In today’s haywire life where there are loads of tension and troubles; we fail to understand what, why and who is right! There is an urgent need for us to become capable of better understanding and fine analytical judgment of the situation and persons around us. It is said Human Minds are like parachutes. They only function when they are open. So we can say that to lead a beautiful happy and stress free life one need to keep his mind open for positive and analytical judgments. Thousands of times each day we make varied kinds of judgments wherein we explicitly or implicitly compare one thing with another: the day is cold, the man is attractive, and the government policies are horrible. The judgments for dimensions such as weight, height, beauty, values, loudness, heat etc. are affected by what has happened earlier. If we say today Mumbai is cold, this means that yesterday it was not so or not as much. Another very important kind of judgment is judging relationships. These are the judgments that are made between two objects, situations, people or events which are expected to be similar in some way. It is very important to know that such similarity judgments are never absolute but is relative to particular dimensions that are relative. One of the most primitive perception is that world is essentially nonrandom, of it as having an order. Even when exposed to random patterns of events, people often invent elaborate explanation for relationships. For example, many people assume that women are worse drivers than men are, despite considerable evidence in contrary. This assertion that women are poor drivers may be non reflective, culturally based prejudice. Evaluation of relationship is difficult under the best circumstances, and it is easy to conclude that relationships are stronger or more persuasive than they really are. Most of us find it difficult to deal with the ambiguities of modern relationship.
Many times one’s wrong view point and wrong analysis of the situation leads life into troubled waters. After reviewing how and why thinking gets channeled into mental gorges, we can have a better perspective of life and hence the life becomes easy. A new idea is the beginning, not the end, of the creative process. It must jump over many hurdles before being embraced as an organizational product or solution. The organizational climate plays a crucial role in determining whether new ideas bubble to the surface or are suppressed. Mental tools help one to keep an open mind, question assumptions, see different perspectives, develop new ideas, and recognize when it is time to change their minds. We should ensure that we remain open to new experience and recognize when long-held views or conventional wisdom need to be revised in response to a changing world? Beliefs, assumptions, concepts, and information retrieved from memory form a mind-set or mental model that guides perception and processing of new information. The life forces us to deal with issues when information is incomplete; there are no gaps in the information on an issue or situation, and no ambiguity. Well in such times, the information is lacking; we often have no choice but to lean heavily on prior beliefs and assumptions about how and why events normally become apparent.
A mind-set is neither good nor bad, it is unavoidable. It is, in essence, a refinement of all that we think we know about a subject. It forms a lens through which we perceive the world, and once formed, it resists change. New ideas result from the association of old elements in new combinations. Previously remote elements of thought suddenly become associated in a new and useful combination. Human analysis is too often limited by similar, unconscious, self-imposed constraints or “cages of the mind.” You do not need to be constrained by conventional wisdom. It is often wrong. You do not necessarily need to be constrained by existing policies. They can sometimes be changed if you show a good reason for doing so. You do not necessarily need to be constrained by the specific analytical requirement you were given. The ability to bring previously unrelated information and ideas together in meaningful ways is what marks the open-minded, imaginative, creative analysis. One should be self-conscious about their reasoning process. We should think about how we make judgments and reach conclusions, not just about the judgments and conclusions themselves. It entails going beyond the available information and is the principal means of coping with uncertainty. It always involves an analytical leap, from the known into the uncertain. The ultimate nature of judgment remains a mystery.
A potential explanation or conclusion that is to be tested presenting evidence is called hypothesis. Generation and analysis of hypotheses start with consideration of concrete rudiments of the current situation, rather than with broad generalizations.
Starting with the known facts of the current situation and an understanding of the unique forces at work at that particular time and place, we seek to identify the logical antecedents or consequences of this situation. A scenario is developed that hangs together as a probable narrative. The tendency to relate contemporary events to earlier events as a guide to understanding is a powerful one. Comparison helps achieve understanding by reducing the unfamiliar to the familiar. When faced with an analytical problem, people are either unable or simply do not take the time to identify the full range of potential answers. One should have an accurate understanding of their own mental processes. How good is their insight into how they actually weight evidence in making judgments? For each situation to be analyzed, they have an implicit “mental model” consisting of beliefs and assumptions as to which variables are most important and how they are related to each other. Having good insight into their own mental model, we should be able to identify and describe the variables they have considered most important in making judgments. The accuracy of one’s judgment depends upon both the accuracy of our mental model and the accuracy of the values attributed to the key variables in the model. These kinds of information increase confidence because the conclusions seem to be supported by such a large body of data. We should interpret information with the aid of mental models that are largely implicit rather than explicit.
It is necessary to consider how this mental model gets tested against reality, and how it can be changed to improve the accuracy of analytical judgment. Two things make it hard to change one’s mental model. The first is the nature of human perception and information-processing. The second is the difficulty, in many fields, of learning what truly an accurate model is. Partly because of the nature of human perception and information processing, beliefs of all types tend to resist change. This is especially true of the implicit assumptions and supposedly self-evident truths that play an important role in forming mental models. Information that is consistent with an existing mind-set is perceived and processed easily and reinforces existing beliefs. Because the mind strives instinctively for consistency, information that is inconsistent with an existing mental image tends to be overlooked, perceived in a distorted manner, or rationalized to fit existing assumptions and beliefs. Learning to make better judgments through experience assumes systematic feedback on the accuracy of previous judgments and an ability to link the accuracy of a judgment with the particular configuration of variables that prompted an analyst to make that judgment.
Human behavior is frequently disorganized and disturbed, whereas motivated behavior is typically goal directed rson, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way~ this is not easy.”--- Aristotle, the Nicomachean Ethics. How true the statement by Aristotle is, it is really very difficult to control our emotions at some places. We show wrong state of emotion at wrong time, wrong place and wrong person at a wrong degree. We must know how to make correct judgment of the situation and by doing so lead a stress free, organized and motivated life.
ASHISH PILLAI
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