Changing One's Perspective Paper
Changing One's Perspective
James Padley
PSY/220
April 10, 2011
Changing One's Perspective
There are many times in our lives that we are too quick to pass judgment on others without knowing the whole story, this can be influenced by many aspects of our lives. Some of those aspects are our religious beliefs, cultural, personal beliefs, mood, or personality. Say you are someone riding a bus to work and a woman and her two kids are in the seat next to you. Now the kids are bouncing around and they knock over your coffee on you and you ask the woman to please control her children. Then you find out that she just lost her husband. Well once you found out what was going on your attitude changed. In this paper I want you to get a good understanding as to how and why some people will jump to conclusions before knowing the whole story.
Thinking of the scenario that was provided as an example brings me back to a time when times were supposed to be simple. A time when ones biggest concern was to make sure they got up on time to …show more content…
get off to work and the kids off to school and daycare. This time took place in Oklahoma City the day after I turned nineteen years old. I was attending school in a small town called Guthrie that was about thirty minutes from Oklahoma City. I remember this day well because as I was sitting in class, I suddenly heard a thundering roar. The next thing that we knew, we were being told that the federal building in downtown Oklahoma City had just been bombed. This left many scared for loved ones and friends that lived in Oklahoma City.
The explosion left so many lives lost that firemen and police were looking for any possible survivors in the rubble. This building wasn’t just made of federal employees but also a daycare that was full of children that belonged too many of the employees. There were one hundred and sixty eight people killed in the bombing, nineteen were children. This is what brings me to my main point of this essay. During the chaos of all that was going on around them a photographer by the name of Charles Porter took a photo of a fireman carrying a one year-old victim from the debris of rubble. I remember this photo well because many people had different opinions about this photo. It was one that hit my heart to the very core from which it pumped. My feeling weren’t shared by everyone though. There were others that felt this fireman was doing this for the publicity. I remember that there were rumors that the child was actually dead as the firefighter had carried the child out. This left many people with a negative opinion for the situation. Once the story got out to others, it was soon discovered that the child was indeed alive while the firefighter carried the child out. Sadly she died later at the hospital due to injuries that she sustained during the explosion. Those that showed anger or disgust towards the photo later changed their opinion after finding out the true story.
This terroristic action has been believed by other like religious groups, that this is a sign of the end times. Many of these religious groups would stand on the corners preaching salvation and that Christ is coming soon, that we all should be ready at a moment’s notice. Other religious groups were lead to pray for the victims and their families that were affected by this terrible act. There were also many people that turned to their faith for guidance and answers. Usually a person’s faith is a driving force in one’s life in situations like this. The photo of the firefighter carrying the one year-old child had a powerful impact on many religious groups, so much that people would come from everywhere to post prayers, poems, flowers, and stuffed animals all along the fence that guarded the property of the site that was bombed.
There are many cultural groups that consider this a victory even though they did not set the bombing in motion, they have gotten the opportunity to see our country in a vulnerable state and this was pleasing to them. Many of these cultures are found in the Middle East that has the desire to bring harm to our country. Even though we are faced with the multitude of threat from these other cultures, many people were grateful that this attack was orchestrated by a couple of kooks in our own country. Not that it makes it any easier, but it helped to know that there was not a bigger threat out there at that time. It is hard when our safety is threatened by others. Our biggest concern is protecting our families. Even though there are many cultures that wish us harm, there are just as many in our own country that shared their prayers and extended a hand in this time of need.
Now when dealing with someone’s personal beliefs you never know how a person will interpret the situation.
There personal beliefs can be influence by their upbringing or by society around them. Many people will also let the race or sex of the victim determine how the situation will affect them. This can also play into a person’s mood, personality, or situation as to how they are influenced by this event. For example say that an individual is having a bad day and things are just not going the way they want, a situation like this can affect the way a person perceives an event. This can also affect how much sympathy a person receives from you. Another example could be if you were raised in a home where you did not experience empathy or you were not taught to show compassion towards other. A situation like this could make it difficult for you to see thing from another person’s point of view and this will prevent you from getting the whole
story.
In this paper we have cover the multiple reasons why a person will jump to conclusions and pass judgment on others without knowing the whole story. These reasons consist of religious beliefs, cultural, personal beliefs, mood, or personality. These along with the environment that we were raised in can determine how we see a situation. From a personal note I believe that we can only truly know what someone is going through or what is really going on in a situation when we know both sides of the story.
James Padley
PSY/220
April 10, 2011
Changing One's Perspective
There are many times in our lives that we are too quick to pass judgment on others without knowing the whole story, this can be influenced by many aspects of our lives. Some of those aspects are our religious beliefs, cultural, personal beliefs, mood, or personality. Say you are someone riding a bus to work and a woman and her two kids are in the seat next to you. Now the kids are bouncing around and they knock over your coffee on you and you ask the woman to please control her children. Then you find out that she just lost her husband. Well once you found out what was going on your attitude changed. In this paper I want you to get a good understanding as to how and why some people will jump to conclusions before knowing the whole story.
Thinking of the scenario that was provided as an example brings me back to a time when times were supposed to be simple. A time when ones biggest concern was to make sure they got up on time to …show more content…
get off to work and the kids off to school and daycare. This time took place in Oklahoma City the day after I turned nineteen years old. I was attending school in a small town called Guthrie that was about thirty minutes from Oklahoma City. I remember this day well because as I was sitting in class, I suddenly heard a thundering roar. The next thing that we knew, we were being told that the federal building in downtown Oklahoma City had just been bombed. This left many scared for loved ones and friends that lived in Oklahoma City.
The explosion left so many lives lost that firemen and police were looking for any possible survivors in the rubble. This building wasn’t just made of federal employees but also a daycare that was full of children that belonged too many of the employees. There were one hundred and sixty eight people killed in the bombing, nineteen were children. This is what brings me to my main point of this essay. During the chaos of all that was going on around them a photographer by the name of Charles Porter took a photo of a fireman carrying a one year-old victim from the debris of rubble. I remember this photo well because many people had different opinions about this photo. It was one that hit my heart to the very core from which it pumped. My feeling weren’t shared by everyone though. There were others that felt this fireman was doing this for the publicity. I remember that there were rumors that the child was actually dead as the firefighter had carried the child out. This left many people with a negative opinion for the situation. Once the story got out to others, it was soon discovered that the child was indeed alive while the firefighter carried the child out. Sadly she died later at the hospital due to injuries that she sustained during the explosion. Those that showed anger or disgust towards the photo later changed their opinion after finding out the true story.
This terroristic action has been believed by other like religious groups, that this is a sign of the end times. Many of these religious groups would stand on the corners preaching salvation and that Christ is coming soon, that we all should be ready at a moment’s notice. Other religious groups were lead to pray for the victims and their families that were affected by this terrible act. There were also many people that turned to their faith for guidance and answers. Usually a person’s faith is a driving force in one’s life in situations like this. The photo of the firefighter carrying the one year-old child had a powerful impact on many religious groups, so much that people would come from everywhere to post prayers, poems, flowers, and stuffed animals all along the fence that guarded the property of the site that was bombed.
There are many cultural groups that consider this a victory even though they did not set the bombing in motion, they have gotten the opportunity to see our country in a vulnerable state and this was pleasing to them. Many of these cultures are found in the Middle East that has the desire to bring harm to our country. Even though we are faced with the multitude of threat from these other cultures, many people were grateful that this attack was orchestrated by a couple of kooks in our own country. Not that it makes it any easier, but it helped to know that there was not a bigger threat out there at that time. It is hard when our safety is threatened by others. Our biggest concern is protecting our families. Even though there are many cultures that wish us harm, there are just as many in our own country that shared their prayers and extended a hand in this time of need.
Now when dealing with someone’s personal beliefs you never know how a person will interpret the situation.
There personal beliefs can be influence by their upbringing or by society around them. Many people will also let the race or sex of the victim determine how the situation will affect them. This can also play into a person’s mood, personality, or situation as to how they are influenced by this event. For example say that an individual is having a bad day and things are just not going the way they want, a situation like this can affect the way a person perceives an event. This can also affect how much sympathy a person receives from you. Another example could be if you were raised in a home where you did not experience empathy or you were not taught to show compassion towards other. A situation like this could make it difficult for you to see thing from another person’s point of view and this will prevent you from getting the whole
story.
In this paper we have cover the multiple reasons why a person will jump to conclusions and pass judgment on others without knowing the whole story. These reasons consist of religious beliefs, cultural, personal beliefs, mood, or personality. These along with the environment that we were raised in can determine how we see a situation. From a personal note I believe that we can only truly know what someone is going through or what is really going on in a situation when we know both sides of the story.