The woman was sitting in the front row, bent over her notebook as she valiantly tried to keep up with the lecture. Every once in a while, she would grunt as her leg would kick out, or a hand would fly up, or her torso would jerk. She was apologetic, saying she had no control over these actions, and no idea what was causing them.

Some of her classmates considered her an attention-seeker or someone who was manipulating the professor's sympathies. They were rather annoyed by her. Others figured she had motor tics that were being made worse by the stress of college life. They had more patience with her. Others, who had taken the time to talk with her, realized her actions were related to the brain injury she had sustained. They were the ones who treated her with dignity.

The pre-teen boy was riding in a van full of his fellow Cub Scouts. Suddenly, he quietly said a string of foul language. The boys were quick to report his behavior to the driver. They wanted him punished.

But the driver knew he had recently been diagnosed with Tourette's Syndrome. She did not punish him. Instead, she encouraged him and his family to have an open discussion with the rest of the boys and their parents. She also spent more time in positive interaction with him.

Quick, uniformed judgments plague our society. Unless we are self-actualized, our initial reaction to people who are different from us is to consider them as some sort of threat.

We do not have to perceive a potential for physical harm to consider someone a threat. All we have to do is perceive that someone or something is challenging our psychosocial sense of status quo, asking us to change in some way.

It is all about perception. We take in facts via our senses, combine them with memory and emotion, and assign meaning. If the meaning is negative, we perceive the need to protect ourselves. If the meaning is positive, we decide on some sort of approach behavior.

In other words, we judge. And when we judge defensively, instead of after a concerted effort to be informed, we judge in a harmful way.

Wars are fought over perception of threat. Even those who start wars do so out of a need to exert control over some perceived threat.

Prejudice, bigotry, and social injustices of all kinds stem from perception of threat.

Family arguments are fought over perception of threat. Parents lecture their children about overt threats, partly as a way to deal with that which covertly threatens them. Siblings argue over perceived threats to dominion and personal power. The use of physical force in punishments and fights has roots in a deep desperation to protect against some sort of perceived psychosocial threat.

It is important, then, to make sure that our perceptions and judgments are accurate. As in the examples above, the ones who could act positively were the ones who took the time to evaluate the situation from a wide range of information and perceived no threat.

How different the world would be if we all did that.

Grace MacDowell, M.A., of Auburn, is completing her doctorate in clinical psychology. She can be reached at drmac2be@yahoo.com