Psychologist-to-be : Open-Minded

In my opinion, being open-minded means you are willing to accept new things and differences. Psychologists are often doing research and we have to be open for new research because later on the research might help us. Differences I mean also refer to the various perspectives, whether we like it or not. As psychologist, we will deal with various problem and perspective. However, it is unlikely that everyone will hold the same perspective like us and we have to respect and accept that differences. Our own issue also should not interfere in how we deal with the client’s problem.

Since I like to listen to people’s stories and life, I find myself pretty open-minded. I am willing to listen to other’s perspective. I like to meet new people with different perspective than mine. I feel like seeing the world in different angles, more fruitful, sometimes even gives me enlightenment in solving my own problem.

Being open minded always remind me of one thing, that even my bestfriend is different than me. That is how I learned to be open-minded. I think being open minded is not always about something big like new research, perspective of global issues, etc. We can be open minded in terms of interest subject, music, hobbies, etc. That was where I started, from the small things first. We both have different music taste, he likes art while I have no clue about it and interest in literature instead, he’s experimental while I stick to the rules, any many others differences. Although sometimes we’re holding into the same perception, he got another reason that even never crossed in my mind. And instead of get confuse with his music taste and art stuff, I found both more enjoyable now (although still, I don’t have enough knowledge about those).

From small things, I open my mind to receive and evaluate various perceptions. One example, the perception that a broken-home kids always has bad behaviors or lifestyle. Broken home itself already is a negative connotation, parents’ divorce and the kids are messed up. In fact, some of my friends’ parents are divorced but they are doing fine. It opened my mind that we should not generalize people.

Unfortunately, sometimes I find myself enforce others to have my point of view. Then I realize, although I am open-minded, I still hold a strong-willed in myself. It is good I think; prevent myself from being incited to the wrong direction. After all, I should control my strong-will and not arbitrarily enforce others to follow my perspective.

What I want to say is that being open-minded is not easy. Nothing is instant. You should be willing to see the world from the other eyes. And as psychologist, by being open-minded, we will let ourselves to learn more, understand our client’s problem better or even understand ourselves better .