Perceptions of the world around us happen continually. They happen so fast that it is hard to catch them and analyze them. Everyone has personal bias that influence their perceptions and it is a skill to be able to recognize these biases and challenge the perceptions you perceive based on the biases. I believe that all of the categories listed above are important aspects that influence a person’s perception. Every one perceives certain things about a person based on their physical appearance, for example, if a girl is wearing a short skirt, one might assume that she has low standards, or if a guy is tall, one might assume that he is an amazing basketball player. These assumptions could be correct or incorrect, but they were made off of a person’s physical appearance. Based on a person’s personal psychological state and cultural background, the person will perceive the world in different ways. For example, if someone is depressed, they will view the world as depressing and hopeless, but if someone is happy, they will view the world as enjoyable. A person from a different cultural background might perceive different meaning from a common symbol or gesture, like a nod of the head. All of these factors affect the way we perceive everything, because they are drilled into our heads from a very young age by the media and society (family, friends) in general. Some general stereotypes that affect our daily perceptions include all basketball players are tall, all people who grew up in a lower class neighborhood are stupid, all blondes are dumb, etc. It is import to be aware of your perceptions so you can analyze and understand them and see how the factors influence them.
Can you think of a situation where your perception was wrong? How will you prevent that situation from happening again?
One time at a track meet in high school, there was a girl who i was running against. she was really tall and kind of bigger, i thought she would be slow and i would easily beat her. well i was wrong, she flew past me and i was kind of shocked. i know know that physical characteristics aren't always correct, and i now don't even judge if a girl is going to be fast or not based on the way they look.
ReplyDeleteA time when my perception was wrong was when i was at school standing in line for lunch. I heard a very high pitched voice. It was kind of a girly voice, one that you would expect to belong to a girl. I turned around and it was a male, not a female like i had thought. I was a little shocked that i was wrong because you can usualy tell. This showed me that everyone is different, and their physical characteristics (like their voice pitch) can vary from what we think is "normal" for a male and female. This helped me to better understand how everyone is different, and to not judge people based off what i hear!
ReplyDeleteOne time I can think of where my perception was wrong was when I was with my boyfriend and i thought he was mad at me. He was being real quiet and seemed irritated, so that made me angry at him. He told me that nothing was wrong so i got even more mad. Finally he just said he was stressed about school and i understood why he was being that way. I misperceived what he was thinking as being mad at me when he was really just stressed out.
ReplyDeleteOnetime during my basketball a girl that look not really athletic and not that good at basketball came into the game and I felt she wasn't that good but she ended up being one of there best players and one of higher scorers of the team. I learned not to judge people by the way they look because it has nothing to do with how they play.
ReplyDeleteI have had many times when I have made different perceptions about someone only to realize when I got to know them that they were just like me. So I am trying to make less judgments against people especially when I have just met them.
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