So psychology talks about a concept called “schema”. See humans are efficient (ie. lazy) creatures. Exerting GREY-power is a second preference to exerting STAY power! Our brains all aim to be on those fabled holidays to ROMANIA (remain here)! Generating electrical current in order to make everyday decisions takes more time and effort than our chilled-out psyches are keen for. So lo and behold we’ve figured out a handy shortcut - sticking things in boxes. Have you ever questioned why there are so few items in the exact shape of boxes? Neither have I. Oh, you have?…you weirdo!
See things weren’t meant to fit neatly into four 90-degreed sides. The world’s too diverse and strangely angled for that. But we shove these poor conceptions into their brown-sided Alcatrazes and tape them up. We label these boxes, or “schema” as them psychological people call ‘em, and put them away to be pulled out at an appropriate opportunity. Next time we see a dude with pink spikey hair (usually every third Wednesday of the month) we whip out the punk box and try to neatly place the guy in it. Imagine how the brother, in his fanatical attempts at individualism, would resist being shoved into four brown corners! I mean if they were orange or pink corners that might be a different story but brown’s for frikken SQUARES man!
Look out! You’re likely to get a spikey pink chunk of hair to the eye!
Anyhoo, these schemas can be activated, or “primed” by exposing someone to a relevant stimulus beforehand. They did this experiment where they asked people to solve word anagrams. The group who had words relating to aging were proved to walk slower down the corridor on the way out of there than the control groups! In a huge way, the framework that we use to interpret the world affects our behaviour (including inducing the need for a FRAME!) This behaviour, in turn, affects people’s reactions to us, thereby creating self-fulfilling prophecies!
Same thing with watching violent movies. “They” (you know, those enigmatic yet official academics) proved that being exposed to violence promotes, say, reacting more aggressively towards someone who steals your parking spot. Come on man, has this recession made you too stingy to give a brother the benefit of the doubt?! (Ok ok, you’ve got me. This is all a big conspiracy to get you to chill out so I can nab your parking places!).
So its all about frames…lense frames. If the lenses we view life through colour it to such an extent that it defines our reality, then our trip to Specsavers may need to be taken more seriously as its outcome will form the foundations of this trip called life.
Now how much wisdom does Paul’s passing comment imply when he tells us to meditate on the true, honest, just, pure, lovely and good. etc.? Meditate on it, chew it, digest it so that it becomes part of your being. You are what you eat. Such wisdom…and from a world two millenia before psychology reared its inquisitive head!
