Personal Biases Essay

Bias and stereotyping can both be harmful for self-esteem and the developmental process in children. Bias is not only harmful for the target group since it lowers the self-esteem, but the group who feels superiority over the other is also harmed. The feeling of being superior disconnects a person from reality. Too much of self-esteem reduces the appreciation of others and may even slow down progress for the beholder. Stereotyping creates preconceived notions in the minds of children and adults due to which they fail to see others for what they actually are and rather judge them on the basis of information that is misguided and obsolete. Stereotyping results in developing strong perspectives of people who are different and causes prejudice.

Although recognizing the extent to which I hold bias was a painful and embarrassing process, I have learned that bias is a natural phenomenon that can be challenged through quality time with a target population paired with intentional reflection. By simply spending time with the very population we have prejudice against, we are able to build meaningful relationships with individuals. It is within these relationships that we have our hearts and minds opened to the truth that people are people and that despite what the media and culture may say, one part of a person’s identity does not define who they are. Although our biases never disappear completely, meaningful experiences that contradict the biases we hold can assist us in treating members of certain populations in a more merciful, unbiased

The invention of the IAT test by Anthony Greenwald has made it possible to delve into the unknown areas of one’s brain. This is done by quickly asking the subject to answer questions and then the IAT determines which characteristics the subject associates with certain groups of people. Some of the categories addressed by the test include race, gender, weight, and status. Prior to taking an IAT I was aware biases were present in my brain, but one test result in particular surprised me the most, the gender career IAT. After receiving feedback I was forced to reflect on this bias I was not so strongly aware of before and realized it has the capability to affect my future.

My grandmother, who is the mother of my mom, passed away due to heart failure at the age of 87. Since I was 6 or 7 she had been living in our house. The reason for that was, my grandfather, that I was named after passed away a year before I was born, so she was alone, and she was starting to get old. Since she lived with us for so many years, she had been a very important figure in my life. I can honestly say that she was like a 3rd parent for me, and losing her, made me fell horrible and helpless. I witnessed how real death is because of her passing. Combined with puberty, my grief caused me to become depressed for a long time. As I’m looking back it sounds really extreme, but there were some days that I did not even leave the bed thinking that there was no point to our existence. Thanks to some psychological counselling however, I was able to overcome that mental

The importance/implications of becoming aware of your own biases/stereotypes/prejudices as prepare for a career in the health care field/health care provider; are far reaching. If you want to truly help people you must first know yourself, that includes all of your short comings. Knowing your short comings will allow you to give the best advice as a health care provider.

When my dad came home that evening he sat me down and asked me if I knew what cancer was. I had an idea so I just nodded my head, he went on to tried to explain to me how bad the cancer was that my mom had been diagnosed with. Seeing my dad so afraid scared me. The fear I felt then led me to realize that I needed to try and hide it because it would only hurt my dad more to see his children so upset. I did my best to help, I tucked my little sisters into bed while my mom was away at the hospital, read them stories and did the best I could at preparing snacks to comfort them. After my mom arrived home and she recovered from the surgery she started chemotherapy. The miserable treatment that attacks the cancer also makes her very ill. Every other week she was sick. Before every bad week I wanted to cry, but that wouldn’t help anyone. Lane and Kenna already were crying, if I cried it could only hurt my parents

“You know, biases are the stories we make up about people before we know who they actually are. But how are we going to know who they are when we 've been told to avoid and be afraid of them? So I 'm going to tell you to walk toward your discomfort.” (Myers)

During my sophomore year, I became depressed and antisocial due to problems in my life. My mother has been sick with a brain tumor since 2009 and she was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2012. It has been very hard on me and especially for my mother. I worry about her because she has shown signs of severe depression, she often talks about that she would rather be dead than alive anymore. After all of the pain, all of the humiliation of not being able to walk well, the embarrassment of not being able to write well, all of the staring and comments I would hear about my mother, she is still strong. After 6 years of pain and suffering along the way, I do not blame her. Everything seems to get worse. She now needs surgery due to avascular necrosis that was caused by many years of chemotherapy. I began to lose motivation slowly because I did not have any friends in any of my classes and I felt like I was stuck in a

Alcoholism is a chronic disease. It does not go away after treatment or detox. When someone gets help, they may need to go to therapy or meetings for decades afterward. During this time, they will continue to need the support of the people around them. Loved ones can attend meetings and therapy with the individual to show their support. They can also offer support by listening and never ordering alcohol when they are with the

Biases. I realized that knowing about biases does not protect me against them. This assignment made me recognize how easily the biases (in my case, the confirmation bias) can undermine my judgment, perception, and reasoning. Based on the consumer’s physical attributes and the way he presented himself, I formed an initial belief and an expectation that Rodney had a positive self-concept. Even when the test results clearly indicated that the consumer’s view of himself was negative, I was still committed to my cognitive impression and I recalculated the scores twice, to make sure I had not made an error and misconstrued his profile.

Being of target of bias can affect socialization due to the negatives attitudes that it entails.

Devine, P. (1989). Stereotypes and prejudice: Their automatic and controlled components. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 5-18.

In a world that filled with disputes and disagreements, it is somehow difficult to describe a conflicting event in a neutral tone based on one’s own judgment, typically for those historians who attempted to examine the events occurred in the past. As a matter of fact, people’s perspectives may be influenced by many conditions such as their cultural identities, genders, religions, emotions etc. Therefore, it is more likely that historians tend to hold biased view that may affect their tone in neutrality. However, to what extent can historians, or more generally the people, learn the history from an unbiased and neutral perspective? In general, as long as people equally analyze the view points from both sides and take the position between

Some major bias’s I found in myself where mainly just silly ones. These would be things such as me saying to myself, “why is she talking like that, she must be weird.” When in reality she could have been the nicest person I met that day but I automatically made a judgment about her and pushed myself away. Or me saying something to myself like, “ she’s really quite in class, she must be socially award.” These are bias’s that people have in their every day lives. I could go on and on about things that I have automatically judged somebody on when I had no idea if that was even the case. I’m not saying that I judge people all the time but what I am saying is that I am human, and it is what it is, but is that just another bias too? See, what I have learned is that biases will never go away. They are constantly happening. We can remind ourselves to not be so bias but it is in our human nature to do so without even thinking about it.

Fast forward a couple years to 2013, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. This was not and still is not an easy thing to have to deal with. This lady who was always this strong person who wouldn’t take crap from anyone has now been beaten down too sick to get out of bed. Our roles have switched now I take care of her, I lie with her for countless hours making sure she is okay just as she did when I was a kid. My mom comes to me for security and reassurance now, I have to be there for her and stay strong. I had to learn to talk to her without crying every time I looked at her. When you were a child your parent crying was one of the scariest things so I have had to do the same for her. This has ultimately pushed me to young adult hood. I had to deal with this huge emotional disaster and the woman who I usually run to for advice was the center of the