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Aug 03, 2016 Written by Mellissah Smith
Wikipedia says it all:
"Compartmentalization is an unconscious psychological defense mechanism used to avoid cognitive dissonance, or the mental discomfort and anxiety caused by a person's having conflicting values, cognitions, emotions, beliefs, etc. within themselves."
Compartmentalization allows these conflicting ideas to co-exist by inhibiting direct or explicit acknowledgement and interaction between separate compartmentalised self states."
I've long been fascinated by psychology and as a woman who never married in her forties, I find it amazing how much I have learned over the years about the opposite sex.
Sometimes I totally get it. Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. Other times, I literally shake my head and wonder how in hell did that person do that, when they do this normally.
It's like having a very straight, conservative hardworking female employee, who is a stripper at night. It's hard to comprehend that they could or would do both, particularly if they are religious.
"Compartmentalization is an unconscious psychological defense mechanism used to avoid cognitive dissonance, or the mental discomfort and anxiety caused by a person's having conflicting values, cognitions, emotions, beliefs, etc. within themselves."
Compartmentalization allows these conflicting ideas to co-exist by inhibiting direct or explicit acknowledgement and interaction between separate compartmentalised self states."
I've long been fascinated by psychology and as a woman who never married in her forties, I find it amazing how much I have learned over the years about the opposite sex.
Sometimes I totally get it. Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. Other times, I literally shake my head and wonder how in hell did that person do that, when they do this normally.
It's like having a very straight, conservative hardworking female employee, who is a stripper at night. It's hard to comprehend that they could or would do both, particularly if they are religious.
With men, if you are going out with a man and you both appear to be madly in love, then they go on a boys trip and have sex with a transexual - it blows your thought process out of the water. It's hard to comprehend why someone would have what I call "straight sex" with you and then go do whatever they do with a transexual.
When you look at situations like this, it reminds us that we are all built differently and as marketers, we have to understand our audience and what makes them tick. What might make one person tick in a meeting, may not be appropriate outside.
What is more fascinating is men with wealth how many live their lives. They have good families and do all the right things; charitable, fabulous wife etc., yet have a mistress or travels a lot with women in every port - all of whom they think they are having relationships with.
This ability to compartmentalize life, and not let it ever overlap, is not so much about getting caught out, as it is about having different worlds and dipping one's toes into those different worlds as often as humanly possible.
So next time you are confused by someone in your life that you think you know well, and they do something that is completely off-centre or hang out with someone who is totally out of their norm - think about what other traits they may have and do they actually compartmentalize their lives so that there is no overlapping and they can have different experiences without recall.
Mellissah Smith
Mellissah Smith is a marketing expert with more than 20 years experience. Having founded and built two successful marketing companies internationally, she is well recognized as a industry thought leader and innovator. Mellissah started her career working with technology and professional services firms, primarily in marketing, public relations and investor relations, positioning a number of successful companies to list on the various Stock Exchanges around the world. She is a writer, technology developer and entrepreneur who shares her thoughts and experiences through blogs and written articles published in various media outlets. Brag sheet: #2 marketer to follow on Twitter (2003), Top 150 Marketers to Follow (2015), Top 10 innovative marketers (2014), 60K+ followers on Twitter with 97% authentic.
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