The term “judgement”, in my opinion, can be a harsh word. I think that we subconsciously always identify a person upon getting to know them. Once we perceive a person, we attempt to understand aspects of their background or lifestyle through their mannerisms, communication style and maybe even their appearance. In most cases my initial perception of a person allows me fine tune my communication style and find a common ground with that person. I think that it may be possible to meet someone and not “judge” them, however to not categorize them to some degree may be more challenging. In most present day interactions, there is extensive diversity which allows an individual to communicate effectively with a person of any background. Therefore, we categorize a person to a certain degree to establish a common ground.
For those who consistently categorize those they communicate with, it is extremely important that any perceptions that they develop about another person are fair and subtle. There is only so much validity that can be present in a perception unless you know a person more than just a simple acquaintance or friend in passing.
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Judging a person is all about the perceptions we have of them. We make judgments based on all of the characteristics we piece together. It's like a giant puzzle. I think that categorizing and judging are the same thing. I think our society makes the word "judgment" a bad thing, but in this case, in the case of communication. It's not always negative. It's the anonymous over judging that is a bad thing.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWhen we think of judgment, we tend to instantly think of punishment, or to critique.
ReplyDeleteBut when we think about the meaning when speaking about communication we do not mean a decision made by a court, but just an opinion. I would not want to live in a society without opinion. Would you? They always say "you can only have one first impression", thus I think this helps people to make great first impressions.
I agree that maybe some people could not judge, but categorizing is very hard. But do you think that maybe categorizing and judging are co-dependent? Just something to think about.
Keep up the great blogs!
ImaginePeace
You make a really good point about categorizing people that we interact with. When I read and posted on the question, I think I focused mainly on the term "judging" which like you said has a sort of negative connotation and completely ignored the concept of categorization. Categorizing definitely has a more positive connotation that judging, and I think that’s its something we all do automatically and I don't think it is necessarily a bad thing. To categorize is to understand something, because we can relate the unknown to the known. It's really important in communication because sometimes the real art in good communication in understanding.
ReplyDeleteHi Mind of Movement,
ReplyDeleteI do agree with you that the word, "judgment" has a hard twist to it because who are we to judge others. What qualifies a person to be a judge of others? What qualifies me to be a person to judge those that are not living up to my standards? It is really difficult and it is something that people need to be aware of when making judgments.
I like the way that you wrote about how we categorize people. I don't think we judge people, I agree that when we meet someone, we can categorize them as a person who is going to be our best friends, a person who we don't really want to be around, or a person to be great classmates of. Not all people will have the same affect on you and you are not going to have a good affect on all people.
When I think of it again, sometimes categorizing people is not a good thing either. I think its ok to do for a short time but when you begin to get to know the person a little bit longer, they should be able to break free from that box that they were categorized into because people change.
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Events Dreamer
Hello Mind of Movement! Do you think that in order to categorize someone you need to make certain judgments first? How can one categorize without forming opinions and judgments? :)
ReplyDeleteHi Blogging Prof!
ReplyDeleteI suppose we develop certai opinions to categorize someone, however in my opinion judging a person seems to suggest that we put such a definite label on them as a person. I think that catergorizing someone is a much more general process. When I think of the term judging I think of judging a person's reactions or thoughts by their gender, age, or cultutral background. I think from an initial interaction these judgements do not have to be made. I more so defined categorizing in my thoughts and a process of developing an overall, general understanding of the other person and how to communicate with them effectively.