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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!
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
Creating Positive Perspectives for Life
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