Our Ever-Present Psychological Influences

At this point, it might be obvious that our psychologies are constantly involved in our lives. Every thought, emotion, creative expression, conversation, argument, relationship, loving gesture, physical action, value, belief and so on, follows from psychological influences.

But why is this important? It’s important for an endless number of reasons. For example, many people are not aware, or aware enough, of these influences. If more people recognized their psychological influences, then more people would consider their expressions, gestures, relationships, beliefs and values more carefully.

A more specific example includes discrimination and racism. These are terms that refer to negative descriptions of people based on personal characteristics and cultural differences. These expressions often lead to harmful behaviors.

Expressing discrimination and racist comments requires many of the psychological elements discussed in previous articles, such as: ego or a person’s identity, which develops values and beliefs; personality traits that help us meet life; family and cultural influences that form psychological complexes; and potential and unconscious (hidden) psychological elements that help us develop as human beings. From these psychological influences come our judgments, perceptions, fixed views and our negative thoughts, resulting in prejudice and racist comments and gestures.

We can become familiar with our psychological influences by carefully considering our expressions, behaviors and actions. Once we become familiar with these influences, we have an opportunity to change. Not only can we change but we also can help change our family relationships, current social values and beliefs, and our relationships with people in our communities. Change, however, is difficult for many people (and will be the focus of another article) but change is a necessary aspect of life. Without change, everything remains the same. If we don’t change, we remain the same person throughout our lives. To understand the importance of change, we need only imagine a person who acts like a 12-year-old throughout life.

One of the most important psychological influences is the inner Self (the center of the unconscious), which continually attempts to provide meaning and direction in a person’s life. This is a positive influence but our egos often block, or resist, the influences from the Self, keeping us from changing.

So, now we can see why it is important to try to recognize our psychological influences. This will not only help each of us to continually develop throughout our lives but also help those around us.