Paradigms act as axioms for our perception and interpretation of everything surrounding us.
A paradigm is essentially a model that dictates the way we interpret our surroundings, like a foundation for our experiences, values and beliefs to grow from. Much like how in maths there are initial axioms such as 1*a=a and from these we can build rules and formulae that allow us to tackle far more complex problems yet the foundation is always in the simple typically well-known axioms. In psychology paradigms are studied under a different name, they are referred to as schema and are defined as mental maps some of which are inherited with our culture and religion and others that are developed over time due to our upbringing, education and personal experiences. A key discovery is that when we have witnessed something that aligns with one of our many schema we tend to give it undue importance and view it as far more solid and irrefutable evidence that our paradigms/schema are correct than it truly is, through this process we strengthen our resolve in our paradigm and are more certain of its accuracy leading to more well-established stereotypes and viewpoints. However we also tended to ignore or disregard evidence that wasn’t in accordance with our paradigms and didn’t align with our schema, this led to what in many cases was a fact or an occurrence being disregarded as fake or unfounded when in truth there was nothing inaccurate about it. The former discovery was present in the film we watched during the first day of school 12 Angry Men, there was a man who clearly had racist views but he saw the fact that the boy was coloured as evidence that proved he had definitely committed patricide as it aligned with his paradigm that coloured people were wild and violent although it was unfounded and his skin colour did not prove or disprove his involvement in the crime.
An example in my life where there has been an argument based off of a paradigm which I didn’t see initially is my mother and I arguing about whether or not I should take a gap year. I believed I should and that there is no harm in it as it allows me more time to figure out what exactly I want to study and gain some work experience as well as reobtain my British passport so I don’t have to pay international fees. However, my mother has a paradigm where taking a gap year will cause people to fall out of the studying rhythm and that they will never go to university causing them to be disadvantaged. My mother’s paradigm was based on negative experiences her friends and her sister had after taking a gap year or long break in their studies, however, this wasn’t known to me during the argument and if it had been the conversation may have gone differently. The conflicting element was that both of our paradigms were formed on the experiences people have had on gap years yet the ones I had encountered were largely positive and the ones my mother had encountered were largely negative.