An FAQ/Overview of Henriques' Unified Framework
What Kind of Synthesis is Being Offered by Henriques' Unified Framework?
Dr. Henriques' unified framework offers a new way to integrate human knowledge. His intellectual journey began with the recognition that psychology was hopelessly fragmented at the conceptual level, and he discovered a new way to see the whole in the late 1990s, and his perspective has been growing since that time. Since Plato's Republic, many in the academy have wondered if a grand synthesis of knowledge is possible. Dr. Henriques' take is that the "fault lines" of knowledge were found in psychology, and as such, solving the problem of psychology opens up a new vision for the integration of human knowledge. It starts with psychology, and grows into science and finally philosophy. Ultimately, Henriques' UTUA Framework sets the stage to tell the synthetic story of philosophy in a new, coherent, and comprehensive way. (See, e.g., The Problem of Psychology and the Integration of Human Knowledge: Contrasting Wilson’s Consilience with the Tree of Knowledge System).
What is the UTUA Framework for psychology and psychotherapy?
The UTUA Framework is, first and foremost, a new conceptual system for psychology and psychotherapy. UTUA (pronounced ə tü ä’) stands for the combination of "the unified theory of psychology" (UT) and a "unified approach to psychotherapy" (UA). Both the UT and the UA consists of four separate, but interlocking ideas. The ideas that make up the UT are: 1) The Tree of Knowledge System; 2) the Justification Hypothesis; 3) Behavioral Investment Theory; and 4) Influence Matrix. Henriques' 2011 book, A New Unified Theory of Psychology, delineated how these four ideas can define the science of psychology and assimilate and integrate the key insights from the major paradigms (i.e., evolutionary, behavioral, cognitive, psychodynamic, humanistic, and sociocultural perspectives) into a coherent whole. The unified approach to psychotherapy (UA) also consists of four separate, but interlocking ideas, which are: 5) Character Adaptation Systems Theory; 6) the Character Wheel; 7) the Nested Model of Well-being; and 8) the CALM MO approach to psychological mindfulness. Henriques is currently in the process of developing a follow up book, The UTUA Framework: A New Vision for Psychology and Psychotherapy.
As indicated by this list, the UTUA framework consists of a number of different parts. Learning the UTUA framework does take time and effort, similar to learning a new language or a paradigm in psychology, like Freud's psychoanalysis. But it is worth it because it solves longstanding conceptual problems that have been at the heart of psychology, science, and philosophy, and it gives rise to a coherent vision for the field, and for understanding human behavior and our place in the cosmos writ large.
Blogs summarizing the system:
My 20-year Journey Toward a Unified Framework
The Unified Theory: A Blog Tour
What does the Tree depicted to the right represent?
Henriques has developed a number of graphics that serve to map out the UTUA Framework to help guide individuals through the various components of the system. The UTUA Tree depicted here is one such graphic. The four branches on the left make up the "UT" portion of the Tree (and the pictured graphics in the flowers correspond to the ideas 1-4 listed above). Likewise, the four branches on the right make up the "UA" portion, and the graphics there correspond to the ideas numbered 5-8.
The yellow and green yin-yang "M. E." symbol in middle of the tree specifies the fundamental ingredients of knowledge that make up the UTUA Framework. The "M" stands for "metaphysical" and the "E" stands for "empirical". Metaphysical is a philosophical term which refers to the concepts and categories that a system uses to describe reality. Concepts like energy, matter, behavior, mind, and consciousness, for example. Metaphysics can also be thought of as the broadest of philosophical considerations and refers to the cosmology, ontology, epistemology, and ethical philosophical frames and assumptions that anchors the system is. One of the great challenges of the earliest philosophers was the following starting point: Define your terms. One of the most striking aspects of Henriques' UTUA framework has a very clear system of definitions--it is a new metaphysical map of definitions and their interrelations. In contrast to metaphysical, empirical refers to data and information about factual states of affairs, acquired either via direct observation or more systematic experimentation via the scientific method. The UTUA Framework emphasizes the need to attend to both key concepts and categories and empirical findings to develop a synthetic understanding.
What purpose does the UTUA Framework serve?
The UTUA Framework introduces a new map of human knowledge in general, and of psychology in particular. A key claim justifying UTUA is that, in contrast to mainstream psychology, the system is both up to the task of describing and honoring the complexity of human behavior, and is capable of assimilating and integrative key/valid insights and findings from the major historical perspectives into a single, coherent system. This is in contrast to the multiple conflicting paradigm approach of mainstream psychology. A fundamental assertion that justifies the need for UTUA is that the field of psychology has never had a good conceptual system for integrating the paradigms and organizing its empirical findings. This is called "the problem of psychology." This refers to the fact that the field of psychology has, since its inception, resisted a clear definition and an agreed upon subject matter. Although the field is often defined in textbooks as "the science of behavior and mental processes," this definition can easily be shown to be conceptually flawed.
Chapter on The Problem of Psychology
Blogs on the problem of psychology:
Getting Clear about the Problem of Psychology The "Is Psychology a Science" Debate
This is What is Wrong with the Core of Psychology Torture and the Identity of Psychology
Why the Clinical Scientist Model Fails Psychology's Tower of Babel
Why Psychology Thinks You Are Average
Why is the problem of psychology fundamental to the UTUA project?
The problem of psychology is symptomatic of deep conceptual problems in our current big picture understanding. In fact, there are a number of interlocking philosophical problems that have historically made the problem of psychology so intractable. Some of the primary problems include: 1) the mind-body-brain-behavior-consciousness problem; 2) the animal versus human problem (i.e., the ways are humans like or continuous with other animals, the ways are they different); 3) the relationship between the natural sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities; 4) the relationship between facts (i.e., questions of what "is") and values (questions about what "ought to be"); 5) the relationship between objective (i.e., scientifically describable behaviors), subjective (theater of personal experience) and intersubjective (i.e., shared, socially constructed narratives); and 6) the relationship between science of psychology and the professional practice. The field of psychology currently is a tangled mass of ideas that exists on the fault lines of these conceptual problems. Psychology has resisted a clear definition because it resides on the fault lines of these issues, and no system prior to the UTUA Framework could effectively untangle them. Put differently, the problem of psychology is deeply diagnostic of profound conceptual problems that exist at the heart of human knowledge systems in general and the field of psychology in particular. The fact that the field of psychology cannot be effectively defined demonstrates that there is something conceptually wrong with modern psychology, and knowledge systems more generally. Henriques claims that the validity of our science is every bit as dependent upon the validity of our concepts as it is on our empirical data; as such, much attention must be paid to the "metaphysics" of psychology, something that modern, mainstream psychology completely misunderstands.
For blogs on how the UTUA Framework solves the problem of psychology:
Psychology's Grand Unified Theory
The Enlightenment Gap and Psychology's Metaphysical Problems
What Should Psychology Be?
Considerations Regarding the Unification of Psychology
The Human Mind: An Informational Interface Approach
How does the UTUA Framework work?
Mainstream psychology is committed to empiricism, which refers to gathering data and information about factual states of affairs via the scientific method. This is a crucial element of the scientific method. However, without a clear conceptual map of the parameters of the subject matter and related definitions, empirical investigations (which are currently framed by operational definitions from individual researchers) yield mountains of information, but little in the way of deep and cumulative understanding of the human condition. Rather than starting with empiricism, UTUA starts with metaphysics and meta-theory (although it never loses sight of the need for empirical grounding). That is, it starts by an analysis of the "big picture" view (i.e., the evolution of the cosmos), and then moves from that point to develop an integrative or consilient (i.e., coherent and integrated) map that provides new ways to define key concepts such as behavior, mind, and human consciousness. This is what makes UTUA a "Metaphysical Empirical" system (referenced above in terms of the green and yellow flower in the center of the Tree's trunk).
Another way of describing how UTUA works is by characterizing it as a new "language game" for psychology (and philosophy more broadly). Later in his career, the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein characterized knowledge systems as "language games," by which he meant that knowledge systems were tools for achieving certain goals. Via delineating the problem of psychology, Henriques' analyses show that there are no adequate "language games" in psychology that are up to the task of effectively describing its subject matter. The UTUA framework resolves that problem by delineating a new conceptual scheme that solves the key problems and introducing a new "language game system" that is up to the task of dealing with both human psychology and the challenges posed by psychotherapy. As the first chapter in his book on the unified theory, From Racing Horses to Seeing the Elephant, describes it, the system allows for a new way to put the puzzle pieces of psychology together to see the whole.
What are the key ideas that make up UTUA?
First Key Idea. The most important idea is the first branch on the UTUA Tree, which is called the Tree of Knowledge System, depicted below. (And yes, there is a Tree of Knowledge within the UTUA Tree). The ToK System is a new map of cosmic evolution. Consistent with the Big History movement and other conceptions of emergent evolution, the ToK maps cosmic evolution on the dimensions of time (x-axis) and complexity (y-axis). As shown in the diagram, the universe "springs into being" via the Big Bang, which happens approximately 13.8 billion years ago. Then particles, atoms, stars and planets evolve (the material dimension). Then, on the surface of the planet earth about 4 billion years ago, we see the emergence of cellular life. Then about 600,000,000 years ago we see animals with brains evolve. Then, about 100,000 years ago, human change accelerates, ultimately giving rise to modern day society.
Dr. Henriques' unified framework offers a new way to integrate human knowledge. His intellectual journey began with the recognition that psychology was hopelessly fragmented at the conceptual level, and he discovered a new way to see the whole in the late 1990s, and his perspective has been growing since that time. Since Plato's Republic, many in the academy have wondered if a grand synthesis of knowledge is possible. Dr. Henriques' take is that the "fault lines" of knowledge were found in psychology, and as such, solving the problem of psychology opens up a new vision for the integration of human knowledge. It starts with psychology, and grows into science and finally philosophy. Ultimately, Henriques' UTUA Framework sets the stage to tell the synthetic story of philosophy in a new, coherent, and comprehensive way. (See, e.g., The Problem of Psychology and the Integration of Human Knowledge: Contrasting Wilson’s Consilience with the Tree of Knowledge System).
What is the UTUA Framework for psychology and psychotherapy?
The UTUA Framework is, first and foremost, a new conceptual system for psychology and psychotherapy. UTUA (pronounced ə tü ä’) stands for the combination of "the unified theory of psychology" (UT) and a "unified approach to psychotherapy" (UA). Both the UT and the UA consists of four separate, but interlocking ideas. The ideas that make up the UT are: 1) The Tree of Knowledge System; 2) the Justification Hypothesis; 3) Behavioral Investment Theory; and 4) Influence Matrix. Henriques' 2011 book, A New Unified Theory of Psychology, delineated how these four ideas can define the science of psychology and assimilate and integrate the key insights from the major paradigms (i.e., evolutionary, behavioral, cognitive, psychodynamic, humanistic, and sociocultural perspectives) into a coherent whole. The unified approach to psychotherapy (UA) also consists of four separate, but interlocking ideas, which are: 5) Character Adaptation Systems Theory; 6) the Character Wheel; 7) the Nested Model of Well-being; and 8) the CALM MO approach to psychological mindfulness. Henriques is currently in the process of developing a follow up book, The UTUA Framework: A New Vision for Psychology and Psychotherapy.
As indicated by this list, the UTUA framework consists of a number of different parts. Learning the UTUA framework does take time and effort, similar to learning a new language or a paradigm in psychology, like Freud's psychoanalysis. But it is worth it because it solves longstanding conceptual problems that have been at the heart of psychology, science, and philosophy, and it gives rise to a coherent vision for the field, and for understanding human behavior and our place in the cosmos writ large.
Blogs summarizing the system:
My 20-year Journey Toward a Unified Framework
The Unified Theory: A Blog Tour
What does the Tree depicted to the right represent?
Henriques has developed a number of graphics that serve to map out the UTUA Framework to help guide individuals through the various components of the system. The UTUA Tree depicted here is one such graphic. The four branches on the left make up the "UT" portion of the Tree (and the pictured graphics in the flowers correspond to the ideas 1-4 listed above). Likewise, the four branches on the right make up the "UA" portion, and the graphics there correspond to the ideas numbered 5-8.
The yellow and green yin-yang "M. E." symbol in middle of the tree specifies the fundamental ingredients of knowledge that make up the UTUA Framework. The "M" stands for "metaphysical" and the "E" stands for "empirical". Metaphysical is a philosophical term which refers to the concepts and categories that a system uses to describe reality. Concepts like energy, matter, behavior, mind, and consciousness, for example. Metaphysics can also be thought of as the broadest of philosophical considerations and refers to the cosmology, ontology, epistemology, and ethical philosophical frames and assumptions that anchors the system is. One of the great challenges of the earliest philosophers was the following starting point: Define your terms. One of the most striking aspects of Henriques' UTUA framework has a very clear system of definitions--it is a new metaphysical map of definitions and their interrelations. In contrast to metaphysical, empirical refers to data and information about factual states of affairs, acquired either via direct observation or more systematic experimentation via the scientific method. The UTUA Framework emphasizes the need to attend to both key concepts and categories and empirical findings to develop a synthetic understanding.
What purpose does the UTUA Framework serve?
The UTUA Framework introduces a new map of human knowledge in general, and of psychology in particular. A key claim justifying UTUA is that, in contrast to mainstream psychology, the system is both up to the task of describing and honoring the complexity of human behavior, and is capable of assimilating and integrative key/valid insights and findings from the major historical perspectives into a single, coherent system. This is in contrast to the multiple conflicting paradigm approach of mainstream psychology. A fundamental assertion that justifies the need for UTUA is that the field of psychology has never had a good conceptual system for integrating the paradigms and organizing its empirical findings. This is called "the problem of psychology." This refers to the fact that the field of psychology has, since its inception, resisted a clear definition and an agreed upon subject matter. Although the field is often defined in textbooks as "the science of behavior and mental processes," this definition can easily be shown to be conceptually flawed.
Chapter on The Problem of Psychology
Blogs on the problem of psychology:
Getting Clear about the Problem of Psychology The "Is Psychology a Science" Debate
This is What is Wrong with the Core of Psychology Torture and the Identity of Psychology
Why the Clinical Scientist Model Fails Psychology's Tower of Babel
Why Psychology Thinks You Are Average
Why is the problem of psychology fundamental to the UTUA project?
The problem of psychology is symptomatic of deep conceptual problems in our current big picture understanding. In fact, there are a number of interlocking philosophical problems that have historically made the problem of psychology so intractable. Some of the primary problems include: 1) the mind-body-brain-behavior-consciousness problem; 2) the animal versus human problem (i.e., the ways are humans like or continuous with other animals, the ways are they different); 3) the relationship between the natural sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities; 4) the relationship between facts (i.e., questions of what "is") and values (questions about what "ought to be"); 5) the relationship between objective (i.e., scientifically describable behaviors), subjective (theater of personal experience) and intersubjective (i.e., shared, socially constructed narratives); and 6) the relationship between science of psychology and the professional practice. The field of psychology currently is a tangled mass of ideas that exists on the fault lines of these conceptual problems. Psychology has resisted a clear definition because it resides on the fault lines of these issues, and no system prior to the UTUA Framework could effectively untangle them. Put differently, the problem of psychology is deeply diagnostic of profound conceptual problems that exist at the heart of human knowledge systems in general and the field of psychology in particular. The fact that the field of psychology cannot be effectively defined demonstrates that there is something conceptually wrong with modern psychology, and knowledge systems more generally. Henriques claims that the validity of our science is every bit as dependent upon the validity of our concepts as it is on our empirical data; as such, much attention must be paid to the "metaphysics" of psychology, something that modern, mainstream psychology completely misunderstands.
For blogs on how the UTUA Framework solves the problem of psychology:
Psychology's Grand Unified Theory
The Enlightenment Gap and Psychology's Metaphysical Problems
What Should Psychology Be?
Considerations Regarding the Unification of Psychology
The Human Mind: An Informational Interface Approach
How does the UTUA Framework work?
Mainstream psychology is committed to empiricism, which refers to gathering data and information about factual states of affairs via the scientific method. This is a crucial element of the scientific method. However, without a clear conceptual map of the parameters of the subject matter and related definitions, empirical investigations (which are currently framed by operational definitions from individual researchers) yield mountains of information, but little in the way of deep and cumulative understanding of the human condition. Rather than starting with empiricism, UTUA starts with metaphysics and meta-theory (although it never loses sight of the need for empirical grounding). That is, it starts by an analysis of the "big picture" view (i.e., the evolution of the cosmos), and then moves from that point to develop an integrative or consilient (i.e., coherent and integrated) map that provides new ways to define key concepts such as behavior, mind, and human consciousness. This is what makes UTUA a "Metaphysical Empirical" system (referenced above in terms of the green and yellow flower in the center of the Tree's trunk).
Another way of describing how UTUA works is by characterizing it as a new "language game" for psychology (and philosophy more broadly). Later in his career, the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein characterized knowledge systems as "language games," by which he meant that knowledge systems were tools for achieving certain goals. Via delineating the problem of psychology, Henriques' analyses show that there are no adequate "language games" in psychology that are up to the task of effectively describing its subject matter. The UTUA framework resolves that problem by delineating a new conceptual scheme that solves the key problems and introducing a new "language game system" that is up to the task of dealing with both human psychology and the challenges posed by psychotherapy. As the first chapter in his book on the unified theory, From Racing Horses to Seeing the Elephant, describes it, the system allows for a new way to put the puzzle pieces of psychology together to see the whole.
What are the key ideas that make up UTUA?
First Key Idea. The most important idea is the first branch on the UTUA Tree, which is called the Tree of Knowledge System, depicted below. (And yes, there is a Tree of Knowledge within the UTUA Tree). The ToK System is a new map of cosmic evolution. Consistent with the Big History movement and other conceptions of emergent evolution, the ToK maps cosmic evolution on the dimensions of time (x-axis) and complexity (y-axis). As shown in the diagram, the universe "springs into being" via the Big Bang, which happens approximately 13.8 billion years ago. Then particles, atoms, stars and planets evolve (the material dimension). Then, on the surface of the planet earth about 4 billion years ago, we see the emergence of cellular life. Then about 600,000,000 years ago we see animals with brains evolve. Then, about 100,000 years ago, human change accelerates, ultimately giving rise to modern day society.
A number of models of cosmic evolution share this basic outline of the evolution of complexity. However, what makes the ToK System unique is that it depicts cosmic evolution as occurring in four distinguishable phases, Matter, Life, Mind, and Culture. Each dimension of complexity following Matter emerges as an information processing, complexity building feedback loop. Life, the dimension of complexity corresponding to the behavior of organisms like cells and plants, emerges via cell-cell communication and genetic information processing. Mind, the dimension of complexity corresponding to the behavior of animals, emerges via neuro-information processing and animal-to-animal communication. Finally, Culture, the dimension of complexity corresponding to the behavior of persons, emerges via linguistic information processing and person-to-person justification processes. The novelty and utility of this formulation can be clearly seen in the Periodic Table of Behavior that emerges out of the logic of the ToK System.
See here for a chapter on The Tree of Knowledge System
Blogs on the ToK System:
Understanding Behavior via the ToK System
A Periodic Table of Behavior for Psychology
Empirical Support for the ToK System
The Biopsychosocial Model and Its Limitations
Moving From the Biopsychosocial Model to the ToK System
Powerpoint slides on Tree of Knowledge System
The Second Key Idea of UTUA. The Justification Hypothesis (JH) is second most important idea in the system, and is represented by the second branch on the UTUA Tree. The JH is a theory regarding the nature and evolution of human consciousness and of human culture. The JH is really three interlocking ideas in one. First, it is a theory of the origins of human self-consciousness, filling in an important “missing link” regarding the evolutionary forces that transformed the pre-human mind into its modern form and, in a reciprocal process, gave rise to the explosion of human culture. It is the specific manner in which these processes sparked the origin of modern human consciousness to which the “hypothesis” specifically refers. The JH argues that human language created a unique adaptive problem for our hominid ancestors. Namely, via questions humans became the first animal that ever had to give reasons for the actions they engaged in. Moreover, the JH argues how one gives reasons for one's behavior is a very complicated process and that the reasons that people gave were crucial to social influence. As such, evolutionary processes resulted in an "interpreter" function, such that we humans are primed to narrate and give reasons for justifying our actions in the social matrix.
Second, the JH provides a new way to think about the domains of human consciousness and how are they interrelated. This is represented in the updated Tripartite Model, depicted here, which shows the three domains of human consciousness. The first domain, labeled the 'experiential self' refers to one's theater of conscious experience, the subjective felt sense of being in the world that is contained in the first person perspective on the world. The second domain, the 'private self', refers to one's self-conscious narrator that is a second order, language-based system that comments on and makes sense of the experiential flow. The third domain, the 'public self', refers to the narrative one shares with others regarding what one is doing and why. In between these domains are filtering processes. Not depicted is the "attentional filter," which refers to what gets brought onto the stage of experiential awareness in the first place. The Freudian filter (or experiential-to-private filter), refers to the dynamic tension between the private narrator and the experiences, images, feelings, wishes, and impulses of the experiential system. The Rogerian filter (or private-to-public filter) refers to what we consciously share with others relative to what we hide, given considerations of others feelings and social consequences that would follow from sharing one's thoughts. The "Tripartite Model" is named as such with a direct reference to Freud's tripartite model of the human mind consisting of the id, ego, and superego personas. There are clear parallels with Freud's model, but also very key differences. Perhaps the most important differences are in how UTUA characterizes the experiential mind relative to the id. Instead of a seething cauldron of sex and aggression, the experiential mind a "behavioral investor," that seeks rewards and avoids costs, and is socially mapped by the Influence Matrix, which is marked most notably by the psychosocial need to be known and valued.
The third key idea embedded in the JH it the emphasis on human knowledge and explicit knowing as being well characterized by being justification systems. The concept of justification systems is very similar to Wittgenstein's conception of "language games." In UTUA, justification systems are how explicit, language-based beliefs and values functionally define, influence and coordinate the human social field and frame actions. Specifically, peoples are connected by interlocking networks of linguistic beliefs and values that legitimize claims about what is and what ought to be. These justification systems range in levels of analysis from the individual level (when a person talks privately to themselves) to the dyadic level (e.g., exchange between two people) to the group level (e.g., as when preacher gives a Sunday sermon), and, finally, to the large-scale level of a nations or political or religious systems (e.g., the American legal system, a religion like Christianity, or the institution of science). These large-scale systems of justification provide the macro-level sociocultural context for justification and the functional arrangement of social forces that frame human interaction. The essence of being a person is a human being who, publicly and privately, navigates the world of justification systems. In the Tripartite diagram, the larger systems in which individuals, dyads, and small groups reside refer to the "context of justification" in which the behavior of persons takes place.
See here for a chapter on The Justification Hypothesis
Blogs on the Justification Hypothesis and related ideas:
The Justification Hypothesis
Making Sense of Beliefs and Values: A JUST Approach
A Unified Approach to Human Consciousness
Powerpoint slides on Justification Hypothesis
Other key ideas that make up UTUA Framework, with blog links:
Behavioral Investment Theory is the third branch of the UTUA Tree. It is the joint point between Life and Mind, frames the evolution animal behavior and the concept of Mind as the set of mental behavior.
Chapter on Behavioral Investment Theory
Blog on Behavioral Investment Theory
Skinner’s Fundamental Insight and Fundamental Error
Finding the Missing Link Between Economics and Psychology
Powerpoint slides on BIT
The Influence Matrix is the fourth branch on the Tree and it characterizes social motivation and emotion and human interpersonal exchange processes.
Chapter on The Influence Matrix
Blog on Influence Matrix
Relational Value
The Core Need
Needs, Conflicts, and Resolutions
The Four Kinds of Relational Justification Systems
What Do You Strive for In Relationships?
Powerpoint slides on Influence Matrix
The Unified Approach to Psychotherapy (the 'UA' in General)
Chapter on moving Toward a Unified Psychotherapy
Join the Unified Psychotherapy Movement
What is a Psychological Doctor?
Clinical and Counseling Psychology: Time to End the Distinction
The Adaptive Living Equation
My Approach to Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy’s Fifth Wave
Vertical and Horizontal Integration in Psychotherapy
Character Adaptation Systems Theory is the fifth branch on the Tree and provides a framework for unifying personality and the major psychotherapy paradigms.
A New Big Five for Psychotherapists (Part I)
A New Big Five for Psychotherapists (Part II)
Another Big Five for Personality
Powerpoint slides on CAST
The Character Wheel is the sixth branch of the Tree and refers to the major domains of human personality.
The Character Wheel
Powerpoint slides on Character Wheel
The Nested Model of Well-being is the seventh branch and refers to a conceptual analysis of the four domains that go into the construct of well-being.
The Nested Model of Well-Being
Happiness versus Well-Being
What Constitutes Psychological Health?
Understanding the Human Health-Illness Continuum
A Quick Self-Assessment of Well-Being
Happiness is Inner Harmony and Relational Connection
Powerpoint slides on Nested Model
The CALM MO Approach to Psychological Mindfulness is the eighth branch and refers to the kind of attitude and perspective to cultivate healthy human functioning.
What is Mindfulness and How Does it Work?
On Developing a CALM MO
Turn your Critical and Controlling Inner Voice to a CALM MO
Powerpoint slides on CALM MO
What is the future of UTUA?
The framework proposed here is a new kind of knowledge system, one that bridges science, philosophy and the broad field of psychology together into a consilient whole. As such, UTUA offers a new proposal on a "Big" Theory of Knowledge. I am borrowing the word "big" here from the "big history" movement, which is a new approach to viewing the cosmos and our place in it by David Christian. In most contexts, "theory of knowledge" refers to philosophical debates about what genuinely constitutes knowledge. For example, for many centuries, the answer to this question was generally agreed to be "justified true belief" (JTB); that is, philosophers identified three ingredients to knowledge (belief, reality, justification), and claimed that knowledge could be defined as when someone accurately believed the truth and were justified in doing so. It turns out that there are exceptions to this claim and JTB is no longer considered to be a completely sound frame for characterizing knowledge. Much as big history deals with a different angle on history as it is traditionally defined, a "big" theory of knowledge is a different angle questions pertaining to theory of knowledge. A big theory of knowledge is a complete metaphysical system that includes a picture of cosmology, ontology, epistemology, and ethics. Although scholars have been interested in such systems since the earliest formations of the "academy," the fact of the matter is that modern scholars generally consider such notions a fools errand. My hope for the future of this system is that it will be genuinely considered and evaluated as a new Big Theory of Knowledge and it will serve to usher in a new era in how we organize our view of our selves and our place in the tapestry of the cosmos.
See here for a chapter on The Tree of Knowledge System
Blogs on the ToK System:
Understanding Behavior via the ToK System
A Periodic Table of Behavior for Psychology
Empirical Support for the ToK System
The Biopsychosocial Model and Its Limitations
Moving From the Biopsychosocial Model to the ToK System
Powerpoint slides on Tree of Knowledge System
The Second Key Idea of UTUA. The Justification Hypothesis (JH) is second most important idea in the system, and is represented by the second branch on the UTUA Tree. The JH is a theory regarding the nature and evolution of human consciousness and of human culture. The JH is really three interlocking ideas in one. First, it is a theory of the origins of human self-consciousness, filling in an important “missing link” regarding the evolutionary forces that transformed the pre-human mind into its modern form and, in a reciprocal process, gave rise to the explosion of human culture. It is the specific manner in which these processes sparked the origin of modern human consciousness to which the “hypothesis” specifically refers. The JH argues that human language created a unique adaptive problem for our hominid ancestors. Namely, via questions humans became the first animal that ever had to give reasons for the actions they engaged in. Moreover, the JH argues how one gives reasons for one's behavior is a very complicated process and that the reasons that people gave were crucial to social influence. As such, evolutionary processes resulted in an "interpreter" function, such that we humans are primed to narrate and give reasons for justifying our actions in the social matrix.
Second, the JH provides a new way to think about the domains of human consciousness and how are they interrelated. This is represented in the updated Tripartite Model, depicted here, which shows the three domains of human consciousness. The first domain, labeled the 'experiential self' refers to one's theater of conscious experience, the subjective felt sense of being in the world that is contained in the first person perspective on the world. The second domain, the 'private self', refers to one's self-conscious narrator that is a second order, language-based system that comments on and makes sense of the experiential flow. The third domain, the 'public self', refers to the narrative one shares with others regarding what one is doing and why. In between these domains are filtering processes. Not depicted is the "attentional filter," which refers to what gets brought onto the stage of experiential awareness in the first place. The Freudian filter (or experiential-to-private filter), refers to the dynamic tension between the private narrator and the experiences, images, feelings, wishes, and impulses of the experiential system. The Rogerian filter (or private-to-public filter) refers to what we consciously share with others relative to what we hide, given considerations of others feelings and social consequences that would follow from sharing one's thoughts. The "Tripartite Model" is named as such with a direct reference to Freud's tripartite model of the human mind consisting of the id, ego, and superego personas. There are clear parallels with Freud's model, but also very key differences. Perhaps the most important differences are in how UTUA characterizes the experiential mind relative to the id. Instead of a seething cauldron of sex and aggression, the experiential mind a "behavioral investor," that seeks rewards and avoids costs, and is socially mapped by the Influence Matrix, which is marked most notably by the psychosocial need to be known and valued.
The third key idea embedded in the JH it the emphasis on human knowledge and explicit knowing as being well characterized by being justification systems. The concept of justification systems is very similar to Wittgenstein's conception of "language games." In UTUA, justification systems are how explicit, language-based beliefs and values functionally define, influence and coordinate the human social field and frame actions. Specifically, peoples are connected by interlocking networks of linguistic beliefs and values that legitimize claims about what is and what ought to be. These justification systems range in levels of analysis from the individual level (when a person talks privately to themselves) to the dyadic level (e.g., exchange between two people) to the group level (e.g., as when preacher gives a Sunday sermon), and, finally, to the large-scale level of a nations or political or religious systems (e.g., the American legal system, a religion like Christianity, or the institution of science). These large-scale systems of justification provide the macro-level sociocultural context for justification and the functional arrangement of social forces that frame human interaction. The essence of being a person is a human being who, publicly and privately, navigates the world of justification systems. In the Tripartite diagram, the larger systems in which individuals, dyads, and small groups reside refer to the "context of justification" in which the behavior of persons takes place.
See here for a chapter on The Justification Hypothesis
Blogs on the Justification Hypothesis and related ideas:
The Justification Hypothesis
Making Sense of Beliefs and Values: A JUST Approach
A Unified Approach to Human Consciousness
Powerpoint slides on Justification Hypothesis
Other key ideas that make up UTUA Framework, with blog links:
Behavioral Investment Theory is the third branch of the UTUA Tree. It is the joint point between Life and Mind, frames the evolution animal behavior and the concept of Mind as the set of mental behavior.
Chapter on Behavioral Investment Theory
Blog on Behavioral Investment Theory
Skinner’s Fundamental Insight and Fundamental Error
Finding the Missing Link Between Economics and Psychology
Powerpoint slides on BIT
The Influence Matrix is the fourth branch on the Tree and it characterizes social motivation and emotion and human interpersonal exchange processes.
Chapter on The Influence Matrix
Blog on Influence Matrix
Relational Value
The Core Need
Needs, Conflicts, and Resolutions
The Four Kinds of Relational Justification Systems
What Do You Strive for In Relationships?
Powerpoint slides on Influence Matrix
The Unified Approach to Psychotherapy (the 'UA' in General)
Chapter on moving Toward a Unified Psychotherapy
Join the Unified Psychotherapy Movement
What is a Psychological Doctor?
Clinical and Counseling Psychology: Time to End the Distinction
The Adaptive Living Equation
My Approach to Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy’s Fifth Wave
Vertical and Horizontal Integration in Psychotherapy
Character Adaptation Systems Theory is the fifth branch on the Tree and provides a framework for unifying personality and the major psychotherapy paradigms.
A New Big Five for Psychotherapists (Part I)
A New Big Five for Psychotherapists (Part II)
Another Big Five for Personality
Powerpoint slides on CAST
The Character Wheel is the sixth branch of the Tree and refers to the major domains of human personality.
The Character Wheel
Powerpoint slides on Character Wheel
The Nested Model of Well-being is the seventh branch and refers to a conceptual analysis of the four domains that go into the construct of well-being.
The Nested Model of Well-Being
Happiness versus Well-Being
What Constitutes Psychological Health?
Understanding the Human Health-Illness Continuum
A Quick Self-Assessment of Well-Being
Happiness is Inner Harmony and Relational Connection
Powerpoint slides on Nested Model
The CALM MO Approach to Psychological Mindfulness is the eighth branch and refers to the kind of attitude and perspective to cultivate healthy human functioning.
What is Mindfulness and How Does it Work?
On Developing a CALM MO
Turn your Critical and Controlling Inner Voice to a CALM MO
Powerpoint slides on CALM MO
What is the future of UTUA?
The framework proposed here is a new kind of knowledge system, one that bridges science, philosophy and the broad field of psychology together into a consilient whole. As such, UTUA offers a new proposal on a "Big" Theory of Knowledge. I am borrowing the word "big" here from the "big history" movement, which is a new approach to viewing the cosmos and our place in it by David Christian. In most contexts, "theory of knowledge" refers to philosophical debates about what genuinely constitutes knowledge. For example, for many centuries, the answer to this question was generally agreed to be "justified true belief" (JTB); that is, philosophers identified three ingredients to knowledge (belief, reality, justification), and claimed that knowledge could be defined as when someone accurately believed the truth and were justified in doing so. It turns out that there are exceptions to this claim and JTB is no longer considered to be a completely sound frame for characterizing knowledge. Much as big history deals with a different angle on history as it is traditionally defined, a "big" theory of knowledge is a different angle questions pertaining to theory of knowledge. A big theory of knowledge is a complete metaphysical system that includes a picture of cosmology, ontology, epistemology, and ethics. Although scholars have been interested in such systems since the earliest formations of the "academy," the fact of the matter is that modern scholars generally consider such notions a fools errand. My hope for the future of this system is that it will be genuinely considered and evaluated as a new Big Theory of Knowledge and it will serve to usher in a new era in how we organize our view of our selves and our place in the tapestry of the cosmos.