Positive Psychology – Open-mindedness Character Strength

Hello friends!

In this text, we are going to talk about the Strength of Character called “Open-mindedness”, literal translation for the term, in English, “Open-mindedness”. As we have already defined in another text – What is Positive Psychology and what are the virtues or character strengths studied by this new approach to psychology – I will go straight to the definition of what it means to be open-minded. Are you an open-minded person?

According to Seligman and Peterson, in the book Character Strengths and Virtues, the strength of character called Open Mind is the willingness to actively search for evidence contrary to one’s own beliefs, plans or goals and to judge this new evidence fairly when it is presented. available.

It may seem a little complicated at first, by this definition, but it’s simple to think about what it means to be an open-minded person through an example.

Stop for a moment and think: Are you for or against legalizing abortion?

Which of the 3 thoughts below would you sign below?

1) Abortion is a basic right that should be available to all women. Limiting access to abortion is limiting women’s freedom for their rights as citizens. Such a limit should not be tolerated. Making abortion outlawed means not understanding or respecting the modern separation of church and state that is fundamental to a secular state.

2) Many see abortion as a basic civil right that should be available to all women who want to exercise it. Others, however, see abortion as infanticide.

3) Some see abortion as a human rights issue for women – that is, their right to decide. Others already understand that abortion is no more justifiable than murder. Which perspective should be defended depends on how the beginning of life is defined, that is, at conception or childbirth.

Well, each of us will more or less agree with one of these 3 thoughts. I wanted to use the same example from Seligman and Peterson’s book because I believe it is a very strong example, immersed in a great debate around the world and that, consequently, raises everyone’s spirits for a discussion of what is right and what is wrong.

When we say that someone is open minded we are not implying that they hold a more liberal opinion (that defends abortion). The meaning of the open-minded concept within positive psychology is someone who can see – also – the point of view of others, think about them, consider the validity or not, and even if you don’t change your mind after consideration, it continues and remains open for dialogue and for a change of view based on new evidence or arguments.

The opposite of open-mindedness would be prejudice or bias (bias, in English). A prejudiced person is one who defends only his own point of view, sees only his own point of view, is closed to dialogue and conversation, that is, sees the world as 8 or 80, black or white, yes or not. The yes and the truth, of course, is on its own side and shows no signs of changing with time.

Thus, a highly intellectual subject who believes in a certain scientific theory – and only in it – would be as prejudiced as a religious fundamentalist. Both would not have this strength of character called open-mindedness.

An open-minded person has conceptions similar to these:

“Abandoning a previous belief is a sign of strength of character”

“People should always consider evidence that is contrary to their beliefs”

“Beliefs should always be revised in response to new evidence.”

Prejudiced people, on the other hand, have completely different opinions:

“Changing your way of thinking is a sign of weakness”

“It’s important to stick firmly to your beliefs even when contrary evidence arises.”

“We must discard evidence that does not agree with our point of view.”

Conclusion

It is easy to see how the quality of character called by the authors of positive psychology as Open-mindedness, Open Mind, is important for individual and collective life. If our mind closes in on itself, becoming prejudiced and immutable, we will have many problems learning new knowledge and worse: we will have extreme difficulty relating to other people.

This is because, contrary to what people who are childlike think even after they have left childhood, other people are not reflections of ourselves and the world does not revolve around us. Each to his own, as they say here in Minas Gerais. That is, each person has their own look, vision and understanding of life and if each one is closed in their own perspective, coexistence is impossible and even dialogue will not exist.

The example of abortion is quite significant. I won’t say my personal opinion here, but for those who don’t know, I will say that the Federal Council of Psychology defends the legalization of abortion and the possibility of it being implemented in the public network. This is because despite being a crime, it continues to be practiced by thousands of women every year, clandestinely, which, in turn, causes (two) deaths. If we think that there is life in the embryo, we will see that this embryo dies, but the woman also dies when she does not have her health assisted.

Evidently, it is a very difficult question and as thought 3 says, everything will depend on what is believed to be the beginning of life. In any case, if we are going to use the concept that we study together here in this text, the strength of the character of an open mind, we would have to suspend our personal judgment and also think about other perspectives.

That is, if you defend the right to abortion, you would have to see the right of the embryo or the baby. If you don’t advocate abortion, you would have to look at the perspective of the woman who is at risk of dying from a clandestine abortion.

Being “open-minded” does not mean advocating a more liberal point of view or a more conservative point of view. Being “open-minded” – in positive psychology – means having the ability to listen to opposing opinions, understand them, dialogue with them and, if possible, reach a consensus or remain open-minded to new information or news.

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