June
2nd,
2005
2nd,
2005
| Essay 4A: 10/16/03 Psychology Accepting New Concepts It is very difficult for people to alter their fundamental beliefs about the world. This is partly because many people are extremely protective of their belief systems and derive much of their own sense of identity and security from them. Also people cling tenaciously to their beliefs because they have been formulating them since they were very young. Ideas that are radically different from their own can be threatening, confusing and difficult to compensate for. Most people do not want to engage in the mental work that is involved in accepting a new idea because it can be a very difficult task. This is especially true if the new idea contrasts greatly with their belief system. The more fundamental the belief, the more difficult it is to replace because it is likely to be interrelated with other beliefs that may be contingent upon it. For a mean person to try very hard to suddenly become nice or for an optimist to become a pessimist is incredibly difficult. A person who makes such rudimentary changes would have to alter the way that they speak, make decisions, make attributions and they would even have to change their automatic or reflexive reactions. For a person to truly make a fundamental change in their character, attitude or belief system they must change their initial reactions to the relevant external stimuli. Many angry people begin to get angry the second that they perceive a particular stimulus to be threatening. This response is often not initiated by their analysis of the situation, but instead by an unconscious and often habituated, reflexive reaction. The unconscious mind- our brain circuitry- is programmed by repeated, habitual actions. Often the more an action is performed, the more ingrained it becomes and the more likely your brain is to rely upon it. In these terms one can think of a reaction as the sum of many closely related reflexes. Once we begin to express unconscious anger at a friend it can quickly become too late to take back what we expressed in haste. Accepting a new thought, idea or concept can take some getting used to. One cannot expect to be able to use new knowledge in every applicable situation until they consciously, intentionally apply that knowledge. Thus embracing a new belief involves changing all of your previous, related beliefs, and reprogramming your unconscious reactions. Viewed in this way individual thoughts can be described as discrete and conscious deliberation can be described as the process that creates continuity. Unconscious: noun The part of the mind below the level of conscious perception. |
| Organization for the Advancement of Interdisciplinary Learning |