Framing bias
A new view of reality contends the experiences, events, processes and facts in our lives are not set, but, are dynamic by all that contribute to them. It's not passively observed, but actively constructed. The construction in decisions of what makes experience, what is relevant, signifying value. What's in the background, the foreground? These framing choices spell out the boundaries, interpret appearances and attach meaning to your experience.
Framing is a mental function to find patterns in chaos, an integral survival technique, to make sense of the senseless, create meaning from the meaninglessness.
Framing can be manipulated knowingly by social members in many circles, organizations and people near you-- to promote their own interests.
Framing can affect our mental states. Is the glass half full or half empty? Did you break up with the last girlfriend or did she dump you? Your framing mental state can affect the way you handle it.
As is a new perspective, so a new approach or outlook works. In psychotherapy, people are told to frame a crisis as a challenge or even as an opportunity. Research finds, in this way, you become hardier in the face of stress.
Framing cannot be avoided. There's always a point of view that becomes biased by what's included or omitted. We're not helpless against pitfalls of framing.
Realize framing happens all around us. James Baldwin says not everything faced can be changed, but, nothing can be changed until it's faced.
We can also develop the habit of frame shopping, look for alternative arrangements to better understand our situations and help plan accordingly.
Noam Shpancer, Ph.D.
Psychology Today
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