The Inability to Step Outside Oneself

Question:. Write an essay onThe inability to step outside oneself is one of the main objections of the use of personas. Answer: With a brief encounter with Carlos Acosta, it was understood that prior to make any kind of purchase, a person usually faces certain challenges with own. Certain psychological factors like basic assumptions of the particular thing, cognitive biasness, cognitive dissonance, heuristics and certain other mental models comes to play. It was known that Carlos had recently made a purchase of a wearable tech device E-Trace that is used to trace the dancing movement of the ballet dancer. It is for obvious reason that before making the purchase decision, Carlos would have fought a little battle with self. As stated by Davies, Gary and Rosa, (2003), every person has some kinds of thoughts, beliefs or other positive or negative attitude towards a purchasing factor, this is known as cognitive dissonance. It was known from the interview of the ballet dancer that he had to face a lot a challenge at the point of finalising his purchase. There were many options available at the store. It usually happens that one makes certain plans mentally and tried to stick to the same decision, but right at the moment of making purchase sudden changes takes place and the person has to re think about his plans. As commented by Mourali, Mehdi and Zhiyong, (2013), when people face an absurd situation, their mind rationalizes the decision by inventing illusions that would comfort them. People are left in dilemma in deciding which particular thing that they should buy. However, a powerful motivation might help the person to stick to the decision of making the purchase. In this respect, cognitive biasness somet imes creates a diplomatic situation for the buyer. By the means of a systematic pattern of deviation from basic judgements, people are often deviated from their paths and sometimes even cause a failure in the purchasing decision (Pfarr, Nikki Judith, 2010). Heuristics is the way of solving any kind of problem or discovering any optimal or practical method of dealing with various problems. The method might not be a perfect solution but is believed to be best suitable for the particular situation (Pronin et al., 2004). For instance, it was known that when Carlos was in utter dilemma of purchasing E-trace, he made a quick judgemental decision by asking one of his colleagues and trusting on his words of mouth. Thus, from this it can be understood that a personal touch or a word from a known person also helps in making certain decisions. These factors are related to metal approaches of an individual as well (Pronin Emily, 2007). Carlos mentioned at after analysing a variety of wearable, final decision was made only when he wore the same and found it comfortable enough to carry on with his dance activities. Thus, a personal likeness and mental satisfaction are also important factors of ones psychology. By analysing the various factors, it is evident that mental model of a person is responsible for making any kind of assumptions or intuitive approach towards making any kind of decision. Depending on the cognitive as well as heuristics approaches, behaviour of a person can be determined. Reference list: Davies, Gary, Rosa Chun. 2003. "The Use of Metaphor in the Exploration of the Brand Concept " Journal of Marketing Management 19:45-71. Mourali, Mehdi, Zhiyong Yang. 2013. "The Dual Role of Power in Resisting Social Influence." Journal of Consumer Research 40 (3):539-554. Pfarr, Nikki, Judith Gregory. 2010. "Cognitive Biases and Design Research: Using insights from behavioral economics and cognitive psychology to re-evaluate design research methods." Pronin, Emily, Thomas Gilovich, Lee Ross. 2004. "Objectivity in the eye of the beholder: divergent perceptions of bias in self versus others." Psychological review 111(3):781. Pronin Emily. 2007. "Perception and misperception of bias in human judgment." Trends in cognitive sciences 11 (1):37-43.