11.8: The Focus of This Chapter

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Jim Marteney
Los Angeles Valley College via ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative (OERI)

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In this chapter I wanted you to better understand the persuasion process and how that process establishes what we argue. There were several key points:

The perception process is the method we use to attempt to understand our environment. We use that process to create a personal, internal reality from an external environment.
The perception process is flawed and includes personal biases. This leads to the creation of an internal reality that may be very different from the environment. That is why no two people see an environment in the exact same way.
When we argue, we argue our realities and not the actual eternal environment. We are arguing what is inside our head with what is inside the head of another person. We argue illusions we have of the environment.
To crate the most accurate reality as possible, we argue our realities with those of others. This is called reality testing.
Humans strive for stasis. Our tendency is then to defend our reality instead of being swayed by the realities of others.

As a critical thinker, we need to be more open-minded and can change our "reality" when a more accurate one is presented to us.