Thank you so much for your interest in The Insight, by Sheba. I hope you enjoyed this week’s blogs about “Generalizations.”

Next week’s topic will be “Judgments.”

Friday Review: Happy Reading!

1.     Always True or False.

• Although generalizations are essential to advancing our intellect, general statements can be misinterpreted and unrepresentative of the complete truth. They leave room for ambiguity, error and misinterpretation. However, they also are unknowingly used in conversations on a daily basis as innocent exaggerations for dramatic effect. If you want to get your point across and accomplish your communication goal, be precise with the information you share.

2.     Logical Fallacies.

• Start each situation anew and with an open-minded approach. Give the other person the benefit of the doubt and try not to assume “anything.” When you look for the negative you will find it. Base your outlook on fact.

3.     Master the Art of Science?

• If science uses this method, then why can’t we use in it everyday life? Write down your thought process using inductive reasoning and share your findings with your partner, co-worker or friend. At that point they may be able to understand how you arrived at your conclusion and the conversation moving forward can begin from the same starting point.

4.     How you can Hurt Yourself.

• The generalizations we use with others can make them defensive, but the one we use with ourselves can be detrimental to our self-esteem. Look at your personal statements from a different perspective and steer away from pessimistic generalizations.  To combat negative generalizations, you can learn your ABCDE’s, a positive intervention created by Seligman.

The Insight:  Generalizations function as a part of our daily conversation and are essential to the learning process. We use them to understand our environments. However, if they are not used properly they can offend others and negatively affect our self-esteem. Train yourself to recognize them and ask clarifying question to discern ambiguity and try not to accept partial truth as the whole.

Have a wonderful weekend!

By Sheba

www.bySheba.com

Creating Positive Perspectives for Life

The Scenario - Has something bad ever happened and you made statements to yourself like, “That’s the way my life is” or “I am so stupid I can’t believe I did that.”

Do those internal generalizations have an impact on our self-esteem?

According to psychologist and author Martin Seligman, Ph.D., the answer is yes. In his national best seller Learned Optimism, he discusses the effects of the explanatory style – words you choose to explain a bad event.

Permanence: When difficult events occur, this person assumes they are permanent and are often deflated or demotivated. It’s easier for them to give up or not take action because the situation will not change no matter the effort. They may even collapse under pressure.

• To change that perspective: Be accurate and practice a temporary point of view.

Pervasiveness: When difficult events take place in one aspect of their lives, they make universal negative statements regarding all aspects. Inaction or demotivation takes place.

• To change that perspective: Be logical and practice a specific point of view.

Personalization: When difficult events take place, this person finds general reasons to relate creation of the problem to him or herself. They may have low self-esteem as a result of demeaning self-talk.

• To change that perspective: Be confident and practice an external point of view.

The Insight – The generalizations we use with others can make them defensive, but the ones we use with ourselves can be detrimental to our self-esteem. Look at your personal statements from a different perspective and steer away from pessimistic generalizations.  To combat negative generalizations, you can learn your ABCDE’s, a positive intervention created by Seligman.

Did you tell yourself something amazing today?

By Sheba

www.bySheba.com

Creating Positive Perspectives for Life

The Scenario - You have a theory about your partner, friend or co-worker. What do you do? Suppress it, discuss it with others to talk it out, or confront the individual with your broad notion? How do you think he or she will react? To help communicate your overarching theories, themes or observations, develop a method that works for you and your communication style.

Have you used inductive reasoning to arrive at your theory?

There are many ways in which we learn, such as pattern recognition, association, social interaction, cumulative cultural adaptation, visual, auditory and kinesthetic modalities…the list goes on. However, as we get older and compile our years of generalizations from what we have learned, it’s easy to see how we can create theories without strong foundations.

Inductive reasoning works when creating broad generalizations, theories or principles from specific observations or detailed facts.

Step 1: Observation

• Collect facts with fairness and without partiality

Step 2: Patterns

• Categorize the facts and look for identifying patterns

Step 3: Tentative Prediction

• When reviewing the patterns infer generalizations and relationships between the facts

Step 4: Theory

• Test your theory through further observation.

The Insight - If science uses this method, then why can’t we use it in our everyday life? Write down your thought process using inductive reasoning and share your findings with your partner, co-worker or friend. At that point they may be able to understand how you arrived at your conclusion and the conversation moving forward can begin from the same starting point.

What’s your theory?

By Sheba

www.bySheba.com

Creating Positive Perspectives for Life

The Scenario – You knew you were going to argue with your friend or co-worker because you’ve disagreed about the same topic for the last three days. However, what evidence do you have that the argument will ensue? Are you basing that assumption on probability? Are you making that generalization based on a gut hunch or are you reaching the conclusion because he or she was in a bad mood this morning?

Are your generalizations based on facts or are they logical fallacies?

A fallacy, referenced in Aristotle’s Sophistical Refutation, offers elements of the truth, which become a logical fallacy when used as evidence to support a general claim. Generalizations are fallacies because they offer insufficient information to support a claim that is not entirely true.

Some common logical fallacies:

1.     Hasty Generalizations

• Reaching a conclusion without adequate evidence to support the claim

2.     Appeal to Probability

• Assuming something will happen because it simply can or vice versa

3.     Slippery Slope

• Asserting that one certain action will inevitably lead to other specific events

The Insight- Start each situation anew and with an open-minded approach. Give the other person the benefit of the doubt and try not to assume “anything.” When you look for the negative you will find it. Base your outlook on fact.

Have you ever assumed something and been wrong?

By Sheba

www.bySheba.com

A Positive Perspective for Life, Love, and Relationships

The Scenario – Do you make generic statements like “You NEVER support me” or “You ALWAYS do that” in a heated debate? Are you surprised when the other person gets defensive and says, “What do you mean by that, I ALWAYS do, don’t you remember when…?” They continue with additional examples to support their case and the goal of the conversation or the point you were making gets lost.

Is it possible that your general statement is perceived as truth?

In a paper by Andrei Cimpian, Amanda C. Brondone, and Susan A. Gelman, “Generic Statements Require Little Evidence for Acceptance but Have Powerful Implications,” the team concluded that a generalization or generic statement is frequently deemed true without evidence to the point where the ramifications far exceed what is needed to prove it. (Read More)

Example 1:

1. Dogs have puppies.
2. Healthy, adult, female dogs have puppies.

Example 2:

1. You NEVER support me.
2. You NEVER support me when I do “this.”

Both statements can be perceived as true but the second statement is more accurate. The first statement is only true for a selection of the group or part of the time and is easily accepted as truth because to decline its validity would be entirely false.

The Insight - Although generalizations are essential to advancing our intellect, general statements can be misinterpreted and unrepresentative of the complete truth. They leave room for ambiguity, error and misinterpretation. However, they also are unknowingly used in conversations on a daily basis as innocent exaggerations for dramatic effect. If you want to get your point across and accomplish your communication goal, be precise with the information you share.

Do you ALWAYS read my blog?

By Sheba

www.bySheba.com

Creating Positive Perspectives for Life