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firecathttp://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111221140627.htm
Excerpt:
I'm obviously assuming here that tolerating ambiguity would generally be a good skill to have (although I think it might lead to problems in situations where immediate action is required). I really dislike prejudice and the damage it causes, so if training in tolerating ambiguity might help diminish it, I would be in favor.
I think I've learned to tolerate ambiguity a lot better over the years, so my personal experience makes me doubt the assertion that it's impossible to change the way people think. It's possible that being on antidepressants is what made the difference for me, though.
Excerpt:
In a new article published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, Arne Roets and Alain Van Hiel of Ghent University in Belgium look at what psychological scientists have learned about prejudice....I'm very curious about that last statement. At what point does the "basic way" that a person thinks develop? Is it nature or nurture, and in what proportions? If it's true that some people need to reduce ambiguity more than others, do we know what contributes to that? Is it possible to teach people to tolerate more ambiguity, or to tolerate ambiguity in more situations?
People who are prejudiced feel a much stronger need to make quick and firm judgments and decisions in order to reduce ambiguity. "Of course, everyone has to make decisions, but some people really hate uncertainty and therefore quickly rely on the most obvious information, often the first information they come across, to reduce it" Roets says....
It's virtually impossible to change the basic way that people think.
I'm obviously assuming here that tolerating ambiguity would generally be a good skill to have (although I think it might lead to problems in situations where immediate action is required). I really dislike prejudice and the damage it causes, so if training in tolerating ambiguity might help diminish it, I would be in favor.
I think I've learned to tolerate ambiguity a lot better over the years, so my personal experience makes me doubt the assertion that it's impossible to change the way people think. It's possible that being on antidepressants is what made the difference for me, though.
no subject
Date: 29 Dec 2011 03:02 am (UTC)(IMO, this is where it kind of where research psychologists aren't as served by their training as clinical psychologists: when you counsel, you learn that no, you can't make someone stop taking mental shortcuts, nor should you try; you just give them better shortcuts)
no subject
Date: 29 Dec 2011 06:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 29 Dec 2011 06:10 am (UTC)I mean, as someone who does computer programming, soc-psych computer metaphors make me laaaugh and laaaaugh. But yes.
no subject
Date: 29 Dec 2011 08:20 pm (UTC)Heh.
I would also suggest that you can give people better shortcuts, but they still won't be different people -- at least, not without medication, and actually not even with. I say this as a participant in an Adult Children 12-step group in my twenties plus someone who's been on antidepressants for years and is a MUCH nicer person for it.
(Sort of like saying that I want clothes that flatter me, then realizing that I want clothes that make me look sixty pounds thinner. But that's a whole OTHER set of conversations.)
no subject
Date: 29 Dec 2011 08:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 29 Dec 2011 08:44 pm (UTC)...when you counsel, you learn that no, you can't make someone stop taking mental shortcuts, nor should you try; you just give them better shortcuts
And keep reinforcing that it's a process, not a blinding flash "cure" (per my clinical psychologist S.O.).