Psychology Assignment: The Power of Looking for Reasonable People

This essay delves into the power of looking for reasonable people, exploring the concept through the lens of psychology. It begins by discussing the importance of reason, referencing Plato's allegory of the cave to illustrate the significance of critical thinking and moving beyond sensory knowledge to achieve enlightenment. The essay then introduces the Reasonable Person Model (RPM), a psychological framework that emphasizes the importance of environmental factors in fostering reasonableness, effectiveness, and meaningful actions. It highlights the benefits of being around reasonable people, including enhanced understanding, exploration, and the ability to make a difference. The essay emphasizes that reasonable people manifest the traits of the RPM, and their traits are essential to enhance human factors along with a supportive environment. The author concludes that the power of looking for reasonable people lies in developing human factors and creating supportive environments to positively impact human behavior.

Running head: THE POWER OF LOOKING FOR REASONABLE PEOPLE
THE POWER OF LOOKING FOR REASONABLE PEOPLE
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For years the common culture has made humans are unapologetically relentless critics of
other people’s moral characters (Greene, 2014). Meanwhile, they are also sizing up the heroes
and villains that are encountered by them in the televisions and news. It is often difficult for
people to see someone as a hero or villain in real life, unlike the way it is in the motion pictures.
However, it is essential to understand the roles played by the people around it have significant
power. There are several things that can be observed, learned and applied by looking at
reasonable people. The paper aims to discuss the power of looking for reasonable people.
In order to understand the power of looking at reasonable people, it is important to
understand the power of reason (Turner & Factor, 2014). The famous Athenian philosopher Plato
has demonstrated the ability of the reason through his work, the allegory of the Cave. The story
is about three prisoners who are living in an underground den. The cave has a mouth opening
into the light. The prisoners living in the cave are living in the cave since childhood, hence they
have never seen the world. In the wall, they get to see puppets moving when the shadow falls on
the wall. Through the shadows, the prisoners had guessed the world as a place. The cave was
everything they had seen and the shadows on the wall. One prisoner managed to escape from the
cave one day when he was hit by a shock. He saw the world in reality, and he understood all
sensory knowledge that they obtained was false. His escape gave him enlightenment. After
giving returning to the cave when he tried telling the other prisoners, they did not believe him
and threatened to kill him if he tried to change their perception (Bluck, 2014).
According to Plato, people live in a world that is a poor imitation of the real world. The
world is constantly changing however people tend to rely on their senses to understand the things
that are going on. When people break free, they leave the cave and get to see the world in the
true state. In order to do the escaping, an individual must use reasons. It was not only the famous

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philosopher Plato who advocated for reasoning but also many other great thinkers. Therefore, a
reasonable person is someone who does not believe in their sensory knowledge but finds the
actual truth through logic and critical thinking (Katz, Lazarsfeld & Roper, 2017).
The reasonable person model (RPM) can be defined as a psychological framework which
states that people are found to be at their best when their informal needs are met. Standing on
that viewpoint, unreasonableness is certainly not a human trait however it is the result of
environment. According to RPM, the environments and the actions that foster reasonableness are
precisely three main key areas, model building, being effective and meaningful and meaningful
actions. The model was developed by Stephen and Rachel Kaplan, environmental psychologists.
They integrated principles from environmental, cognitive, and evolutionary psychology. The
model is a conceptual framework that relates to environmental factors with human behavior.
Humans are more reasonable, helpful, cooperative and satisfied when the environment supports
their basic informal needs. The mentioned factors are the same environmental supports are
significant to enhance human health (Li & Monroe, 2017).
Since the reasonable person model has been already discussed, it is essential to know the
ways it is helpful to be around reasonable people. There are several benefits of looking at a
reasonable person. The reasonable person model lays out three basic informational domain
model building, being effective and meaningful action. For the model is built on a very hopeful
premise which represents that when people are given a setting that supports their ability to
understand and functions, they are capable of behaving reasonably. They can be extremely
helpful and become able to face the pressure and stresses of the modern world. According to the
model, people depend on the provided information in order to function. Therefore, it creates to

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support the ways people process information can dramatically impact the ways behave (Gifford,
2014).
A reasonable person manifests the traits of the RPM. Human has a need to both
understand as well as explore the world around them. Humans construct mental maps of the
ways the world works that help them to make sense of the world and explore in various ways.
This acts on expanding the mental models. It is crucial for human beings to be able to utilize
their knowledge completely. It is necessary in order to be adequately clear headed for finding the
required information, learn from it, share it and use it. It is certainly a benefit when a person
displays these qualities. Also, humans are creators who make meanings. Humans want to know
that they use their knowledge in order to make a difference. Therefore, the power of looking at a
reasonable person is to make a difference in reality. Humans are capable of various things,
however, it may not be best at work when not utilized in an appropriately. The power of looking
at a reasonable person is to gain the knowledge and skills of a reasonable person model that
helps in enhancing the human factors along with supporting environment (Ormrod & Jones,
2014).
As discussed above, for years the common culture has made humans are unapologetically
relentless critics of other people’s moral characters. However there are more to it and people are
in constant search for it. The power for looking for reasonable people in the contemporary era is
to develop human factors along with environment setting that becomes supportive to human
behavior.

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References:
Bluck, R. S. (2014). Plato's Phaedo: A Translation of Plato's Phaedo. Routledge.
Gifford, R. (2014). Environmental psychology matters. Annual review of psychology, 65, 541-
579.
Greene, J. (2014). Moral tribes: Emotion, reason, and the gap between us and them. Penguin.
Katz, E., Lazarsfeld, P. F., & Roper, E. (2017). Personal influence: The part played by people in
the flow of mass communications. Routledge.
Li, C. J., & Monroe, M. C. (2017). Exploring the essential psychological factors in fostering
hope concerning climate change. Environmental Education Research, 1-19.
Ormrod, J. E., & Jones, B. D. (2014). Essentials of educational psychology: Big ideas to guide
effective teaching. Pearson.
Turner, S. P., & Factor, R. A. (2014). Max Weber and the dispute over reason and value.
Routledge.