John Locke Global Essay Prize 2025 Psychology Prompts Breakdown
The John Locke Institute has just released the prompts for their international essay writing competitions for high school students. They have released three prompts for each of the following categories, philosophy, politics, economics, history, law, psychology, and theology. Each essay must address only one of the questions in your chosen subject category, and must not exceed 2000 words (not counting diagrams, tables of data, endnotes, bibliography or authorship declaration).
To be eligible to compete, one's 19th birthday must fall after June 30th, 2025. Given this easily satisfied requirement for high school students the world over, many compete in this competition, making it incredibly competitive.
The John Locke Competition is one of the most prestigious essay writing competitions for high school students. It ranks alongside the Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards as a humanities extracurricular activity that would impress admissions officers. Placing competitively in this competition could be what convinces an admissions officer at an elite university to admit an applicant.
One major difference between the John Locke competition and the Scholastic Writing and Arts Awards is that it has a right-wing, instead of a left-wing focus. Past winning essays have argued for fringe ideas like anarcho-capitalism. The John Locke Institute is committed to upholding the principles of classical liberalism espoused by John Locke, the founder of liberalism. Being liberal in Europe has a different connotation than it does in the U.S. While liberalism in the U.S. is associated with center-left politics like the Democratic Party, in Europe, it denotes what Americans would call conservatives, who believe in laissez-faire economic policies and upholding individual freedom to the point that it might enable individuals to infringe on the liberties of others, such as individuals having the right to deny service to people at their place of business due to their sexual orientation.
Despite the competition's right-wing focus, and the well-known left-wing bias of academics and admissions officers, high school students can place competitively without arguing for positions that would decrease their likability with a left-wing audience when applying to college.
We have extensive experience guiding applicants through this competition and are proud to have students who received at least a commendation from the judges. In this article, we will outline the three psychology questions they ask and provide resources, along with cliff notes for these resources, to help start one's journey towards drafting compelling answers to these questions.
Psychology Q1:
Is objectivity all in the mind?
Historical Sources
John Locke's Works
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689) - Locke's masterwork explores the origins of human knowledge and understanding. Pay special attention to Book II where he distinguishes between primary qualities (objectively in objects) and secondary qualities (subjectively in the mind), and Book IV where he discusses degrees of knowledge and probability.
The Conduct of the Understanding (1706) - Published posthumously, this work focuses on intellectual virtues and proper reasoning methods. Locke argues for developing habits of mind that would lead to more objective thinking.
Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693) - While primarily about education, this text contains Locke's views on how the mind can be trained to perceive the world more accurately.
Other Historical Works
Immanuel Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason" (1781) - Kant develops transcendental idealism, arguing that while objects exist independently of perception, our knowledge of them is structured by a priori categories of understanding.
George Berkeley's "A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge" (1710) - Berkeley challenges Locke's distinction between primary and secondary qualities, arguing that all qualities exist only in the mind.
David Hume's "An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding" (1748) - Hume takes an empiricist approach to knowledge but introduces skepticism about causal reasoning, challenging notions of objective knowledge.
René Descartes' "Meditations on First Philosophy" (1641) - Provides the rationalist counterpoint to Locke's empiricism, seeking certainty through methodical doubt.
Contemporary Sources
Thomas Nagel's "The View From Nowhere" (1986) - Explores the tension between subjective perspectives and the goal of objectivity in philosophical inquiry.
Hilary Putnam's "Reason, Truth and History" (1981) - Develops a position of "internal realism" that critiques both objectivist and relativist accounts of knowledge.
John Searle's "The Construction of Social Reality" (1995) - Distinguishes between "ontologically objective" and "ontologically subjective" facts, useful for understanding different meanings of objectivity.
Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison's "Objectivity" (2007) - A historical study of how the concept of scientific objectivity has changed over time, showing it's not a static concept.
Ruth Millikan's "Language, Thought, and Other Biological Categories" (1984) - Develops a theory of mental representation that connects objective reality to mental content.
Andy Clark's "Surfing Uncertainty: Prediction, Action, and the Embodied Mind" (2015) - Presents the predictive processing framework of perception, which has implications for how the mind constructs objective reality.
Lisa Feldman Barrett's "How Emotions Are Made" (2017) - Challenges the view that emotions are objective categories, arguing instead that they are constructed by cultural and psychological factors.
Psychology-Specific Resources
Michael Tomasello's "A Natural History of Human Thinking" (2014) - Examines the evolution of human cognitive abilities, including shared intentionality that enables objectivity through social coordination.
Daniel Kahneman's "Thinking, Fast and Slow" (2011) - Details cognitive biases that systematically distort our thinking, challenging simple notions of objectivity.
Jesse Prinz's "The Conscious Brain" (2012) - Proposes an "attended intermediate-level representation" theory of consciousness relevant to questions of phenomenal experience versus objective reality.
Patricia Churchland's "Neurophilosophy" (1986) - Pioneering work connecting philosophical questions about mind and knowledge to neuroscientific discoveries.
Key Questions and Issues to Address
Primary vs. Secondary Qualities: How viable is Locke's distinction? Can we coherently separate properties that exist "in objects" from those that exist only "in the mind"?
Perception and Reality: To what extent does our perceptual apparatus construct rather than simply detect reality? Consider how different species perceive the world differently.
Social Dimensions of Objectivity: Is objectivity achieved individually or through social processes like peer review and debate? How does Locke's view compare to modern social constructivist accounts?
Language and Objectivity: How does language mediate our access to objective reality? Does it merely describe the world or partly constitute it?
Psychological Biases: What cognitive biases undermine our ability to be objective? Can awareness of these biases help overcome them?
Scientific Objectivity: Is scientific methodology our best approach to objectivity? How does it relate to Locke's empiricism?
Cultural Relativism: Can objectivity transcend cultural frameworks, or is all knowledge culturally situated?
Embodied Cognition: How does our embodied nature affect our claim to objective knowledge? Can we transcend our biological constraints?
Evolutionary Psychology: Does our evolved psychology help or hinder objective understanding? Are our minds designed to track truth or merely survival-relevant patterns?
The Role of Values: Can there be value-free objectivity, or do values inevitably shape what we consider objective knowledge?
Psychology Q2:
Eleanor Roosevelt declared, "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." Is she right?
Historical Sources
Eleanor Roosevelt's "This I Believe" essay (1951) - Contains the original context of this famous quote and Roosevelt's philosophy on personal dignity and emotional autonomy.
Eleanor Roosevelt's "You Learn by Living" (1960) - Her autobiography expands on her life philosophy, including how she developed resilience against criticism and judgment.
Eleanor Roosevelt's "My Day" newspaper columns (1935-1962) - These daily columns reveal how Roosevelt handled public criticism and maintained her sense of self-worth despite attacks.
William James's "The Principles of Psychology" (1890) - James's work on the self and emotional responses provides foundational psychological context for understanding how emotions are processed.
John Locke's "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding" (1689) - Locke's exploration of personal identity and how we form ideas offers historical context for understanding the self and consent in emotional responses.
Epictetus's "Enchiridion" (c. 125 CE) - This Stoic philosopher's handbook argues that emotional disturbance comes not from events themselves but from our judgments about them, providing a classical precedent for Roosevelt's sentiment.
Contemporary Philosophical Sources
Martha Nussbaum's "Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions" (2001) - Analyzes emotions as evaluative judgments, relevant to understanding whether we can "consent" to emotions.
Carol Dweck's "Mindset: The New Psychology of Success" (2006) - Examines how beliefs about oneself shape responses to external judgment and criticism.
Susan Wolf's "Freedom Within Reason" (1990) - Explores the complexity of autonomy and the limits of self-determination, including in emotional responses.
Charles Taylor's "Sources of the Self" (1989) - Examines how our identities are formed in dialogue with others, challenging simplistic views of emotional autonomy.
Psychology and Neuroscience Resources
Antonio Damasio's "The Feeling of What Happens" (1999) - Explores the neurological basis of emotions, providing insights into how much conscious control we have over feelings.
Lisa Feldman Barrett's "How Emotions Are Made" (2017) - Presents the theory of constructed emotion, arguing that emotions are not automatic responses but constructed by our brains based on past experiences and context.
Daniel Kahneman's "Thinking, Fast and Slow" (2011) - Discusses the automatic (System 1) and deliberative (System 2) processes in our thinking, relevant to understanding emotional responses.
Jon Kabat-Zinn's "Full Catastrophe Living" (1990) - Explores mindfulness approaches to emotional regulation, relevant to the question of whether we can choose our emotional responses.
Albert Ellis's writings on Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy - His ABC model (Activating event, Belief, Consequence) supports Roosevelt's view that our beliefs about events, not the events themselves, determine our emotional responses.
Sociological and Anthropological Perspectives
Michel Foucault's "Discipline and Punish" (1975) - Examines how power structures shape individuals' self-perception, potentially challenging Roosevelt's emphasis on individual consent.
Pierre Bourdieu's "Distinction" (1979) - Explores how social class shapes tastes, preferences, and self-worth, offering a structural perspective that might question Roosevelt's individualistic framing.
Sara Ahmed's "The Cultural Politics of Emotion" (2004) - Examines how emotions are socially and culturally constructed, potentially limiting individual control.
Claude Steele's "Whistling Vivaldi" (2010) - Research on stereotype threat demonstrates how social contexts can affect performance and feelings of competence even without conscious awareness.
Psychological Trauma and Mental Health Resources
Bessel van der Kolk's "The Body Keeps the Score" (2014) - Explores how trauma affects the brain and body, potentially limiting conscious control over emotional responses.
Judith Herman's "Trauma and Recovery" (1992) - Examines psychological trauma and its effects on autonomy and self-perception.
Aaron Beck's "Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders" (1976) - Foundation of cognitive therapy, which posits that changing thoughts can change feelings, aligning with Roosevelt's perspective.
Key Questions and Issues to Address
The Nature of Emotions: Are emotions choices, responses, or something else entirely? How much conscious control do we actually have over our emotional responses?
Neurological Perspectives: What do neuroscience findings tell us about emotional processing and the possibility of "consent" to emotions?
Childhood Development: How do early experiences shape our vulnerability or resilience to others' judgments? Does this undermine the notion of "consent"?
Social Power Dynamics: How do social hierarchies and power differentials impact our ability to reject others' negative judgments?
Cultural Differences: How might cultural contexts influence the extent to which individuals can maintain emotional autonomy?
Psychological Trauma: How do traumatic experiences affect one's ability to prevent feelings of inferiority imposed by others?
Socialization and Internalized Beliefs: How do socialized beliefs (about gender, race, class, etc.) affect our vulnerability to feeling inferior?
Individual Differences: Why are some people more resilient to criticism than others? Is this a matter of choice or disposition?
The Meaning of "Consent": What does Roosevelt mean by "consent" in this context? Is it active agreement, passive acceptance, or something else?
Historical Context: How did Roosevelt's personal experiences and historical context shape her perspective? Did her privileged position enable this view?
Stoicism vs. Emotional Authenticity: Is Roosevelt advocating a Stoic approach to emotions? Is such control always desirable or healthy?
Therapeutic Perspectives: How do different therapeutic approaches view the relationship between external events, thoughts, and feelings?
Psychology Q3:
What is self-deceit?
Historical Sources
Jean-Paul Sartre's "Being and Nothingness" (1943) - Contains Sartre's influential concept of "bad faith" (mauvaise foi), a form of self-deception where one denies one's freedom and responsibility, providing a foundational existentialist perspective on self-deception.
Friedrich Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil" (1886) - Explores how we create convenient fictions about ourselves and the world, with his famous quote: "I have done that, says my memory. I cannot have done that, says my pride, and remains inexorable. Eventually—memory yields."
John Locke's "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding" (1689) - Explores how the mind forms ideas and beliefs, with relevant discussions on how we may mislead ourselves through improper association of ideas and motivated reasoning.
Immanuel Kant's "Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View" (1798) - Contains a section on self-deception where Kant distinguishes between lying to oneself and self-deception as a more complex phenomenon.
Sigmund Freud's "The Ego and the Id" (1923) - Introduces key psychoanalytic concepts like repression and rationalization that help explain how self-deception operates unconsciously.
Contemporary Philosophical Sources
Alfred Mele's "Self-Deception Unmasked" (2001) - A comprehensive philosophical analysis of self-deception that addresses the "paradox of self-deception" (how can one both know and not know something?).
Robert Trivers' "The Folly of Fools: The Logic of Deceit and Self-Deception in Human Life" (2011) - An evolutionary biologist's account of why self-deception might have evolved as an adaptation.
Herbert Fingarette's "Self-Deception" (1969/2000) - A classic philosophical analysis that views self-deception as a failure to "spell out" certain aspects of one's engagements in the world.
Annette Barnes' "Seeing Through Self-Deception" (1997) - Approaches self-deception as a failure to attend properly to available evidence rather than as a paradoxical simultaneous knowing and not knowing.
Martha Nussbaum's "Upheavals of Thought" (2001) - While primarily about emotions, contains relevant insights on how emotions can both reveal truths and participate in self-deception.
Psychology and Cognitive Science Resources
Daniel Kahneman's "Thinking, Fast and Slow" (2011) - Details cognitive biases and heuristics that facilitate self-deception, particularly confirmation bias and the availability heuristic.
Timothy Wilson's "Strangers to Ourselves" (2002) - Explores how much of our mental life occurs outside conscious awareness, helping explain how we can deceive ourselves.
Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson's "Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me)" (2007) - Accessible account of cognitive dissonance theory and how it leads to self-justification and self-deception.
Ziva Kunda's research on "Motivated Reasoning" (1990) - Scientific studies showing how our desired conclusions influence how we evaluate evidence.
Jonathan Haidt's "The Righteous Mind" (2012) - Explores moral intuitions and post-hoc rationalizations, showing how we often decide first and justify later.
Neuroscience and Evolutionary Psychology
V.S. Ramachandran's work on anosognosia - Studies of patients with right hemisphere damage who deny their paralysis, offering insights into the neural mechanisms that may underlie self-deception.
Michael Gazzaniga's "The Mind's Past" (1998) - Research on split-brain patients reveals how the brain creates narratives to explain behaviors, even when those narratives are demonstrably false.
Robert Kurzban's "Why Everyone (Else) Is a Hypocrite" (2010) - Uses a modular view of the mind to explain self-deception as different mental modules operating with different information.
William von Hippel and Robert Trivers' "The Evolution and Psychology of Self-Deception" (2011) - Scholarly article examining the evolutionary advantages of self-deception.
Literary and Cultural Perspectives
Henrik Ibsen's "The Wild Duck" (1884) - Play centered on the theme of the "life lie" or vital illusion that people need to maintain happiness.
Milan Kundera's "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" (1984) - Novel exploring self-deception in personal relationships and political contexts.
Dostoevsky's "Notes from Underground" (1864) - Portrays a narrator who constantly lies to himself while claiming extreme self-awareness.
Key Questions and Issues to Address
The Paradox Problem: How can someone both know and not know something at the same time? Is self-deception actually paradoxical?
Intentionality Question: Is self-deception intentional? If so, how can we intentionally fool ourselves? If not, is it really deception?
Motivated vs. Unmotivated Biases: How does self-deception differ from ordinary cognitive biases and heuristics that lead to errors?
The Evolutionary Puzzle: Why would self-deception evolve if accurate beliefs about reality seem advantageous for survival?
Levels of Awareness: Are there degrees or levels of self-deception, from completely unconscious to semi-aware?
Moral Dimensions: Is self-deception morally blameworthy? To what extent are we responsible for our self-deceptions?
Self-Deception vs. Other-Deception: How does deceiving oneself relate to deceiving others? Does one facilitate the other?
Cultural Variations: Do different cultures conceptualize and experience self-deception differently?
Beneficial Self-Deception: Can self-deception sometimes be helpful or adaptive? When might "positive illusions" be beneficial?
Detection and Prevention: How can we identify self-deception in ourselves? What practices might help minimize harmful self-deception?
Therapeutic Approaches: How do different psychological therapies approach self-deception? How effective are they?
Linguistic and Conceptual Analysis: What does the very concept of self-deception imply about consciousness, knowledge, and belief?
If you are overwhelmed by the number of sources and complexity of answering these questions, we understand. English teachers don't prepare high school students to tackle such formidable challenges in the humanities. But we do. Schedule a free consultation with a John Locke Essay Writing Competition expert today and learn how to unpack all of these sources to write a coherent and logically sound 2000 word essay which will earn you a competitive placing in this competition and impress admission officers.
