Perspective and
Perception
How are they different?
PERSPECTIVE: the way/angle/side you look from
PERCEPTION: your understanding/
interpretation of people, situations and the
world
Here you may either
see BEAUTY or
UGLINESS
How can people be looking at the
SAME thing but see it DIFFERENTLY
Perception and perspective is affected
by YOU…
-Your mood
-Your interests
-Your experiences
-Previous beliefs,
generalizations, stereotypes
-Your fears, flaws, insecurities
-What motivates you (values)
What did you focus on first?
If explaining this picture to someone else –
what 3 things would you focus on?
** what might this reveal about you **
What is the most memorable part of
this picture?
In one word how would you describe
this picture?
Look at the value of TIME from
different people’s perspective…
• To realize the value of ONE YEAR, ask a student who has failed a grade.
• To realize the value of ONE MONTH, ask a mother who has given birth to a
premature baby.
• To realize the value of ONE WEEK, ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.
• To realize the value of ONE DAY, ask a daily wage laborer who has kids to
feed.
• To realize the value of ONE HOUR, ask the bride who is waiting to meet her
groom.
• To realize the value of ONE MINUTE, ask a person who has missed the
train.
• To realize the value of ONE SECOND, ask a person who has avoided an
accident.
• To realize the value of ONE MILLISECOND, ask the person who has won a
silver medal in the Olympics.
If EVERYONE sees people, situations,
the world DIFFERENTLY…
Is this a good / bad thing?
Is what we read /see true?
Are there any actual
“facts”?
What factors shape our
perceptions of the world?
How does perception/perspective affect
everything we know or learn?
Do TEENS see things differently?
We used to think that teens respond
differently to the world because of
hormones, or attitude, or because
they simply need independence. But
when adolescents' brains are studied
through magnetic resonance imaging
(MRI), we see that they actually work
differently than adult brains.
Many teen subjects failed to interpret
the emotion in faces like this one as fear.
The adults correctly identified the expression
as fear. Yet the teens answered
"shocked, surprised, angry."
And the teens and adults used different parts of their
brains to process what they were feeling.
The teens mostly used the amygdala, (uh-mig-duh-luh) a
small almond shaped region that guides instinctual or
"gut“ reactions, while the adults relied on the frontal
cortex, which governs reason and planning.
Amygdala vs Frontal Cortex
• When reading emotion, teens (left) rely more on the
amygdala, while adults (right) rely more on the
frontal cortex.
How might a TEEN and an ADULT
perspective on this photo be different?
Due to this, in Social Studies people
must develop a “Critical Perspective”
This means…
-questioning what you read
-looking for more information
-cross – checking facts
-looking for bias,
one-sided arguments
What would your “critical perspective”
be on this drawing?
To sum up…
You can spend your time arguing over who is
more right or wrong
OR
You can spend your time explaining your view to
others and also trying to see things from other
perspectives
Further Reading Resources
• http://www.singlesexschools.org/DaytonJuly.html - boys, girls see the
world differently
• http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110314132531.htm bilinguals see the world in different ways
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/04/men-women-vision-genderstudy_n_1854660.html - men and women see the world differently
• http://www.2knowmyself.com/Why_do_people_see_the_world_differentl
y_perception_psychology - why do people see the world differently
• http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn7882-westerners-and-easternerssee-the-world-differently.html - westerners and easterners see the world
differently
• http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2007/11/05/how-kids-see-theworld.html - how kids see the world
• http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100913153630.htm children and adults see the world differently
Further Reading Resources
• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/teenbrain/
work/onereason.html - reasons why teens respond differently
to the world
• http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/0805150730
14.htm - teens perception that they are liked found to be at
least as important as actually being liked
• http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/behindthe-stereotypes-the-shocking-truth-about-teenagers421295.html - behind the stereotypes, a shocking truth about
teenagers
• http://sparkaction.org/content/youth-today-adultperceptions-may-be-misperceptions - adult perceptions may
be misperceptions
Further Reading Resources
• http://mcbean.hubpages.com/hub/How-the-World-Sees-America-TheInternational-opinion-of-the-Superpower - how the world views America –
so different from how America views itself
• http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2012/06/29/f-canadaimage.html - how the world views Canada
• http://pewresearch.org/pubs/656/how-the-world-sees-china - how the
world sees China
• http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/views_on_countriesregi
ons_bt/588.php?lb=btvoc&pnt=588&nid=&id= - views of China and Russia
decline in global poll
• http://jilliancyork.com/2008/08/06/the-way-the-world-sees-africa/ - the
way the world sees Africa (visual)