Discussion 7: I Thought You Meant...: How often do we get ourselves all worked-u
ID: 3457581 • Letter: D
Question
Discussion 7: I Thought You Meant...: How often do we get ourselves all worked-up over a situation only to find out that our initial perceptions were inaccurate and we over or under reacted? Using the material from Chapter 3, think of situations we as humans tend to misperceive that lead to struggle and strife, hurt feelings, or worse. Be sure to address what specific perceptual concepts come into play when misunderstandings occur. Personal examples are invited and encouraged for illustrations of these concepts. Also, using material from the text, how could these events be avoided? What perceptual concepts could be used to alleviate difficulty? Try to be creative and be as descriptive as possible with your Initial Post. Submit early (no later thanExplanation / Answer
Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily. You may elaborate the answer based on personal views or your classwork if necessary.
(Answer) Let us assume that John Doe is a young man in his mid-20’s. He has finished his college education, yet paid just 75% of his student loans by taking up part-time jobs during university.
This is the year 2012 and the effects of the stock-market crash are still prevalent in the society. John is a business major and is finding it tough to find a suitable job in finance. John thinks that he might eventually be homeless as he might not be able to afford rent in a suburban apartment. Furthermore, he even feels that once his money runs out, he might not be able to afford the basic necessities like food.
John assumes the worst simply by worrying too much. He decides to settle for a minimum wage job at a restaurant. By being a waiter, he is able to collect enough money to pay his rent and utilities. Furthermore, John uses the money from his tips to pay off the rest of his student loans. It has been two years now and the loan is paid off, John is not as destitute as he imagined he would be and he is even paying the mortgage on his own apartment. John also dreams of running his own food truck someday.
He uses his knowledge of finance and business to make investments and save up for a few vacations and a stable future. All of these elements point out that John’s life may not have turned out to be the way he had imagined. He is not a financial executive at a large multinational; however, John is also not homeless and is eventually getting close to full ownership of his own apartment.
He is happy with what he has and is not as stressed out anymore. John begins to look back at his time a few years ago and realises that he may have stressed far too much about things that probably would not have happened. Even if they did happen, John assumed the worst of those scenarios and began to even hate his life. According to the perceptual set theory, John selected the worst thoughts that were a product of his imagination. He inferred that these terrible situations would furthermore lead to the worst life he could possibly live and he interpreted that this would be the end of a happy life. This perceptual bias led John to be blind to the positive things that have an equal chance of happening.