Psychology and the Senses

Zac Parsons
Psychology 101 George Gerbner argues that perception of reality can best be explained using the five senses. He states that “Our sense make up who we are.” I tend to agree. I also believe that location, and teachings have a lot to do with it as well. Being raised in the United States of America, I could have a totally different view of reality than someone born into a third world country. For example, as an American, when I look at a highway, I expect to see cars, trucks, not airplanes. But someone from a different country with different experiences and history may not have any idea what to expect and thus be surprised when they see cars go driving by. My five senses also play a huge part of what I believe to be “My Reality.” Who can really say what a flower smells like? Who can really pin point exactly what an apple taste like? Our reality is all perceived on what things are to us as individuals. My taste differs from that of my fellow class mates but that in turn make me an individual. I also believe that our individual teachings have a lot to do with how we perceive our “Reality.” Growing up, we all had parents or role models and People that we pattern our behavior after. These people taught us about right and wrong. They taught us about good and bad. With everyone’s location, senses, and teaching being somewhat different, we all are forced to grow up with our own belief on values. I also believe how we portray what we have learned may be how others perceive us. To them, we may be someone completely different in their reality than we think of ourselves in ours. Think about this when you are meeting someone for the first time. What assumptions do we all make? Sometimes we walk away thinking we know everything about this person and come to find out as we interact with them more frequently that we are wrong. This being said, not everyone’s views are exactly the same; just as not everyone’s reality is exactly the same. This can be both helpful and detrimental to society. An example of how this can be detrimental and beneficial to society is economics. Lately the economy has played a big factor in our society. Big banks, real estate, and automobiles have taken big hits. These hits have spiraled down to affect everyone. This has created quite a large gap between wealthy and poor which can be detrimental to society. Both classes view on reality can be quite different. One example can be said that the very wealthy may never know what it is like to be poor. Their perception of reality could always have been comfortable. Or it could have always been work hard and you will receive. Those on the other end of the spectrum may have caught a bad break, or may have never known anything but being poor. This creates many different individual worlds for all of us living on the same planet. What we know, and how we view our world is our reality.