the child’s wishes and is passive in discipline. Parent makes few demands on child. Child may wonder if the parent cares about them. – – – Parent values obedience. Parent teaches respect for work, others, and order. Parent shapes, controls and evaluates behavior of child with set of conduct rules. Child may feel anger; and be resentful of parents. Diana Baumrind (1926- ) Parenting Styles Theory The way parents set limits and love their children. Authoritative: – – – ©Learning ZoneExpress – 43 Parents encourage verbal give and take. Parents provide firm limits with love and support. Parents affirm child’s good attributes. Child feels cared about and knows family rules are consistently enforced. T. Berry Brazelton (1919- ) Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale Early physical, neurological & emotional development. The Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS) ©Learning ZoneExpress 44 Brazelton Assesses the physical and neurological responses of newborns as well as their emotional well-being and individual differences. Focuses on individual differences of newborns and cross-cultural studies of infant behavior and early parenting practices. Stresses the importance of early intervention for at-risk parents and their babies. Emphasizes the development of attachment in the first four months. Identifies opportunities in early infancy for strengthening families. Howard Gardner (1943- ) Multiple Intelligences Theory Eight innate “intelligences” of learning. There are eight distinct forms of intelligence that everyone possesses in varying degrees. Parents should focus on the intelligences of their children. Different cultures emphasize different intelligences. Verbal/Linguistic: – ©Learning ZoneExpress – 45 – Able to use words and languages — communicates effectively by speaking, listening, reading & writing. Uses reason, logic and numbers. Sensitive to the meaning of words and enjoys writing, reading and crossword puzzles. Logical/Mathematical: – – Thinks in logical & numerical patterns, and detects patterns. Incorporates mathematical and scientific abilities and drawn to strategic games and experiments. Howard Gardner (1943- ) Multiple Intelligences Theory Eight innate “intelligences” of learning. Musical/Rhythmic: – – – Visual/Spatial: – – ©Learning ZoneExpress – 46 – Appreciates and produces music — is a discriminating listener. Thinks in sounds, rhythms, and patterns. Sings and drums to him or herself. Thinks in pictures, remembers with vivid mental images. Perceives the visual and represents spatial information graphically. Controls body movements and handles objects with skill. Spends free time drawing, using building blocks, or daydreaming. Bodily/Kinesthetic – – – Processes knowledge through sensations in the body. Expresses him or herself through movement. Has good eye-hand coordination and balance. Howard Gardner (1943- ) Multiple Intelligences Theory Eight innate “intelligences” of learning. Interpersonal – – – Intrapersonal – – ©Learning ZoneExpress – 47 Relates to others and understands other’s feelings and intentions. Detects differences among people. Likes to maintain peace and have everyone cooperate. Reflects on oneself and is aware of one’s inner state of being. Self-motivated and understands his/her role in relation to others. Understands one’s emotions can direct one’s behavior. Naturalist – – Advocates or practices naturalism — and recognizes dangerous species and categorizes new and different organisms. Identifies manmade species (“artificial taxonomies”) such as wearing apparel or cars. Related Activities Complete one of the following activities: Study one theorist and present your findings to the class pretending YOU are that theorist. In a group of 3 or more, work with and observe young children (at daycare or playschool). Based on your observations: – – ©Learning ZoneExpress 48 Determine which theories your group feels are most “valid”. OR come up with your own theory about child behavior. View a movie about parent-child relationships and write a review — include how the theories apply to the story. Class Activity: – – Tape an index card with the name of a theorist and their theory on the back of each student. Students then ask questions that can be answered “yes” or “no” to try to guess which theorist is on their card. Who am I? - Theorists Quiz Name each of the following theorists: 1. My theory states that human needs must be met at more basic levels before they move up to more complex levels. ©Learning ZoneExpress 2. My theory states that children learn cognitively at four distinct levels. 49 3. My theory says that there are numerous distinct forms of intelligence that everyone possesses to some degree. Who am I? - Theorists Quiz Name each of the following theorists: 4. My theory lists stages people travel through during their entire lifetime. ©Learning ZoneExpress 5. I believed that freedom for children enables them to do things independently. 50 6. My theory about moral decisions goes through stages ending with the one when people make decisions based on what is morally right or wrong. Web Resources Here are some suggested web sites for additional information on child and parenting development: – http://www.zerotothree.org/ – http://npen.crc.uiuc.edu/ ©Learning ZoneExpress – 51 National Parenting Education Network http://www.pathfinder.com/ParentTime/ – Zero to Three National Center for Infants, Toddlers and Families Parent time http://www.hec.ohip-state.edu/famlife/nnfr/pfp/ Partners for Parenting database Please note that web sites are constantly changing and being updated. You may need to revise this list.


SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS FOR THE CRUCIBLE
Go to the Learning Guide for this film.
Pre-Viewing Enrichment Worksheet
Enrichment Worksheets are a TWM innovation containing text and questions designed to get students thinking. Questions are focused on comprehension, application, analysis, syntheses or evaluation. Questions can be answered in class or as homework, as quickwrites, journal entries, formal essays, or research papers. For a version of the Worksheet in word processing format, click here. Worksheets should be reviewed and modified as necessary to make sure they are suitable for the class.
The Witchcraft Trials of 1692 and the Red Scare of 1947 - 1956
Witchcraft hysterias occurred in both Catholic and Protestant areas of Europe from about 1480 through the end of the 1600s. Scholars estimate that from 1500 to 1660, some 50,000 to 80,000 suspected witches, 80% of them women, were executed. Persecutions continued into the 1700s. In Europe, witchcraft persecutions often led to more devastating effects than the hysteria in Salem. In some cities hundreds were executed as witches. In a few Swiss villages, after the waves of anti-witch hysteria, there were scarcely any women left.
The Salem Witchcraft trials of 1692 led to the imprisonment of more than 100 people and the execution of 20. Four died in prison. Men were executed as well as women. The accusations were made by a group of young women demonstrating symptoms of hysteria. They accused various people in the village of appearing to them as specters that would pinch, suffocate or stab them. Often the only way those accused could avoid being hanged was to confess guilt and to give the names of other alleged witches.
Question 1: What is your image of how a witch would look and behave and how would such an image engender fear even in powerful men and women?
The twenty people executed in Salem were those who continued to maintain their innocence, refused to confess, and would not name others. Nineteen were hanged. One man, Giles Corey, was pressed to death, a method of torture used in England on people who would not plead in court. A plea was necessary before the court could take jurisdiction and condemn the prisoner. It was thought that the weight of rocks on the chests of the accused would push the words "guilty" or "not guilty" from their lips.
The only words that pressing got out of Giles Corey were, "more weight, more weight." Historians believe that Corey thought he would be condemned anyway and by refusing to plead he prevented the court from finding that he was a witch. Upon conviction as a witch, his property would have been confiscated and his children would have been without an inheritance. This suggests that for some, the witch trials were motivated by a desire for material gain.
In writing about the Salem witch trials, Arthur Miller sought to re-create the atmosphere in which hysteria can thrive and spread to others; he never claimed that his play was historically accurate. Most historians agree that he gets the sense of the times right: the fear, the intensity, the infectious nature of the hysteria, the retribution brought down upon those who doubted the accusers, and the use of the situation by certain individuals to expropriate and sell the land of the accused.
Arthur Miller was clearly more interested in the story of the Salem witch trials as a metaphor for the Red Scare of the period 1947-1956 than in a study of American history in colonial times. In the years after World War II, competition between the U.S. and the Soviet Union became intense. Spies from the Soviet Union stole secrets of making an atomic bomb. There was great fear of communists in the country, which was fanned by politicians from both parties. President Truman established Loyalty Boards to ferret out communists in the federal government. Other politicians sought headlines and political advantage by making unsupported accusations about the presence of communists in the government or other institutions. Suspicion was extended to people who had joined non-communist political organizations that were later labeled as communist front organizations because they took the same positions as the Communist Party.
The most notorious politician to foment the Red Scare was Senator Joseph McCarthy. He came to prominence with by chairing a special Senate investigating committee and by making mostly baseless claims that communists had infiltrated the State Department and other agencies of the government. When he attacked the U.S. Army in televised hearings, the irresponsibility of this conduct was made manifest and McCarthy was eventually censured by the Senate. McCarthy's name has come to be associated with political attack using guilt by association, innuendo, and unsupported charges.
Question 2: Why would an ordinary person care if another person's freedom of speech is restricted due to extreme political beliefs?
The main vehicle for what came to be known as the "McCarthyites" or the "redbaiters," because of the association of the color red with communism, was the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). This was a committee of the House of Representatives which would call witnesses to testify and demand that they disclose their past political associations. Witnesses were required to repent their connection with the Communist Party of the USA or left wing political organizations and to identify other people who had attended legal political meetings. Refusal to cooperate with the HUAC would ruin careers. If a witness refused to testify about past political associations, relying on the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the witness would be cited for contempt of Congress. The government would then prosecute the witness for criminal contempt of Congress. Some people were convicted and sent to federal prison for several years. Witnesses who cooperated with the HUAC and the McCarthyites, who disavowed their prior leftist connections, and who named others with liberal political associations, were exonerated.
Loyalty boards, both state and federal, conducted thousands of loyalty hearings in which public employees and people who held licenses issued by the states were accused of harboring communist sympathies. Persons accused of disloyalty were required to demonstrate that they were not communists. Often these hearings were not conducted by judges and there were no rules of evidence. Unsupported suspicion was often enough to cost a person his or her job or license to practice a profession. Proceedings could be leaked to the press resulting in ruined careers and reputations. There was never any demonstration that these hearings increased the security of the United States.
Private industry also capitulated to the redbaiters, firing people based on unsupported accusations and placing their names on blacklists which prevented them from getting other jobs in their profession. One of the most infamous blacklists was in the entertainment industry. It included the names of more than a hundred people and was extended to include those who had supported many of the reforms that the communists had also supported and even those who simply opposed the blacklist. Hollywood studios hired a business called "Red Channels" to investigate the background of people seeking to work in the film industry. The redbaiters came to have a financial interest, in addition to their political interests, in extending the hysteria, just as some of the participants in the witch hunts centuries earlier obtained an economic benefit from the hysteria.
Question 3: What was so frightening about individual American's participating in the Communist Party that society would respond as if they were serious threats to the democratic system?
The Communist Party of the United States was organized in 1919. In the 1930s and early 1940s, in response to the inability of the American economy to provide jobs and financial security during the Great Depression, many socially conscious Americans joined liberal organizations. Some joined the Communist Party. However, voters in the U.S. have never supported the Communist Party; it has never elected a representative to Congress nor has it been popular with the "oppressed masses" it sought to champion. After the Second World War, as the authoritarian and anti-U.S. nature of the Soviet Union became apparent, membership in the Communist Party, USA dropped to virtually nothing. Because of protections specified in the First Amendment, it has never been illegal to belong to the Communist Party.
The Communist Party, USA was thoroughly penetrated by the FBI. An old joke goes that at some communist party meetings, there were more undercover FBI agents, posing as members of the party, than real communists.
[End of Worksheet]
Additional Helpful Background:
The first film version of the play was produced in France in 1957 and entitled "Les Sorcieres de Salem". The screenplay was written by Jean Paul Sartre and the film was directed by Raymond Rouleau. It was produced in France because movie makers in the United States were afraid of being branded as communist sympathizers if they made the film. The play was not made into a movie until 1996, some five years after the Soviet Union collapsed.
Arthur Miller (1915 - 2005) was one of America's greatest playwrights. His works include "Death of a
Salesman" and All My Sons; Miller and his plays have been
the recipient of many awards including the Tony Award, the
Pulitzer Prize, and the New York Drama Critics Awards. Most
of Miller's plays concern the responsibility of people to
each other in light of the common goals shared by
Additional Discussion Questions:
Continued from the Learning Guide...
QUESTIONS RELATING TO THE WITCHCRAFT TRIALS AS A METAPHOR FOR THE RED SCARE OF 1947 - 1956:
5. Miller reports the following facts at the end of the play:
Twenty years after the last execution, the
government awarded compensation to the victims still
living and to the families of the dead. However, it is
evident that some people still were unwilling to admit
their total guilt, and also that the factionalism was
still alive, for some beneficiaries were actually not
victims at all, but informers ....
How do you account for the facts that Miller notes? Suggested Response: As time passed and the hysteria was long gone, people were able to look back and see rationally what had really happened. They no longer felt threatened.
[Within 20 years after the witchcraft trials] to all intents and purposes, the power of theocracy in Massachusetts was broken.
6. Name other situations in which a feeling of hysteria caused the deaths of innocent people? Suggested Response: There are many. They include: anti-Semitic pogroms in Russia; the Holocaust; the genocide in Cambodia, 1975 to 1997, and the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
7. Do you believe that the torture of prisoners by U.S. authorities at Abu Ghraib, the prison at Guantanamo and other locations, was justified or did it betray American core values? Suggested Response: This is a matter of debate, but most people would answer that torture is against basic American values. In addition, torture has not been shown to be an effective interrogation technique. People in great pain will tell the interrogator anything to get the pain to stop.
8. One of the explanatory paragraphs Miller inserted into his play states the following:
When one rises above the individual villainy displayed, one can only pity them all, just as we [America during the Red Scare] shall be pitied someday. It is impossible for man to organize his social life without repressions, and the balance has yet to be struck between order and freedom.
Identify some social repressions in your life. Suggested Response: There is no one correct answer. Examples that students might cite are: clothing regulations at schools, restrictions on what students can write in the student newspaper, restrictions on the use of profanity or hate speech, etc.
9. Does the fact that there were a few Soviet spies who may have been able to cause serious harm to the country justify the denial of rights to thousands of innocent individuals? Give your reasons. Suggested Response: A good discussion will include the following: The First Amendment protects the rights to free speech and political association. Membership in the Communist Party has never been illegal. One of the foundations of the American society, from the Founding Fathers onward, has been that it is much worse for innocents to be punished than for some of the guilty to go free. People are considered innocent until proven guilty. The government has many other resources with which to catch spies. As the character of Sir Thomas More in A Man for All Seasons said "If you tear down all the protections of the law, when the wind blows again where will you find shelter?"
QUESTIONS RELATING TO LITERARY ELEMENTS
10. In terms of story, rather than historical accuracy, which character serves as the narrative's protagonist? Suggested Response: John Proctor is the protagonist. The story is his. It is his sexual philandering that rouses Abigail to generate the hysteria against witchcraft, he is the one who grows in terms of honor, and it is through his character that the moral lessons of the play are taught.
11. Which character serves as the antagonist? Suggested Response: Abigail is the antagonist. Her desire to seek revenge against John Proctor or to win his affections causes the tension in the film and provokes the changes in both John and his wife, Elizabeth, that create theme. It could also be said that the community which allows itself to become the prosecutor of John Proctor is also the antagonist. Abigail acts through the community.
12. What gives Abigail the power to disrupt the community and to get many young women to follow her lead in claiming witchcraft? Suggested Response: Answers will vary. Students may suggest that a general sense of sexual repression existed in the time period in which the film is set and this may have given rise to pent up sexual frustrations released in the hysteria. The opening scene, with the fire and nude dancing exemplifies this. Guilt may have been a factor as well as fear of reprisal. It was easier for these girls to blame witchcraft for sexual longing than to admit the feelings themselves. Others may decide that John Proctor gave Abigail the power to provoke the hysteria with his sexuality and by his provocative behavior; Abigail seems to believe that it is Elizabeth Proctor who keeps John away from her, rather than his own desire.
13. In what ways does Elizabeth Proctor change through the course of the story? Suggested Response: Elizabeth Proctor is a cold and punitive woman until the moment she realizes that her husband is threatened. At this point she lies to protect him, choosing to value love over honesty. Ironically, this dooms her husband. She then forgives him for his adultery, admits her feelings of jealousy and insecurity, apologizes for her coldness and encourages him to remain true to himself. Her redemption results in her death.
14. Before Elizabeth forgives him, Proctor is willing to sign the false confession in order to save his life and hers. But after she forgives him he chooses to die rather than to admit to something he didn't do. Can you explain this change of mind? Suggested Response: Here is one explanation. Once his wife absolves him of his guilt, Proctor is able to regain his self-respect and act according to his higher nature. He will not falsely name others. In his refusal, with his new found self-respect, he comes to the point where he will not name himself; he tears up the confession and gets on the wagon with the other doomed townspeople.
15. What irony can be found in the scene in which John Proctor and two others are hanged? Suggested Response: The three condemned citizens are reciting the Lord's Prayer which includes the words: "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." This recitation brings into clear focus the merciless, even murderous nature of the good Christian people of the village who are watching the hanging. Those being trespassed against are doing the forgiving.
TWM's Standard Questions for Use With Any Film That is a Work of Fiction and Lesson Plans Using Film Adaptations of Novels, Short Stories or Plays help stimulate student interest and assist in the exploration of characterization, plot, theme, and other literary devices.
Social-Emotional Learning Discussion Questions
See Discussion Questions 1 and 2 in the Learning Guide and 5 - 8 above.
1. Was Elizabeth Proctor in any way responsible for her husband's infidelity? Suggested Response: John Proctor was responsible for his actions. Many people misunderstand this type of question and take it as a question about factual causation. Certainly, a cold and unloving spouse will, as a matter of fact, contribute to any infidelity by the other spouse. This is especially true in societies in which divorce was not a practical option. However, people are responsible for their own actions and while John Proctor may have had complaints against his wife, he is the one who committed adultery.
2. Should Elizabeth have forgiven her husband's infidelity? Suggested Response: Forgiveness liberates both the person who forgives and the person who is forgiven. When the transgressor is truly remorseful, forgiveness is a win/win proposition. Once Elizabeth forgave her husband, he was able to regain his self-respect and act according to his higher nature. Forgiveness allowed Elizabeth to get in touch with her feelings of love for her husband.
Discussion Questions Relating to Ethical Issues will facilitate the use of this film to teach ethical principles and critical viewing. Additional questions are set out below.
(Be honest; Don't deceive, cheat or steal; Be reliable -- do what you say you'll do; Have the courage to do the right thing; Build a good reputation; Be loyal -- stand by your family, friends and country)
1. Are there any circumstances in which a person should admit to doing something that he or she didn't do? If so, when? Suggested Response: While it might be easier in the short run, many untoward consequences can flow when a person admits to crimes or offenses that he or she did not commit. Once the admission is made, it is very hard to withdraw it. In a criminal court, once a conviction occurs based on the admission, it is like any other conviction. Punishments for later infractions will be worse. Jobs may be lost, etc.
2. If you were John Proctor, or any of the other people accused of being witches, and you were faced with the choice of the hangman's noose or confessing your own guilt to imaginary crimes while accusing innocent people of conspiring with you, what would you have done? Suggested Response: Condemning yourself is one thing. It's risky, as described in the preceding questions, but implicating other people is clearly unethical.
(Play by the rules; Take turns and share; Be open-minded; listen to others; Don't take advantage of others; Don't blame others carelessly)
3. What is wrong with guilt by association? What can we tell from the fact that one person associates with another? Suggested Response: That one person associates with another, tells us very little about each of those persons. For example, if a person is seen talking to a member of Al Qaeda, this doesn't tell us that the other person is a terrorist. It might be grounds for suspicion and heightened surveillance, but the fact of the association or of repeated association proves nothing. There is also a constitutional aspect to this question, since the First Amendment protects freedom of association. It is illegal for the government to take action against a person because of mere political association.
Post-Viewing Enrichment Worksheet
The following Enrichment Worksheet will give students valuable information and is suitable to distribute after they see the film, either before or after class discussion. Click here for a version of the worksheet in word-processing format.
Notes on "The Crucible"
Arthur Miller, the man who wrote "The Crucible" commented on the connection between the Salem witch trials and the Red Scare. Describing the time he spent going over original documents from the time of the trials. He said,
. . . [G]radually, over the weeks a living connection between myself and Salem, and between Salem and Washington, was made in my mind & for whatever else they might be, I saw that the hearings in Washington were profoundly and even avowedly ritualistic. After all, in almost every case the [House Un-American Activities] Committee knew in advance what they wanted the witness to give them: the names of his comrades in the [Communist] Party. The FBI had long since infiltrated the [Communist] Party, and informers had long ago identified the participants in various meetings. The main point of the hearings, precisely as in Seventeenth Century Salem, was that the accused make public confession, damn his confederates as well as his Devil master, and guarantee his sterling new allegiance by breaking disgusting old vows -- whereupon he was let loose to rejoin the society of extremely decent people. In other words, the same spiritual nugget lay folded within both procedures -- an act of contrition done not in solemn privacy but out in the public air. The Salem prosecution was actually on more solid legal ground since the defendant, if guilty of familiarity with the Unclean One, had broken a law against the practice of witchcraft, a civil as well as a religious offense; whereas the offender against HUAC could not be accused of any such violation but only of a spiritual crime, subservience to a political enemy's desires and ideology. He was summoned before the Committee to be called a bad name, but one that could destroy his career. . . . Timebends, A Life by Arthur Miller, page 331.
Several years after he wrote "The Crucible," Arthur Miller himself was called to testify before the HUAC. He refused to answer the Committee's questions about the names of persons who had been present at meetings of writers that he had attended in the 1930s. As a result, he was charged with criminal contempt of congress, tried and then convicted. The conviction was later thrown out by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Question 1: Why would one of the country's most celebrated playwrights risk going to jail for refusing to give names that the HUAC already had in its files?
It has been argued that there were no real witches while there actually were real communists, some of whom were subservient to the Soviet Union, a real threat. Miller responds that during the time of the Salem trials, the best minds in America and in Europe believed in the existence of witches. He notes that on three occasions, the Bible warns against witches. Historians, both secular and religious, confirm that witches have existed and continue to exist, though not in the stereotypical image used to raise hysterical fear in centuries past; they never rode broomsticks nor did they have green skin, although they may have used frogs in some of their traditional remedies. Both witches and communists were feared, both reviled. Both were seen as a serious threat to the dominant paradigm and as such had to be eliminated, especially when there was economic or political gain to be had in the process. Miller comments on the offense of the accused in both situations:
The House Un-American Activities Committee [had] been in existence since 1938, but the tinder of guilt was not so available when the New Deal and Roosevelt were openly espousing a policy of vast social engineering often reminiscent of socialist methods. But as in Salem, a point arrived, in the late forties, when the rules of social intercourse quite suddenly changed, or were changed, and attitudes that had merely been anti-capitalist-antiestablishment were now made unholy, morally repulsive, and if not actually treasonous then implicitly so. America had always been a religious country. Timebends, A Life by Arthur Miller, pages 341 & 342.
The House Un-American Activities Committee was abolished in 1975. The religious fervor Miller mentions can be seen in the term "godless communists" that was commonly used in the period following World War II and in the sudden inclusion of the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Question 2: How does religion play a role in the anti-terrorist campaign being waged around the globe today?
The universality of the "The Crucible" is demonstrated by the fact that people in countries other than the U.S. can use the play/film as a window through which to view their own efforts to gain the personal freedom. Miller, in his autobiography, describes the following incident:
In Shanghai in 1980, ["The Crucible"] served as a metaphor for life under Mao and the Cultural Revolution, decades when accusation and enforced guilt ruled China and all but destroyed the last signs of intelligent life. The writer Nien Cheng, who had spent six and a half years in solitary confinement and whose daughter was murdered by the Red Guards, could not believe that a non-Chinese had written the play. "Some of the interrogations," she said, "were precisely the same ones used on us in the Cultural Revolution." It was chilling to realize what had never occurred to me until she mentioned it -- that the tyranny of teenagers was almost identical in both instances. Timebends, A Life by Arthur Miller, page 348.
"The tyranny of teenagers," is the focus of action in the "The Crucible" but not in the American experience during the Red Scare. No youthful exuberance can explain the excess of the McCarthy and HUAC hearings, or the two hundred years of persecution suffered by witches prior to the events in Salem. Miller's play brought forth the universal truth of religious and political intolerance and as such it is important in the world-wide battle for rights clearly spelled out in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.
[End of Worksheet]
Continued from the Learning Guide...
4. "The Crucible" provides opportunities for teachers to develop expository writing skills in a format that is important in terms of mass media today. Students can be asked to write investigative reports, as might appear in a newspaper or on an internet site dedicated to explaining in-depth information. The reports are expository, but are addressed to an audience other than a teacher. Students need to understand their audience and try to keep interest levels high as they explain the information necessary to hold the attention of an intelligent reader. Any of the following topics are ideal offshoots of the concepts presented in "The Crucible".
- The Inquisition as oppression of pagans;
- Witch trials worldwide;
- The underlying causes of McCarthy era investigations; and
- Propaganda in film promoting government causes, such as WWII [Note that TWM has Learning Guides to Allied propaganda films from the Second World War: "Mrs. Miniver" (England) and "Ballad of a Soldier" (Soviet Union).]
5. Opinion pieces are an excellent tool to teach persuasion. Keeping with mass media as the audience for their essays, students can be asked to develop logical, informed papers that are supported with facts and pointed argumentation. Either side of the following posits can be addressed:
- Fear is a potent tool of a repressive governmental system;
- The First Amendment does not mean the government must accept as valid, religions that frighten the population;
- The anti-pagan movement, including the witch trials, was misogynistic, directed primarily against women;
- The Great Depression was the result of panic and fear.
Debates can be organized for any of the topics raised in the discussion questions or in the assignments. More sophisticated classes may want to address the following:
Which of the two Proctors, John or Elizabeth, was most culpable in creating the situation that resulted in their deaths?
All students can be asked to memorize the First Amendment and to recite this crucial addition to the U.S. Constitution aloud.
Any of the writing assignments can be presented to the class as oral reports by one or a group of students. See also additional Assignments for use with any Film that is a Work of Fiction and TWM's guide to Lesson Plans Using Film Adaptations of Novels, Short Stories or Plays.
Other Lesson Plans:
Bridges to Reading:
This play was written to be read as well as
performed. Miller has inserted explanatory paragraphs which
describe the various characters in the play and which set out
his views. See, for example, the first explanatory insert in Act
One, in which Miller describes the fact that the dangers of
Indians and famine, which the Puritan theocracy was organized to
combat, were lessening and that certain people in Salem were
chafing at the restrictions of Puritan society:
The Salem tragedy, which is about to begin in these
pages, developed from a paradox. It is a paradox in whose
grip we still live, and there is no prospect yet that we
will discover its resolution. Simply, it was this: for good
purposes, even high purposes, the people of Salem developed
a theocracy, a combine of state and religious power whose
function was to keep the community together, and to prevent
any kind of disunity that might open it to destruction by
material or ideological enemies. It was forged for a
necessary purpose and accomplished that purpose. But all
organization is and must be grounded on the idea of
exclusion and prohibition, just as two objects cannot occupy
the same space. Evidently the time came in New England when
the repressions of order were heavier than seemed warranted
by the dangers against which the order was organized. The
witch-hunt was a perverse manifestation of the panic which
set in among all classes when the balance began to turn
toward greater individual freedom.
Classes can also read the following passages of Miller's autobiography Timebends, A Life.
Pages 332 - 335 contain a description of his meeting with Elia Kazan, the famous director of plays and television, when
Kazan tried to explain his decision to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee.
At pages 336 and 337 Miller describes his examination of the original court
records in Salem and his discovery of the dramatic center of the play.
When one rises above the individual villainy displayed,
one can only pity them all, just as we [America during the Red Scare]
shall be pitied someday. It is impossible for man to organize his social
life without repressions, and the balance has yet to be
struck between order and freedom.
Historical novels suitable for middle school and junior high
readers concerning the Salem witchcraft trials and witchcraft
trials in general include: Beyond the Burning Time by Kathryn
Lasky; Hester Bidgood - Investigatrix of Evill Deedes by H.W.
Hildick; Tituba of Salem Village by Ann Petry, Crowell.
For an interesting look into the concept of witches, students may want to read The Seventh Son, by Orson Scott Card and Bless Me Ultima, by Rodolfo Anaya.
Links to the Internet:
Selected Awards, Cast and Director:
Selected Awards: 1997 Academy Awards Nominations: Best Writing,
Best Screenplay based on Material from Another Medium (Miller); Best
Supporting Actress (Joan Allen); 1997 Golden Globe Awards
Nominations: Best Supporting Actor (Scofield).
Featured Actors: Daniel Day-Lewis, Winona Ryder, Paul Scofield,
Joan Allen, Bruce Davison, Rob Campbell.
In addition to websites which may be linked in the Guide and selected film reviews listed on the Movie Review Query Engine, the following resources were consulted in the preparation of this Learning Guide:
- A Delusion of Satan, the Full Story of the Salem Witchcraft Trials by Frances Hill; Doubleday; 1995;
- Timebends, A Life, Arthur Miller, Grove Press, Inc., New York, 1987;
- The Portable Arthur Miller; edited by Christopher Bigsby; Penguin Books; 1977.
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Aristotle occupies an indispensable position in the study of moral philosophy. So much of what he said has shaped up our thinking today. No serious student or teacher of this subject could intelligently absorb himself in a philosophical discussion without coming to terms with Aristotle’s thoughts.
Together with Socrates and Plato, Aristotle (384-322 BC) completed the triumvirate of the great Greek philosophers. He was born in Stagira in northern Greece and educated for twenty years in the Academy, the famous school instituted by Plato.1 Although he did not become the chosen successor of Plato in the Academy, Aristotle became the most notable pupil of Plato and whose achievement was the only thing that exceeded Plato’s promethian work. After Plato’s death, he returned to Macedonia and became a tutor to Alexander, the son of King Philip of Macedonia and who later created one of the greatest empires in human history. He came back to Athens and established his own school, which he named Lyceum.
He devoted the rest of his life to teaching, writing, and research in a surprisingly broad range of topics, which included metaphysics, logic, ethics, and other philosophical subjects, and physics, biology, psychology, and other empirical sciences. Although he compartmentalized knowledge into many sciences, he did this in line with his over all thrust of constructing a “system” of knowledge that sought to explain everything coherently.
Ethics is one of the major intellectual preoccupations of Aristotle. It may not be as precise as his other scientific treatises, but his ethics, which is based on “character-formation,” serves as a systematic, if not complete, guide to living a good life. He believes that a good life is achieved through a long and rigorous process of habituation to good practices.
What were the works of Aristotle in ethics?
Aristotle’s ethical teachings were compiled under three titles, each of which was written in a different stage in his career. These include Eudemian Ethics, Magnia Moralia, and Nicomachean Ethics. For most scholars, among these three, the Nicomachean Ethics (NE) is the most complete work that explains his mature views in ethics.2 In this light, our discussion will revolve much around the basic themes of the NE, with special emphasis on character-building and virtues; after all, “ethics” refers essentially and originally to “ethos,” the Greek word for character.
It is particularly important to note that for Aristotle, although ethics has its own distinctive subject matter, it is intimately entwined with politics. As a matter of fact, NE is just the first volume of a two-volume study of politics. Aristotle, in Book I of NE, says that his inquiry is a kind of political science.3 The second volume is entitled “Politics,” which is suppose to be a sequel to the former. Both are practical sciences, dealing with the practical aspects of the human society and how the state and the individual could make good life possible.
What is “teleological” and “naturalistic” ethics?
Aristotle’s ethical account is distinctively labeled as teleological and naturalistic. Teleological because it embraces the belief that man, like any other being, has an “end” (telos), towards which his very existence intends and finds meaning. All actions terminate in this end. His ethics is also naturalistic because it describes the “end” as something natural to man. Thus, the end towards which man’s life is intended is in accordance with his nature.
Happiness as the ultimate end…
Aristotle was seeking for man’s ultimate end, that is, the ultimate “product” of all human acts. It is not just an end as activity but an end as the ultimate product of all activities. If this end is that towards which everything terminates and that which does not refer to further ends, then this end is an end-in-itself. For the human beings, this ultimate good or end is Happiness (eudaimonia). Happiness is that which people always choose for the sake of itself and not for something else. Money is not our end, since it is just useful for getting something else. Even intelligence and virtue are not good in themselves, but good only because they make people happy. Happiness is found to be something perfect and self-sufficient, being the end to which all actions are directed.
People may have different opinions about the meaning of happiness. However, the happiness thought of by Aristotle and other Greeks is very much different from its English counterpart. They construed eudaimonia not as a feeling or emotional well-being, but as fulfillment, success, or flourishing, which reflect very significant aspects of the social life of ancient Greeks. For the Greeks, happiness is a matter of living (energeia) the right way. In addition, Aristotle stressed that happiness is something that does not happen in the flickering moments of our lives. Rather it is something that lasts. Good things that happen once in a while are forgetful, but constant joy bears a lasting impact and qualifies for true happiness. True happiness lasts because it is a product of rigorous training and constant application of rules that remain stable and universal throughout our life’s journey.
Happiness as the proper exercise of reason…
Happiness is the intended product of virtuous living. If happiness is the highest human good then it consists of the proper function of man, not just of some of his parts but of his whole being. Man is a hegemony of reason, so to function properly, he must use his highest faculty, which is reason, in ordering all his actions and endeavors. Happiness is then said to be man’s proper and constant exercise of reason.
It would be hard to appreciate Aristotle’s happiness philosophy without going into the intricate details of his discussion of the particular virtues. Happiness is an activity, achieved through a constant and habitual practice, just as a flutist in order to be good constantly develops his skill with the flute. Through his study of the virtue, we are led into a plausible path towards the happiness.
What are virtues?
As the “mean” disposition…
If something functions properly, then it becomes good. But if it malfunctions, then it falls short of goodness. For man, he is said to function correctly if he does the right actions. Actions are product of deliberation or choice. Someone is said to have done the right act if he has made the right choice. And right choice is that which follows the rule of the “golden mean,” which states that the good is always found somewhere between what is deficient and excessive.
Generosity or liberality is the mean in relation to wealth, i.e. to the taking and giving of wealth, more especially the giving.7 Its excess is prodigality or squander, and its deficiency is illiberality. The former vice is for Aristotle more favorable than the latter because it can be checked by teaching the value of money. Magnificence, which also involves the sphere of getting and spending but in a major sense, requires a good sense of taste. The deﬁciency of this state is called niggardliness, and its excess vulgarity.8 In face of honor (in the smaller scale), it is good to have a proper ambition, but vicious if excessive or deficient.9 Magnanimity, which also involves the sphere of honor and dishonor, but in a major sense, is the disposition of knowing the honor your worthy of.10 A magnanimous person is great and always seeks his rightful place. Its excess is vanity or conceit, and its deficiency is pusillanimity.
Character is derived from the Greek word χαρακτερ which originally connotes a mark impressed upon a coin. It then evolved into the word used generally to mean a distinctive mark by which one thing is distinguished from another. Today, it primarily means the assemblage of qualities that distinguish one individual from another.
Character, inasmuch as it is an observable phenomenon, is now a subject matter properly tackled by psychology. Nonetheless, modern empirical psychologists trace their roots in the philosophical treaties of Aristotle with regards to his discussion of character. Among the Greek moralists, he has provided the most psychologically insightful account on character for the modern empirical psychologist. His account provided them with an ample amount of data regarding character-building very much applicable to child rearing and other socially oriented matters.
As a part of the soul…
According to Aristotle, character is a part of the soul. The soul has three components: passions, faculties and states of character. The passions are man’s feelings, desires, fears, anger, ambitions, and others. The faculties are man’s natural capacities and potencies for feeling and acting. And the states of character are thought to be the complex tendencies or dispositions to act and feel in certain ways under certain circumstances. Nature allows us to have characters because they are ingrained in our souls. Nonetheless, they are just ingrained “potencies” and it is up to us to perfect them through habit.
As a disposition…
Character is a disposition: it is a disposition to act and also a disposition to feel. For Aristotle, character is determined by actions and at the same time it determines future actions. It is determined by a long-term practice of actions developed into habits, which in turn will be the pattern for which actions are to be undertaken. Character also involves emotions so it is a disposition to feel. By emotions we mean the cultivated and habituated, and not the immediate impulses.
Virtue is a character or disposition.21 It is not a feeling or a faculty. Feeling may move us to act and faculty determine our capacity for feeling, but only in virtue is man a subject of praise or blame.
Virtuous and Vicious…
A person who always does virtuous things, towards the right people, for the right end, and in the right way by striking the mean, will certainly be a virtuous person. While a person who always does vicious things by repeated actions of extremes and deficiency will certainly be a vicious person. The character of a virtuous person is cultivated first by habituation. Eventually, this constant practice will lead to knowledge and understanding of the action itself. And when one fully understands the whys of his actions then he will learn to enjoy and continue choosing them for their own sake, and thus act out of a settled state of character.22 A virtuous person necessarily takes pleasure in his actions. Thus, one’s enjoyment of his actions serves as a proof that he is a virtuous person.
Continent and Incontinent…
When a virtuous person reacts to the things around him, there is harmony in his emotions and reason.24 The virtuous person’s soul then, is whole, unified and not tattered. This is what distinguishes the virtuous person from other states of being such as continence, incontinence and vice. The continent and the incontinent persons are divided by the conflict of their desire and will. Like the vicious person, one part of their soul is upset at being restrained, and another is delighted by the intended action.25 This dichotomy tears them apart. In contrast to a vicious person, the continent and incontinent persons have internal conflicts, but are, nevertheless, more aware of their inner conflicts than the morally vicious person. Continence is essentially a kind of self-mastery; right reason overcoming negative desires.26 The continent person recognizes what he should do and does it, but to do so he must struggle against the pull of recalcitrant feelings. On the other hand, incontinence is a kind of softness or inconsistency. He knows that his actions are wrong, but still does them because of his feelings.27 The incontinent person in some way knows what he should do, but fails to do so because of recalcitrant feelings.
Divine Virtue and Brutishness…
For Aristotle, divine virtue and brutishness are the best and worst moral states possible to every individual. Divine virtue, on the one hand, is considered as virtue that exceeds the usual human mode of virtuosity. It is virtue in the fullest sense; a state close to divinity. Brutishness, on the other hand, is a moral state close to being an animal. It is a disposition wherein thoughtful action is absent and, therefore, only involuntary wrongdoings are present. In a sense, the agent in this state looses the highest part of his nature and tends to be an animalistic and irresponsible agent.
By giving the correct fundamentals…
The human mind starts to know something either in an a priori or a posteriori manner. The goodness of virtue or habit is not a naturally acquired knowledge innate to us since birth. They are known a posteriorily in the sense that we acknowledge them first as given to us as “the that.”28 But the human mind must justify the “that” taught to them in their initial encounters of what is good. So, the essentiality of the “that”, the good fundamentals, could only be fulfilled when one understands and applies it from the heart. The “that” must be complemented by the “because” for it to be complete. So in order for one to become familiar with common beliefs he needs a good upbringing.29
To have good fundamentals is the first step in having a good character. If one has a good upbringing and correct fundamentals then he has the correct starting point.30 The importance therefore of the fundamentals lies in its being an indispensable starting ground or origin for the development of a good character. This is why, for Aristotle, goodness could only be found and achieved in a selected few.
For Aristotle, the proper way of acquiring the fundamentals is through habituation.31 There are three modes of acquisition: induction, perception and habituation. The starting points for ethical actions are acquired through habituation just as bodily actions are acquired through perception of some bodily necessity.
As stated above, the origin of a good character is the acquisition of good fundamentals through habituation and internalization. Habituation, therefore, is the process by which the origins of character development take shape. It is a developmental process in which one increases his power of discernment in his perceptual, affective and deliberative capacities. It is not solely a rigid process of constructing a mind of tabula rasa into a mechanistic one. Aristotle insinuated that in the process of habituation the agent must be able to know that he is doing a virtuous action, decide on them and do the actions from a firm and unchanging state.32 Habits are therefore voluntary and moral actions.
Aristotle says that all are born with the potential to be morally virtuous, but it is only by behaving in the right way that people train themselves to be virtuous.
Aristotle’s theory of habituation speaks loudly of his general goal of imparting a practical science. Ethics is practical and it becomes useless if it remains in the domain of the abstract. Habituation is not mere theoria; it is essentially praxis. The notion therefore of character is not merely an abstract concept equally the same as modern concept of “personality” but a state which necessarily arises from the repetition of similar activities.33
Are we Responsible for our Character?
Since habituation is a product of active deliberation and voluntary action, it is evident that character, the result of habituation, accounts for the responsibility of the person. Yet, one might object that people should not be held responsible for their voluntary actions because being negligent or evil may be part of their character. But Aristotle firmly holds that a person is always responsible for his character as well as his actions arising from his character: “…A man is himself responsible for becoming careless, because he lives in a loose and carefree manner; he is likewise responsible for being unjust or self-indulgent… For a given kind of activity produces a corresponding character.”35
Is a solitary life better than a shared life?
For Aristotle, contemplation is the excellence of man’s intellect. Since the intellect is the highest thing in man, and the objects that it apprehends are the highest things that can be known,contemplation is the highest form of activity.36 Man can therefore be happy by himself when he engages in contemplation.
Unlike any other activity, contemplation is the most continuous activity. It is also the most pleasant and most self-sufficient. Aristotle also says that contemplative life is a god-like life because we come closer to the Divine realities. In Book X, chapters 7–8, he gives it a special position, making it the pinnacle of a well-lived life, the highest of all human activities.
Although one can achieve happiness in his solitude through contemplation, Aristotle asserts that friendship is a better condition than solitariness. A self-sufficient life is one whose activities are intrinsically worthy. It has its ends which are worth choosing regardless of what may become of them. Aristotle is not concerned to justify friendship because it conduces to or promotes self-development but because it is part of a self-contained, fully realized life.
Aristotle says that even the contemplative man needs external goods in order to be happy. These goods may be good birth, good children, and beauty. Man is a political animal and there is nothing more that affirms this statement than his life as essentially openness for friendship.
It is remarkable to note that two of the ten books of the Nicomachean Ethics is devoted to friendship (philia). This is because philia involves a wide variety of human relationships, and not because it is of more importance than the subject on contemplative life.
There are three types of friendship: friendship based on utility (pragma), friendship based on pleasure, and friendship based on goodness of character. The first two are superficial and not long-lasting because they are based on an unstable foundation. The third, however, is the best type because it is based on a stable ground. It is the love for “who” the other person is and not the love for “what” the other person can give. A virtuous person treats others according to their personhood and not according to what they can give him. He treats others as individuals who has persons and not merely as objects of his personal interests.
To know the goodness of one’s life, one needs to have intimate friends whose lives are similarly good, since one will be able to evaluate life when it is not his own. Man knows the kind of life that he has through his friends; his alter egos.
It is in living in activity with others that one becomes more continuously active and more fully happy. A solitary life will be a hard life, for it is not easy to keep up a continuous activity by yourself as you will easily get tired of what you’re doing. Unlike the solitary person, one who engages in activity with others will have the joy of companionship.37
According to Aristotle, our life’s project is to be happy, and building a good character is necessary. Put simply, our happiness consists in having a balanced life.
For many reasons contrary to our present understanding, Happiness for Aristotle is living a moral life. It is having the stability and consistency of character. It is thriving in a strong disposition, a flourishing, that neutralizes the seducing power of pleasure.
In order to achieve happiness, it is imperative that one has already developed a good character. A virtuous person is a happy person while a vicious person is a miserable person, even though it may seem, as usually the case, that the latter enjoys more the luxuries in life.