DISCOVERING OUR REALITIES

Melissa Corral

What is Reality?

Everything that exists by science, philosophy, theology, or any other system of analyses whether it is: Observable Accessible Understandable

REALITY…….

It is not what is“real,”

It’s what we thinkIs real

PERCEPTIONWhat do you see here?

PERCEPTION PROCESS

PERCEPTION PROCESS (CONT)

Consists of three stages:1. Selecting data from environment, which acts

as a filtering mechanism .2. Organizing and prioritizing the information

and data that we have become aware of.3. Interpreting the data

SELECTING & SORTING FILTERS

Psychological conditions affect how we recognize incoming data.

Physical conditions can affect what data we recognize.

Language creates an organizational system that helps us understand messages from our environment

SELECTING & SORTING FILTERS

Formal Learning shapes how we view our environment

Experiences are our first-hand informal learning activities

Expectations are perceptions that we expect to conform to what we already believe the actual event is.

FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE HOW WE INTERPRET DATA

Closure: Making sense of the

environment, even when only a limited amount of data is available.

Selective Perception: Narrowing available cognitions to

make an interpretation of the environment

Patterning: Attempting to keep new or

current perceptions in line with past ones.

REALITY TESTING Sharing and comparing realities with others:

Helps reduce distortions and differences among the many realities you have created.

Developing better listening skills: Empathetic Listening – empathy as the basis for

understanding the position of others. Deliberative Listening – attempt to make a definite,

deliberate attempt to hear information, analyze it, draw conclusions from it, and recall it at a later time.

STASIS

We communicate to stay on stasis (at rest), and we desire to maintain that state.

Can be referred to as a person’s personal comfort zone.

Can be a positive or negative outlook concerning the world around us