How do we improve our perception? It is effected by our emotions, beliefs, and habits. They tell us what to look for. This causes great bias. To improve our perceptions we need to neutralize these for the moment to see, hear, smell, touch, and taste what is really out there and where and in what combinations. Then we will look at how they are interrelated, interact, and change.
Ethnography is the science of observation. It should be used before we jump to a conclusion and spend tons of time and money testing our hypothesis empirically. We may only prove ourselves wrong. Ethnography is the science of coming up with realistic hypotheses. We need to practice ethnographic methods of observation to improve on our perception of our world and others. We basically take count of what we perceive, take down the number of times something happens, when, and where. Then we look at the numbers to see if there is a pattern. And then we see if the pattern predicts what will happen in the future. I will illustrate this with the example below.
When we see a handicapped person our biases kick in. We may wrinkle our faces, stare, and feel something is wrong in the universe. If it is an emotional or intellectual handicap we may feel awkward, superior, or helpless. We may believe they are snobs, or inferior, or superior. We don't know how to act. What if we offend them, or feel they may offend us for being inept at what to do.
I will take my own handicap and walk you through how to understand and assess me. I will start with the first step of perception and move on to emotional, beliefs, and actions, even the lower nature of deception, greed, blaming, and aggression. To be cont…