Open Minded Person and a Closed Minded

¶ … open minded person and a closed minded person. There are four references used for this paper.

Some people are considered open minded, while others are looked upon as closed minded. It is important to examine the characteristics of each type of person and the psychology of peace and conflict.

Open vs. Closed

An open minded person accepts new ideas, but sometimes is incorrectly viewed as one who is "open to any new idea no matter how wrong or useless (www.importanceof philosophy.com/Dictionary.html)." Some characteristics of open minded people include "not strongly rejecting disbeliefs, not sharply dividing belief and disbelief systems, or lumping together varieties of disbelief systems. They are more likely to view the world as a generally friendly place, and will not structure their world around the views of a particular authority figure (www.chowan.edu/acadp/ethics/dr_chismar_paper.htm)." An open minded person is "able to talk with someone who holds an opposing view without attacking the proponent of that view. They are generally less defensive, and their sense of time and space is less restrictive and threatened, allowing them to exercise virtues such as patience rather than everything being urgent (www.chowan.edu/acadp/ethics/dr_chismar_paper.htm)."

A closed minded person "tends to avoid situations in which their attitudes are likely to be challenged, but when placed in such situations, they are more susceptible to persuasive messages than are open minded people, especially when the source is highly credible, and invokes emotional language (employees.oneonta.edu/gilbersj....)." A main characteristic of "closed mindedness is compartmentalization. Different activities or facts are kept quite separate mentally and the conflicts between them are not confronted. When forcefully confronted there is an attempt to rationalize and be assertive, and when this is challenged, anger is directed at the messenger (www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/health/healthso...).