Heroic Consciousness

This article describes heroic consciousness – how heroes perceive, experience, and think about the world. I describe the transformation of consciousness from its pre-heroic state to its heroic state. Pre-heroic consciousness is characterized by nescient and maladaptive thinking, dualism, separation, mono-rationality, and a naïve sense of empowerment. Heroic consciousness is exemplified by nondualism, unity, transrationality, and the wisdom of tempered empowerment. Heroic consciousness is achieved via three routes: (1) traversing the hero’s journey, (2) effective use of specific spiritual practices, and/or (3) participation in hero training programs. I discuss the implications of heroic consciousness for individual and global well-being

[Introduction to] Heroes of Richmond: Four Centuries of Courage, Dignity, and Virtue

A gorgeous river city blessed with abundant resources, Richmond, Virginia has also been called the city of “contradictions” and “crises”, a city with a “complicated history” replete with “struggles and wounds”. Richmond has been a magnet for heroism and villainy, a place where the best and worst of human nature have collided over several centuries. This volume, Heroes of Richmond: Four Centuries of Courage, Dignity, and Virtue, captures the complex heroic history of a complex city. Authored by a group of outstanding students at the University of Richmond, this book provides coverage of Richmond’s heroes from the first Euro settlements in the early 1600s to the present day. The book offers a review of heroism in Richmond across a wide variety of domains. The authors provide an analysis of social activists John Mitchell, Jr., and Oliver Hill; groundbreaking educators such as Maggie Walker, Virginia Randolph, and May Keller; political greats such as Patrick Henry, John Marshall, Douglas Wilder, and Mary Sue Terry; selfless heroes such as Mary Elizabeth Browser, E. Claiborne Robins, and Lora Robins; and iconic legends such as Pocahontas, William Byrd II, Edgar Allan Poe, and Arthur Ashe.https://scholarship.richmond.edu/bookshelf/1270/thumbnail.jp

The Initiation of Heroism Science

In this article I describe the nascent field of heroism science, as part of a broader movement for the promotion of heroism in 21st century societies. I identify several markers of its emergence and offer reasons why the science is now coalescing into an established and autonomous field of inquiry. Moreover, I discuss the importance of maintaining a dynamic symbiotic relationship between the research and activist wings of the heroism movement. The aims and scope of heroism science are discussed, and reasons are offered for producing a science that is inclusive, transdisciplinary, and risk-taking. I examine all these issues within the metaphorical framework of initiation

Core Concepts in Heroism Science, Volume Two

What lies at the core of heroism? This book attempts to answer this daunting question. To understand the core of heroism – the forces underlying it – let’s first examine what heroism is at its surface. On the outside, heroism is a behavior, or set of behaviors. These actions are directed toward helping others, and they go beyond expectation and are considered by most people to be extraordinary (Franco, Blau, & Zimbardo, 2011). In addition, heroism involves taking great risks and making exceptional sacrifices (Allison, Goethals, & Kramer, 2017). We observe these extreme helping behaviors and we admire them -- but where do these actions come from? What hidden, internal processes are at work and can explain why some people step up, take chances, and dare to do what most of us are unable to do? What lurks at the core of heroic action? The burgeoning science of heroism continues to evolve and illuminate the myriad ways that heroes are created and transform society. This volume sheds light on a set of core concepts about heroism. Adopting a psychological perspective, the authors of this volume—all senior psychology majors at the University of Richmond—provide a compelling analysis of the genesis of heroism, the socio-cultural underpinnings of heroism, and the sublime nature of heroism. Among the core concepts investigated in this volume are moral modeling, anti-heroism, cultural influences, scientific heroism, heroic transformation, heroic mentorship, underdog heroism, martyrdom, contextual heroism, and tragic heroism.https://scholarship.richmond.edu/bookshelf/1379/thumbnail.jp

Heroic Consciousness

This article describes heroic consciousness – how heroes perceive, experience, and think about the world. I describe the transformation of consciousness from its pre-heroic state to its heroic state. Pre-heroic consciousness is characterized by nescient and maladaptive thinking, dualism, separation, mono-rationality, and a naïve sense of empowerment. Heroic consciousness is exemplified by nondualism, unity, transrationality, and the wisdom of tempered empowerment. Heroic consciousness is achieved via three routes: (1) traversing the hero’s journey, (2) effective use of specific spiritual practices, and/or (3) participation in hero training programs. I discuss the implications of heroic consciousness for individual and global well-being

Heroic Leadership: An Influence Taxonomy of 100 Exceptional Individuals

Heroic Leadership is a celebration of our greatest heroes, from legends such as Mahatma Gandhi to the legions of unsung heroes who transform our world quietly behind the scenes. The authors argue that all great heroes are also great leaders. The term ‘heroic leadership’ is coined to describe how heroism and leadership are intertwined, and how our most cherished heroes are also our most transforming leaders. This book offers a new conceptual framework for understanding heroism and heroic leadership, drawing from theories of great leadership and heroic action. Ten categories of heroism are described: Trending Heroes, Transitory Heroes, Transparent Heroes, Transitional Heroes, Tragic Heroes, Transposed Heroes, Transitional Heroes, Traditional Heroes, Transforming Heroes, and Transcendent Heroes. The authors describe the lives of 100 exceptional individuals whose accomplishments place them into one of these ten hero categories. These 100 hero profiles offer supporting evidence for a new integration of theories of leadership and theories of heroism.https://scholarship.richmond.edu/bookshelf/1006/thumbnail.jp

Making Heroes: The Construction of Courage, Competence, and Virtue

People use the term hero frequently in our culture, and most people can easily name several heroes. Our research explores how people think about heroes as well as the determinants of heroic behavior. People\u27s heroes may be real-world figures or fictional characters. They are thought to be competent enough to achieve at a high level, moral enough to do the right thing in difficult situations, or both. People\u27s conceptions of heroes reflect both schemas about what heroes are like and narrative structures about how they act. We consider the possibility that images of heroes and common hero narratives reflect evolutionarily based archetypes. Given that typical conceptions of heroes include high levels of competence and morality, we consider aspects of self, including self-efficacy, self-affirmation, self-theories of intelligence, self-guides, and self-control that enable people to achieve at high levels and to act morally, even when doing so is difficult. We discuss research showing that people\u27s needs for heroes prepare them to perceive struggle and to root for underdogs. Work on a death positivity bias and admiration for martyrs illustrates the centrality of self-sacrifice in hero schemas and the perceptions of heroes. Finally, we propose a taxonomy of heroes based on various dimensions of influence such as strength, duration, direction, exposure, and origins. The subtypes of heroes in our taxonomy are Transforming, Transfigured, Traditional, Transparent, Transposed, Tragic, Transitional, Transitory, and Trending. In addition, we consider a Transcendent Hero category, referring to heroes who affect their admirers in ways that combine the influences of other types

Closed-Loop Recyclable Plastics from Poly(ethyl Cyanoacrylate)

Ethyl cyanoacrylate is a highly reactive monomer that has been used nearly exclusively to make Super Glue and related fast-setting adhesives. Here, we describe transformation of this highly abundant, readily available monomer into a closed-loop recyclable plastic that could supplant currently used (and often unrecycled/unrecyclable) plastics, such as poly(styrene). We report polymerization conditions, plastic-processing methods, and plastic-recycling protocols for poly(ethyl cyanoacrylate) plastics that make the Super Glue monomer a viable starting material for a next generation of closed-loop recyclable plastics. The processes described are scalable, and the plastics can be recycled in a closed-loop process with \u3e90% yields, even when combined with a heterogeneous mixture of other types of plastic

Leadership and Sexuality: Power, Principles and Processes

Although both leadership and sexuality are important and heavily researched topics, there is little work that addresses the interaction of the two areas. Leadership and Sexuality: Power, Principles, and Processes is a scholarly synthesis of leadership principles with issues related to sexuality and sexual policy-making. The authors\u27 multi-disciplinary analysis of the topic examines sexuality in the context of many different kinds of leadership, exploring both the good and the bad aspects of leadership and sexuality. These integrated topics are examined through three broad areas of study. The first involves individuals who become leaders in sexual domains by advancing new views of human sexuality. The second involves problems that leaders of businesses and other institutions must address as a result of issues related to human sexuality, including sexual harassment and sexually-based discrimination in the workplace. The third area involves understanding how being a leader influences sexual desire and sexual attraction, and may impact the course of workplace romance and the expression of sexuality.Written to be accessible to both laypeople and scholars, this book will appeal to academics and scientists interested in human sexuality as well as many related disciplines, including psychology, sociology, leadership studies, heroism science, political science, religion, and economics.https://scholarship.richmond.edu/bookshelf/1309/thumbnail.jp

Pressures to Comply or Defy: How Social Values Influence Perceptions of Healthcare Workers as Villains

During the Covid-19 pandemic, politicians, the media, and the public labeled frontline workers as heroes. The goal of this article is to examine how certain aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic—such as the nature of the Covid-19 virus, coupled with insufficient governmental and institutional responses—created a situation where it became possible for people to characterize healthcare workers as villains. This approach to medical professionals is rather novel in heroism studies and social sciences. A qualitative review of available data sources provided evidence that frontline healthcare workers were perceived negatively. Experiencing a lack of cooperation from patients and their families, healthcare personnel were forced to deal with institutional constraints that exacerbated these conflicts. Variables that could influence being villainized included the social value orientation and political persuasion of perceivers, as well as structural factors related to the transmission of effective and accurate information, including biased mass media presentations and genuine uncertainty from scientific sources