The document discusses the concept of reality and perception. It states that each individual has their own reality based on their perceptions, which are shaped by psychological, physical, linguistic, educational and experiential filters. These filters influence how we select and interpret data from our environment. Perception is an individual act, and problems can occur when people mistake their perceptions and interpretations as objective facts rather than their subjective realities. Reality testing is presented as a tool to narrow the gaps between one's perceptions and what may actually align with a shared or consensus reality.

1. DISCOVERING OUR
REALITIES
Written by Deanna Ferris

2. REALITY?
 “Reality is not what is “real,” it’s
what we think is real.”
 It is mostly created in the mind.
 The tricky part:
 The same situation or subject is
viewed…
 … Still, every individual has a
different reality on that
instance.
 This can cause conflict deciding
which one is true.

3. PERCEPTION
How the customer How the Project Leader
How the Analyst designed it
explained it understood it

4. SORTING FILTERS
• How we recognize incoming data
Psychological Condition because we are in the right state of
mind
• What data we recognize that influence
Physical Condition senses, age, health, fatigue, hunger and
biological cycles
Language • Allows us to understand messages
from the environment
• How we view our environment; the
Formal Learning obligation to teach people to be good
citizens
• First-hand informal learning activities;
Experiences experiences that are layered on top of
one another
• “Self-fulfilling prophecies”
Expectations • Are influences by many things and can dictate
how we act towards people, events and thing in
our environment

5. A METHOD WE USE TO
CREATE OUR
REALITIES
 The perception process uses:
 Selecting
 Sorting & interpreting data
from External Environment
 There are three stages”
1. Select Data from Environment
2. Organize & Prioritize the
Information & Data that we are
Aware of
3. Interpreting the Data
Perception is an individual act!

6. HOW WE INTERPRET
DATA
~Closure~
Your mind fills in the blank or missing data
& allows you to understand and categorize
what your observing
~Selective Perception~
Narrow available cognitions to make an
interpretation of the environment
~Patterning~
Keeping new or current perceptions in line
with past ones

7. USING REALITY TESTING
 This is a tool which is very useful when determining whether the
perception is a reality, rather than an interpretation of events and things in
one individuals environment
 Problems occur when people act like interpretations are facts
 A series of steps can guide us through narrowing and eliminating the
perceptional “gaps” between us and what seems like a similar reality.
 These makes us believe these gaps are livable.

8. REALITY V. PERCEPTION

9. WHAT IS STASIS?
Also means “at rest”
We are impatient and therefore create
a reality we are comfortable with.
This is known as the stasis or the
existing state of things without
modification.

10. “Disappointment is just the action of your brain readjusting itself
to reality after discovering things are not the way you thought they
were” ~Brad Warner
Discovering the reality from what we believe is a
valid reality of the environment, is difficult to do.
Communicating with others to get a better
understanding is a start of realizing the
importance of various inputs. Each individual has
their own perception, this is also what they want to
see. Very few, if not any can have the same
perceptions. We try so hard to keep them
consistent which is motivation for our thoughts
and actions.