form a judgment, and later they may get to see whether their judg

52 Teaching Minds form a judgment, and later they may get to see whether their judg- ment is correct. When asked, they can tell you clear reasons (typically post hoc justifications) as to why they decided the way they did. The wine expert can say reasons as well, but the evidence for taste is not really all that objective. (Of course, the evidence may be found after the judgment is made. People are not always entirely rational.) To learn to make objective judgments, one needs constant feed- back either from a teacher or from a colleague or from reality. One needs to think about what was decided and why. People who are good at this are good at it because they have analyzed their successes and failures and they can articulate their reasoning. Learning requires re- peated practice. SOCIAL PROCESSES 1. Influence: Understanding how others respond to your requests and recognizing consciously and unconsciously how to improve the process Human interaction is one of the most important skills of all. We regularly interact with family, friends, colleagues, bosses, romantic in- terests, professors, service personnel, and strangers. Communicating effectively is very important to any success we might want to have in any area of life. But, we do not know why we say what we say, nor do we really understand how we are being perceived by others. We just talk and listen and go on our way. Some people are loved by everyone and others are despised. It is wrong to assume that we know what image we project or that we are easily capable of altering the way we behave so that we will be perceived differently. How do we learn to become conscious of inherently unconscious behavior? One can learn to behave differently if one becomes con- sciously aware of the mistakes one is making. Watching others, watch- ing oneself, thinking about how to improve—all this helps one make subconscious behavior into conscious behavior. We unintentionally return to standard ways of acting in various situations. A wallflower at a party doesn’t decide to be a wallflower—it is simply behavior she is comfortable with. If no one is harmed by HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_023798