In The Anatomy of Judgment, M. L. J. Abercrombie explains how information is gained through our perception. Abercrombie argues that interpretation is a very complicated task which we have been learning to do ever since we were born. Each of us has a different way of interpreting things we see because we often relates our past experiences when we are interpreting; so everyone has a way of interpretation according to his/her own experiences. In her discussion, Abercrombie explains two important concepts: schemata and context.
The author defines schemata as how our mind relates our past experiences and reactions to the new things we perceive through our sight. Sometimes when the things we see fit our expectation and our schemata, our past experiences help us to interpret. But when we see things that are different from our experiences and unexpected, our schemata can sometimes confuses our minds and causes misinterpretation - seeing things the way we want them to be. The function of schemata can be illustrated by the following example. Some people cannot swim or even hydrophobia because they have been pushed into the water or drowned when they were small, not because they didn't learn. For these people, the first interpretation they have when they see a swimming pool would probably be "it is a very dangerous place where you might be drowned, so don't go near it!" For some of them, no matter how hard you try to make them understand that swimming doesn't equal drowning, they will never try to go into the swimming pool. But for some of them who might be persuaded to try to overcome this challenge would find out that swimming pool is actually not dangerous if you know how to swim; after that, they will have a completely different interpretation of swimming pool. In this example, people who remain terrified of the swimming pool are making a misinterpretation by selecting the wrong schemata which relates to their past experiences. People who later learned not to be afraid of swimming have selected new schemata to interpret swimming pool.
Context is defined as that the way we interpret a part of the pattern is depended on the rest of the pattern. During our process of interpretation, isolated parts that affect our interpretation the most (known as "clues") guide us in selecting the right schemata to interpret this specific pattern; and when we find the right schemata, the rest of the pattern becomes the "context" or "background.
What we see is not the truth, but rather our interpretation and distortion of the things we struggle to perceive, as our imagination fuses with our conception of reality. We conceptualize these omnipotent forces through our uses of symbols – to create an understandable world through abstractions – in order to explain what these forces are. [INTRODUCE CAPRA]
In Stephen Jay Gould’s essay, “Some close encounters of a mental kind,” Gould discussed about how certainty can be both blessing and dangerous. According to Gould, certainty can be blessing because it can provide warmth, comfort and secure. However, it can also be a danger because it can trick our mind with false information of what we see and remember in our mind. Gould also talked about the three levels of possible error in direct visual observation: misperception, retention and retrieval. According to Gould, our human mind is the greatest miracle of nature and the wicked of all frauds and tricksters mixed. To support his argument and statements, he used an example of an experiment that Elizabeth Loftus, a professor from University of California Irvine, did to her students and a personal experience of his childhood trip to the Devils Tower. I agree with Gould that sight and memory do not provide certainty because what we remember is not always true, our mind can be tricky and trick us into believing what we see/hear is real due to the three potential error of visual observation. Certainty is unreliable and tricky.
The primary issue that was addressed in the Journal article, “Moral Reasoning of MSW Social Workers and the Influence of Education” written by Laura Kaplan, was that social workers make critical decisions on a daily basis that effect others. They influence their clients’ lives through giving timely and appropriate funding to them and their families, through deciding should a family stay together or should they have a better life with another family, or connecting the client with appropriate resources that can enhance their lives. The article addresses data from an array of students from various universities. The researcher posed these questions; “Would social workers use moral reasoning (what is right and what is wrong) more prevalent if it was taught through an individual class during your MSW graduate studies, or if you obtain any other undergraduate degree, or if the ethic course was integrated in the curriculum?”
Without Conscience: Book Report Psychopaths all have something in common, and that's luring unexpected people in their traps. Its part of human nature to wonder and question the unknown. Psychopaths are a clear example of the unknown with their personalities and behaviors that are far from the norm on a continuum. We wonder what makes them do some of the unimaginable and horrific things to people and/or animals.
The first, which he refers to as the “weak view” (5), is that we simply perceive with different sense modalities (e.g. touch, taste, vision, etc.). But, this view appears inadequate in the face of physiological and experiential evidence. O’Callaghan points out that neurological pathways activate in unison, and that our perception appears to us as one continuous experience, rather than subdivided into individual experiences of each different sense. (6) O’Callaghan admits that the senses often outwardly appear to be unimodal, experience does not seem broken up into different senses but appears continuous. He then goes on to support this claim with evidence from psychological
This paper will examine Robert C. Solomon's Emotions and Choices article, to best identify what anger is, and to what extent a rational human being is responsible for their anger. Firstly, Solomon's argument must be described. A quick summation of Solomon's argument can be found in the following four points: Emotions are judgements, emotions are chosen, emotions serve a purpose, and emotions are rational.1 To quote Solomon, he explains that “Emotions are not occurrences, and do not happen to us. They ... may be chosen like an action.”2
In her essay “Seeing”, Annie Dillard focuses on showing how different people have different perceptions. Dillard gives multiple examples to support her main idea, which is that preconceived and inherited notions influence our perceptions. Dillard discusses the different ways of seeing, how people with different backgrounds have different experiences with seeing, and many more. While Dillard’s idea about perceptions is definitely relevant and accurate, but are certainly not complete as there are multiple things that influence our perceptions.
“Without Conscience" by Robert D. Hare is one aimed towards making the general public aware of the many psychopaths that inhabit the world we live in. Throughout the book Hare exposes the reader to a number of short stories; all with an emphasis on a characteristic of psychopaths. Hare makes the claim that close monitoring of psychopathy are vital if we ever hope to gain a hold over Psychopathy- A disorder that affects not only the individual but also society itself. He also indicates one of the reasons for this book is order to correctly treat these individuals we have to be able to correctly identify who meets the criteria. His ultimate goal with the text is to alleviate some of the confusion in the increase in criminal activity by determining how my of this is a result of Psychopathy.
While Descartes believes this to be incredibly fundamental to human knowledge, there have been several critiques of this over the years. One example that goes against mental transparency is Freud’s idea of the unconscious min...
When we take a closer look at the picture, we are able to depict symbols that will means something to us, it is called the paradigmatic analysis. You are able to comprehend a
One cannot always accurately reproduce information due to the stages of memory processing that occur after witnessing an event. With each stage, the accuracy of the memory decreases. According to Aronson, Wilson, and Akert (2013), the first stage is acquisition. Acquisition is the process by which people notice only certain information in a particular setting because they cannot perceive everything around them. Also, witnessing a crime often occurs quickly, unexpectedly, under poor viewing conditions, or while focus is on another object, such as a gun. These circumstances significantly decrease the amount of accurate information that the observer will acquire, and the likelihood for accurate reproduction of the event in testimony is lessened (Aronson et al., 2013). According to Fradella (2006), acquisition is dependent upon the same individualized factors that are present in perception and expectations. Expectations impact what information an observer seeks out or avoids, ultimately impacting their overall memory (Fradella, 2006).
In “The Anatomy of Judgmen”t, M. L. J. Abercrombie discusses how information is gained through our perception. Abercrombie claims that interpretation is a very complicated task that people have been learning to exercise since birth. Each person has a different way of interpreting the objects or situations they see, because people often relate their own past experiences. She also explains two important concepts: schemata and context. She defines schemata as a way our mind functions by understanding new things perceived through sight, by relating it to an individual’s past experiences. Past experiences help interpret what is seen further, if the object fits one’s expectation or their schemata, and not something different from their past experiences. Her fundamental insight is that seeing is more complex than just passively registering what is seen, and consists of a form judgment for...
This theory observes how people interact with each other and consider symbols and details of daily life. Theorists of this perspective support the idea that people associate symbols with a subjective meaning. Different people who see the same symbol will interpret it differently thus peoples perceived realities are different.
There are many different Visual Perception principles in perception. The main principles are Gestalt. Gestalt is a German word meaning 'form' or 'shape'. Gestalt psychologists formulated a series of principles that describe how t...
“Context, in analysis of the humanities, refers to factors that surround a work of art or literature but may not be stated explicitly. This background information informs our deeper understanding of the work in question and allows us to analyze, rather than summarize, what we are studying. It is important to be aware of what the artist was experiencing in their time and reacting to or reacting against.” (https://valenciacollege.edu/west/arts-and-humanities/writing/historical-cultural.cfm )