Essay/Term paper: Human perception: an intimate look into the most intriguing aspect of modern psychology

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Philosophy Essays

Human Perception: An Intimate Look Into The Most Intriguing Aspect of Modern
Psychology.


It determines what we see, what we do, what we feel. It controls our
emotions, our thoughts, and our conscience. What is this remarkable element of
the human mind? It is called perception. Perception as defined in the Merrian-
Webster Dictionary as the following-

1 a : awareness of the elements of environment through physical
sensation
b: Physical sensation interpreted in the light of experience
2 a : quick, acute, and intuitive cognition : APPRECIATION
b : capacity for comprehension

Perception. As hard as it is to define it, it is impossible to correctly
conceive a "correct" or "right" way to use it. Perception varies with not only
humans, but with virtually all other animals as well, whether through instinct
or with conscious thought. Let us take this a step farther. When a bee looks at
a flower that is meant for feeding from, they do not only notice the colors the
human mind sees. The bee sees a yellow "run-way" directly into the core of the
flower, guiding it into the source of nectar. This brings us to the question-
"is what we see real, or is what we see our own reality?". What the human mind
sees is only three dimensions. Since Albert Einstein first conjured the
scientific possibility of a fourth dimension, human beings have longed to see it.
Many people assume that it does not exist simply because they cannot see it.
They are not able to see the yellow "run-way" into the heart of a flower, but to
the bee and an ultraviolet light, that "run-way" is certainly real. People's
physical use of their own perception is very limited, as such noticeable in the
"tunnel-vision" effect. A good example of the Tunnel Vision effect is a
perception or thought such as "if I cannot see it, it simply does not exist". We
as humans are limited not only to what we can sense, but how we perceive what we
sense. Such is a formidable question. What if that fourth dimension does exist,
what if we can see it , only our brain cannot perceive it being there, therefor
it never exists in the first place. I would consider that as a paradox.
Where does perception come from? Is it a result of the upbringing and
surroundings of an individual (animal or human), or is it a result of genetics?
Certainly I would believe that conditioning has a great impact on an
individual's perception. An example to that would be as such : A dog is abused,
beaten, and starved by a group of owners in a kennel. The dog is then recovered
by the humane society and adopted by a local family. The dog in turns bites one
in the family every time a hand is raised near it as a motion, for food or
otherwise. The dog has been conditioned into fear. However, due to the
conditioning, the dog perceives the hand motions differently than would a
newborn pup. The dog perceives such hand actions as a premonition that it is
about to be hit or harmed in some way. I can only conclude to myself that there
is a distinct possibility that conditioning has the ability to alter perception
in a great amount.
People often mistakenly identify people for others in many circumstances
everyday. For example, I got on the bus to go to school a few weeks ago, and sat
down next to a person whom I believed I had talked to the day before regarding a
topic. I started to say something, I looked up and realized the person was a
totally different person than whom I believed I was talking to. I had seen the
person who I thought I was talking to when I got on that bus. The physical
features, the voice, etc. all matched. However, a neuron must have misfired
because there was an entirely different person altogether in that seat. I went
to another seat, pondered it over, and realized how speculative human
identification is. Often victims of rape, robbery, or other crimes are asked to
identify their assailant in a police lineup. Seventy two percent of people
misidentify suspects in police lineups the first try. The reason? The person
sees who they "saw" when they were attacked. I would presume that during an
attack, a person would be more concerned about staying alive than noticing the
exact physical characteristics of the individual who is attacking. Since the
brain is overworking to do multitudes of tasks at the time of an attack, I would
assume that a person would not pay particular notice to the appearance of the
attacker. This is why human visual identification is so controversial and hard
to support. Perhaps the person *did* see that person who attacked them in the
lineup. People often fill in the gaps of a picture and story to make everything
seem clear to them and the authorities. Therefor, human visual identification
cannot be trusted simply due to people's differences of perception. When I
look at and read the Bible, I regard it as an awesome literary work, but not
something I would base or live my life upon. However, there are those who
perceive the Bible as not only words on a page, but as the guiding force behind
humanity. Religion and perception do not go well together simply due to the vast
differences in opinion among the human race. What I perceive as fact is that
Jesus Christ did not ascend into heaven, and that the Bible is merely a literary
work. A book to be concise. However, what Christians perceive as fact is the
exact opposite. Often, there are those in the religious or family oriented lobby
industries who try to suppress what I read or hear based upon their own
perception, Perhaps this is stretching the links of perception, but I believe
that the perceptual differences among people are the original roots of
censorship. One group of people or person perceives something as obscene or
"harmful". Another group perceives *the same thing* as intellectually
stimulating or entertaining. Such is why I consider perception as not only
having to do with human psychology, but with politics and beliefs as well.
I consider perception to be not only what a person senses, but what they
get out of what they sense. I listen to hard-core rock and like the sound of it.
However, an adult would most likely label it as simply "noise". The perceptual
differences among people is the *single* biggest speed bump in attaining world,
civil, and domestic peace. Our differences are small, but great in bounty. I see
white, you see black. Never will all people in the world agree on one particular
topic, however we can learn to respect the perception of that topic. Until
people understand the roots of problems is how they perceive them, and that it
is only a problem if you make it a problem, peace and respect are unattainable
goals.



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