Perceptions of words

Thinking back to a time that i said something that I didn't meant to be taken the receiver took it was last year in high school. I was going to class and one of my good friends who was a girl was walking to in and I said she looked tired. Meaning that she looked like she would rather be sleeping. But supposedly when you tell a girl that they look tired that it means that look bad; not they look like they would rather be sleeping. Luckily one of our mutual friends that was walking with me told me what girls perceive looking tired meant. So I was able to apologize and try to back track with what I said. Once I knew what her meaning of tired meant I felt bad and did not mean to make it sound that way. Luckily she was not that mad at me and we later joked about it but I learned a few things that day about the way that men and woman give different meanings to words and the context that these words are used. So since that point I make sure that I never tell a girl that she looks tired because they may perceive it differently from the way that I mean it. So I think that it is important that we watch what we say and say it in the right context so someone will not take what we say and think it means something else.

Do you stay mad at some one if they tell you something and they did not mean it, the way that you took it, if they apologize about it?

Perceived and presenting selfs

I believe that my perceived self is pretty close to my presenting self. Differences I can be shy if I don't feel comfortable in a situation or don't someone, but someone who doesn't know me may think that I am stuck up and too cool for them when i am really just shy. When I give a speech I feel that I am not very good at speaking in front of people and I always think that I did really bad, but when I ask people how I did they say that I did really well which is completely different from what i thought. I see myself as not as smart as my siblings which makes me feel bad but I am pretty sure that my parents do not see this and they think that I am just as smart. Similarities I see myself as confident in myself. I believe others see this is well. I also see myself as willing to help anyone that needs help. I also see myself as a good student who gets his work done on time and do the best that I can. I hope that others see this same quality in me when they look at me. I see myself as a good honest friend and I hope my friends would see this same quality in me as well.

The way that I present myself in public is the way that I see myself.

Do you believe that there are more things that there are more similarities in your perceived self and presenting self or differences between the two.

Perceptions

I believe that cultural backgrounds help to influence everyone's perceptions about many different things. My family has helped to influence a lot of the way that I think and act. So for me, I was raised in a very active Christian family so with this it was expected of me to be involved in church and with this I have been. With this I have had different beliefs and ideas when it comes to certain aspect in the world than someone who might not be a Christian. But since I have come to college I have been more excepting of different types of people as well as different groups of people. This is partly because I grew up in Northern Wisconsin so with this there were very few people of a different ethnic background then me. So with this I didn’t know much about them so I was able to be easily influence by the media and others around me. But now that I have been around people who are different from me I am able to see that they are just like me and the perceptions that the media has help me to establish were pretty wrong. I think that everyone needs to be aware of the perceptions that they have and where these perceptions are coming from. I also believe that everyone needs to be willing to change their perceptions on different ideas and people because the perceptions that they have made could be very wrong. This could be because they were not very informed about the subject. Like me not knowing much about different ethnic groups, but it could also be influence by our family members that are trying to sway us in different directions.

Have you had a time when you have had to change your perceptions about someone else because you have found them to be false?