Faulty Assumptions Are Barriers To Interviewing/Counseling, Effective Helping
We all carry faulty assumptions with us; they are about groups - races, ethnic groups, people in various occupations, of different ages, of different social classes. And there are many more.
Identify some of your faculty assumptions AND identify faulty assumptions that you have heard other people articulate.
14 comments:
Regarding faulty assumptions:
I used to think that...
People of color overreacted to the occasional offensive remark, which wasn't really meant to offend anyway.
Now I think that...
It is a normal reaction to an abnormal situation.
Because...
I've learned that I can't interpret that experience through "white" eyes. That these so-called random and infrequent occurrences are neither. There is often and underlying ignorance and ethnocentrism. And, the incidents that seem infrequent are much more common when you begin to connect the dots over a lifetime and over generations.
By taking Human Service classes I have learned that all people are different. I have always known that but when you read and listen about so many different ways people live their lives I would probably think I have some faulty assumptions of people. Then I realize that people will be who they want to be and I need to overlook some of their faults and continue on with my adventure in my life. When you work in Human Services you really need to focus on helping people not on what their faults are. I remember as a kid my mom always saying if you can't say something good don't say anything at all.
I would have to say that I have always gone by what I heard someone say about not judging a book by its cover. For me making an assumption about someone because of their occupation or race has not been something I done. I also think to myself that I would like to be looked at for who I am and not for what I look like or the position I have. I always believed in equality.
Sarah Watson
My faulty assumption has always been that the problem in society is the breakdown of the family environment. I always felt that children from families that stayed together had a better chance at success, happiness, and security than those who came from broken homes. In fact, I still tend to believe this, although now I see that there are so many extenuating circumstances that can arise throughout a marriage that no matter how much someone tries, they can not keep the family intact. I still believe that divorce is devastating for children--but is that faulty thinking? I have heard other people say that staying in an unhealthy marriage is detrimental to children, but I have seen that not staying can also be detrimental.
This may be a barrier to effective counseling for me because I am divorced due to a very unforeseen experience, and when I hear friends of mine talk about minuscule reasons for divorce it really irritates me because I feel their reasoning is nowhere near as bad as the reason why I got divorced. I wish I had their problems because I would have learned to live with it rather than put my children through divorce.
One of my assumptions in life is that people who let illness stop them from continuing on with their life are weak. I have discovered overtime in my experiences that this is not the case. My childhood ghosts haunted me in believing this and it took some time and education to gain skills to recognize that it is not a self inflicted behavior. I used to believe that people just needed to keep moving and not let the illness stop them. Depression, sickness, broken bone, etc. this was not an end all in my book. I have people in my life now that have or have had illness and it took time to realize that it was involuntary behavior not them being a victim.
My faulty assumptions are my parents were raised in the south and everything was always balck and white to them. So for a very long time in my life I always viewed myself and other black people needing to work harder for the things they acheived. I have to honestly say that my views have change and I feel as though we are closer to equal opportunity. I still here people say that black people we never be viewed as equal. I was watching the history channel the other night and it was on Dr. Martin Luther King, and his goal in life was not to be a civil rights activist, he just wanted to be a minister. He was chosen to speak on the behalf of civil rights because he was a young nice lookinkg black minister. Yes he wanted things to change, and his I have a dream speech made him very noticed and all the marches. But did they trulty make a difference in society today. I still wonder about that, our we any closer to his dream. I never thought that we would be this close in having an African American president, but we are. Sure I think about other flaws in society. What about the mentally ill. Why does society shun then as though they have a disease that they are goig to catch. What about people that say they are part of societies problem, they just want to be treated like what ever normal is. They don't want to be stared at when they are out shopping, or working. Yes, I could go on.
When I think of any assumptions I might have I actually have a hard time finding one. I have a lot of opions of people but they are all not necessarily judged towards one specific type of person. And any judgement I have made has been from real experiences that they seem to be true in that situation. I do not judge people by not knowing them. I try not to judge people at all but we are all human. To me this seems like a touchy subject considering people might judge on the responses that we give. Everyone's background and culture is different and what we were raised to believe is sometimes not our fault. For me especially working with people in this field I have learned to accept people for who they are and deal with people individually and to not judge by groups.
My faulty assuptions about this individual was controlling and self rightious and a know it all. But deep down within something was telling me that there is more to the picture than what I perceive. Sometime we can make an assumption about people, places or things without getting all the facts before making a rational decision.
I really don't have racial, or ethnic prejudices that cause me to have faulty assumptions about different groups of people. The one faulty assumption I may have would be my opinions toward those who commit abortions. Because of my background in infertility, I have seen life be created in its earliest stages. Prior to coming into human services, I can honestly say that I thought abortion was equal to murder. I still do not agree with it but I am understanding the struggles that come from people in lower financial and educational backgrounds. The debate I have is that if people are forced to not have an abortion, how many unwanted, unloved children will there be. The human service field will explode with patients. However, I do see that some use abortion as a form of birth control. This angers me because I see so many women beg and plead to be able to just conceive.
A faulty assumption that I carried, before having human services knowledge, was about people who prostitute or sell drugs for money. I used to think why cant they just get a "regular" job, but know I realize it is not that easy. Growing up people are socialized to want the American Dream (A good job, a nice house, a nice car) and some people are not given the chance to achieve this because they can't get a good education which means they then can't get a decent job. They then see their parents struggling because they too have no education and a low paying job. These people (some) who are prostituting or selling drugs, want to be successful and know they can not do that working at McDonalds, therefore they try to do so by unconventional means (which we see as deviant).
Faulty assumptions I have heard other people talk about was about being afraid of people with a lot of tattoos. "I tell my kids not to get involved with people like that, they are no good." They are no good? They are people just like you and I! Just because they have different interest does not make them a bad person.
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