Understanding Individual Differences in Perception
No two people have exactly the same map. People born into the same family often have very different perceptions of what happens to them. Counselors and psychotherapists often work with clients to help them explore their perspective or consider ways of shifting their perspective.
The next exercises aim to demonstrate this.
Try this exercise: Stand by an open window and look at the view. If you don't have a window handy, imagine that you are looking at a beautiful landscape through an open window. Now close (or imagine that you close) the window and notice the differences. They might be great - for instance the window might be dirty, or the glass distorted. Or the change might be very subtle, perhaps just a small mark on the glass or some part of the view cut off by the frame.
Collect some different types of spectacles and sunglasses and experiment with each of them, noticing how they change the view you have. Write down some of the differences you have noticed.
Just as our sight is affected by different filters, our perceptions are affected by mental filters like:
- individual genetic inheritance which, as we have seen predisposes us in certain ways
- the time and place of our birth, the family into which we were born and the way we are brought up
- our particular personality, the collection of likes, dislikes, moral values, habits and so on which go to make up our individual response.
For instance, two sisters growing up in the same family might develop very different perceptions of their world. One might say, 'My parents were very caring but I knew that they really preferred my sister. They tried to be fair, but they definitely liked her better.' The other might say, 'I was very unhappy as a child. My parents didn't love me as much as they loved my sister and they never hid the fact.' The parents' point of view is that they were trying their hardest not to show either child any favoured treatment! Each of the sisters has created her own model of the world they shared.
The influential nature of these models can be seen in the way people manage crisis points in their life. Some have little difficulty, experiencing them as times of challenge, while others, faced with the same situations, experience fear, anxiety and pain. One way of explaining such different responses to similar situations is that everyone is making choices out of their own particular model. It is not so much that people are making the wrong choices; rather their model does not offer enough options.
It follows from all this, that the way we each see ourselves is crucial to the way we respond to stress and, indeed, any other experience.
About the Author
Work with an online therapist: http://www.onlinecounselors.org Find a face-to-face, online or telephone therapist in the UK: http://www.counselling-uk.com
Tell others about
this page:
Comments? Questions? Email Here