After listening to Richard Lloyd's Podcast, which I highly recommend only because it is simply interesting, I have come up with some very interesting conclusions. For one, as I already assumed, American's rely on profits too much and drive to attain profits rather than morally good things that don't fuel the individualist mindset. Another thing that they discuss in the podcast is that the worst societal inversion is speculation. This is very interesting. Not only do I agree but they also are speculating! So I'd say it is even more true. The last thing I learned is that the fundamental attribution error is more prevalent than I thought. These psychoanalysts in the podcast are attributing personal characteristic flaws to society and people hurting the society. In the podcast the woman on it talks about how profits are a societal inversion, but mid podcast she says "Profits aren't bad! We like profits." Well she likes profits because it 'gets her by,' but when she observes someone who likes profits she considers that person greedy. I consider that part of the error and her a hypocrite. Lots of interesting ideas in the podcast, I will continue to follow it and ask that you do too.

The focus on my research has become individualism against collectivism. As from the seventh edition of a textbook written by Wayne Weiten, individualism is "putting personal goals ahead of group goals and defining one's identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group memberships." Collectivism is "putting group goals ahead of personal goals and defining one's identity in terms of the groups one belongs to." Already, I assume, you can see how I am going to relate this to the "American" psyche. Americans are typically individualists, while the countries we are involved with are generally collectivists. There is actually a chart in the text book, and almost all the countries we never hear about (in America) are individualist, just an interesting fact... I am also taking a bit of a turn and looking into the"fundamental attribution error" which has a lot to do with America's  relationships with other countries. It "refers to observers' bias in favor of internal attributions in explaining others' behavior." Basically, as Dr. Hamilton explained it, say you are late to school. When we are late to school we tend to blame external events for instance, the traffic was bad, there was an accident, my mom did not wake me up in time, etc. However when we see another person late to school, we assume it is a character flaw. 'Well he or she is lazy,' 'he or she is always late.' Again you can see now how this can be applied for America's relationships. As of now my focuses will be individualism compared to individualism, and I will try to find a way to include the fundamental attribution error.

In my research on the topic "American psyche," I have learned that not one thing drives us as Americans to do what we do. Not only is it not JUST one thing, but it is the combination of these things into what we are, our being. If our stance on one issue was different, that stance could affect other issues that are important to us. I am a devout Christian who believes abortion is wrong, but if I was an Atheist I might believe abortion is right. Everything that is important to us drives us. I like money, therefore I will do whatever it takes to earn more money (this is all hypothetical). I like helping people, therefore I will do whatever I can for my fellow man. More will be on the way as I develop my thesis and more research. 

After watching the movie "American Psycho" I got a feeling that we have become egocentric in our views. Here is a clip that is rather humorous.

I have found some interesting psychological terms to describe to you what drives us. I haven't read the research yet, but I thought I might tell you that it is very interesting stuff. I will post at a later date when I fully grasp the concepts though. I am beginning to narrow my research down to Americans versus the world. How our ideas and issues conflict and hurt relations with most countries in the world (Not to say that all of our ideas hurt the world, I don't mean to generalize). What I mean is that our ignorance of the world or issues that affect it tends to get us into a bit of trouble now and again. More on the way!