FINAL POST: SELF-CONSCIOUS EMOTIONS 

                                                         "Dean...What Have I Become?" 

Cass is usually pretty steadfast in his resolve to protect Team Free Will and humanity. He is a powerful archangel that is known for even coming back from the dead. There was not one time that Dean prayed to him that Cass did not answer: even when in midbattle in heaven. However, when Cass assimilates the Leviathan, taking the place of God, he does experience shame. To win an impasse with his rival for the control of Heaven, Archangel Rafael, Cass opens the door to purgatory. Such plane is home to the Leviathans, primordial creatures of extreme power. Creatures so dangerous that God himself had to combat them and bind them in Purgatory. When assimilating all the souls in purgatory to increase his power, Cass also (unknowingly) assimilates the Leviathan. He grows in power exponentially and annihilates Rafael. However, the Leviathan inside him corrupted his character. He becomes arrogant and goes on a crusade to fix things as the new God. He becomes so overwhelmed that he slaughters several humans in his seeking of righteousness. This brings Cass great shame.

 

Shame is a self-conscious emotion that is brought upon by failure to fulfil personally important rules and goals. It happens in a context of extreme personal importance. Shame makes one believe that one is totally flowed and unworthy of redemption. As an angel, Cass was created to protect souls. He was charged by God himself to keep guard of humans, all humans, even the bad ones. Cass betrays his personal standard of being a guardian angel: the most intrinsic definition of his self-image. Cass….The one who previously challenged the archangel Michael to prevent the Apocalypse; the one who cared about the life of every single human such that he was not willing to sacrifice any in the final battle (even if it would bring Paradise to earth in the end); the one who opened the door to purgatory (something unimaginable, even to Michael) to win a war that would prevent Rafael from reinstating the Apocalypse. The one who killed the humans he was supposed to protect, the reason why he opened the door in first place. Cass was a total failure. Inherently.

 

The appraisal that brought up shame was that this failure was against the very core of his self-image and purpose as angel. He was not guilty. Guilt comes from a failure with appraisal focus on behavior. While his behavior of slaughtering humas is quite reprimandable, his main appraisal lies in what he has become, rather than what he has done. In fact, he confides in Dean: “[He] can't believe what [he] [has] become;” rather than “I can't believe what I have done.” This shame is completely crimpling. Cass just becomes so depressed, his shame-withdraw is so great, he literally lays down and dies after Dean performs the ritual to expel the Leviathan from him. If one is familiar with Cass and the series, one can see how abnormal this is. Cass experienced guilt when he fell from heaven, as he questioned his choice of disobeying. But he never lost his resolve.  It is shocking to see the Champion of Heaven helpless.

 

 

Week 4: Understanding Cognitive Evaluation Theory (CET)

 

Cognitive Evaluation Theory

 

 

    CET is one of the two paradigms contained in Self-Determination Theory, a model that explains internal motivation and its moderating factors. It discusses how eternal events can affect internal intrinsic motivation. CET focuses on relatedness, competence, and autonomy. Autonomy relates to the feeling that choices are made due to one’s own will and desires. Competence means one has the ability to accomplish a difficult goal. Finally, relatedness means one has people that support one’s endeavors and self. Having all three factors would lead to intrinsic motivation. On other hand, any negative effects on those three will lead to degeneration of motivation. For example, events that promote greater perceived competence will increase internal motivations; getting good grades in a challenging test will increase the motivation to take other tests. On other hand, getting a bad grade will do the opposite. The informational aspect of this theory is key, as it ascribes or dissociates internal causality and control to events.

 

Castiel and CET

 

    Cass has his goals influenced by CET. In a paradigm of intrinsic motivation, the behavior being performed is its own reward. This can be seen through the entire arc of Castiel. At first, the reward he receives is the reinforcement of his self-image as the vessel of heaven. His identity's integrity is the intrinsic motivation for all his actions. Later, the intrinsic motivation becomes the very opposite: he makes choices just because he can. Now, as the fallen angel, as the guardian angel of Team Free Will, every choice he makes is a testament to the reality of his position (challenging the determinism of Heaven); every choice he makes proves that he is right, just because he made it.

    Notably, Cass persists in maintaining his resolve of exercising his independence, despite all other angels accusing him of being insane, of being a fallen one, like Lucifer. To show the tremendous quintessence of this, Cass maintains his independent position even when his friend, Uriel, exercises his own perverted version of free will and murders angels. Instead of practicing free will for a noble and empowering cause, instead of continuing to serve others as a proper angel should, Uriel tries to amass his own army. He kills those that do not bow to him. Cass confronts him; not to protect Dean (this time), not to advance his own agenda, but because the sanctity of Free Will must be respected.

 

Detractions

    Even the champion of team Free Will can falter at times. Cass experiences lack of intrinsic motivation when he lacks relatedness, competence, and autonomy.

    Cass severs his relatedness with Dean when he becomes a demon. Dean takes in the Mark of Cain. The mark gives him tremendous power, more than enough to destroy the principal knight of hell, Abaddon. Gradually, the mark takes over Dean’s psyche and he develops an implacable blood lust. He starts with getting into a lot of fights, then he murders enemies that wanted to kill him. Finally, he just indiscriminately seeks out and murders his enemies. This blood lust changes Dean and costs him his friendship with Cass. More than that, he becomes a literal Demon. This arc culminates with a fight between Demon Dean and Cass. Dean is so roided out on the Mark that he is able to beat Cass, an archangel. Cass looks broken, withing as much as without, and he tells Dean to kill him. He rather die than be stuck in eternity watching his best friend be a demon and be corrupted by the mark. Seeing Cass at this point is the perfect illustration for lack of intrinsic motivation, for the lack of all motivation.

 

    Cass is very powerful, but when he loses his powers, he becomes so unmotivated that he turns into a hippie. In an alternative timeline, Cass is not able to prevent the Apocalypse. Due to his failure, Satan rules the world and Heaven is dead. Because his power comes from Heaven, Cass loses the bulk of his power. Distraught and without any motivation, he hides in a hippie colony of survivors. He uses his limited powers to become a sort of spiritual leader and guru to the few humans left. This is not a continuation of his mission. He is actually using his wisdom to get followers to have orgies with him…..and he is high on so many drugs all day. The perfect picture of an unhinged archangel who lacks motivation due to his failures.

    Ironically, even the angel of autonomy can find himself bound. When he assimilates the souls of purgatory in order to grow in power, Cass also incorporates the Leviathans into himself. They are so formidably powerful that they overcome Castiel’s will and begin to control him. They influence his personality at first and make him a megalomaniac. But later, they physically and mentally control him, to the point of possession by Leviathan. He is so broken, he loses all motivation and his friends have to come to his rescue (they open the door to purgatory and expel Leviathan from him). This is a major contrast as it is a role reversal: Cass is the one who helps and solves problems, he is not the one who gets helped.

 The Angel of Free Will is also the angel of intrinsic motivation. Cass draws his power from Heaven, but mostly from his idea of Heaven. He draws his power from his relatedness with his friends and his sense of autonomy. 

 

  

              Week 8: Cognitive Attributions 

                   We were supposed to be their shepherds. 

                                                Cass being under the power of Heaven

When morphing from the Champion of Heaven to the Guardian Angel of Team Fee Will, Cass changes his attribution from external to internal. In fact, this change is what determines his fall from heaven. While as part of the garrison, he would assign the reason for things that happened (attribution) externally because he assumed that God, not him, controlled the causes of creation. He therefore had an attribution paradigm that caused him to believe that all was uncontrollable because the will of God is absolute. Finally, he was convinced that all controllability has high stability because causes are decrees from God. He saw himself as trapped and doomed. On other hand, after falling, he developed an internal locus of control with high controllability of events and quite low expected stability of scenarios. This is because he now attributed causes to his own free will, causing him to understand that stability is low (as it all depends on his effort and capability). Therefore, these psychological paradigms had divergent implications in Cass’s motivations, emotions, and behaviors.

 

When in bondage by the plans of the Archangels, Cass had very little agency. All causes are the will of God and are external to a created being such as himself. Moreover, he had low controllability, the capability of controlling the outcome of events. He was charged with being a vessel for the workings of heaven and could not decide what his life, and that of humans, would be; he is continuously compelled by Naomi (one of the leaders of Heaven) to stand against Dean, to his great distress. Finally, Cass has high stability for his attribution of causability; he interprets the cause of events to the immutable will of God. In this case, stability is absolute because it is the ability of God that drives destiny, not mutable luck, or effort.

 

Interestingly, Cass experiences a major vicissitude after he falls. Now, his locus of control is internal. As a paragon of Free Will, he believes that he is in charge of his own destiny. Moreover, he now develops high controllability because he believes that the outcome of events are solely due to his effort. Finally, he develops low stability as he realizes that life, not God, has a way of surprising him because of the interactions of the Free Will of others.

 

These ideas give precious insight into Cass’s personality. When individuals credit their success to ability (internal locus of control, highly stable, uncontrollable), they feel pride. Cass is extremely humble about all he has accomplished. At one point, he takes on the role of the king of heaven, after defeating the Archangel Rafael; yet, he never becomes boastful, he simply focuses on the next challenge. For the same reason, he is extremely shameful of his failure to protect the souls in purgatory (he instead uses them to power himself to the level of a god). On the same stroke, however, because his paradigm of attribution (effort) is internal, controllable, and unstable (after the fall), he develops extreme motivation. Ironically, the cause of his shame. He is motivated enough to betray his most sacred duty as an angel, guarding souls, and instead uses them for his own benefit (winning the heavenly war).

 

Castiel is a perfect example of the perils and joys of freedom.

                                          Cass being controlled by Heaven but breaking free. 

  

                                          "But I Love the Naked Monkeys..." 

Castiel’s performance as both the Champion of Heaven and the Guardian Angel of team free will are greatly affected by his emotional condition, rooted on his perception of control. When Cass experiences high control, his values are coherent and adamant, his emotions are positive, and his motivation is ablaze. However, when he perceives low control, his values are chaotic, his emotions are negative (mostly; he is an angel and does not feel emotions the way we do), and his motivation is extinguished.

When Cass was under the yoke of heaven, he was experiencing low control. He was a soldier that could not question orders; even when he found them morally objectionable. As an angel, he was taught to obey the will of the Archangels blindly. Most significantly, his value ascriptions were skewed by this obedience. We went against his better nature and valued the importance of completing his missions and undervalued his innate intuition about the importance of the lives of humans. This is beautifully shown when Uriel (Cass’s assistant) calls Dean a naked monkey and later Cass uses this insult when fighting Dean to affirm the agency of heaven. As a result of this cognitive dissonance (between his inner conscience and his actions), he experiences negative emotions. He has great anxiety; a fear and apprehension that leads to poor performance. Cass started as a renown Garrison Commander who was in charge of all guardian angels deployed on Earth.  However, as a result to the poor performance brough by his low motivation, he was demoted to being Uriel’s underling. His arousal led to poor performance because of the cognitive pain he felt every time he was forced to proceed with the Apocalypse (and consequently harm humans).

On other hand, when Castiel experienced high control over his actions, his evaluations of his mission to protect Dean were very high. His emotions were renewed like a phoenix from the ashes, and he became the Champion of Free Will instead of the blunt instrument of heaven. He experiences the most positive emotions when protecting and helping Dean in his task to stop the Apocalypse. In another beautiful scene, Cass is so aroused that he tells Dean that he will stop the Archangel Raphael. Impossible. Even though he is a sinner in the eyes of Heaven, his performance is impeccable (pun intended); he becomes a sort of Deux Ex Machina to the brothers and saves their lives multiple times. He even allows them to time travel and picks them up in other dimensions. Interestingly, this becomes a double-edged sword. When he finds himself incapable of winning the Civil War in Heaven, he becomes so aroused, anxious, and quite frankly desperate, that he decides to make a deal with the King of Hell to open the door to Purgatory so he can absorb the souls therein. There was a time when angels protected souls, but now Cass wants to use them…. Very poor performance for any angel. Even worse, he releases the Leviathan: primordial beasts that almost destroy the planet (much more thoroughly than the Apocalypse Cass was trying to stop).

Cass is the quintessential example of a locomotive powered by a sense of control. He is a paragon to Team Free Will. His character arch is one in which a detached heavenly robot becomes an emotional angel that is more human than most of us. He became a man in both his resolve and in our pain and depression. 

      

Week 7: Goal Taxonomy Post.

 

 

                  “Did you just Molotov my Brother…!?”

 

 

Castiel has a single overarching reason for goal pursuit: being useful to his friends. This overarching motivation becomes introjected and regulates all the seraph’s choices. Introjected motivation is an external motivation that seeks to promote feelings of self-worth by accomplishing goals. Because of this, the subject does not depend on behavioral regulation (reinforcements and punishments) to perform behavior. The reward or punishment would be an increase or decrease in self-worth. Castiel’s actions are driven by his identity as a medium of justice. His war with Heaven and his allegiance to the King of Hell all revolve around the platonic ideal of an ethics driven by essence. Castiel’s essence is that of love. Love of justice. Love of his friends. Love of God. Love of Free Will. When he is not able to actualize his essence, his love, his identity and motivation will suffer.

          Because of the internal (identity) and external (apocalypse) high stakes of his mission, he exhibits mastery avoidance goals. He is greatly concerned with the dire consequences of not mastering himself and his mission because his loved ones will die. As an overstriver with a high fear of failure and a high hope of success, Cass will stop at nothing to help his friends. For example, when he was a second rank angel (before becoming a Seraph), he threw a Molotov cocktail at The Archangel Michael’s face. He was immediately disintegrated by Lucifer. “Castiel…..? Did you just Molotov my brother?” “I think so…..” Think about this! In Castiel's own words: "Archangels are fierce. They area absolute. They are heaven's most terrifying weapon." A lowly angel attacked the highest being of heaven, the thing closest to God. The greatest of the Archangels. With a Molotov….. This is because his identity is no longer as a servant of heaven, or an angel who happens to be in one piece, but now he defines himself as one who protects Dean.

          Goals provide direction, but reasons provide the impetus to pursue goals. Cass is obstinate in his pursuit. His reason to go on is his need for affiliation with his new human family, especially with Dean. Because of such a need for affiliation, he requires quality and pleasant relationships with others. Many times, Cass made Dean his priority. In fact, one time Dean kept praying to Castiel, who was currently engaged in battle in Heaven, and Cass still answered. This eventually cost him his rank as a commander and the lives of many angels. Cass sacrificed angels and his mission to have a good relationship with Dean. Another interesting dimension of Cass is that he conforms to group norms to fit in with the brothers. He is an angel, so he has no idea of the human experience. However, time and time again, he tries to be human. He changes what he drives because Dean said he looks like a pimp. He tries turducken sandwich because that is what Dean loves. He tries, and fails miserably, to make pop culture jokes (modeling dean). Perhaps his greatest assimilation is seen when he turns coat to join Team Free Will. It is not clear if Cass, initially, did this because he believed in its philosophy, or if he just did it to keep his friendship with Dean.

                                                [Cass trying to be human] 

          Finally, Castiel grows from primary to secondary control. As a vessel of Heaven, he values his anthropogeny (or “angelogeny”?) and heavily relies on his power to bring forth the will of heaven. Later, he continues to rely on his power to help the brothers in their mission to stop the Apocalypse. He takes this perspective to absurd heights when he risks releasing the Leviathans from Purgatory in pursuit of more souls to increase his power such that he may win the civil war in heaven. However, after many failures, including actually releasing the Leviathans and being killed by one, he switches to secondary control. He understands that the only control he has is of his own perspective and the meaning he ascribes to his life and friends. He understands that his family of misfits is what gives his existence meaning, rather than being a champion of either Heaven or Man. Perhaps, the angel has become more human than all of us in this realization.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                The One that Pulled Himself Out of Perdition

Two brothers (Sam and Dean) follow their father's footsteps as “hunters,” outlaw cowboys that kill monsters such as vampires, werewolves and demons. Their father, John Winchester raised Sam and Dean to be hunters after his wife Mary was murdered by the demon Azazel when the boys were little. 22 years later, the brothers set out on a journey to fight evil along the way, to find their recently-missing father; when they finally do he reveals he knows what demon killed their mother and has found a way to track and kill it. Meanwhile, Sam develops frightening abilities such as seeing visions of people dying before it actually happens. These visions are somehow connected to the demon that murdered his mother and its mysterious plans that seem to be all about Sam. When their father dies striking a deal with that very same demon, the brothers determine to finish his crusade. But disturbing revelations about Sam's part in the demon's apocalyptic plan are presented when John's dying last words to Dean are revealed. Dean is supposed to kill Sam before Hell’s plan is fulfilled. Sam is to become a vessel for Lucifer after he is broken out of his cage in Hell. This will start the Apocalypse.

To ensure the master plan of the Apocalypse happens, Heaven also plays a role. They bet all they have on the power of their champion, the Archangel Michael. After they win, Paradise will return to Earth. For such end, they are willing to sacrifice billions of lives in the war of Armageddon. Castiel is deployed form the supernal realms to ensure that Sam becomes Lucifer’s vessel, and Dean becomes Michael’s. He is tasked with bringing the will of Heaven to fruition without question. However, by observing both the good and bad in humanity, Cass changes and becomes the most valuable allied of the brothers in their mission to stop the Apocalypse and defy heaven.  

Castiel waged a second civil war in Heaven to prevent the Archangel Raphael from restarting the Apocalypse. To win this war of attrition, Castiel teamed up Crowley, King of Hell, to take abundant souls from Purgatory. Castiel absorbed billions of souls, including the primordial beasts, Leviathans, from Purgatory. The power was so great that Castiel effortlessly killed the Archangel Raphael. However, the evil souls had warped Castiel's mind, causing him to proclaim himself as the new God and proceeded to wipe out all of Raphael's followers, while killing innocent disbelievers on Earth. After the war, Cass rejoined the Winchesters and became a hunter himself. 

Castiel is honorable, resolute, innocent and above all loyal. He literally died several times for love of his friends and will stop at nothing to fulfill justice. This Blogg dives into his personality and motivation. 

 Week Six: Motivation 

Self-efficacy

Self-efficacy is the belief one has about the ability and probability of one achieving a desired outcome. Self-efficacy beliefs are directly related to motivation to perform difficult or novel tasks. Importantly, self-efficacy is relevant to specific dimensions. For example, if one has high self-efficacy for taking Math courses, one may not have high self-efficacy for taking Humanities courses. The main sources of self-efficacy in descending hierarchy of strength are history of mastery (when individuals were able to master similar tasks in the past), vicarious experiences through similar models (directly related to Bandura’s modeling theory in which one observes action and internalizes it as personal learning), verbal persuasion for external regulation (positive and negative reinforcements), and physiological states (arousal or depression). Finally, it is noteworthy that self-efficacy is ephemeral, it is a fickle trinket that is hard to find and easy to lose.

 

Team Free Will and the Self-efficacy Guardian Angel

 

Castiel was one of the great Host of Heaven. He was one of the angels in charge of protecting and guiding humanity, the replacement garrison after the fallen Watchers. Castiel fought countless battles against the demons and won. As Ruby, a high-level demon servant to Lilith herself, shakingly cries: “We only heard stories of a being like this. We never seen one. When it bleeds, the ground shakes. When it speaks, the heavens tremble. When it comes, I will be running.” Castiel’s incursion of Hell blazes through the deepest layers of perdition to raise Dean back to life. At the biggening of Castiel’s arch, he has very high self-efficacy. There is no doubt in his mind that he will fulfill his mission, just like he has done since time immemorial. Because of such prolific past instances of mastery, Cass has high expectancies for his future performances, building monuments to his resolve and motivation. He is the implacable instrument of Heaven’s wrath.

But in the deepest recesses of his mind, Cass is like no other angel. Whereas his brethren in arms are resolute and instrumental, Cass is sensitive and intellectually autonomous. He listens to his heart as well as his orders. He has always had his questions about the intent and the methods of Heaven. He is the only angel that even suspected the highest secret of the Archangels: that God left a long time ago. Heaven is arbitrary and the Devine Order is merely angelic politics. Cass always knew this, but his self-efficacy was always firmly grounded in obedience. He lacked the motivation to break free from its shackles because he never experienced anything outside of blind submission.

Until he met Dean. Dean’s autonomous volition and purity of heart showed Cass another way. Through modeling (another source of self-efficacy), Cass caught a glimpse of what it is to be human: defiance and anthropogeny. He flirted with the possibility of being like Dean and making his own choices based on his intrinsic motivation rather than external regulation. His self-efficacy changes from very high when based on his past, to much lower when based on his potential of being like his model, Dean. Modeling becomes the nexus of all the permutations of Castiel.

This proves to be a serious issue. Because Castiel’s new self-efficacy and motivations are based on the example of Dean, when Dean breaks down, Cass loses his mind. After much pressure, Dean decides to give in to the plans of heaven. Dean agrees to relinquish the innermost fiber of his essence as he agrees to become processed by the Archangel Michael. This event would start the Apocalypse –and cause the death of billions in the process. This is the very thing that Castiel fell from Heaven to avoid. Castiel beats Dean senseless as punishment. “I disobeyed because of YOU!” “I fell because of YOU!” “How dare you be so weak? Are the angels right about men? Was I wrong?”

Cass lost self-efficacy because he lost his model. His motivation was gone, and he became confused. Ultimately, his confusion and alienation from Dean causes him to spiral and do the unthinkable. He follows the path of Satan and decides to become the new God. The angels whisper that they were right about his ostracism. They whisper that Falling is indeed condemnation. They see that freedom is folly and that it is not better to rule in Hell than to serve blindly in heaven. However, Cass recovers his motivation through words of encouragement from none other than Dean. He experiences verbal persuasion, another source of self-efficacy, when Dean confesses his friendship and appreciation for the angel. Cass has broken the seal of purgatory to absorb the souls therein onto himself. This has granted him immeasurable power. However, he has also absorbed the primordial monsters Leviathan. They poison and corrupt Cass from within, eventually causing his death (at least one of them). Because of the Herculean task ahead of him, Cass does not believe he can solve this issue. He never had Leviathan inside of him before. The ritual to extract them is dangerous and he will lose his power. Dean encourages Cass to follow his heart and do the right thing in difficult situations. He encourages the angel to look back as his past instances of mastery and realize that his heart is always right, and then they will get through things together. Cass recovers his motivation and is able to defeat the Leviathan in Purgatory.

Dean successfully breaks Cass out of his learned helplessness caused by the self-fulfilling prophecies that he placed upon himself. Deep down, Cass believed that he was alone again. He believed that he could not trust Dean (because of his idea to give in to Heaven’s demands earlier) and that he could not find a connection with mankind again. Cass placed himself in the cage of learned helplessness, in the cage of loneliness. Dean’s true friendship breaks him free and reframes his mind into a growth mindset. In this paradigm, one believes that challenges are merely opportunities to grow due to high self-efficacy. Drawing power from their friendship, Cass is able to believe in humanity and in himself again. This makes him realize that the Leviathan crisis was nothing but another opportunity to grow in his campaign against the heavenly despots and the tyranny of fate.

Sisyphus pushes the boulder again. According to Snyder (1991) hope is a positive mental state based on the determination of achieving a goal. Castiel never lost hope because he never lost track of his goal. Either as the pawn of heaven, as a member of Team Free Will, or as the new God/Satan, Cass has always had one goal in mind: love and protect mankind. He has always been resolute in building intimacy with his friends and understanding the human condition. He has always been pushing the boulder of agency and justice across the peak of destiny to protect those he loves, to protect Dean.