When taking in new information it is natural to rationalize every behavior, event or phenomenon, in order to understand that new knowledge. We want a clear, logical and reasonable explanation of why we behave like this, or think like that. However, in order to reach the goal of understanding, sometimes we make up reasons to excuse, and claim that it is the truth. In “Immune to Reality,” Daniel Gilbert believes that when we face negative situations, especially extreme negatives, we naturally build up a “psychological immune system” to protect ourselves. This system automatically organizes, then reasons in order to explain the negatives and comfort our ill feelings. This type of self-deception helps us to emotionally survive the negativity; it …show more content…
In fact, we are not so we use the “immune system” to comfort ourselves through self-deception. In order to keep in comfortable safety lines that boost our own confidence in learning, we try to gain control of the input and output of our thinking. However, by trying to maintain positivity, we may mask our inability to comprehend, thus deceiving ourselves by believing that everything is still in control. Consequently, we do not attempt to solve the problem. This method of self-consolation utilizes the “immune system” to explain the problem, “we may refer to the processes by which the psychological immune system does its job as ‘tactics’ or ‘strategies’, but these terms - with their inevitable connotation of planning and deliberation - should not cause us to think of people as manipulative schemers who are consciously trying to generate positive views of their own experience” (Gilbert 131). When things are out of control or the unexpected happens, we automatically explain or find excuses to interpret the situation. We look for excuses that lead to positive outcomes, no matter how unpleasant it really is. Because we subconsciously want to interpret that we are still in control, we find ways to manipulate the truth to qualify that truth. Once a “reasonable” explanation is conjured, we consciously believe it is the truth because we can decrease the negative impact of the event. Even though the truth has been made up, we …show more content…
It may be disappointing to realize we are the kind of person who we do not like in others; however, it is more disconcerting to realize we are not the kind of person that we believe we should be or are. We think we are smart, optimistic, popular or possess greatness, but later we perceive that we are not that good. Unwittingly, and without rational thought, “Wall Street smartness is, in a sense, ‘generic’ and it is precisely this notion of elitism so pervasive as to be commonplace, smartness so sweeping as to become generic, that reinforces Wall Street’s claims of extraordinariness” (Ho 184). Wall Street does not realize the negative influence of focusing only on credentials. In fact, they do not care. This hiring process has become a tradition for them. Even though they may overlook potentially qualified employees, they do not want to recognize that their system is imperfect; it is easier to blame inadequate candidates, claiming that they should have studied harder to get into a better university. If Wall Street insists their system works, they will continue to lose opportunities to groom talent. Being rejected by Wall Street is not the time to implement a defensive “immune system” to console oneself. It is the chance to recognize our status and to be who we want to be. We face our shortcomings, admit that we still need to work harder or change in order to be the person we want to be. Even though this is
Is it better to be book smart or street smart? Is it better to be happy and stable or unhappy and ‘rich’? Blue-collar jobs require you to learn skills that college cannot teach you; Rose points this out in his essay, stating: “It was like schooling, where you’re constantly learning” (277). In the essay “Blue Collar Brilliance” written by Mike Rose, he talks about how his mother worked as a waitress and how his uncle Joe dropped out of high school, eventually got a job working on the assembly line for General Motors and was then moved up to supervisor of the paint and body section. Rose suggests that intelligence is not represented by the amount of schooling someone has or the type of job they work. In this essay I will be explaining why Rose
“Technology is nothing. What’s important is that you have faith in the people, that they’re basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they’ll do wonderful things with them”. This quote perfectly conveys Karen Ho’s perceptive that is present, in her article “Biographies of Hegemony”. In her article, she provides another understanding of intelligence. She uses the case of Wall Street workers and their personal and educational backgrounds to make her case. “Implicit in this transformation from undergraduate to investment banker is Wall Street's notion that if students do not choose Wall street postgraduation, they are somehow “less smart”, as smartness is defined by continued aggressive striving to perpetuate elite status” (Ho 18). Ho’s conception of the educational system has been narrowed down to the social norms that society places. Smartness is merely associated with individuals who go to the best Ivy League Schools, medical schools, law schools, and etc. If a student is attending such institute they
Rose rejected the idea that education can only be learned through schooling and suggested that education can happen in the workplace. By mentioning the social and mental skills his mother obtained working at the diner and the advanced problem solving skills his uncle obtained on the shop floor, the author shows that blue-collar workers are constantly learning every day on the job. In the conclusion of the essay, Rose says “To acknowledge a broader range of intellectual capacity is to take seriously the concept of cognitive variability.” By acknowledging that knowledge isn’t just achieved through higher level schooling, formal education, or limited to scholars and students, the world is able to appreciate blue-collar workers and understand that the “formal” intelligence is not the only type of intelligence people of this world have to offer. To offer the full range of educational opportunities to all social classes, scholars and intellectuals must acknowledge “everyday cognition,” such as: using memory strategies to take order in a diner, managing the flow of customer/employee satisfaction, or developing new strategies to make work more effective, which rejects the normal “Generalizations about intelligence, work, and social class [that] deeply affect our assumptions about ourselves and each
In “Hidden Intellectualism,” Gerald Graff pens an impressive argument wrought from personal experience, wisdom and heart. In his essay, Graff argues that street smarts have intellectual potential. A simple gem of wisdom, yet one that remains hidden beneath a sea of academic tradition. However, Graff navigates the reader through this ponderous sea with near perfection.
“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true” (Kierkegaard)- Misleading oneself by accepting things as true or valid when they are not is a common phenomenon of nearly every human being, especially when faced with life changing of threatening situations. Self-deception can therefore be considered an option to escape reality in order to prevent oneself from dealing with the weight of a situation. Basically, those strong influencing psychological forces keep us from acknowledging a threatening situation or truth. However, oftentimes people do not realize that they are deceiving themselves, for it is mostly the action of the subconscious mind to protect especially the psychological well- being. This psychological state is depicted and in Ambrose Bierce’s short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”. He shows that people try to escape reality and seek refuge in self-deception when confronted with life-threatening situations, through characterization, alternate point of view, and the fluidity of time.
Happiness for Sale -. Is happiness for sale? It is true that with enough money, one can enjoy everything luxurious, and live a life of comfort and security. A little more money makes us a little happier. However, happiness involves more than financial fitness; it encompasses emotional fulfillment as well, thus there are various ways to pursue happiness. In “Immune to Reality”, Daniel Gilbert examines the operation of the “psychological immune system,” which protects us when we suffer wrenching setbacks but not when we try to cope with minor ones, imparting a surprising complacency in the face of significant blows but often leaving us quite helpless when we deal with trivial irritations.
Recruitment is the very first part of becoming an investment banker. The typical profile of these new recruits are very privileged, elite university graduates who are primarily Euro-American. Although there are some African Americans, Asian Americans, and women found in Wall Street; Ho sees that the higher you climb, the less diverse it tends to get (Ho, 78). Firms pull from 5-10 of the most elite universities such as Harvard, Stanford, Yale, and so on and it is these new recruits that are seen as the best and the brightest with the most “smartness”. Part of this has to do with the fact that a persons pedigree is seen to legitimate how that investor will do in the market. New recruits that are fresh out of college are expected to hold the future of corporate America in their hands even if they do not have much real world experience straight out of college. When it comes to social status in Wall Streets’ elite community, it is these great pedigrees that are the ones smiled upon. “They are the elite of Wall Street. Their offices are furn...
whether or not these are the type of people we want working at our company” (180). Through these experiences it is evident that Wall Street neglects to acknowledge the individual smartness and judge a person’s smartness based on the institution they attend. By learning the small particularities of people’s experiences it becomes clear that smallness does not play a role in deciding a person’s fate in Wall Street. The smallness is simply unacknowledged which restricts the most deserved people from a position in investment banking. When Ho dives into the roots of the recruiting process, she finds that the investment bankers choose people by judging a book by its cover. The majority of investment bankers on Wall Street are white males, with a select few minorities and women. Naturally at recruitment events for future employee prospects, they search for the people who have dashing appearances, intimate performances and a “wow” factor. Wall Street's idea of “smartness” is coming off as smart and not actually possessing intelligence. These actions create a bias system where people are not properly interviewed for a position on Wall Street that they deserve but may never have the opportunity to
People may believe it is relatively easy to predict what would make them happiest in certain circumstances. It should be a simple task given that one spends their whole life learning what makes them happy. However, in the essay, “Immune to Reality,” Daniel Gilbert demonstrates that people often fail to correctly predict one’s own happiness. Daniel Gilbert gives various examples expressing when people make incorrect predictions about their life and how that affects their knowledge, understanding, and behaviors. That is because the unconscious mind picks up factors that influence a person’s happiness, knowledge, and understanding. These influences cause the human mind to quickly produce inaccurate reasons for why they do what they do.
Cognitive dissonance makes it difficult for people to accept conflicting new ideas. Conflicting beliefs create discomfort
Cognitive dissonance can be described as the feeling of discomfort resulting from holding two conflicting beliefs. It can also be said to be the mental conflict that occurs when beliefs or assumptions are contradicted by new information. A well-known psychologist Leon Festinger (1919–89), introduced this concept in the late 1950s where he proved that, when confronted with challenging new information; most people are observed to preserve their current understanding of the world by rejecting or avoiding the new information or by convincing themselves that no conflict really exists in one way or the other (Festinger, 04).
In “The Neuro-Psychoses of Defense”, Freud introduces his study of defense mechanisms. Freud defines a defense mechanism in psychoanalysis as a “defensive mechanism developed by the ego under pressure of the superego and external reality that allows us to fight anxiety”. Some examples of Freudian defenses that are still accepted today include repression, denial, projection, displacement, and regression. Anna Freud and other psychologist’s elaborated on the concept. Defense mechanisms are an essential component in modern clinical psychology, as “no mental status or clinical formulation should be considered complete without an effort to identify a patient’s dominant defense mechanism” (3). Defense mechanisms are today grouped into Narcissistic, Anxiety, Immature, and Mature. The use of Narcissistic, Anxiety and Immature defense mechanisms are considered less healthy than Mature defenses and are often used by emotionally unstable individuals in order to cope with stress. Mature defenses ‘result in optimal
2011. p. 53). According to this theory the unconscious mind (id, ego and superego) as well as conscious mind which help us to decide what is right or wrong and take decisions play a role in human behavior. It also states that childhood events have a profound impact on people’s lives and how they develop throughout life; a person uses defense mechanisms to cope with traumatic or stressful events. In Jose’s case he first started coping with his diagnosis by repressing his emotions and feelings about his diagnosis. As a result of this he often became sick. It was not until he had a really bad gum infection that he decided to disclose his HIV status to his
The human mind is a complex network; the mind also includes thoughts that can be conscious or subconscious. It can be said lies are made to protect something should the truth be too terrible to comprehend. One way to cope is rejection, the supposed truth or idea that will be denied. Rejection will either have been caused or has caused an outside event, such as relationship problems; rejection can also be linked to other emotions, such as fear. To help understand a piece of the human psyche, rejection should be understood to an extent at the least.
...xiety-producing impulses to others - usually to the target of those impulses. We need not feel anxious if the offending wish is not ours, but someone else's. In rationalization, we engage in what would normally be an anxiety-producing behavior, but feel no anxiety. This is because the unconscious ego fills our conscious ego with reasons for our behavior that keep us from understanding our real (anxiety-producing) motive. In reaction formation, the unconscious ego prevents anxiety over our impulses by filling the conscious ego with the opposite feeling or impulse. Denial is perhaps the most primitive and maladaptive of the defense mechanisms. We engage in the forbidden behavior, but feel no anxiety because memories of that behavior are prevented from entering consciousness. We cannot recall having done anything unacceptable, so we quite honestly deny our behavior.