openminded

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Posts by openminded

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  14

  Independent Thinking

  by Jang in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  independent thinking .

  a skill we all need .

  what is independent thinking?.

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  openminded

  Excellent essay! Well written. Thanks for posting it.
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  23

  Marriage

  by Mr Magoo in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  when i married my jw wife i was told that marriage was a very important thing.. i have, however, later learned that:.

  1) my sister-in-laws husbands jw brother got divorced because his jw wife fooled around.. 2 - 3) 2 couples were divorced after we got married (212 years ago).

  one of them had only been married for a couple of years.

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  openminded

  My JW wife doesn't want me praying for the family anymore. Since I quit going to meetings, she thinks I pray to a different God.

  I took her out to dinner with another married couple(friends of mine) who are pretty religious(Assembly of God I think).They had no idea about my wife being JW or my background in the group. They wanted to say a simple little prayer(out loud) before we ate. Well my wife objected. The whole thing was really awkward. Later she blamed me for never taking her side.

  The other day she asked me why I never bring my friends around the house. I wanted to tell her it was because I didn't want her getting to attatched, with Armegeddon being so close and all, but I held back.

  Needless to say things are not ok. The future looks grim.

  We are going to give counciling a try.

  I just wonder how much respect a JW wife can have for an inactive hubby who would rather go to the park with his son than have a "family study". Or go to night school instead of going to the meetings.

  I know that I am not helping this sitution with my busy work and school scheduel but to be honest I prefer these things to facing this loser of a marriage.

  In all honesty our getting married in the Kingdom Hall at 20 was based mostly on physical attraction. Now that this is gone all thats left is deflated expectations.

  She is a sweet person, who deserves a "theocratic" husband. She needs someone to "take the lead" spiritually. I guess I wont be that guy. Its tough living with a spouse who cannot validate any I do other that JW activity.
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  7

  I'm Back

  by Yerusalyim in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hey folks, it's me again, you're good old friend yeru.

  i was gone for a whole week at a terrorism awareness class, i got to do some shooting, some driving, crashed through barracades with a car.

  it was great fun.

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  openminded

  Hey Yeru, could you get me an application?
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  13

  Damage control

  by Norm in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  since brooklyn finally allowed the 1914 generation to die in 1995, the distributing apparatus of the multinational printing organization has been starting to slow down.. service is down, the numbers of pioneers are decreasing, the number of baptized show an alarming drop and people are leaving in their thousands.. after many decades of incessant harping on how jehovah, jesus and the bible had guaranteed that the end would be over before the 1914 generation was dead, the witnesses had the only thing that kept many of them going, ripped out from under their noses.

  suddenly jehovah hadnt promised any such thing in the awake!

  suddenly jesus had never been talking about the length of a generation, as usual the watchtower had never said any such thing, someone had speculated about the generation.

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  openminded

  Thanks again Norm.
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  5

  Does this help?

  by openminded in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  today our society raises us to believe that obedience is good and disobedience is bad.

  we are taught that we should all do what were told and that the people that are disobedient are almost always bad people.

  society tells us this, but it is not true.

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  openminded

  No prob Outnfree.
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  7

  Governing Body- Please Examine This Post

  by openminded in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  causes of the bias.

  so our attributions are often egocentric.

  after a failure performance, we formulate different set of explanations than.

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  openminded

  Well stated Fred.
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  18

  Doubletalk

  by Norm in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  some times the inconstancies and contradictions in the watchtower literature seems almost unbelievable.

  the double standard of the watchtower writers seems to be without limit.. one of the explanations for this is that some watchtower articles deals with how jehovah's witnesses want to be perceived and how they want to be treated by society in general, and the contradictory articles deals with how the faithful and loyal witnesses should regard their enemies and outsiders.

  in psalm 139 this is spoken of as a complete hatred.

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  openminded

  Wow. Your work is appreciated. Norm I was doing some research out of a really current(and well written) resource book called "The Black Book of Communism". Have you heard of it or seen it. The parallels are scary. This high control organization uses the tactics as a high control "state" uses to villify and eliminate it's opposition while at the same time maintain a good reputation. And when the facts can not be hidden any longer theysimply use the Bible or their cause to justify their actions. The old-You gotta break a few eggs to make an omlet- mentality.
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  7

  Governing Body- Please Examine This Post

  by openminded in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  causes of the bias.

  so our attributions are often egocentric.

  after a failure performance, we formulate different set of explanations than.

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  openminded

  Causes of the Bias

  So our attributions are often egocentric. After a failure performance, we formulate different set of explanations than
  we might after success. We know this. The next question, and the one that has been burning up the journal pages for
  the last decade is, Why? What is the cause of this egocentric bias?

  At least three perspectives can account for the impact of outcomes on attributions (Forsyth, 1980). First, a number of
  researchers feel that these attributional asymmetries are self- serving: when people succeed they can increase their
  confidence and sense of personal worth by attributing their performance to internal, personal, or dispositional factors.
  In constrast, when people fail, they can avoid the esteem-damaging consequences of their performance by denying
  responsibility for their performance.

  Second, a logical, information processing explanation like that proposed by Feather (1969; Feather & Simon, 1971)
  emphasizes the relationship between anticipated outcomes and actually performance. According to this approach, if
  people' outcomes match their expectations--they expect to succeed and pass or expect failure and flunk--then they
  tend to attribute their outcomes to stable, internal factors such as ability. If, however, their outcomes violate their
  expectations, then they attribute their outcomes to unstable factors; for example, luck, mood, or a more difficult test.
  However, as Miller and Ross (1975) note, most people usually expect to do well since the covariation between (1)
  their own behavior and positive outcomes and (2) the environment and negative outcomes is attributionally salient.
  Thus, individuals tend to see themselves as the cause of positive performances, since negative expectations are rare.
  Although it is likely that in instances of extreme and repeated failure a specific negative expectation will overwhelm
  the generalized positive one, Miller and Ross maintain that in most achievement situations success, and not failure, is
  expected.

  Bradley (1978) has added a third possible explanation that emphasizes the interpersonal implications of attributions.
  Since people' performances are often public and the subject of considerable discussion, people (1) attribute poor
  grades to external factors to avoid the embarrassment of academic failure and (2) attribute good grades to their own
  personal effort or ability to management the impression of competence. From Bradley (1978, p. 63): attributions are
  "mediated by a desire to maintain or gain a positive public image (e.g., a public public motive) rather than by a concern
  for one's private image".

  These three explanations of the success-internal/failure- external pattern are not incompatible. Forsyth, in 1980,
  presented a functional model of attributions that argued they fulfull four basic functions: explanation, predictive,
  self-serving, and interpersonal. When ego-involvement or need for achievement is high then attributions may be biased
  by self-serving motivations. However, people may also need to understand the causes of their outcomes if they are
  going to improve after a failure, or maintain a level of success in the future. Therefore, they formulate explanatory,
  adaptative attributions that explain the outcome, and suggest behavioral strategies for improvement or maintenance.
  Lastly, if people wish to project a public image of ability and competence, then they may wish to make certain that
  their teachers and classmates do not blame them for their failure, but do credit them with their successes. When
  attributions fulfill an interpersonal function, then people can explain "What rotten luck!" or "The test was too hard"
  after failure, and "I'm glad I worked as hard as I did!" or "Good, fair test" after success. This functional view of
  attribution thus suggests that, dependent upon the circumstances, all three processes can combine to determine
  attributions after success and failure.

  This functional approach explains some inconsistencies in the literature dealing with the causes of self-serving biases.
  First, the dimensions that we found when measuring unitary attributions didn't correspond to theoretical dimensions.
  Attributions are evaluatively tinged: luck is either good or bad; ability is either high or low; tests are either good or bad.

  Second, both the strict information integration view and the self-serving view overlook the emotional intensity of
  reactions after success and failure.

  Third, neither model can explain why egocentrisms are so pervasive. We defend any failure, even on the most
  ridiculous of tasks.

  Fourth, if externalization after failure insulates the self, then we should be able to find evidence of some benefit to the
  self among individuals who do display this tendency.
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  25

  The elusive Brother Some.

  by Norm in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the elusive brother some and the watchtower society.. in brooklyn , they have for years been bothered by a shady and very mystical brother.

  they usually call him some.

  we receive constant reassurances from the watchtower that what is printed in the literature is the truth.

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  openminded

  I agree Norm. Your post looks like it took time and effort. I really appreciate that. Thanks. (I forwarded it to some friends)
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  12

  Blanket Judgements and other JW phenomenon

  by LDH in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my mind was wandering last night and i started thinking about the way 'faithful' jws issue blanket condemnations.

  i wondered if it's a personality thing that is just reinforced by the jw mantra of "we're always right and we're the only true religion etc.

  " or if it's a jw or other fundy religious phenomenon.. here's two examples, feel free to add your own.. when i was about 17, i started visiting nyc regularly, and attending different congregations (wow!

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  openminded

  LDH,
  A lot of research is being done lately, in the wake of the fall of communism and other high control "states". The bottom line is that blanket judgements are an easy tool, for any group or person with an agenda or who wants to control you for whatever arbitrary reason. Its an easy way to pigeon hole you into an "less than perfect" category and thus easier to "deal" with you or isolate you. Most of the Western world figued this out long ago but if you were raised in a JW home, it may be all you know. The bottom line is that YOU can break the cycle by ignoring it as best you can. I bet you look really nice in open toe shoes. So if your ever in N.D. stop over. I have a real eye for fashion.