Can Opener
The Psychology of Open-Mindedness
Is Open-Mindedness Prevalent?
Almost anybody you can ask has their opinion about everything. Their opinion may be true, untrue, proven or in doubt. It might be personal, conditioned by family upbringing, determined by situations, social background, culture, religion, or politics. But the fact remains that everybody has already made-up their minds about most of the things in life. These opinions are our schemas. For the purpose of simplicity, schemas can be described in the context of this article as a framework of interpretations of anything. In other words, everybody have their own framework of interpretations. If everybody have their own framework of interpretations, then open-mindedness is definitely not prevalent.
What is open-mindedness?
Open-mindedness can be described as a process of setting-aside one’s framework of interpretations and examining another person’s framework of interpretations on its own merit without the interference or imposing one’s personal framework of interpretations. And if the framework of interpretations of the other person is found to be more accurate and effective, then logically the other person’s framework of interpretations should be adopted or accepted. Or if both frameworks of interpretations have equally good points, then a new combined compilation can be utilized. Why is this necessary?
1. Open-mindedness is necessary for critical thinking. Imagine if you were a chief aeroplane designer and you work is critical, as the lives of countless passengers are dependent on your design being accurate in terms of safety. If a colleague through his framework of interpretations proofs that your design has a flaw, will you be open-minded to examine the feedback or will you exercise your rank and authority to reject the feedback because it goes against your ego? I wouldn’t want to fly on a plane designed by a close-minded designer whose ego gets in the way of critical thinking.
2. Open-mindedness is necessary for new learning and new information. I know of university lecturers who stick to their favourite authors and just update occasionally the versions which they use as a reference for their lectures. The result of such practice leads to a limited perspective of learning and exposure to new information both for the lecturers and also their students. Another result is the lecturers become dogmatic about their perspectives of a respective subject due to conditioned ignorance through lack of new learning and information. This practice is one form of academic close-mindedness. Why do they do it? You should ask them the next time a lecturer insists on sticking to his favourite author. You will be surprised at the rationalizations that lecturers can come with; to stick to their limited framework of interpretations of the subjects they are called to teach. I would suggest that any graduate student who wants to excel academically and have a more comprehensive understanding of a subject matter do more diverse readings other then the favourite text recommended by their lecturers.
3. Open-mindedness is necessary for being creative. Creativeness is basically the process of using original thinking to come-up with innovative conceptions for development of new (non-existent) products or services and also for resolving existing problems with existing products and services. Now, creativeness cannot be employed without being open-minded. An example would be, you are called to innovate a new medium of storage for computers. What would you do? Will you start by isolating yourself from other experts on the subject, rejecting all current information or will you work with related people of the industry as a team, utilizing critical thinking, existing information and seeking new information to expedite creativity. Creative people tend to be open-minded and would always examine the past, present and future of any information for the purpose of innovation.
4. Open-mindedness is necessary for holistic growth. What would happen if an adult is conditioned from childhood to have a mono-framework of interpretation about life and everything in life? Would you like to have that person as your marriage partner? Would you like to have that person as your university roommate? Would you elect that person as you Member of Parliament? Would you trust your life or the lives of your family into that person’s hand? Just like a plant that needs a variety of resources for healthy growth, open-mindedness is one of the core psychological processes that need to be developed for a holistic growth for a balance, stable and matured individual. Many personality problems can be traced to individuals who have a narrow or limited framework of interpretations that shows itself in social and vocational situations.
Is Dogmatism a Clue to the Lack of Open-Mindedness?
Some people have a song and it goes like this: “my way or no way…” This song sometimes becomes the trademark of certain organizations and individuals who bask in their past glories while losing grounds to the competitors. Many businesses lose millions of dollars in profit in sacrifice to maintaining iconic leaders whose dogmatism is considered sacred. Dogmatism is one of the causes for failure in many negotiations whether private or public. Dogmatism is also the cause for a lot of conflicts and violence in our current world. Dogmatism is the trademark of the bullies in schools or working places; control-freaks in organizations; individuals with despotic behaviours and manipulative individuals. Dogmatism leads to fanaticism. One cannot be dogmatic and open-minded at the same time. One cannot examine another framework of interpretation without biasness while dogmatically holding on to one’s own framework of interpretation.
What open-mindedness is not?
Dogmatism is counterproductive to open-mindedness. But at the same time, open-mindedness is not to be construed wrongly. The following are what open-mindedness is not:
1. Open-mindedness is not being stupid or in-opinionated. People who are open-minded can be very intelligent and can have clear and strong opinions. The difference is in how they exercise, regulate, assess, present, and are willing to adjust or forego their opinions according to the principles and process of open-mindedness.
2. Open-mindedness is not being a spineless jellyfish that is swept by the waves of opinions. It is wrong to assume that open-minded persons are gullible fools who can be tricked or manipulated by fanciful opinions that have no substance or credibility. Open-minded persons first attempt to understand the details of the framework of interpretations of others on its own merits. Then, they assess and compare their framework of interpretations against the others.’ Their decision to adopt or reject either or both of the frameworks of interpretations would be based on the principles of effectiveness and optimum benefit for all parties involved.
3. Open-mindedness is not a product of emotional decision making. Open-mindedness is rational, factual, critical, and inquisitive and includes the principles of cost and benefit for all parties. It will not be swayed by partisan spirit, gossip, rumour or greediness. It will reject all forms of one-sidedness but seek for benefit of all parties concern.
4. Open-mindedness is not to be used for the violation of any form of legitimate rights, laws or natural justice. People who are open-minded will not allow themselves to be pawns for the violation of any legitimate rights, laws or the natural justice principles of other people. At the same time, open-minded persons will not allow others to exploit them. For example, if a person willingly gives up his/her personal rights for the benefit of others, it is his/her choice to act in charity for another’s benefit. But open-mindedness cannot be used as an excuse to force others to give-up or violate their personal rights. Many non-profit and voluntary groups have a tendency to violate the rights of their staff on the presumption that their staffs have to be open-minded when working in a charitable context. This presumptions and violations of staff rights is not open-mindedness but in many instances exploitations. The principle is clear; anything taken or required from another beyond the limits of responsibility and the call of duty, without spontaneous voluntary consent is violation of another’s rights.
How to practice Open-Mindedness?
Can the process of open-mindedness be inculcated in a deliberate and conscious manner? The answer is yes. Here is how it can be done:
1. We must first admit that we all have our personal framework of interpretations for everything. When we put-on a show that we are selfless persons with no personal framework of interpretations, we deceive ourselves first and then others. Can you find one human being who is totally selfless and open-minded? Even demigods in mythologies are described as having an ego and personal framework of interpretations. I am especially careful of persons who trumpet the selflessness and open-mindedness. Selflessness and open-mindedness can be experienced without the need for promotion and marketing. What is needed is the practice and not the proclamations.
2. We must understand that having a personal framework of interpretations is not wrong. There is no call to be an in-opinionated person. Rather it is the misuse of the personal framework of interpretations at the expense of effectiveness, productivity and the disregard of other people’s useful framework of interpretations that creates problems.
3. We must habitually set-aside our framework of interpretation while we examine the framework of interpretations of others in order to avoid prejudice and biasness. When I say set-aside, I mean that we should attempt to totally focus and view the framework of interpretation that is being presented to us without thinking of ours.
4. We must habitually adopt or accept either partially or wholly another person’s framework of interpretations when it is equal to or better than ours. We should adopt or accept another person’s framework of interpretations wholly if it is better than ours. We should combine our and the other person’s framework of interpretations if is equally good.
5. We must habitually learn to ask for a third party’s assessment of our and another person’s framework of interpretations. In doing so, we must seek the assistance of third parties that are not representative or has a conflict of interest with either of us.
6. We must habitually and proactively seek new knowledge, information and learning. This would create the conditioning to be open-minded in our approach to life and everything about life and work. In short, we must always seek another framework of interpretations as an alternative perspective.
7. We must be alert that in seeking open-mindedness, we do not violate the rights of others. Violation of other peoples’ rights does not constitute open-mindedness. Even when we perceive that another person’s framework of interpretation is not right, we can negotiate and establish a dialogue for arriving on a mutual agreement on the differences. We cannot impose our framework of interpretations by manipulation, force or duress. Where we can agree, we agree and where we cannot agree, we must respect the other person’s framework of interpretation.
8. We must habitually practice to respect personalities in the event of a difference with their framework of interpretations. Having a different framework of interpretations from ours does not make others our enemies. It is only a clue that there is an opportunity for dialogue, interaction and possible learning.
What we need in our families, work places, study places, society, and in the global village is open-mindedness. The more open-minded we become, the more human we will become in our decision and behaviours. The more human we become, the more we will appreciate and treasure the humanity of all persons in our global village. If there is a way to save ourselves from destroying each other, we should begin the journey for healing and caring through the process of open-mindness. We already have established enough reasons, symbols, myth and rationalizations to differ from each other. We should focus not on our differences which as humans we will always have but rather we should focus on our similarities that can draw us together. And similarities can only be perceived by minds that are open-minded.
About the Author
Qualifications: Th. Dip (MTBI, 1978); Th.B. (MBTS, 1982); MSCP (AU, summa cum laude, 2010)
Professional Status: Counselling Psychologist
Email Contact Info: thesigannadarajan@gmail.com
Author’s Blog: http://thesigannadarajan.blogspot.com/
Available for: Consultation and Training
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