Saturday 14 January 2012

Preconceived notions

We are all unique regardless of our differing race, gender, culture, DNA, finger prints and religion. One thing that we all have in common is our misconceived notions about people. We mistake young teenagers for troublemakers, Sociopaths for friends, White people for racialists, Blacks for Murderers, gangsters and thieves; along with now most Middle Eastern people for terrorists!
It’s disgraceful how we like to see the worst in every individual. Where do our notions come from and are they bias? Of course they are bias, the only way our notions would back validity is if we were to have a bad encounter. We as humans are easily influenced and our manipulation comes from our parents/Guardians who brought us up. Their bias misconceived notions rubbed off on their children in a form of classical conditioning.

Classical conditioning is a technique used in behavioural training and is learnt by association. The Little Albert experiment is insightful in a way as it shows how notions are conditioned.  Around the age of nine months, Watson and Raynor exposed the child to a series of stimuli including a white rat, a rabbit, a monkey, and masks they then observed the boy's reactions. The boy initially showed no fear of any of the objects he was shown. The next time Albert was exposed the rat; Watson made a loud noise by hitting a metal pipe with a hammer. Naturally, the child began to cry after hearing the loud noise. After repeatedly pairing the white rat with the loud noise, Albert began to cry simply after seeing the rat. By observing the facts of this experiment we can see how our parent’s irrational fears and preconceived notions are manipulated in our mind.
It’s irrational to judge an individual on their race, gender, culture, nationality or social status. A majority of our notions which are based on our differing features will be inaccurate. The average person or shall I say a mediocre individual makes over twelve incorrect preconceived notions a day. As a final point it is immoral to pass judgement to an individual who hasn’t offended or harmed us based on their exterior, what counts is the content of their character.
“You are urgently warned against allowing yourself to be influenced in any way by theories or by other preconceived notions in the observation of phenomena, the performance of analyses and other determinations.”-  Emil Hermann Fisher
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.'… I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Martin Luther King Jr.

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