Geoffrey W. Sutton PhD, Psychology and Culture

What I call the SCOPES model is an organization of and an elaboration on the way many psychologists conduct comprehensive assessments for patients. I find the approach helpful because it guides us in thinking about ourselves and others in terms of multiple dimensions rather than just one or two labels that can lead to misunderstanding or worse. SCOPES is an acrostic for five dimensions of human nature within a social context.  SCOPES is also a metaphor for looking with an intent to carefully observe people in a richer and more diverse way than we do with a cursory glance. Once I name the six dimensions you will see how they reflect the common ways we speak about ourselves and others. What makes this aapproach uncommon is that it takes effort to look beyond that which is immediately evident and consider multiple dimensions before making “snap” judgments. A camera metaphor may help. People are like cameras operating on default settings. Modern cameras have multi...

How Religious People Create Meaning God let me live for a purpose. I know God has a plan for my life. But for the grace of God, there go I. All things work together for good… That’s a sign from God that we need to repent or ... Religious and spiritual people have attributed life events to God or gods, or other supernatural forces for millennia. Attribution theory is one of the leading social and cognitive psychology theories in the psychology of religion that helps guide research. Attributions explain life events We attribute positive outcomes like winning a game or lottery and getting a plum job and negative outcomes such as vehicle accidents, house fires, and the life changing powerful tsunamis, tornadoes and earthquakes to natural causes or to supernatural interventions. We explain events based on a sense of how it happened. When perplexed, many spiritual people seek answers from God or their spiritual advisers. The clergy appear on TV and issue prono...

Why do people do what they do? Why do some recover from loss whilst others are devastated? Why do some turn to God and others turn away from God when bad things happen? Why did she say that?  What were you thinking?  People want answers.  2007 Greensburg KS tornado destroyed my brother-in-law's house And that desire for answers to why questions has fueled incredible progress for both the well-being and destruction of humanity and our planet. Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl illustrates the human quest for answers . I suspect that search is why psychology is such a hot college major. And why I love psychological science. This post is an introduction to thinking broadly about human nature. It would be nice to have one answer to each why question. But people are complex. Some short and simple answers might satisfy as answers to simple questions. But if you take a careful look, simple answers might not lead to any useful conclusi...