Note to the Reader

SECTION REVIEW Culture in the Round: Central Issues Social psychologists consider broad issues about culture. Cultures strike a balance between human needs for accurate information and for comforting beliefs that often obscure reality. Culture serves many vital functions that promote happiness and well-being. Culture also contributes to a variety of social ills in creating divides between people within and outside a culture. Theory and research on cultural traumas reveal the psychological harm that results when one's culture has disintegrated. Culture is not a single, blanket entity but contains important subcultural differences and influences. People coming to a new culture can struggle, but they can assimilate to and integrate aspects of the new culture. How did it make you feel? Sadly, people around you often put you down. They tell you what is possible and not possible, based on the image they have of you. The problem is, you might fall into the trap of doing the same thing to yourself. Believing your past equals your future, you might fail to realize how radically different your future could be if you decided to attempt the apparently impossible. However, in most cases, impossible is an opinion, not a fact. Regardless of what you think you're capable of doing, you can always do more. You often ignore your talents and abilities. You can do things that nobody around you believes you can do--not even yourself. Yes, it's true. At the time we began our work together I was unaware of this event. Cameron had decided to work with a coach to help him move forward in his career.

Cameron worked in sales for a high-tech company. He loved his job but wanted to earn more money and eventually work his way into a more senior position. When I asked him what might be preventing him from making this transition, he responded by saying: I just don't know. Every time my sales seem to take off, something gets in the way. Over the next three months Cameron worked on increasing his sales performance and gaining greater exposure within the company. True to form, each time Cameron was about to shift to a new level, something blocked his path. For example, the morning that Cameron was scheduled to make an important presentation to his boss, his car broke down and he arrived two hours late for work. Then, after laboring six months on landing a big new account, the potential client received some bad press, causing their stock price to tumble. CONNECT ONLINE: Don't stop now! Check out our videos and additional resources located at: www. The Core Elements of Social Cognition Text reads: Topic Overview: The Why of Social Cognition: The Motives Behind Thinking (article 86). The How of Social Cognition: Two Ways to Think About the Social World (article 89). The What of Social Cognition: Schemas as the Cognitive Building Blocks of Knowledge (article 98). Returning to the Why: Motivational Factors in Social Cognition and Behavior (article 113). Topic Overview The Why of Social Cognition: The Motives Behind Thinking You have enormous potential. But because your time is limited, you'll never be able to realize your potential to the fullest.

However, what you can do is keep expanding and testing the limits of what is possible for you on this playground we call Earth. Doing the impossible can dramatically shift your model of reality and shatter your beliefs. Being exposed to the truth of your potential opens a whole new world of possibilities. And once you've done something extraordinary one time, you can always repeat it. If you've ever experienced doing something outside your comfort zone, you probably felt a great surge of energy and confidence as a result. The pleasure and pride you experience from challenging yourself and succeeding, is an invitation to grow and expand. You arrived on Earth to experience more of life and discover what you're capable of, not to play it small. Consequently, as the late Wayne Dyer beautifully said, Don't die with the music still in you. As a result they made a decision to hold off on doing the deal. One day Cameron came to the coaching call anxious to talk about a dream he had had the night before. In his dream he was taking off in an airplane to go to a sales conference, where he was expected to deliver a speech about overcoming objections. When his plane took off it got caught up in high-tension wires. Hanging in midair, Cameron immediately woke up. Cameron's excitement to share the dream came from a vague inner knowing that there was some kind of link between his fear of flying and his career success. Trusting his inner guidance system to lead him in the right direction, I referred Cameron to a professional who specialized in treating fears and phobias with a new, fast-acting technique called the Emotional Freedom technique. After two sessions with the counselor Cameron uncovered the link. The symbolism of flying and taking off was indeed directly related to his fear of success. He discovered that on a subconscious level he feared the travel requirements that might come with a management position in sales. The How of Social Cognition: Two Ways to Think About the Social World The What of Social Cognition: Schemas as the Cognitive Building Blocks of Knowledge

Returning to the Why: Motivational Factors in Social Cognition and Behavior Think back to your first kiss. You probably remember who you were with and how you felt. But do you remember the day of the week or what you were wearing? Most people would like to think that their memories are like snapshots of the past (maybe with a little Instagram filtering to give them a warm glow). The reality is that recollections of events often lack detail and differ from how they actually occurred. Like memory, ordinary sensory perception captures only a thin slice of the objective world. Consider that the human eye sees only a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, whereas bees and other insects can detect ultraviolet light. In other words, don't let fear and self-doubt prevent you from giving your unique gift to the world. What about you? What part of your reality do you want to shatter? What truth about yourself--and your potential--do you want to discover? If there was one thing you could change or create in your life, what would that be? Do the impossible and you'll realize that the limits you've imposed on yourself are mostly artificial. Remember, if other people can do it, most likely, you can do it too. What does doing the impossible mean? Doing the impossible means doing anything you didn't think you could do and, by doing so, expanding your field of possibilities. The main characteristic of such a deed is that it feels uncomfortable, at least to begin with. Cameron realized that if he were going to choose sales as a career path (something he loved), he would most likely have to get on an airplane at some point or another. Cameron needed to face his fear of flying in order to unlock the connection between the two.

After his sessions with the phobia specialist and studying a good article on overcoming his fear of flying, Cameron was ready to get on a plane again. Fortunately his first flight was fine. By facing his fear with support and preparation, Cameron developed enormous courage, which served his career well. One year later, after a lot of hard work and dedication, Cameron was promoted to sales director. Whether you're afraid to fly or to sign up for a word processing class makes no difference. What feels scary to one person may feel like a piece of cake to another. The only way to learn how to face the challenge of fear is to practice, practice, and practice. Let's get started! Everyday perception is also riddled with inaccuracies. As just one example, it seems perfectly obvious to see the sun as rising and setting as it traverses the sky, yet we know that the sun remains stationary while the earth revolves around it. Our window into reality is not only small, it's dirty. Most of us also assume that we take in sensations from our environment and add them to a big pile of knowledge in our head. The whole (that is, our understanding of the world) is the sum of its parts (impressions of stimuli). But as the examples above suggest, this conventional wisdom breaks down on closer inspection. In the mid-20th century, psychologists in the Gestalt school, such as Kurt Koffka and Max Wertheimer, proposed that people construct an understanding of reality. Just as builders construct a house not by simply piling bricks together but by arranging them in orderly ways, the mind actively selects which pieces of information it takes in and organizes those pieces into a network of knowledge. Gestalt psychologists devised a number of visual perception exercises to demonstrate the different ways that the mind actively constructs meaning. One of the most popular and compelling of these exercises is depicted in FIGURE 3. Some examples could be: Approaching the man/woman of your dreams,